Attractions

World's Largest Sandhill Crane

Really Big Things are fun and don’t really require an explanation. Read More »

Seattle’s Pike Place Market is one of the city’s most famous sites, and one that is considered a “must” for most visitors. The market, which was built in 1907, is recognized as one of the best farmer’s markets in the US.  It’s home to 200 permanent businesses, 120 farmers, and 190 craftspeople, and attracts over 10 million visitors per year. But what makes it so great is that it isn’t only a touristy site, but a real working market. You can come to shop for crafts, antiques, fresh produce, brightly-colored flowers, handmade sauces, souvenirs and fresh-from-the-sea fish, lobster and crab (which can be cold-packed and shipped home for you). Or….you can come to eat.

Pike Place Entrance

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt first visited Warm Springs, Georgia in 1924, hoping that the buoyant spring waters would cure the infantile paralysis that had struck him three years earlier. Although the mineral-laden water provided no medical miracle, FDR claimed that the 88-degree springs relaxed his atrophied muscles such that he had much better mobility after soaking for an hour. FDR became so enchanted with the area that he built a small vacation home on the side of Pine Mountain while running for president in 1932. Before long, locals were referring to the cabin as the “Little White House” and the name stuck.

FDR's Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia

Throughout his Presidency, FDR made many trips to the cottage, often speaking with neighbors to learn about their difficulties, especially during the Great Depression. New Deal policies such as the Rural Electrification Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, and Tennessee Valley Authority grew out of these conversations. Today the Little White House is one of Georgia’s most popular historic sites. Guests Read More »

Tourists Ready to Take the Bobsled Plunge

If you find yourself caught up in the Olympic spirit this fall while waiting for Vancouver to host the 2010 Winter Games, take a ride over to Lake Placid, NY where you can visit all kinds of Olympic sites, from the site of hockey’s 1980 Miracle on Ice to the ski jump facility where future talent is trained, practices and hosts events year-round. But for pure interaction, you must visit the Bobsled run. Read More »

World's Largest Buffalo

If you’ve driven past Jamestown, North Dakota, on Interstate 94, you’ve likely seen the World’s Largest Buffalo.  But did you know that if you pull off the Interstate to see the big buffalo, there’s more to see and do?

Yes, the buffalo is a big attraction (pun intended).  For more than 50 years, parents have posed their kids under the buffalo for a snapshot.  (And if they’re anything like me, those kids remember that moment for the rest of their lives.)  In this land of bigger and better things, the World’s Largest Buffalo is a big deal. Read More »

At $10, $15, or more – adult admission to the Shedd Aquarium in nearly $25! –  visiting several of Chicago’s great museums can really take a toll on your budget. If you plan on going to more than one during your stay in the Windy City, it makes financial sense to look into one of the city’s multi-attraction passes. There are two options.

Field Museum

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Denver Botanic Gardens

The Denver Botanic Gardens is one of the largest and most-visited in the US, and it’s easy to see why. With over 30 different sections ranging from the Japanese Tea Garden and the Birds and Bees Walk to the South African Plaza and the Herb Garden, each section has a unique feel. You’ll see plants you’ve never seen before plus several endangered species. In addition to the acres of beautiful outdoor gardens filled with colorful flowers, fragrant herbs, and flowering plants like cactus, you can also visit the green roof, check out dinosaur replicas in the Jurassic garden, and marvel at butterflies and delicate tropical plants in the indoor conservatory. A bistro serves snacks, there are plenty of nooks and crannies to enjoy some privacy amongst the flowers, and the on-site library contains one of the largest collections of plant-related resources in the country. You can also arrange for guided tours, take classes or listen to gardening lectures.

With so much going on, those with a passion for flowering plants could easily spend a whole day at the Denver Botanic Gardens. If you don’t have much of a green thumb, it’s still worthwhile to visit the garden for an hour or so and check out the many unusual and beautiful plants growing here.  The Botanic Gardens are open from at least 9am to 5pm, with slightly extended hours in summer. Admission is $11.50, going up to $12.50 during peak summer months. The gardens are wheelchair accessible, can be reached by public bus from downtown Denver, and offer free wi-fi.

Photo credit: exgaysurvivordan via Flickr

There is no shortage of ways to get “high” in Chicago. We’ve got two of the tallest buildings in the US, both offering sweeping views of the city from their observation decks, and the Navy Pier ferris wheel towers over Lake Michigan and its beaches, hoisting riders several stories up. Now there’s one more way to get some air in Chicago. Navy Pier just opened a new balloon attraction called the AeroBalloon, which will lift passengers 350 feet above the city.

AeroBalloon

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From the rim, I looked down into 1,000-foot deep Tallulah Gorge. At the bottom was the Tallulah River, clearly raging even from this height. For thousands of years it has eroded the hard, quartzite rock into a two-mile long chasm, dropping nearly 600 feet and forming L’Eau d’Or, Tempesta, Hurricane, Oceana, and Bridal Veil Falls before joining the Chattooga River. I had arrived too late in the afternoon to get a permit to hike to the bottom of the gorge, but there were numerous other trails from which to choose, and I decided to tackle the rim trail first.

View of L'Eau d'Or Falls (French for "water of gold"), top of Tempesta Falls, and Hawthorne Cascade and Pool from the north rim of Tallulah Gorge

I began at the far end of the north rim, where an enormous, rusting steel tower rested on its side next to the canyon lip. In 1970, tightrope walker Karl Wallenda of the famous “Flying Wallendas” strung cables between this tower and its twin on the south rim and then walked across the gorge, performing two Read More »

The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. Around 1.5 million bats live underneath the bridge and on evenings from March to November, they all seem to emerge at once, covering the sky in a pulsating black cloud.

Coming to see the emergence of the bats is a popular activity in Austin. Shortly before the sun begins to set, crowds gather on the grass on the banks of the river and along the Congress Avenue Bridge. Just as the sky starts to darken, they emerge. First it’s just a few black specks and then more and more until it seems like the whole colony has taken to the skies. They move according to hidden instructions or maybe instincts, heading off in the same direction as the crowd points and cheers.

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