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美国旅游城市景点英文介绍
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United States of America Travel Guide - Overview The USA is a huge country to explore, with 50 states to choose from, flanked by two oceans and covering an incredibly varied terrain. For five centuries, since the 'New World' discoveries of Christopher Columbus, people from every corner of the globe have come here in search of 'the American Dream'. Between them, they have created the richest, most powerful country on earth, and a fascinating melting pot of cultures and traditions. Vast plains, snow-covered mountain ranges, forested rolling hills, deserts, strange rock formations, soaring skyscrapers, stunning coastlines, impressive national parks and a thriving cultural scene; the USA has it all, plus some. Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus initiating trade routes to the Americas in 1492, the northern continent was inhabited by peoples thought to have been descended from nomadic Mongolian tribes who had travelled across the Bering Sea, between Russia and Alaska. The first wave of European settlers, mainly English, French and Dutch, crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century. The restrictions on political rights and punitive taxation imposed by the British government on American colonists led to the Boston Tea Party and the ensuing American War of Independence (1775-1783), with the Declaration of Independence being signed in 1776. The American Constitution resulted from the states' Declaration, a governing format emulated by many other countries. By 1853, the boundaries of the USA were, with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii, as they are today. Economic activity in the southern states centred on plantation agriculture dependent on slavery. Attempts by liberally-inclined Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, to end slavery were opposed. The election of Lincoln to the presidency in 1861 precipitated a political crisis in which 10 Southern states seceded from the Union, leading to the American Civil War - a war that focused primarily on states' rights. After the four years of war, the country entered a period of consolidation, building up an industrial economy and settling the vast interior region of America known as the Wild West. United States of America Travel Guide - Key Facts Location
United States of America Travel Guide - Public Holidays 2008 2009 United States of America Travel Guide - Going Out Things to know: There are also many types of bars, cocktail lounges, cafe-style bars and English-style pubs. Generally speaking, waiter/waitress service costs more. Drinking laws are set by the individual states, counties, municipalities and towns; on average, closing time in bars is between midnight and 0300. National specialities: National drinks: Legal drinking age: The legal age for alcoholic consumption varies from 18 to 21 years from state to state and the laws on the availability of alcohol run from New Orleans' policy of anytime, anywhere and to anyone, to localities, such as parts of Utah, where drinking is strictly prohibited. Verification of age is frequently required prior to service. Tipping: Widely practised, as service charges are not usually included
in the bill and waiters depend heavily on tips for their income.
Waiters generally expect 10 to 15% gratuity. It should be noted
that a cover charge is for admission to an establishment, not a
tip for service. Note that a sales tax is levied on most items in most states, and the addition is not included on the price label; sales tax can be anywhere from 3 to 15%, variable by state. Shopping hours: Mon-Sat 0900/0930-1730/2100. There may be late-night shopping one or two evenings a week. Some states permit Sunday trading; hours vary. Best of the US Las Vegas, Nevada is the largest center for adult entertainment
in the entire world. It offers gambling, glitzy entertainment and
unbelievably extravagant architecture. Giant pyramids of glass,
multicolored fantasy castles, replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the
New York skyline rise out of the Nevada desert. Even if you don't
gamble or party, it is worth seeing this flamboyant display of opulence.
In addition, Las Vegas is conveniently located near some of the
greatest natural scenery in the southwest including the Grand Canyon
Zion and Death Valley. It is only a half-day drive from Los Angeles.
Written by: Mike Leco Rhinestone Cowboys During the last century, there were lots of cowboys on the open
range Most of the year, the cattle wandered over the open rangeland and required little care. Each spring, after the cows gave birth, it was necessary to find all the new calves (called dogies) while they were still with their mothers, and to brand each of them to establish their proper ownership. During this "spring roundup", many cowboys searched the open range on horseback for mother cows with new calves and herded them all into temporary branding pens. The cowboys then roped each calf, quickly applied the ranch brand and released it back to its mother. The big cattle drives are gone By the early twentieth century, railroads extended into even the
remotest areas of the west and the open rangeland was divided into
private parcels of land. Today, four-wheel-drive vehicles have replaced
most of the cowboy horses, and cattle drives are done with eighteen-wheel
trucks. There are still a few working cowboys out west, but not
nearly as many. Unlike the rhinestone cowboys, working cowboys usually
wear plain work jeans, a beat-up pair of work boots and a dusty,
well-worn, ten-gallon hat. You too can be a rhinestone cowboy Written by: Mike Leco The terms Native American and Indian are both misleading, as they
suggest a homogeneous population. The original inhabitants of the
United States at the time of the European invasion were composed
of hundreds of different tribes. Many of the tribes did not share
a common language or similar culture. In fact, some of the tribes
were constantly at war with each other. Perhaps that is why many
Native Americans today do not call themselves Indians or Native
Americans, but prefer to say for example, "We are the Lakota
people. Some call us the Sioux." Today, there are hundreds of Indian reservations across the USA, and many descendants of the Native Americans still live on them. Some tribes have managed to profit from the natural resources on their lands and the inhabitants have become rather wealthy. On other reservations, the residents exploit thriving tourist businesses. Unfortunately, many tribes own few resources and the inhabitants of their reservations live in poverty. Not all Native Americans live on Indian reservations You can learn about our Native American's culture by visiting an
Indian Reservation. Some reservations are open to the public and
the inhabitants welcome visitors. At certain reservations, the tribes
offer museums, cultural exhibits, hotels, resort accommodations,
even gambling casinos. (They learned to take advantage of their
unique political status by providing gambling in states where it
is otherwise prohibited.) A few of the tribes even allow visitors
to view or participate in their cultural ceremonies and dances.
A really wonderful way to learn about Native American culture is by attending a powwow or tribal gathering. A Powwow is a social gathering and ceremonial festival for all the scattered members of a tribe. Some powwows are held on Indian reservations, others are held at locations all over the USA. The larger powwows usually attract Native Americans from many different tribes. Learn about Native American culture at a powwow! When you plan your visit to the USA, check a schedule of powwows in the area you intend to visit and check for Indian reservations that accept visitors. Maybe you can include a visit to a reservation or attendance at a powwow in your itinerary. Written by: Mike Leco When the European colonists arrived on the American continent, there were nearly 12 million Native Americans living within the confines of the present United States. They were divided into more than one thousand different tribes or kinship groups. Many of those original inhabitants died from the European diseases introduced into their homelands by the colonists. The surviving natives were steadily pushed from one place to another as the invading colonists constantly appropriated more and more of the Indians?lands for farming, ranching and mineral development. Eventually, the US government allocated parcels of land, known as Indian Reservations, to each of the Indian tribes. Most of the lands ceded were unsuitable for cultivation and devoid of any valuable resources. Today, there are one or more Indian reservations in every state. Visiting Indian Reservations The reservations are sovereign nations The Indian reservation is the spiritual and cultural center for all members of the tribe including those living far from it. The native language, the cultural traditions and the religious ceremonies are typically preserved by the tribal members living on the reservation. Unfortunately, you will not get much chance to experience Indian culture by visiting the Indian casino or by purchasing cheap cigarettes in the reservation store. Most of the authentic religious ceremonies and cultural events are not open to the public. Experiencing Native American culture Indian powwows The largest powwow in North America is the 揋athering of Nations? It is held every April at the sports arena of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. This event attracts over two thousand Native American dancers, hundreds of drummers, tens of thousands of Indian spectators and several thousand non-Indian guests. In addition, it features a large Native American crafts market and many food stalls. There is a modest admission fee. I attended this spectacular event in 2005. Entry of the Eagle Standard There are many types of Indian dances with numerous tribe-specific variations of each. At the Gathering of Nations and at most other large powwows the contests feature only the most popular pan-tribal dances familiar to all participants. Men抯 dances, women抯 dances and children抯 dances are divided into age categories with prizes awarded in each classification. Types of Indian dances Men compete in highly animated and stylized adaptations of traditional war dances such as the grass dance and the fancy dance. Their dance attire is spectacularly elaborate. Outfits for the fancy dance include colorfully beaded garments elaborately decorated with feathers or furs and prominently featuring two large feather bustles on the back. Each outfit is highly individualized with tribal and personal elements. In addition to the dance contests, a powwow typically includes
one or more exhibition dances or communal dances in which everyone
is invited to participate. The Kiowa gourd dance was performed at
the Gathering of Nations. It is a ceremony honoring the warriors
and the esteemed elders of the tribes. One thing is obvious at every powwow, they are truly community functions. The tribal elders are always held is high esteem as are the warriors. The children are cherished. Family, tribe and friendship are extolled. The ceremonies are treated with reverence but all is pervaded with a good dose of humor. Everyone is welcomed in a spirit of peace and friendship. If you want to sample a bit of Native American Culture, the powwow is the place to go. You can find the location and dates for powwows, by completing an Internet search for 損owwows? There are many links to powwow lists but none of them are complete. Written by: Mike Leco The National Football League (NFL) consists of 33 professional teams located in major cities across the USA. Each team plays 16 games between early September and the end of December. The two best teams meet at the Superbowl near the end of January. Games are on Sunday afternoons with a few nationally televised games on Monday nights. It is difficult to get tickets for any NFL games as they are generally "sold out" before the season begins. You can sometimes obtain tickets through travel agents and ticket brokers at premium prices. You can almost always buy tickets, for a high price, from illegal "ticket scalpers" in front of the stadium just before a game. At hundreds of universities across the USA, they play college football games on Saturday afternoons. Games at the "football schools" with outstanding teams often attract over 100,000 fans. It is difficult to obtain tickets to games at the best football schools but easy to get tickets at the less popular college games. Here is the official NFL page. Go to an individual team page for
their game schedule. http://www.nfl.com/ Your source for premium sporting event tickets There are 30 Major League baseball teams divided into the National
League and the American League. Each team plays about 160 games
on weekday evenings or weekend afternoons between early spring and
late fall. The best team from each league meet in late fall for
the World Series Games to determine the National championship. Only
the most popular games are sold out, so you can normally buy tickets
to most Major League games. Here is the official Major League Baseball page. Click on "clubs" and choose a team to see their schedule of games. http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com/ Basketball is a very popular winter sport The National Basketball Association (NBA) contains 29 teams from major Canadian and US cities. They play about 100 games on evenings and a few afternoons between October and May. The championship games are in June. NBA games in many cities are sold out well in advance, so it may be difficult to obtain tickets. There are ten Women's National Basketball Association teams (WNBA) in the US. Their games are not as popular as the NBA games but are just as exciting, and you can easily obtain tickets. Hundreds of universities across the USA play college basketball. At the "basketball schools" with excellent teams ticket might be hard to find. Here is the official NBA teams page. Click on a team and choose
the schedule and scores to see the team game schedule. http://www.nba.com/
The National Hockey League (NHL) has 30 teams in major cities across the USA and Canada. Each team plays about 80 games between October and April. Playoff elimination games are held after the season and the two top teams play in the "Stanley Cup" championship. Tickets are available for hockey games in most cities as only the most popular games are sold out. The official NHL team page. Click on the team name to see the game schedule. http://nhl.com/lineups/team/index.html Enthusiasm for NASCAR auto racing is growing rapidly Minor league stock car racing is still held at numerous smaller tracks across the country where local racecars and drivers compete for regional championships. Drag racing meets are held at numerous "drag strips" across the US. Truck pulls, tractor pulls, big wheel exhibitions and demolition derbies are held at various racetracks and stadiums around the USA. Here is the official NASCAR track listing. Click on the track name to get location and racing information. http://www.nascar.com/TRACKS/ Written by: Mike Leco Valentines Day (February 14) is the holiday of love. This unofficial holiday dedicated to the Christian Saint Valentine is a day for sweethearts and lovers. Admirers send each other Valentine Day greeting cards. Lovers and spouses buy flowers, candy and gifts for their sweethearts. Many couples go to restaurants for intimate dinners. All stores and businesses are open. Easter is primarily a Christian holy day commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is celebrated on a Sunday in early spring. Most activities are church or family oriented and usually includes a gathering of the family for a dinner feast. Children often search for colored eggs that the Easter Bunny has hidden in their yard. Businesses are little affected since this holiday is always on a Sunday. Most restaurants, gasoline stations and convenience stores remain open but some shopping centers will close or open only for abbreviated hours. Memorial Day is usually celebrated on the last Monday in May. It is the traditional beginning of the summer vacation season and the start of the long school break. Originally, this holiday was a time to remember deceased relatives and friends and a time to visit their graves. Today, Memorial Day is a celebration of the beginning of Summer. Most people use this long weekend for picnics, excursions, short vacation trips, or just relaxation and shopping. Businesses and office will be closed but all attractions and shopping facilities will be open. Independence Day , the Fourth of July, is a time for patriotic celebrations, picnics and relaxation. Many cities and towns across the country hold parades, musical performances and fireworks displays. Business offices will close but all stores, restaurants and attractions will remain open. Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. It is the traditional end of the Summer vacation season when most schools begin their new terms. This long weekend is usually celebrated with an excursion, a picnic or one last mini vacation of the season. Many folks choose stay at home to relax or catch up on chores. All attractions and shopping facilities will be open. Halloween is celebrated on the 31st day of October. This "hallowed evening" preceding the ancient church holiday of All Saints Day, was superstitiously believed to be a time when the souls of the deceased would return to earth to roam about. Today it is a festive occasion in the USA. Some people decorate their homes and yards with images of ghosts, goblins, witches, skeletons and Jack o' lanterns. (Hollowed out pumpkins carved into scary faces and illuminated by small internal candles) In the evening, small children dress in costumes and visit houses in their neighborhoods collecting sweets. Many towns and cities have costumed Halloween parades. The most elaborate and outlandish Halloween parades are held at Greenwich Village in New York City and in San Francisco, California. All businesses and stores are open for normal business hours on this holiday. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. This is equivalent to the annual harvest festivals in many other countries. It is a time to reflect on all of your blessings and to express thanks for a bountiful harvest. It is not a religious holiday. Most people in the USA celebrate this holiday by gathering at their family home for a feast. The traditional dish for the Thanksgiving Day dinner is a large roasted Turkey. After dinner, the preferred recreation is watching football matches on the Television. Most business offices will close on this day. Some stores, shopping centers, restaurants and bars will remain open. The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the traditional opening of the Christmas shopping season. Stores and shops all offer bargain prices and people flock to the shopping centers in great number. Christmas is primarily a Christian religious holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. It always falls on the 25th of December, but the holiday season actually begins weeks earlier. From the beginning of December, people begin shopping for gifts to give to their children and other family members. They attend holiday parties at their offices, at friend's homes or at restaurants throughout December. Many families decorate their homes and yards with multicolored sparkling lights. Most families erect small evergreen trees in their homes and decorate them with colored lights and glittering ornaments. On Christmas morning, children awaken to find brightly wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree. Christmas day is an intimate family holiday. Children and grand children all return home for an annual Christmas dinner and exchange of gifts. Close friends, relatives and neighbors often visit each other on Christmas evening. Nearly all businesses, tourist attractions and shopping centers are closed on Christmas. A few restaurants, bars, gasoline stations and convenience stores will remain open. Hanukah and Kwanzaa are also celebrated in December. Hanukah, or the feast of lights, is a Jewish holiday that also includes a tradition of gift giving. It is usually celebrated in mid December. Kwanzaa is a relatively new Afro-American holiday celebrated from December 26 through January first. It has no religious affiliation but is a joyous celebration of the oneness and goodness of life with an emphasis on Afro-American heritage and culture. Together the three holidays of Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanzaa make December the most joyous and festive month in the USA. New Years Eve (December 31) is a time for big parties and celebrations in the USA. Nearly every restaurant, bar and club hosts a grand New Years eve ball. The festivities usually include music, food, drink, dancing and a lot of noise with a traditional champagne toast at midnight. Some cities and towns host large outdoor celebrations that usually culminate with a huge fireworks display at midnight. The most famous outdoors New Years Eve celebration is held at Times Square in New York City. Most businesses and shops will be open normal hours on New Years Eve, as the celebrating does not begin until evening. Written by: Mike Leco Gone are the days when family travel involved no more than packing
an extra tube of mints, triple-digit SPF cream and jotting down
the phone number of a friend-of-the-receptionist's babysitter on
arrival. A whole sub-industry has grown out of catering for the
needs of kindred spirits. Whether travelling with the barely-born,
angst-ridden teenagers, or grandparents-on-tour, somebody somewhere
has tailored a package specifically for them. In fact, as long as you don't opt for extreme adventure, temperature
or isolation (pushing a stroller through the jungles of Borneo might
be a tad optimistic), the world is your oyster. For those with simpler
intentions, Scott Dunn (website: www.scottdunn.com) provide carefree
self-catering with an international selection of villas kitted out
for the babbling set and where nannies are available on request. Child Friendly Cottages (website: www.childfriendlycottages.co.uk) provide this, doing precisely what it says on the tin. Their cottages and farmhouses in England come packed with all junior's hygiene and playtime essentials. The majority are also within easy reach of a beach and other distractions. Further afield, The Adventure Company (website: www.adventurecompany.co.uk)
offer a small selection of overseas tours for the over-1s, including
a search for Mummy, one of the highlights of an adventure in Egypt. A far cry from when the world's liners represented one of the last
refuges for the child-weary holidaymaker, most cruise operators
now actively encourage children, hosting kids clubs and family entertainment,
even featuring favourite life-size cartoon characters on Disney
Cruise Lines (website: www.disney.co.uk). Or saddle up in cowboy country during a stay on a working ranch
in the US of A (website: www.americanroundup.com). Horror of horrors,
you might even get them working - and enjoying it! Similarly, Billy Butlin et al continue to lure visitors at both ends of the age scale, proving their mastery of providing just what families want when holidaying together (website: www.butlins.com). Naturally you don't always need a specifically tailored trip. Many
regular holiday packages can be enjoyed by all generations. Some,
like Keycamp (website: www.keycamp.co.uk), simply offer generous
discounts for gran and granddad travelling with grandchildren. Single-parent holidays don't only draw single-parent families. Sometimes work commitments prohibit one parent from travelling, sometimes it's through choice that the mother or father stays at home. Either way, in this day and age single-parent holidays are a booming sector with holiday companies providing hundreds of options from beach resorts to jungle lodges; skiing holidays to world cruises. Small Families (website: www.smallfamilies.co.uk) are one such
company linking up lone parents from Torquay to Tunisia. Their adventure
holiday in Norway continues to be one of their most popular choices
with activities including rafting, horse riding, rock climbing and
that famous Scandinavian pastime - moose tracking. Worlds can collide when family get-togethers aren't planned properly. Lack of space and privacy is usually the main culprit so what better way to keep the peace by booking a whole village for your next family bash. CV Travel (website: www.cvtravel.co.uk) offer the entire medieval hamlet of Borgo San Biagio high in the hills of Italy's Umbrian countryside for family groups not exceeding 20 people. Alternatively, if you fear family battles may surface, there's
no better place to host large gatherings than at an historic castle.
Throughout the British Isles and France, Celtic Castles (website:
www.celticcastles.com) have a selection of cosy fortresses on offer
- battle armour is an optional extra. Rural Folk Music became "Country Music" The early twentieth century brought an innovation called radio
that radically changed the nature of country music in the USA. Southern
radio stations soon learned that their rural audiences preferred
listening to local performers playing their own local music. They
began broadcasting country music programs. For the first time, rural
residents from across the land heard the different styles of folk
music popular in various regions of the country. Your source for premium country music tickets For over 75 years, the Grand Ole Opry has been on the radio every Saturday night with its programs of country music, country song and country humor. Today, Grand Ole Opry radio and television broadcasts are still the most widely heard and viewed country music entertainment in the world. From 1943 until 1977 the program was broadcast from Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. It has since moved to a new broadcast studio in Music Valley, a few miles north of the city Nashville became Music City This influx of country music talent fueled the creation of the
first country music recording studios in Nashville. Today, nearly
every major international recording company has a Nashville studio.
That's why they call it "The Country Music Capitol of the World"
and "Music City". Early country music featured many self-taught musicians plucking guitars, banjos, fiddles and rustic homemade instruments. They usually sang in thick southern drawls or the nasal wails of their distinctive backcountry dialects. Their music was often appreciated only by fellow country folk. Today, country music has become highly-polished, commercially-produced entertainment. People all over the world listen to country music. Some purists think that this slick new music lost the heart, the soul and the authenticity of that original country music. It began with the Carter Family Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Tex Ritter, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Charley Pride, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and many other musical legends followed in the footsteps of the early country pioneers. Hank Williams (senior) and Patsy Cline were possibly the most famous of all. Hank's rendition of "Your Cheatin Heart" and Patsy's recording of "Crazy" are probably the two best-known country music hits of all time. Country western music is more popular than ever Country western music is still the most popular music of the rural folks in the USA. Modern country music, especially the slick new studio-produced variety, even attracts an audience among sophisticated city dwellers and cosmopolitan professionals. If you want to really experience Country Western music in the USA,
you can visit Nashville Tennessee to attend a performance at the
Grand Ole Opry or to hang out in a few of the honky tonk bars on
Broad Street listening to the country stars of tomorrow. You can
visit Branson Missouri where many of the legendary old time country
stars perform on a regular basis. You can attend country music performances
at the Alabama Theater or the Gatlin Brothers Theater in Myrtle
Beach South Carolina. You can visit Dolly Parton's, Dollywood near
Gatlinburg Tennessee. You can even see a great country music performance
at one of the Las Vegas shows. Our cooking is as diverse as our population. The USA cooking pot contains a blend of cuisines from many countries. We sometimes use the term "American cooking" to loosely define a collection of traditional dishes that have gained popularity across the USA. American Cooking is hard to define Contrary to popular belief, we folks in the USA do not eat fast food every day. We often eat real food in sit-down restaurants, and we sometimes even prepare home-cooked meals. You will certainly find plenty of fast food establishments and chain restaurants in our country. They are convenient places where you can find a consistent quality of food in clean surroundings with good service. I prefer to explore the local establishments where I can sample a variety of dishes from the regional cuisine. Regional Cooking is easier to define Southern cooking and Soul Food Southerners love barbeque, but unlike westerners, they do not favor sweet tomato-based sauces. Eastern barbeque most often means pork; especially pork ribs, well spiced or marinated and slowly cooked over glowing coals. Greens, black-eyed peas and corn bread are common side dishes. Pecan pie, peach cobbler, banana pudding and sweet potato pie are some favorite desserts. Soul food is the Afro-American version of southern cooking. It
includes the same dishes but prepared with the intensity and love
of an African-American mother feeding her family. It is southern
cooking with soul. The Creole and Cajun cuisine in New Orleans is a wonderful mixture of Spanish and French cooking spiced with African and West Indian flavors. Blackened fish or steaks are grilled with coatings of pepper and hot spices. Jambalaya and Gumbo are wonderfully flavored stews of meats, sausage and seafood. A lot of the Cajun cooking is highly spiced with hot pepper and chili, but not all the dishes are fiery. Traditional Spanish and French cooking and local variations of them are available in many fine restaurants throughout the city. Southwestern and Tex-Mex cooking Tex-Mex is a variant of southwestern cooking that is most popular in Texas and along the Mexican border. It includes barbeque and chili. These cowboy inspired dishes are so popular in the southwest and across the USA, that many places have annual chili festivals and barbeque cook offs with prizes for the best recipes. It is also the home of salsa, nachos, tacos and burritos. California Cuisine Written by: Mike Leco Autumn is a pleasant time to visit the US Baseball season nears its end and the professional baseball teams
begin their playoffs in preparation for the World Series. Football
(American football) season begins. Every weekend, high school and
college teams across the USA engage in local matches. On Sunday
afternoons, television sets across the land are tuned to the professional
games of the National Football League. Thanksgiving is the day for family feasting There are still places in the USA where you can drive for many
miles and see no trace of civilization. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains
and the Rocky Mountains, you can rent horses and pack mules and
ride for days in unspoiled wilderness without seeing another person.
Nearly every state offers a wide choice of hiking trails, backpacking
areas and campgrounds. Some states offer unique wilderness experiences. Navajo Adventure Yosemite Adventure Death Valley Adventure Adventure Dangers
Fun Events Washington DC Your source for Washington DC Entertainment tickets Most of it is free Washington DC offers many historical and educational attractions, a variety of cultural and entertainment activities, plenty of multi-ethnic dining experiences and an array of shopping opportunities. Outside of the city, there are many civil war battlefields within a short drive; and President Washington's home at Mount Vernon is just south of DC. The port city of Baltimore and Anapolis, home of the US Naval Acadamy, are within an hour drive. Even Piladelphia and New York City are within a half-day drive. Book one of the Washington DC hotels at EasyToBook.com. Three major airports The DC Metro, or subway system is quite good. It offers easy access from Washington International Airport and from numerous "Park and Ride" locations around the city to most of the major attractions. On weekdays, the parking situation in the city can be quite difficult. I recommend parking outside of the downtown area and using the Metro. On weekends and holidays when the government beaurocrats desert their offices, downtown parking is readily available. Navigating the baffling street system The well-planned street system is an easy to comprehend grid that is often difficult to maneuver. The north-south streets are numbered and the east-west streets are lettered beginning at the Capitol and extending in both direction. You can have two 3rd streets (one to the east of the Capitol and one to the west), and you can have two "D" streets (one to the north of the capitol and one to the south). That is why the city is divided into quadrants. The intersections of 7th street and "C street" can occur in the NE, SE, NW and SW sectors. You must specify the quadrant to find an address. There is a series of broad avenues that radiate out from the Capitol like the spokes of a wheel. They produce some complex angular intersections that can baffle even the most experienced drivers. Visit our Washington D.C. Attractions for information about the best sights in and around DC! Written by: Mike Leco San Francisco was founded in 1776 when father Junipero Serra constructed the mission San Dolores to Christianize the local native Indian population. At the same time, Spanish troops constructed a Presidio, or fort, to protect this colony for the Queen of Spain. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the village of Yerba Buena, consisting of whalers, traders, adventurers and pirates, occupied the present site of San Francisco. In 1848, gold was discovered in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 100 miles to the east. By 1849, San Francisco was inundated with "forty-niners" as the gold seekers were commonly called, and the population of the city exploded. Ever since, it has remained the center of commerce, entertainment, culture and tourism for Northern California. Cable cars on steep streets overlook a turquoise San Francisco
Bay The city has developed a unique character from its mixture of diverse cultures including Native American Indians, Spanish colonials, gold seeking adventurers and numerous European, African and Asian immigrants. This is reflected in the great San Francisco cuisine found in the many fabulous restaurants of the city. Among the many attractions of San Francisco are the ethnic neighborhoods like Chinatown and Japantown with their traditional shops and restaurants. Each of these communities houses a large population of Asian immigrants and has a unique oriental character. North Beach is renown as an Italian neighborhood, the Mission District as a Hispanic community and Castro Street for its gay and lesbian population. Looking for a good hotel in San Francisco? Book them via EasyToBook.com. Mike's San Francisco Tip: To best see the famous San Francisco cable cars, go to the terminus a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf where you can watch them manually turn the cars. To best photograph them, walk a few blocks up the hill and wait for a cable car, so you can photograph it with a backdrop of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz. To ride one, it is best to go to the other end of the line in downtown where the crowds are smaller and the wait is shorter. Excursion boats from Fisherman's Wharf visit Alcatraz Golden Gate Bridge A cable car line terminates a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf, and many tourists congregate there to watch the motormen manually rotate the cars. This is a good place to photograph the cable cars but not a good place to board one as the wait can be long. It is easier to take a bus or taxi to the downtown area where you can quickly board a passing cable car. Golden Gate Park and Seal Rocks, along the Pacific side of the city are worth visiting. Wine Country, Big Sur and Yosemite are not far away Beautiful Monterey Bay is an hour-and-half drive south along the
scenic Pacific Coast Highway and Big Sur extends about 100 miles
further. Napa and Sonoma valleys, in the heart of California Wine
Country, are just an hour drive north of San Francisco. The Sierra
Nevada Mountains and exquisite Yosemite National Park are within
a half-day drive to the east. Your source for San Francisco Entertainment tickets San Francisco Shopping Tips Written by: Mike Leco San Francisco Comprehensive Shuttle Tours San Francisco's Only Comprehensive 5-hour Shuttle Tour. Smaller-group tours. Ride, walk and ferry to Sausalito included. Tour Guide is not also the driver. Free refreshments. www.sanfranshuttletours.com StubHub.com is the place to find all Theater Tickets, Giants Tickets, 49ers Tickets, Warriors Tickets and A's Tickets. Buy or Sell your Tickets today. The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau Pages http://www.sfvisitor.org/ The National Park Service Page on Alcatraz http://www.nps.gov/alca/index.htm To the west of Chicago, lies the Great Plains of the Midwest. Vast
expanses of flat lands much of them covered with wheat and cornfields
extend nearly a thousand miles to the feet of the Rocky Mountains.
With no natural barriers such as mountains or hills to protect it,
the city is subjected to the full onslaught of the winds and storms
that blow across these "Prairies". Thus, Chicago deserves
to be called the "windy city", although it really earned
that nickname from its abundance of "windy" politicians. Your source for Chicago Entertainment tickets Downtown Chicago stretches along the shoreline of Lake Michigan from north to south for approximately 5 miles. It offers an impressive skyline of high buildings including the 110-floors Sears Tower. To the north, south and west, a great expanse of low office buildings, industrial plants and residential neighborhoods sprawl along the shore and out across the plains for at least 30 miles. On the east, a beautiful lakefront park hugs the shore of Lake Michigan. Looking for a nice hotel in Chicago? Find them here. O'Hare and Midway airports serve Chicago Chicago Midway Airport is a much smaller facility located less than 10 miles south west of the downtown loop. It accommodates many domestic flights to destinations in Eastern and Midwestern USA. Convenient inexpensive transportation from Midway to the downtown loop is available via elevated trains. The Chicago streets are on a rectangular grid Greek town, Little Italy, Chinatown, Little Saigon and the Ukrainian
Village are all located near the downtown loop with German, Polish,
Afro-American and Hispanic American neighborhoods not far away.
Each neighborhood offers a distinct cultural flavor with many ethnic
shops and restaurants. When you go to Chicago, plan on visiting
one or more of the ethnic neighborhoods to at least sample the cuisine.
PLUS! Savings and Special Offers on shopping, dining and more around the city Get unlimited admissions including a Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium,
Field Musuem, Museum of Science and Industry, The Art Institute
of Chicago, Hancock Observatory, Sears Tower, a selection of Grayline
Tours, Navy Pier attractions and much more! The downtown loop area has many stores and shops especially along
State Street, but the real heart of the Chicago shopping district
lies just north of the Chicago River. The section of North Michigan
Avenue across the river from downtown is known as the Magnificent
Mile and is lined with world-class department stores, vertical shopping
malls and many fine restaurants. As in most US cities, many large
shopping malls and outlet centers are located in the suburban communities.
For discount shopping, the Gurnee Mills Outlet Mall is along I-94
about one hour north of Chicago. Sports in Chicago Written by: Mike Leco Located along the northeastern seaboard of the United States, Boston is about 200 miles northeast of New York City. Logan International Airport serves the area. Although only two miles north east of Boston, it will take you about 30 minutes by car or taxi to reach the city. Six bus companies provide non-stop service to and from the airport for about $6 each way, and they run every 15-30 minutes. The MBTA subway's Blue Line will take you into the city in about twenty minutes and costs less than $1. You can also take the Airport Water Shuttle. It takes about seven minutes and takes you to the Rowe Wharf on the Boston NE Waterfront. The shuttle operates every 15 minutes Monday-Friday, and every 30 minutes on Saturday and Sunday and costs $10 for adults, $5 for seniors. Children 12 and under ride free. For great Boston hotels have a look at EasyToBook.com. Climate Getting Around Boston's subway system, also known as the T, has four major lines (red, blue, orange and green) that branch out from the center of the city. The "T" is efficient, safe, fast, and comfortable. You'll find many information centers throughout the city that will provide you with helpful maps and brochures. A particularly good place is the Boston Common Information Kiosk. It's open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, located at Prudential Plaza, provides multilingual maps. The Prudential Center Skywalk is New England's only observatory, offering 360-degree views of Boston and its most famous sites. Boston is a city of neighborhoods, colleges, and wonderful walking
trails designed to help visitors learn about its glorious past. Your source for Boston Entertainment tickets The Women's Heritage Trail traces the accomplishments of 80 renowned women on four self-guided tours. Maps are available for $5 at the Old State house and the National Park Service Visitor Center. Black Heritage Trail takes tourists past 14 sites of historical significance from the 19th century. Along the 1 ?mile trail are the Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment monument located in the Boston Common. The movie "Glory" was based on this young officer and his regiment comprised of the first black soldiers recruited for the North during the American Civil War. The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House, a stop on the Underground Railroad, provided a safe haven for runaway slaves on their way to Canada. The Abiel Smith School, the city's first public school for black children, now houses the museum of African-American history. Next door is the African Meeting House where abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglas spoke out against slavery. The oldest continuously operated black church in America, the Meeting House also offers historical and educational programs. The Harborwalk is a self-guided tour that follows Boston's rich maritime history. You'll find maps for this walk at the information center on Boston Common. The Neighborhoods of Boston Beacon Hill harkens to another era with its gas lamps, shade trees, brick sidewalks and grand townhouses built between 1800 and 1850. You'll enjoy strolling along the prettiest streets in Beacon Hill -- Chestnut and Mt. Vernon -- that open out into Louisburg Square. There are wonderful antique shops along Chestnut Street. Along Pinckney and Beacon streets, you'll find many homes designed by Charles Bullfinch. Across Boston Harbor is Charlestown, a predominantly Irish working class neighborhood. You can reach Charlestown by trolley or a quick ferry trip from Long Wharf that costs $1. Charlestown is also home to the U.S.S. Constitution, a 44-gun frigate first commissioned in 1798. The Constitution is a living museum of Boston's shipbuilding past and is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free tours from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Along Boston's Waterfront is the New England Aquarium filled with sharks, live sea creatures, wonderful exhibits, and an interactive and educational Kids' Space. Open 363 days a year, (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends and holidays) the Aquarium also offers whale watching cruises and Science Sea cruises. Museum of Fine Arts Shopping Across from FaneuiI Hall is the Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall Market
Place, a wonderful place for people watching and shopping. You'll
find caf?s with international and specialty foods, popular chain
clothing stores, unique gift shops, book stores, open air bars and
restaurants. Street jugglers, magicians, and entertainers perform
daily. Open Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m.
to 6 p.m. Outlet shopping is also very popular in the areas surrounding Boston. Fall River and New Bedford, about 45 minutes south of Boston, were once manufacturing centers for clothing. They now have more than 100 outlet stores where you'll find great buys on clothing, house wares, lingerie, and much more. A Sports Town Fenway Park is home to Boston's professional baseball team, the
Red Sox. Built in 1912, Fenway is one of the oldest - and smallest
-- ballparks in America. Its narrow wooden seats give the park a
unique, old-fashioned charm. The Red Sox play April through September. FleetCenter is also home to Boston's professional basketball team, the Celtics. With their green and white jerseys, the Celtics have been a familiar team at the NBA finals, and in fact, have won 16 NBA Championship titles. Their season runs October through April. The New England Patriots of the National Football League currently
play at Foxboro Stadium from September through December. Construction
is underway for a new stadium, CMGI Field, which should be completed
in spring, 2002. Other Places to Explore About 20 miles northwest of Boston are Lexington and Concord. Lexington is a quaint, quiet town of historic homes and taverns. Lexington is where Paul Revere made his historic ride to warn the townsfolk the British were coming. Concord, the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walden Pond is about 22 miles northwest of Boston. You'll also find Sleepy Hollow Cemetery here. Both towns can be reached by subway. Salem, where suspected witches and sorcerers faced interrogation and death, is 20 miles north east of Boston. The Salem Witch Museum is filled with interesting exhibits and the Witch Dungeon Museum historically recreates the witch trials. The Salem Trolley will take you to all the major points of interest. If you prefer walking, follow the Salem Heritage Trail. The red line will take you to the Peabody Essex Museum, the Salem Witch Museum, and the House of the Seven Gables. You can go back in time to December 1627 when the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Plimoth Plantation, located about 30 miles southeast of Boston in Plymouth, is staffed by interpreters dressed as native American Indians, pilgrims, and sailors. It offers visitors a realistic look at everyday life of these early settlers and includes preserved and restored 17th century homes. You can also board a full-scale replica of the Mayflower. The Plantation is open April through November, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and until 7 p.m. in July and August. Admission for the Plantation and Mayflower Tour is $18.50; tour of the Mayflower only is $6. Written by: Cathy Maxwell The city was created by a reputed gangster Las Vegas Boulevard is "the Strip" The Bargains are often "off the Strip" If you need a Las Vegas hotel to sleep. Book a room via EasyToBook.com. Along the northern part of the Strip, a few miles away from McCarran Airport, and also in the downtown area even further north, the casinos are older and a bit less spectacular. That means they usually offer their accommodations, their all-you-can-eat buffets, and their shows at bargain prices to entice you to come and gamble at their facility. There are also a few large casino hotels like Sam's Town and Boulder Station located well away from the strip. Those isolated casinos often offer some super-saver bargains. Las Vegas Weddings Today, many other states offer quick no-fault divorces, so the "Las Vegas divorce" is no longer in great demand. The city has, however, kept its reputation for quick-and-easy marriages. The wedding chapels are still visible along the strip and in the downtown area near the Clark County Court House. Nearly all the major casinos have wedding chapels or wedding rooms. The City marriage office is open until midnight every weekday and open 24 hours a day from Friday until Sunday. If you suddenly decide you want to get married at 4AM on a Sunday morning, you can easily do it in Las Vegas. Experience MAMMA MIA! in Las Vegas for an ABBA-SOLUTELY great time. Some of the newer shows are even more extravagant productions than the old-time ones. Cirque du Soliel runs about a half dozen fabulous productions in Las Vegas including: Mystere, Ka, O, and Zumanity. Each production is set in an immense specially-constructed theater with fantastic sets and technological marvels. The prices are fairly expensive, but they are certainly amazing feats of entertainment. At least two or more Broadway-style productions of musicals or
plays are constantly featured in Las Vegas. There are a number of
Las Vegas "regulars" playing at Casinos throughout the
city, and new famous, world renown entertainers appear for limited
engagements nearly every week. In addition to all this, there are
free shows and free entertainments available at many of the casinos
nearly every day. There is certainly no lack of entertaining diversions
in this town. Your source for Las Vegas Entertainment tickets For more serious dining, Las Vegas provides hundreds of good restaurants
in the casinos and throughout the city. Each of the large casinos
offers at least four or six restaurants ranging from inexpensive
snack bars and all-you-can-eat buffets to high-class, expensive,
five-star restaurants. The desert landscape surrounding Las Vegas is stark and forbidding but strangely beautiful. Red Rock Canyon, just 20 miles west of the city, looks just like hollywood scenery for a cowboy movie. Boulder Dam and Lake Mead, located just 25 miles east of the city provides the strangely contrasting images of deep blue waters set among stark arid hills and barren rock formations. About 60 miles to the north, the Valley of Fire offers some unique hiking and sightseeing opportunities in a volcanically created environment of strange contorted rocks, lava fields and ancient Native American runes. Tours depart from Las Vegas to many sights If you intend to visit Las Vegas for a few days or more, you need only leave the gambling parlors for a single day or even only a half day to see some of this spectacular Southwest scenery. There are numerous tours departing from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, Death valley, Zion National Park, Boulder Dam, Lake Mead, the Valley of Fire and other interesting places. The tours can be via airplane, helicopter, bus, van, jeep or even hummer. Normally, the tour operators pick you up at your hotel, take you on a guided tour of the attraction, then return you to your hotel later in the day. This is a very convenient way to see some of the fabulous scenery in a very limited amount of time. Naturally, you can always rent a car and tour these same fabulous sights on your own. Written by: Mike Leco In need of a New York hotel? Book a room at EasyToBook.com Manhattan Island is the heart of New York City The numbered streets of Manhattan all run east-west beginning with First Street just above Greenwich Village, and extending all the way up to 218th Street at the far northern tip of Up-town. Avenues run north-south beginning with First Avenue on the East Side and extending to Twelfth Avenue along the Hudson River on the West Side. These numbered Avenues are interspersed with named Avenues such as Park Avenue, Lexington, Madison and Broadway. Broadway is a bit unusual as it starts out as a typical north-south avenue in the middle of the island downtown, but angles sharply to the west just below Central Park and continues on up the West Side to the top of the island. Navigation in Manhattan is not difficult Queens is north of Brooklyn on the tip of Long Island. It is also
a residential community with many high-rise apartment complexes.
LaGuardia airport, Shea Stadium and the crumbling ruins of the old
World's Fair are located there. There are a few hotels near the
airport. The Bronx is another mainly residential community almost
due north of Manhattan on the mainland. The large and impressive
Bronx Zoo is located there. Three airports serve New York City New York is the "city that never sleeps" Written by: Mike Leco William Penn, an English Quaker, founded Philadelphia in 1682 on land purchased from the King of England. You can arrive via Philadelphia International Airport only eight miles from downtown or by Amtrak which takes you into the middle of the city at 30th Street Station. SEPTA is the public transportation service within the city which can get you anywhere you need to go. Because of its prime location along the East coast, Philadelphia
quickly became the cultural center of the New World. With a rich
history, 揟he City of Firsts?/em> is considered the birthplace
of American democracy and the home of the American Revolution. Before
Washington, D.C., Philadelphia was the nation's capital form 1791
to 1800. Today it is a major metropolitan business, cultural and
tourist attraction. Your source for Philadelphia Entertainment tickets The Betsy Ross House, built in 1740 and named after the woman who made the first American flag, is the second most popular tourist attraction in Philadelphia. Her house is open seven days a week and offers a great view of the revolutionary war period. The National Constitution Center, located on Independence Mall, has more than 100 interactive, multi-media exhibits and artifacts about the U.S. Constitution, one of America抯 most treasured documents. On the Mall, you will also find The Lights of Liberty, an impressive sound and light show guiding you through the events of the American Revolution and making you feel as if you are there witnessing the events as they unfold. The U.S. Mint, also located on the Mall, produces between 11 to 20 million coins annually and holds the nation抯 $100 billion worth of gold and silver assets. The Mint offers tours by appointment, which must be scheduled two weeks or more in advance. Accommodations Attractions Sesame Place is a great spot for families to spend a fun-filled day. Fashioned after the universally famous, award-winning children抯 television program, this theme park located 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia in Langhorne Pennsylvania has more than 50 activities such as different water slides for all ages. Most exciting of all, the children will get an opportunity to meet and hug their favorite Sesame Street characters. They can visit Bert & Ernie抯 home, watch dance shows, participate in parades and play all types of games. The price is $40 per person, but children under two years are admitted for free. More than 1 million people visit the Avenue of the Arts section along Philadelphia抯 Broad Street every year. This district is divided into North and South and houses over 37 cultural organizations, entertainment venues plus outdoor murals. The North The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, founded in 1805, is
America's oldest art school and museum. The New Freedom Theatre
is the nation's largest African-American theatre and the Philadelphia
Doll Museum is the nation抯 only African American museum of its kind.
Visit the Uptown Theater, an old movie house where famous Americans
such as Pearl Bailey, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington and Count
Basie performed. The Metropolitan Opera House, known as The Met,
is universally famous. Built in 1908, it has the largest stage in
all of Philadelphia. The South The Academy of Music, built in 1857, is the oldest opera house
in the United States. City Hall is the largest municipal building
in the United States, with over 250 pieces of marble sculpture and
motifs. Philadelphia International Records is the home of some of
the USA抯 best-known R&B, soul and hip-hop artists. The Philadelphia
Music Alliance has established a Walk of Fame along the avenue that
honors many area musicians and music industry icons with more than
100 bronze plaques. If you like shopping malls, Philadelphia has several. The Gallery is the largest city mall in the U.S. with more than 120 shops. The Shops at Liberty Place holds more than 60 stores and restaurants and is in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. Outside of the city you抣l find King of Prussia Mall, the largest retail complex in the country with eight department stores and more than 365 retailers. Also outside the city, Franklin Mills has more than 150 outlet stores for bargain and discount lovers. The town of Reading Pennsylvania, just 65 miles (100 km) northwest of Philadelphia, is known as outlet city because it has over 90 factory outlet stores. Museums The Philadelphia Museum of Art is the third largest art museum in the country and holds some of the most impressive Renaissance, American, Impressionist and Modern art pieces by the most respected artists from all over the world. There are more than 80 period rooms from Medieval Times to Ancient Greece. The Masonic Temple, completed in 1873, is like a magnificent cathedral. It is located across the street from City Hall and is amazing inside and out. The grand exterior is matched by interior rooms made of Moorish, Gothic and Alhambra designs. The grand staircases are lined with Masonic paintings and sculptures by William Rush, the father of American sculpture. A museum, located inside the temple holds artifacts such as George Washington抯 Masonic apron. Dining and Entertainment For sports, the city has a lot to offer such as the Eagles for NFL football, the 76ers for NBA basketball, the Phillies for baseball and the Flyers for hockey and much more. The most popular areas for nightlife entertainment are South Street, the Delaware River Waterfront or University City. You can find plenty of comedy, jazz, rock, R&B and dance clubs as well as various themed bars in Philadelphia. Nearby Attractions Lancaster Pennsylvania is less than a two-hour drive to the west. That is the location of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, known for its quaint German-speaking communities and its technology-shunning Amish religious sects. Less than an hour west of Lancaster is Gettysburg Pennsylvania, location of one of the greatest battles of the US civil war. Written by: Angela Winters Today, it is hard to believe that Pittsburgh was once such an industrial giant. The steel mills are gone. The air is clean, and the river waters are pure. Pittsburgh has evolved into a beautiful, modern city with many attractions. It is now a center of technological industry with prestigious institutions of higher learning and medical research. It offers many cultural attractions, entertainment venues and sports events. It has become a very nice place to live or to work. Pittsburgh International Airport is a modern facility located approximately 12 miles west of downtown. It is currently under utilized, so congestion and delays are infrequent. Taxis, limousines or shuttle buses can take you to downtown Pittsburgh within 20 minutes. Accommodations There is one hotel located on the airport property and several others within a few minutes drive. In suburban Greentree, ten miles east of the airport and two miles from the city, you can find a nice selection of hotels: and naturally, there are hotels located in and around downtown Pittsburgh. There are also a few hotels located in Oakland, the cultural and educational district of the city. There are clusters of hotels near the exits of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Monroeville, an eastern suburb, and in Warrrendale, north of the city. If you approach Pittsburgh from the airport, you will pass through
a long tunnel beneath Mount Washington. As soon as you exit the
tunnel, you will be on a bridge crossing the Monongahela River.
The point at the confluence of the two rivers and the Golden Triangle
with its gleaming array of tall buildings forms a spectacular panorama
immediately before you. This sudden vista is breathtaking. Pittsburgh is compact enough that you can stroll around the entire 揋olden Triangle?area in a few hours. Be sure to cross the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River to Station Square on the 揝outh Side? From there, you can take a funicular; known as the 揗onongahela Incline? to the top of Mount Washington for a tremendous view of the city. If you have a car, you can drive a few miles down the south bank of the Ohio River and up the hill to the West End Overlook for an even more spectacular panorama of the Point. Taxis can take you around town, but you must telephone for a pickup, as you cannot hail taxis on the street. South Side, North Side and the Strip District Another popular entertainment area is the old produce district, known locally as 搕he Strip District? It is situated adjacent to the Golden Triangle just a few blocks up the Allegheny River from the new Convention Center. It contains the very interesting Pittsburgh History Museum and a unique mixture of shops, restaurants, grocers, boutiques and nightclubs. All of the area north of the Allegheny River is known simply as
搕he North Side? The new football stadium, home to the famous NFL
Pittsburgh Steelers and the new baseball field, home to the Pittsburgh
Pirates are clearly visible on the riverbank. This is also the location
of the Andy Warhol museum, the Pittsburgh Science Center, the Children抯
Museum and the Pittsburgh Aviary. Just across the street from the Cathedral of Learning are the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art, the Carnegie Library and the Carnegie Music Hall. A few blocks away in Schenly Park, is the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Also located in Oakland are Carnegie Mellon University, Carlow University and Chatham College. It is likewise home to the prestigious University Medical Center with its array of hospitals, clinics and medical research facilities. The Oakland neighborhood exudes a college-town atmosphere with plenty of inexpensive restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and student hangouts. Places to eat and to shop A nice place to visit Pittsburgh is not a major tourist attraction. Most people visit the city for business activities or because it is a convenient place to stop on a cross-country drive. Visitors typically find it is a nice friendly place with a clean modern environment and many recreational opportunities. Written by: Mike Leco The surrounding terrain is low and flat with a warm damp climate. They grow cotton, sugar cane and rice in the neighboring farmlands. The summer weather can be rather hot and humid. Winters are cool but seldom very cold. Fall and spring often produce the most pleasant climate for visitors. Houston hotels can be booked here if you need one. A modern metropolitan center with a good system of roads The cultural center is near downtown The older, but still impressive, Astrodome is just south of downtown.
It houses the annual Houston livestock show every February. This
major festival includes the world's largest rodeo, a national barbeque
cooking championship plus many live entertainers. Just across the
I-610 loop from the dome, are the Six Flags Astroworld amusement
park and Six Flags Waterworld. Your source for Houston Entertainment tickets George Ranch and San Jacinto Battleground are other attractions Galveston is less than an hour drive down I-45 from Houston. This seaport city, which once served as a pirate hideaway, has an old-town district filled with Victorian houses. It has elegant streets lined with tropical foliage and a long beachfront drive with seafood restaurants, nightclubs and bars. The Moody Gardens contain three large glass pyramids filled with a tropical rain forest, an aquarium and a tropical lagoon. Plenty of Shopping opportunities in Houston Sports, Recreation and Cultural Activities Cultural activities include the world famous Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet. There are several theaters featuring a diverse assortment of offerings from Broadway Musicals to avant-garde productions or serious drama. There are many museums, art galleries and venues offering all sorts of entertainments in this vibrant metropolitan center. Written by: Mike Leco Book your Seattle hotels via EasyToBook.com. Seattle is in the midst of some spectacular natural scenery Seattle-Tacoma International Airport or Sea-Tac is located about
10 miles south of downtown Seattle just west of Interstate route
5. Transportation to downtown is available for $7.50 via express
buses. Your source for Seattle Entertainment tickets Pike Place Market is located at the western edge of the central downtown area overlooking the Puget Sound waterfront. It offers an array of shops, kiosks and vendors selling fresh seafood, vegetables, flowers and all sorts of wonderful gifts. It is renowned for its flying fish market, where the seafood vendors toss their sales over the heads of amused spectators. The market also contains many restaurants, specialty shops and those ubiquitous Seattle coffee houses. The Waterfront is just below Pike Place Market Seattle has a large thriving Asian community The broad blue waters of Lake Washington border Seattle on the eastern side. Neighborhoods around the lake, Mercer Island and the eastern shore communities of Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond are all upscale. They are primarily middle to upper income neighborhoods with fashionable shopping malls and some corporate offices. Redmond is home to that little company called Microsoft. Lake Union and its surrounding communities are interesting Some of the best attractions lie outside the city Shopping, Culture, Sports and Adventure abound Seattle has a symphony, a ballet, and over 400 theatre companies. It has a full complement of major league sports teams. The Seattle Seahawks, a NFL football team, plays at Qwest Field, and the Seattle Mariners, the city's major league baseball team, plays across the street at Safeco Field. Seattle also has a minor league hockey team, the Thunderbirds, and it plays at the Kent Events Center, which is located a short drive south of Seattle. Seattle is most famous for its outdoor sports such as hiking, backpacking, skiing, fishing, hunting, mountain climbing, boating and kayaking. The opportunities for wilderness adventure are nearly limitless in this area of spectacular natural beauty. Visit our Seattle Attractions page for more information about what to see and do in the Emerald City! Written by: Mike Leco Los Angeles is spread across a coastal plain Los Angeles Freeway Los Angeles natives inhabit the entire plain, from the local hills to connecting valleys to the slopes of the mountain ranges. The city now covers over 1000 square-miles composed of dozens of interconnected communities. High-rise buildings only exist in a few isolated clusters. From nearly every vantage point, you can gaze across miles of low rooftops with palm trees towering above. Nice Los Angeles hotels can be booked via EasyToBook.com. Your source for Los Angeles Entertainment tickets Los Angeles is composed of many interconnected communities Unlike most cities, Los Angeles does not have a distinct urban
center. It is a collection of individual communities tied together
by a complex network of roads and freeways. Each community offers
a uniquely different character. Together, they make up this huge
metropolitan complex called Los Angeles. Hollywood is the historic home of the old movie studios, and Beverly Hills is still the home of the movie stars. Here you can drive along the western terminus of historic Route 66 on Santa Monica Boulevard. You can stroll along famous Hollywood Boulevard and the Sunset Strip. In nearby Burbank, you can visit many modern movie and television studios. In Anaheim, you can see the original Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Downtown Los Angeles is certainly a commercial district, but it
is no more the urban center of the city than many other neighborhoods.
Near the downtown area are ethnic neighborhoods with large Asian
populations called, Korea Town, China Town and Japan Town. Nearby
are several predominately Afro-American neighborhoods and many predominately
Hispanic-American neighborhoods. Los Angeles is served by four major airports Written by: Mike Leco Go Los Angeles Card Unlimited Admission to more than 37 Attractions and Tours for One Low Price. StubHub.com The University of Southern California's Virtual Walking Tour of
Los Angeles The Weather Channel: LA's current weather forecast and outlook California has a series of unique geological features that extend north to south along nearly the entire length of the state. They create a wide variety of scenery and climates that help to make California a great place to visit. California's Tropical Beaches to Rugged Coast Secluded beach along Big Sur's rugged coastline The coastal mountains stretch along the western fringe of the entire state. These low volcanic peaks form a protective barrier shielding the inner lands from the full force of the Pacific Ocean weather. In some places, the ridges are a few miles inland with flat coastal steps where cities like Los Angeles and San Diego are built. At Big Sur just south of Monterey, the mountains plunge right into the ocean to form spectacular coastal scenery. A gap in the mountains near San Francisco allows the Pacific Ocean to flow into a large protected bay behind the coastal range. Tour the U.S.A. in a 17 or 19-foot van camper complete with camping kit, roadmaps, and KOA campground guide. Low Season Rates start at only $69/day! These well-maintained and fully-equipped campers sleep up to four people and have power steering, auto transmission, air conditioning, AM/FM radio with cassette, two-burner range, microwave, sink, refrigerator, flush toilet, hot water, shower and cab-over bed. You'll also get complete camping equipment including sleeping bags, pillows, linens, pots and pans, dishes and silverware. Price includes tax, insurance and 100 free miles per day. Call 1-800-370-1262 (U.S. only) or 310-675-1335 or visit www.camperusa.com to make your reservation. Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the desert A narrow strip of California lies east of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in a parched rain-shadow desert with waterless mountains and desiccated valleys. This is the beginning of the barren Basin and Range Country that extend through the state of Nevada. It includes the vast wasteland of the Mojave Desert and the austere beauty of Death Valley. Los Angeles and San Francisco, California San Francisco, the other great California city, is located nearly
400 miles (600 km) to the north. This beautiful city hugs the slopes
of a hilly peninsula on the shores of a vast blue bay amid the coastal
mountains. It is less metropolitan than Los Angeles and lacks the
warm sandy beaches but is much more picturesque. Yosemite National
Park with its spectacular alpine vistas is only four hours drive
to the east. The California Wine Country of Sonoma and Napa Valley
is less than an hour to the north. Your source for California Entertainment tickets Many wonderful attractions in California Written by: Mike Leco
Alaska Alaska's two "panhandles" reach southward to embrace the warm Pacific Ocean currents which bless them with surprisingly moderate climates for such northern lands. On the western handle, the volcanically active Aleutian Islands extend over 1,000 miles into the northwestern Pacific where they enjoy cool summers and only moderately cold winters. The eastern handle extending down along the coast of northern Canada enjoys cool summers, mild winters and the most rainfall in North America. The Interior plateau of Alaska suffers an extreme continental climate with surprisingly warm summers and fiercely cold winters. Temperatures can reach 100 F (+38 C) in the summer and drop below -55 F (-48 C) in the winter. The North Slope along the Arctic Coast is classic arctic tundra, a treeless semi-desert climate with extremely cold winters. Summer days and winter nights become very long at these high latitudes.
As you travel further north in Alaska, the summer days can stretch
up to 22 hours. Alaskan natives call this "the land of the
midnight sun." Equally long winter nights often bring spectacular
displays of dancing celestial lights known as the Aurora Borealis. The scenic attractions of Alaska can be divided into several distinct areas with the city of Anchorage roughly at the center. Copper Valley, Mat-Su Valley, the Kenai Peninsula and Chena River State Recreation Area are all located near Anchorage, and are readily accessible by car or ferryboat. Many excursion cruises and charter boats depart from Anchorage, Seward or the nearby port of Homer to visit the beautiful Kenai fjords, Kodiak Island with its large population of wildlife, and Prince William Sound. It is also possible to visit the Aleutian Islands of the southwest panhandle from there, but that requires a much longer boat ride or a commuter flight. You need a floatplane or boat to see most of this state There are four ways to get to Alaska from the continental United States: air, boat, train or car. Although Juneau is the state capitol, most flights go in and out of Fairbanks or Anchorage, since they are larger and provide easy access to more of the state. There are daily direct flights from most major cities in the "lower 48" states. Within the state, there are frequent commuter flights between cities plus charter helicopters and small planes providing transportation to the more remote locations. You can travel by luxurious cruise line or inexpensive ferry As a less expensive alternative, try the ferries of the Inland
Marine Highway. They depart weekly from Bellingham, 70 miles north
of Seattle, to Sitka, Juneau, Skagway and Haines, with stops at
many coastal villages on the way. For about $250, you can purchase
a ticket that allows you to hop on and off the boats at any of the
stops. Cabins cost extra, but you are welcome to spread your sleeping
bag on one of the many chaise longues in the solarium or even to
pitch your tent on the open deck. The trip takes about 3 days. Finally, the brave and hearty spirited folks can drive the infamous
Alaska Highway. It starts at Dawson Creek in British Columbia and
ends 1,422 miles north in Delta Junction Alaska. The road was first
built during World War II and was unpaved for much of its bumpy
potholed length. Now, it is in good condition and used by many thousands
of brave travelers every year. From Seattle to Fairbanks is a drive
of over 2,300 miles. It usually requires about four or five days
of driving to navigate the full length of the Alaska Highway. Written by: Carla Lee Suson The Eastern Coast of Florida has some very nice beaches with moderately
good surf on the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the beaches, especially
those near Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Daytona and Jacksonville, tend
do be commercialized for tourism. They offer plenty of high rise
hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and entertainment venues
that cater to the beach loving tourists. The beaches near Saint
Augustine and Melborne are a bit less commercial and tend to attract
more family vacationers and local tourists. The Western Coast of Florida is very different than the Atlantic Coast. The beaches on the Gulf of Mexico tend to be shallower, with less surf and with warmer waters. They are great for families with small children. The soft sands of the wide beaches extend far out into the sea, and one can wade hundreds of meters from shore without the water becoming very deep. While Clearwater caters to tourism, most of the other areas along the Gulf coast are far less commercialized. They tend to feature condominiums and rental cottages rather than high-rise hotels. During the summer months, the coastline is notorious for its daily thunderstorm activity with intense lightning. It is also famous for its beautiful sunsets. Central Florida draws the most tourists The southern tip of Florida mostly consists of tropical jungle and swamplands. Everglades National Park covers nearly the entire tip of the peninsula southward from Miami and Naples. It contains a vast ocean of wet grasslands punctuated by islands of tropical forest and stretches of open waters. This vast wetland is infested with hordes of insects, wild birds, alligators, snakes and other wildlife. A one hundred mile long (160 km) archipeligo of islands known as the Florida Keys stretches southwestward from the tip of the penninsula into the Gulf of Mexico. A 90 mile (150 km) long series of bridges and causeways connects these islands down to the town of Key West on its southern most tip. The only North American tropical reef lies just a few miles off shore. It is a veritable paradise for scuba divers and fisherman. The Florida Panhandle is the narrow strip of land that extends westward from the top of the penninsula. It is bounded on the north by the state of Alabama and on the south by its Gulf Coast beaches. This is the least commercialized and least tourist oriented part of Florida. It has beautiful shallow white sand beaches with warm waters but few tourist oriented features. This part of Florida draws many permanent or seasonal residents and offers more condominiums and rental cottages than hotels. Panama City is the lone tourist oriented city on the panhandle, and is famous for its "Spring Break" festivities every March. A retirement home for many Americans A favorite Winter Vacation spot Florida attractions Miami is a vibrant city along the southern Atlantic Coast with a distinctly Latin American atmoshere. Its "Little Havana" neighborhood and its many Hispanic residents create an enclave of South American and Carribean culture in the USA. The Kennedy Space Center visitors complex and the Cape Canaveral Space Launch facility are located along the East Coast not far from Orlando. They are popular destinations for tourists. A bit further north, the Historic city of Saint Augustine is one of the oldest colonies in North America. Daytona Beach on the north Atlantic Coast and Panama City on the coast along the panhandle are the most popular destinations for the "Spring Break" festivities every March. Hundreds of thousands of university students on break from their studies descend on these two cities for several weeks of round-the-clock, non-stop parties on the beaches. If you are looking for wild parties, these are the places to go. If you are on a quiet family vacation, these are places to avoid during March. Written by: Mike Leco You can easily travel between the islands by using one of the two
domestic airlines: Aloha or Hawaiian. Flights are frequent and inexpensive.
When landing at each airport, be sure to look for the racks of free
coupon magazines. Each island has its own coupon book with lots
of discounts. The Aloha Spirit is prevalent everywhere PLUS! Savings and Special Offers on shopping, dining and much more Get unlimited admissions including Circle Island Tour, Dole Plantation,
Pearl Harbor Tour, Polynesian Cultural Center, Waikiki Trolley,
USS Arizona Tour and much more! Hawaii has a strict quarantine Written by: Joane New Mexico has some beautiful landscape with a wide variety of
strange and wonderful geological features. It has high elevation
deserts and plateaus surrounded by barren mountains, peculiarly
eroded rock pinnacles and volcanic cinder cones. It has high prairies
that extend from horizon to horizon with extensive plains of sparse
grass intermittently punctuated by low shrubs, squat pi駉n pines
and massive citadels of flat-topped mesas. It has ranges of lofty
mountains with snow capped peaks, dense pine forests and cascading
mountain streams. The Rio Grande Valley has been a highway of life in this somewhat
barren landscape for several millennia. Ancient Anasazi ruins and
Petroglyph drawings are still visible in many parts of New Mexico.
Petroglyph National Park, on rock bluffs overlooking the Rio Grande
River at the outskirts of present day Albuquerque, displays thousands
of ancient drawings. The ruins of ancient villages and cliff houses
can be seen at Bandelier National Monument in the mountains near
Los Alamos and at the Chaco Culture National Historic Park in the
northwest part of the state. Spanish conquistadores used the Rio Grande Valley to penetrate
this inhospitable land over 400 years ago. Beginning in El Paso
del Norte, now known as El Paso Texas, they journeyed up the Rio
Grande Valley to conquer the Indians and establish colonies along
the river. They founded the towns of Albuquerque and Santa Fe and
established missions at many of the pueblo villages. The Spanish
colonial architecture of adobe construction is still clearly evident
in most of the towns in New Mexico and many of their old missions,
churches and buildings are still standing. Albuquerque has all the amenities of a modern metropolitan center but still retains the rich cultural heritage of an ancient Spanish colonial outpost in the New World. It has an old town center with ancient adobe structures and a Native American crafts market. It has several nice museums and a very interesting Indian cultural center. It also has an excellent selection of hotels, restaurants and shopping centers. Santa Fe and Taos Ski Country Taos, located an additional 60 miles north along route 25, is another
old Spanish colony at the base of a mountain range. It too offers
great ski slopes, but is much smaller and more intimate than Santa
Fe. It exhibits more of a western cowboy town atmosphere. Taos Pueblo,
one of the ancient Indian villages open to the public, is located
just outside of town. A hundred miles east of White Sands lies the town of Roswell which gained notoriety for its numerous sightings of flying saucers and unidentified flying objects. Every July 4, Roswell hosts a 搒pace alien festival? Tourists come to see the many costumed aliens and intergalactic floats appearing at that strange event. About 75 miles south of Roswell lies the town of Carlsbad and nearby, Carlsbad National Park with over 100 natural limestone caverns. The essence of the Southwest Written by: Mike Leco South Carolina was visited by the Spanish in 1566 and settled by the English in 1670. The English settlement spawned the city of Charleston. The American Civil War began at Fort Sumter in the Charleston harbor. The Fort is open to visitors. Charleston is home of the Spoleto Festival Try the famous "southern cooking" South Carolina is a "mini-bottle" state. Liquor is served from pre-measured bottles in bars and restaurants. If you want to buy a bottle of spirits, look for a store decorated with big red dots. Liquor stores in South Carolina are not allowed to advertise, but they are allowed to paint big red dots all over their buildings. Beer (usually lager) and wine are available in grocery stores. Beaches surround Charleston Farther off coast, Hilton Head Island is famed for being one of the best resort islands in the Continental USA. Hilton Head is an expensive destination; interested visitors would do well to check with a travel agent for specially priced package holidays. Beach Properties of Hilton Head, a service-oriented company, can
help you find a 1-6 bedroom home, villa, or condominium that will
meet all your needs. They take great pride in their clean and luxurious
properties and offer that personal touch to make your next Hilton
Head vacation a memorable one. For rates and photos, or a free brochure,
visit www.beach-property.com or call 1-800-671-5155 (in U.S. and
Canada). Northwest of Charleston, Cypress Garden is a swamp-garden with paths going through nearly 200 acres of marsh and swampland. Farther up the coast is Brookgreen Gardens in Murrell's Inlet, also known as "Restaurant City." The town has over fifty seafood restaurants. It is the best place for seafood lovers to try an American all-you-can-eat style restaurant. Deep-sea fishing is popular in this area. Tour operators offer
half-day and full-day fishing trips to the Gulf Stream year round. Myrtle Beach is on the Grand Strand Entertainment options range from theme theaters presenting extravagant
musical shows to standard seaside activities. Myrtle Beach has an
old-fashioned amusement park and Pavilion. Many state-of-the-art
entertainment facilities including a combined skating rink/aquarium
and a Ripley's Believe it or Not museum of oddities offer a lot
to see and do. Serious shoppers can rummage through stores from morning to night.
In addition to outlet malls, the area is famed for its unique boutiques
offering a variety of specialty merchandise. The Grand Strand's
hotel choices range from budget basics to splendid resorts catering
to your every whim. Commercial campgrounds are plentiful. Located in the middle of southern USA and on the Gulf of Mexico,
the Lone Star State is actually six major land regions put together.
As the areas flow into one another, the land changes from dark pine
woods, to rolling hills and finally into sparse beautiful desert.
Each area has its own commerce, agricultural specialties and distinctive
weather but all the land is equal in its unique beauty and history.
Gulf Coast: Sun, Shrimp and Deep Space Click here for a $4.00 coupon! If beach fun is more your style, then feel free to bask in the sun at any number of beaches in Galveston, Corpus Christi and South Padre Island. Mustang Island of Corpus Christi offers sandy dunes and deep waves next to a federal land preserve and bird sanctuary. South Padre Island beaches have become popular spring vacation spots for area college students. This town boasts lots of sparkling white sand and gentle waves in the day and a party lifestyle at night. Hill Country: Outdoor Paradise The state's capital of Austin is also nestled in the hills next
to Lake Travis. This city is the home of University of Texas at
Austin and a growing commercial center. The land is dotted with
short small woods, lakes, rivers and caves. The hill country region
area is great for freshwater sailors, deer hunters and fishermen.
Central Texas weather can be a little more extreme. Winter months
usually include two or more short ice storms while the summers can
get as hot as 43C during July and August. West Texas: Desert Beauty Fun for Everyone! Written by: Carla Lee Suson Land of Wilderness Adventure Denver, the mile high city Written by: Mike Leco Although it's dear to the hearts of America's flag-wavers， there's a lot more to Philly（费城）than the Liberty Bell（自由钟）and Independence Hall（独立大厅）。 Yet， despite the support of patriots and the cappuccino（卡普齐诺咖啡）set， the 'City of Brotherly Love'（博爱之城）has long been the butt of jokes by WC Fields and other laugh-a-minute types. When the insults finally soaked in - just in time for America's bicentennial（两百周年纪念）in 1976 - the city began renovating（重修）。 Philadelphia now enjoys recognition as a major cultural center with world-class museums， performing arts centers and some stunning（极好的）architecture. In March 1681， England's King Charles II granted William Penn a charter to a parcel of land west of the Delaware River（特拉华河）。 Charles dubbed the area 'Penn' in honor of William's father， with Penn the Younger adding '-sylvania，' meaning 'woodlands.' Brimming with pacifist Quaker idealism， Penn regarded his colony as a 'holy experiment' and ensured as its governor and proprietor that its laws respected religious freedom and liberal government. Penn chose Philadelphia as the capital of Pennsylvania in 1682， optimistically naming it after the Greek for 'brotherly love.' A survivor of London's Great Fire of 1666， he made sure the city's design included a grid system with wide streets， not the narrow， winding maze that caused so much havoc in England's capital. This format was to become the inspiration for most American cities. Philadelphia quickly grew to become the second largest city （after London） in the British empire， before ceding （让于）that title to New York City. Opposition to British policy in the colonies became seated in the city， where colonial leaders would meet to plan their course of action. The result was the Declaration of Independence， and in 1790 Philadelphia became the temporary capital of the new United States before Washington DC got the job in 1800. The US Constitution was drawn up and first read here in 1786. Often led by the multitalented Benjamin Franklin， Philadelphia became a center for developments in the world of arts and science. Between 1793 and 1820， Philadelphia suffered five yellow-fever epidemics（黄热病）， which killed thousands but led to the construction of the US's first city water system. Philadelphia's fortunes declined in the 19th century， as New York took over as the nation's cultural， commercial and industrial center. Philly never regained the stature of its early years， despite continued cultural and educational innovation， commerce and shipbuilding， and a brief boomlet（略微繁荣）following WWII. During the mid-20th century， like many American cities， Philadelphia
watched much of its middle class forsake the city for the suburbs.
The 1970s saw Philly grapple with innercity tensions， typified by
the firefights between the police and the paramilitary MOVE group.
However， by 1976， lavish plans for the nation's bicentennial had
inspired a citywide cleanup and renovation campaign - a restoration
that continues today - and the city is now consistently rated among
the nation's 'best' in national polls of lifestyle and character. Calling this quaint and charming city the 'Athens of America' might seem a bit braggadocio（自夸）， but the city's 19th-century glory radiates through its grand architecture， its population of literati（文人）， artists and educators and its world-renowned academic and cultural institutions. Disastrous 'urban renewal'（城市重建）in the 1950s provoked such a furious backlash that Boston now has some of the best preserved historic buildings and neighbourhoods in the country. Compact， walkable， historic and clean， the city blends old-world beauty and modern convenience. Boston is on a small peninsula in the middle of Massachusetts' Atlantic Coast， a little over 320km northeast of New York City. Most of the city's sights are contained in less than 8 sq km. Cambridge （home of Harvard and MIT） is a short drive or subway ride north across the Charles River. Called Trimountain （from its three hills） in its earliest days， Boston took its permanent name from the English town. The vanguard（先驱）of English settlers， led by Reverend William Blaxton， arrived in 1624 - less than four years after the Pilgrims arrived in nearby Plymouth（普利茅斯）。 The colony of Massachusetts Bay was established six years later in 1630 when the elder John Winthrop， official representative of the Massachusetts Bay Company， took up residence. From the beginning this was the centre of Puritan culture and life in the New World. Puritanism was intellectual and theocratic， and so the leading men and women of early Boston society were those who understood and followed Biblical law - and could explain in powerful rhetoric why they did. Thus it comes as no surprise that the Boston Public Latin School was established in 1635 （and continues as an elite public high school today）。 A year later， Harvard College （now Harvard University） was founded in neighbouring Cambridge. By 1653 Boston had a public library as well， and by 1704 the Thirteen Colonies' first newspaper， the News-Letter. Though the New England coast had many excellent natural ports. Boston was blessed by geography with the best of all. By the early 1700s it was well on its way to being what it remains today： New England's largest and most important city. As the chief city in the region， it drew London's attention. When King George III and Parliament chose to burden the colonies with taxation without representation， the taxes were first levied（征收）in Boston. When resistance surfaced， it was in Boston. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party were signal events in the development of revolutionary sentiments， and the Battle of Bunker Hill solidified colonial resolve to declare independence from the British crown. Following the Revolutionary War， Boston suffered economically as the British government cut off American ships' access to other ports in the British Empire. But as new trading relationships developed， Boston entered a commercial and industrial boom which lasted from the late 1700s until the mid-1800s. Fortunes were made in shipbuilding， maritime trade and manufacturing textiles and shoes. Chartered as a city in 1822， Boston's Beacon Hill was soon crowned with fine mansions built by the leading families， and Back Bay was filled in to make room for more. These same prominent families also patronised arts and culture heavily. Though conservative and traditionalist in their general outlook， Bostonians were firm believers in American ideals of freedom and firm supporters of the abolition of slavery and the activities of the Underground Railroad. As the 19th century drew to a close Boston's prominence was challenged by the growth of other port cities and the westward expansion of the national borders， and New England's economic boom turned into a bust when the textile and shoe factories moved to cheaper labour markets in the South. In the 20th century the city became more culturally diverse than ever before. The city's ethnic and economic profile had already been significantly altered by the 19th-century arrival of thousands of Irish immigrants， driven from home by devastating potato famines. The cultural mix grew more diverse with 20th century arrivals from Italy， the Ottoman Empire and Portugal. Economically， Boston became more of a satellite than a hub， although it remained a prominent centre for medical education， treatment and research， and USA's premiere university centre. Many graduates choose to remain in the Boston area， which has helped fuel a local booming commerce in computer research， development and manufacturing. For all its ties to the past， Boston has always looked forward.
The new millennium saw Boston entering a renaissance， thanks to
the near-completion of the ‘Big Dig' - an ambitious public works
project to place the Central Expressway underground. Wealthy young
professionals are moving back to the city in droves and， since the
demise of rent control in the mid-1990s， they are the only ones
who can reasonably afford to live there！ Affluent and comfortable，
Boston remains at the centre of US intellectual life. The fourth-largest city in the US is a sprawling metropolis of highrises（高楼大厦）， malls and parking lots（停车场）。 Hot， humid and flat， Houston may not be Texas' premier destination， but it has much to offer， including great museums， beautiful parks， a hip young population and a variety of excellent excursions. The days when cows and oilmen（石油商）roamed the streets of Houston are long gone. Houston dominates southeastern Texas， thanks to a historic commitment to growth typical of the Lone Star state（得克萨斯州的别名）， characterized by a lack of zoning and other planning restrictions， resulting in a sprawling， confusing city. Downtown Houston， the original business center， is a thicket of highrises interspersed（散布）with parking lots， ringed by elevated freeways. The streets can seem surprisingly empty during the day， with nary a pedestrian（一个行人也没有）to be found braving the hot and shimmering sidewalks. But the people are there. In a variation of a post-apocalyptic（后世界末日）nightmare， most downtown buildings are linked by air-conditioned underground pedestrian tunnels lined with shops and restaurants. After dark， the area is sparsely populated above and below ground， though some life can be found around the new baseball stadium and in the north end's nightclub district. Major neighborhoods include Houston Heights， an affluent， quiet residential area north of downtown， overlooking the Buffalo Bayou（布法罗湾）； Montrose， the center of Houston's gay scene， with a funky mix of shops， restaurants， galleries and tattoo parlors a few blocks southwest of downtown. Houston got its start in 1836， when brothers Augustus and John Allen set up a trading post on the Buffalo Bayou， a river that now meanders（蜿蜒）through the heart of the city. The Allens named their new holding Houston in honor of General Sam Houston， who had just defeated the Mexican Army at San Jacinto. The coming of the railroad boosted the economy in the 1860s and 1870s， but the real prosperity was still around the corner. It was the 1901 discovery of oil at nearby Spindletop that put Houston on the road to riches. The city's only obstacle to growth was its sweltering（闷热的）summer heat， but beginning in the 1930s， the widespread availability of air conditioning made massive downtown development a reality. Beginning in the 1950s， downtown underwent wave after wave of skyscraper construction. Hand in hand with the building boom was a craze to raze： dozens of older commercial and residential buildings were leveled and turned into parking lots for the growing army of office workers. NASA's Mission Control Center opened a few miles from Houston in 1963， and six years later the city's name became the first word ever spoken by a human being on the surface of the moon. Throughout the 1970s， Houston's fortunes continued skyward（向上的）。 When oil reached a barrel in 1981， Houston was awash in money as scores of happy Texans got rich quick； four years later， the price of oil plummeted（直线下降）to single digits and Houstonians got poor even faster. Glitzy（耀眼的，炫目的）but empty highrises stood next to giant construction holes that had to be filled back in when the financing ran out. In the 1990s， Houston's economy diversified as the city rode
the general economic boom that swept the US. In 1997， Houston elected
its first black mayor， Lee Brown. The following year， Houston was
drenched by a torrential downpour and menaced by tornadoes. The
floodwaters were strong enough to sweep houses off their foundations.
Several people were killed and large areas of the city remained
under water for days. For many， Atlanta is just the bonfire background to one of cinema's most famous clinches， but the city's profile is rising. Long known as the 'Capital of the New South'， Atlanta has benefited in recent years from a booming economy， the 1996 Olympics and a baseball dynasty. The city has suffered from the relentless development that has razed much of what it hasn't converted to shopping malls. But there are offbeat neighborhoods to explore and old-fashioned towns nearby where you can still savour（欣赏）something of bygone days. Since being rebuilt after the Civil War， downtown Atlanta has been transformed by waves of development and is now a thoroughly modern metropolis. For a glimpse of the past head to Fairlie-Poplar， which was the city's commercial centre 100 years ago. Its 20-odd blocks are lined with buildings constructed between the 1880s and WWI. Atlanta's weather is mild for much of the year， though July and August tend to be steamy and hot and the area does get snow in December and January. Spring and fall are the best times to visit the city. Bear in mind that thousands of students arrive in late August and early September to attend the area's many colleges - which is good if you're looking to party but bad if you need a hotel room. Atlanta started as railroad junction（铁路枢纽）in the 1830s and quickly became the transport hub（中心）of the South. Its strategic importance was a large part of the reason it made such an inviting target for General Sherman's Union Army， which razed it during the Civil War. Ever ready to convert fact into myth， Hollywood made the burning of Atlanta the set piece（具有众所周知的固定风格的艺术作品）of Gone with the Wind. With rebuilding came the rigid segregation of the post-Reconstruction era， shutting African Americans out of white Atlanta for decades. The efforts of the city's boosters eventually paid off， and Atlanta became known as 'Capital of the New South.' Anchoring its economic renaissance has been the king of fizz， Coca Cola. Atlanta was also the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the nerve centre（控制中心）of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Since then， Atlanta has elected the first black representative to Congress since Reconstruction， Andrew Young （later ambassador to the UN under Jimmy Carter）， and the country's first black mayor， Maynard Jackson. The city has in recent years undergone a stunning metamorphosis（变形）。
Although the tourists still flock through the antebellum（南北战争前的）plantation
homes， in reality Atlanta remains the south's capital. The city
became internationally known as the host of the 1996 Olympics and
as the home of such multinational corporations （it's the base of
global broadcasting giant CNN as well as those soda pop sellers）。 You could argue that Chicago is the quintessential （典型的）American metropolis——not just the first great city carved from the young nation's western frontier （边远地区）， but an international capital of commerce and culture. Daniel Burnham， the legendary Chicago architect and city planner， nailed （使固定）it a century ago when he said， “Make no small plans.” This， after all， is where the steel-frame skyscraper was born. Where Louis Armstrong， Muddy Waters， and Thomas Dorsey gave shape to the signature American music forms known to the world at large as jazz， blues， and gospel （福音音乐：源于美国黑人歌曲宗教音乐，有流行歌曲或民歌风格）。 Where George “Papa Bear” Halas pioneered the National Football League， and Michael Jordan——one of the greatest athletes in history——transcended the game of basketball to become， arguably， the most famous human being on the planet. Nothing in Chicago， from the Sears Tower to the vast sweep of parks strung（串起；使排成一列）along Lake Michigan is small. Many people say Chicago is the most livable big city in the United
States. A generation ago， people poured out of the city for greener
suburban pastures （牧草地，放牧场）， but today people seem to want to live
in the city again. The city has its well-publicized problems——among
them， chronically troubled schools， street-gang violence， and deplorable
（糟糕的）public-housing conditions——but on many of these fronts， the
city seems recommitted to repairing its afflictions. New town houses
are sprouting in many quarters of the city， and developers scramble
to （争夺，抢夺）carve out condos （各户有独立产权的公寓）in neighborhoods on the fringes
of downtown once thought unfashionable. Even fish have returned
to the once-polluted Chicago River. Visitors have more reasons than ever to visit Chicago， with its impressive new home for the Museum of Contemporary Art； a lively， rehabilitated Navy Pier and the resurrected North Loop theater district. Come summer， the lake sparkles and draws legions（大批的人）to its shores， slowing traffic on Lake Shore Drive as envious drivers crane their necks （伸长脖子） to watch the volleyball players cavorting （跳跃）on the beaches. Chicago's domination of the convention business was further solidified recently with the completion of a mammoth new wing at the city's major convention hall， McCormick Place， and that booming trade has sparked another round of hotel construction. Today， the typical visitor will discover that Chicago is more
Paris than prairie（大草原；牧场）。 Within a few minutes you can go from
the cosmopolitan buzz（忙乱） of the downtown Loop to a working-class
Latino neighborhood. Unlike the oppressive density of Manhattan
or the smog-choked skies over LA， there's room to breathe here.
This is a living， vibrant， wonderfully diverse city， and one that
offers something for everyone， whatever your tastes， inclinations（爱好），
or budget may be. You won't cover it all （看不完）， nor should you try.
Chicago demands repeat visits. Like the phoenix of ancient mythology， Arizona's capital city of Phoenix rose from its own ashes——in this case， the ruins of an ancient Indian village. The name Phoenix， given to the city by an early settler from Britain， has proven apt. Rising from the dust of the desert， this city has become one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country. Though the city has had its economic ups and downs， the Phoenix metropolitan area， often referred to as the Valley of the Sun， is currently booming. The Camelback Corridor， which leads through north-central Phoenix， has become the heartland of the city and shiny glass office towers keep pushing up toward the desert sky. This burgeoning（增长迅速的，发展很快的）stretch of road has also become a corridor of upscale（高档的）restaurants and shopping plazas（市场；购物中心）， anchored （原意是抛锚使船停泊，使固定） by the Biltmore Fashion Park， the city's temple of high-end consumerism. Today Phoenicians are flocking to （涌向）this area both for work and play. Even downtown Phoenix， long abandoned as simply a place to work，
is taking on a radically new look of late. Two new museums——the
Phoenix Museum of History and the Arizona Science Center——have been
built adjacent to（邻近）historic Heritage Square， and the Phoenix Museum
of Art has undergone a major renovation and expansion. However，
the biggest project in downtown Phoenix in recent years was the
construction of the Bank One Ballpark， a covered baseball stadium
with a retractable（可来回收缩的）roof. Throughout the metropolitan area the population is growing at such a rapid pace that an alarm has been raised： Slow down before we become another Los Angeles！ Why the phenomenal growth？ In large part it's due to the climate. More than 300 days of sunshine a year is a powerful attraction. Sure， summers are hot， but the mountains——and cooler air——are only 2 hours away. And it's in the winter that the Valley of the Sun truly shines. While most of the country is frozen solid， the valley is sunny and warm. This great winter climate has helped make this area the resort（常去的休闲度假之处）capital of the United States. Golf and tennis are only the tip of the iceberg （so to speak）。 With the cooler winter weather comes the cultural season， and between Phoenix and the neighboring cities of Scottsdale， Tempe， and Mesa， there's an impressive array of（一系列；大量）music， dance， and theater to be enjoyed. Scottsdale is also well known as a center of the visual arts， ranking only behind New York and Santa Fe in its concentration of art galleries. Over the years， Phoenix has both enjoyed the benefits and suffered
the problems of rapid urban growth. It has gone from tiny agricultural
village to sprawling（迅速拓展的）cosmopolitan metropolis in little more
than a century. Along the way it has lost its past amid urban sprawl
and unchecked development； at the same time， it has forged a city
that's quintessentially（典型地，标准地）20th-century American. Shopping
malls， the gathering places of America， are raised to an art form
in Phoenix. Luxurious resorts create fantasy worlds of waterfalls
and swimming pools. Wide boulevards（大马路）stretch（延伸）for miles across
land that was once desert but has been made green through irrigation.
Perhaps it's this willingness to create a new world on top of an
old one that attracts people to Phoenix. Then again， maybe it's
just all that sunshine. Admit it - as LA is to long-haired rockers and Chicago is to steamy blues - when you think Nashville， you've got country music on your mind. And why not？ As the self-proclaimed 'Country Music Capital of the World，' Nashville revels in its down-home glamour. Banners and billboards announce new recording stars and releases like accolades （称赞；盛赞）in a high school yearbook， and streets bear the names of country legends like Roy Acuff and Chet Atkins. Music City （as Nashville's promoters like to call it） has even caught the attention of non-country singers - from Joan Baez to Jello Biafra - though their reviews have not always been favorable. Still， for a city that's staked（本意为把…押下打赌，拿……冒险） it's reputation on its trademark sound， there's no doubt about it - Nashville's tune is catchy. Straddling the Cumberland River in northern central Tennessee，
Nashville lies midway between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.
From the state capitol - the city's highest point - a busy， compact
downtown of narrow one-way streets and high-rise office buildings
slopes eastward to Broadway， Nashville's central artery. Southeast
of the capitol along 2nd Ave and Broadway， the renovation of historic
commercial buildings has carved a downtown tourist destination called
'the District.' Music Row， the other main commercial district， is
less than a mile southwest of downtown. In the rest of sprawling Nashville， it's hard to pinpoint（准确地确定）what constitutes a neighborhood， but a few are easily discernible（可识别的）。 Elliston Place is a compact stretch of bohemian alternative culture about a mile west of downtown and north of West End Ave. South of this is the Vanderbilt University campus. East of Elliston Place and abutting（邻接；毗连） the university， Centennial Park is the site of the mock（仿制品）Parthenon leftover from the Centennial Exposition of 1897. This whole area is known as West End， and it centers on a cluster of restaurants along Broadway and West End Ave on either side of the university； you might also hear it referred to as 'Around Vanderbilt.' Many tourists never set foot in downtown Nashville， confining
their visit to the massive Opryland complex a few miles northeast
of town. Here， the prefabricated（预先制造；预先构思） Music Valley boasts
budget motels， franchise restaurants and outlet stores. Cleveland grabbed headlines in the 1970s as a financially strapped， rust-belt town with one of its waterways on fire. Today it boasts not only a very clean Cuyahoga River， but a stunning（令人震惊的）， revitalized downtown area as well. The city is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum （a million facility designed by famed architect I.M. Pei） and the Great Lakes Science Center， which features an Omnimax theater. For a taste of culture， spend some time in University Circle， the nation's largest concentration of cultural institutions within one square mile. Here you'll find first-class museums like the Cleveland Museum of Art， the Cleveland Museum of Natural History ， the Center for Contemporary Art， and the Western Reserve Historical Society （which also houses the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum）。 Noteworthy historic exhibits include Hale Farm and Village in the town of Bath， with authentic Western Reserve buildings dating back to the 1820s， and Dunham Tavern， once a stagecoach （美国旧时的驿马车，定期公共马车）stop on the Buffalo-Detroit road. The world-famous Cleveland Orchestra performs at Severance Hall
in the winter and at Ohio's Music Festival at Blossom Music Center，
where you can attend concerts， ballet， and popular music programs
in a woodland setting in the summer. Playhouse Square， a complex
of four restored 1920s movie palaces， is the second largest performing
arts center in the country and houses the city's opera， ballet，
and theater festival. It also hosts touring Broadway shows. Karamu
House African American Theater is an international center for the
performing arts. For a magnificent view of downtown Cleveland and the Lake Erie shoreline， head to the top of Terminal Tower， which provides a bird's-eye view from over 700 feet up. Take a walk on the wild side with a visit to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and its Rain Forest， an indoor tropical ecosystem featuring more than 600 animals and thousands of plants， a 25-foot waterfall， and simulated（仿造的，人工的）rainstorms. Enjoy year-round outdoor activities in Cleveland's Metropark reservations， which span approximately 19，000 acres. There's no shortage of fun for kids in the Cleveland area. Visit
the Children's Museum or take a tour of the NASA Lewis Research
Center. Sea World of Ohio in Aurora， an 80-acre marine-life park，
features live shows and new exhibits like Dolphin Cove， Eagle Point，
and Shark Encounter. For thrill rides and amusements， visit Geauga
Lake Park， or the larger Cedar Point in Sandusky. The Greater Miami Area， which includes Miami and Miami Beach as well as distinctive neighborhoods like Little Havana and Little Haiti， is a melting pot that America's founding fathers would be proud of. Half of Miami's population is Hispanic（美籍西班牙人）， and its immigrant communities focus on what's happening in Havana or Caracas（加拉加斯，委内瑞拉首都）as much as they follow events in Washington DC， giving the city an international outlook. For the casual visitor this means a city peppered with the flavors of Latin American food， language， music， politics and spirit. Miami is the most populated city in Florida. It sits at the southeastern tip of the Florida， the most southeastern state of the United States， bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east， the Gulf of Mexico to the west and the neighboring states of Alabama and Georgia to the north. Most visitors aren't here for Miami itself， but rather to visit Miami Beach， an entirely separate municipality. Miami is on the mainland， while the city of Miami Beach is on a thin barrier island about 4 miles east， across Biscayne Bay（比斯坎湾） - locals call it the Billion Dollar Sandbar（十亿美元的沙坝）。 Many of the beach's locals are imports from New York， people tired of sitting through five hours of snarled traffic on their way to the Hamptons， who decided that Miami Beach made a lot more sense. They brought with them a fledgling art and culture crowd whose numbers included many younger artists. The boundaries of ‘season' in Miami - which used to be limited
to winter - have been blurred by the huge number of people moving
to the area and the stampede（蜂拥）of fashion and film shoots. But
the most popular time to come here is still between December and
May， when temperatures average between 16-30°C， and average rainfall
is a scant couple of inches. The only natural feature to account for the location of Las Vegas is a spring north of downtown. Once used by Paiute Indians on their seasonal visits to the area， it was re-discovered by Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. The area became known to overland travelers as las vegas - 'the meadows' - a place with reliable water and feed for horses. Las Vegas became a regular stop on the southern emigrant route to California， the Spanish Trail. In the 1850s， Mormons（摩门教徒） built the town's first structures， a small mission（教堂） and fort（堡垒）； the fort became a ranch house（低矮的平房）， but there was little development until 1902， when much of the land was sold to a railroad company. The area that is now downtown was subdivided when the tracks came through， with 1200 lots sold on 15 May 1905 alone - a date now celebrated as the city's birthday. As a railroad town， Las Vegas had machine shops， a good number of hotels， saloons and gambling houses. The railroad laid off（解雇） hundreds in the mid 1920s， but one Depression-era development gave the city a new life. The huge Hoover Dam（胡佛水坝）project commenced in 1931， providing jobs and growth in the short term and water and power for the city's long-term growth. Also in 1931， Nevada legalized gambling and simplified its divorce laws， paving the way for the first big casino， El Rancho， which was built by Los Angeles developers and opened in 1941. The next wave of investors， also from out of town（乡下）， were mobsters like Bugsy Siegel， who built the Flamingo in 1946 and set the tone for the new casinos - big and flashy， with lavish entertainment laid on to attract high rollers（挥金如土的人）。 The glitter that brought in the high rollers also attracted smaller spenders， but in larger numbers. Southern California provided a growing market for Las Vegas entertainment， and improvements in transport made it accessible to the rest of the country. Thanks to air conditioning and reliable water supplies， Vegas became one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. In recent years， Vegas has bent over backwards（尽最大的力量） to remake itself into a family resort destination， building theme parks （主题公园）inside its hotels. Hotels have outdone each other with working volcanoes， million-gallon fishtanks and miniature Manhattans. All of which - along with dozens of artificial lakes in the suburbs - has put a huge strain on the city's water supply， but it hasn't slowed the development juggernaut（不可抗拒的力量）。 Today Las Vegas boasts 19 of the world's 20 largest hotels， attracts
33 million visitors per year， earns over US.25 billion in annual
gaming revenue， and marries over 100，000 people each year. There
are other cities witih terrific entertainment and gaming opportunities，
but there is no place in the world like Las Vegas， and no city even
pretending to be. Detroit is situated in the flat plains of southeast Michigan， located strategically on the Detroit River immediately north of Windsor， Canada - one of very few places where a Canadian city is south of its US neighbor. Not surprisingly， Detroit serves as a major gateway（通路）to the Great White North. It also holds the distinction of being the largest metro area on any international border in the world. Detroit's downtown is dominated by the Renaissance Center （文艺复兴中心）， seven huge circular glass towers along the Detroit River. The RenCen is surrounded by revitalized historic neighborhoods such as Greektown， all connected via an elevated train（轻轨）called the People Mover. Woodward Ave， the city's lifeline， runs north and south and was the first paved concrete highway in the country. Lots of people know that Cadillacs（卡迪拉克，通用汽车公司生 产的一款汽车）come from Detroit. But what they probably don't know is that Detroit came from a Cadillac（卡迪拉克，北美州法国总督、底特律市的创立人）。 Enterprising French trader and explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac stumbled upon what is now Detroit in 1701， figuring it would make a good base from which to send furs to Canada. Cadillac named his new find Ville d'Etroit （City of the Strait） because the Detroit River connects Lake St Clair with Lake Erie， and from that point on the town grew steadily， using its river as an economic channel to the world. Detroit might have remained little more than a stomping（践踏）ground for trader types had it not been for an ambitious industrialist named Henry Ford. Born on a farm in nearby Dearborn（迪尔伯恩，美国一城市）， Ford left for Detroit to establish the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Within five years he was mass producing cars and perfecting the assembly line（装配线）。 The assembly line inspired another Detroit innovation known as the United Auto Workers （UAW）， who kicked off the industrial union movement from the 'Motor City.' Driven by the automobile's success， Detroit was the first city to have a paved concrete road （in 1909）， the first to install a traffic light （in 1915） and the USA's first to have an urban freeway（高速公路）（in 1942）。 Pre-car， Detroit was an important station along the Underground Railroad， a network of escape routes used by abolitionists and African-American slaves who traveled from America's southern states， through the US north and into Canada. Said to have been in place as early as the colonial period， the height of Underground Railroad activity was between 1830 and 1865. Detroit was a major escape route because of its proximity（接近）to the Canadian border. The new arrivals brought with them the beginnings of jazz and blues music. From the late 1800s on， African-American musicians played an important role in Detroit's entertainment scene， and the city was the first to have an integrated musicians' union. Mississippi transplant John Lee Hooker recorded his first blues hits here in the 1940s. Hooker and his peers paved the way for Motown - the biggest American music phenomenon of this century and African-American Detroit's ticket to the big leagues. But Detroit's prominence on the world music stage didn't prevent
the city from imploding（爆聚）。While everyone was dancing in the streets，
businesses - following Ford's earlier lead - started fleeing for
the suburbs， and middle-class whites followed in painful numbers.
Detroit lost nearly a million residents between the 1950s and 1980s
and， as the auto industry downturned， hyper unemployment（过度失业）set
in， disproportionately affecting African-American men. Along the
way（此后）， bloody race riots（种族暴乱）in 1967 and a cruel recession（不景气）during
the 1970s were just a few of the nails in the coffin. Today， downtown
is quiet， boarded up， desolate in some areas and economically segregated，
leaving Detroit with one of the worst reputations for violence，
crime and decay. Not all of Detroit is depressing， though， and currently
the local economy is on an upswing（高涨）and unemployment is down.
The city's rich history， riverfront locale and considerable dedication
to rejuvenation will really take hold of you， if given the chance. Ever wondered whether caffeine is a viable substitute for sunshine？ If so， Seattle is your kind of town. More than any other city in the region， Seattle epitomizes（浓缩） what people know of the Pacific Northwest. Nevermind that its sunshiny days can be suicidally few - its residents are among the nation's most outgoing and outdoorsy（爱好野外活动的）。 Sure， it had everybody wearing flannel （法兰绒）shirts and whistling Nirvana for a while， but consider also the good things it's given us： the city's chilly mornings had the espresso（浓咖啡） generation brewing long before Starbucks sold its first cup. If you're looking for lifestyle， Seattle has it in spades（肯定地）。 Seattle is situated in the west of Washington， the northwesternmost state. The largest city in the state， Seattle sits on a skinny slip of land between the Puget Sound（普吉特海湾） and Lake Washington. Lake Union and the Lake Washington Ship Canal divide the city into northern and southern halves； downtown and the Capitol Hill and Queen Anne neighborhoods lie south of the canal， the U District is to the northeast. Compared to the rest of the city， downtown orientation is pretty straightforward. Historic Pioneer Square contains most of the must-see sites. Seattle Center， home to many of the city's cultural and sport facilities， is just northwest of downtown. Before the arrival of Europeans， the Seattle area was home to the Duwamish， a generally peaceable tribe that fished the bays and rivers of the Puget Sound and befriended（帮助） early white settlers. In 1851， a native New Yorker named David Denny led the first group of settlers across the Oregon Trail with the intention of settling along the Puget Sound. Recognizing the area's seaport possibilities， Denny's band staked a claim on Alki Point in present-day West Seattle. After a winter of wind and rain， the group moved the settlement to Elliott Bay （依利雅特湾）， renaming it Seattle for the Duwamish chief Sealth， a friend of an early merchant. Hardly a boomtown（新兴城市）， early Seattle was peopled mainly by bachelors until one of the founding fathers went back east on a mission to induce young unmarried women to come to Seattle. On two different trips， a total of 57 women made the journey and married into the frontier stock， in the process setting a more civilized tone for the city. A spur（铁路的支线） from the Northern Pacific Railroad's terminus in Portland reached Seattle in 1893， linking the town by rail with the rest of the country. The lumber， shipping and general commerce derived from immigration soon swelled the town's ranks so much that even the Great Fire of 1889 barely slowed the advance. After 50 blocks of the old wooden downtown burned in a single day， the city was reborn in brick and iron， centered on today's Pioneer Square. Seattle's first boom came when the ship Portland docked in 1897 with its now-famous cargo： two tons of Yukon gold. Within weeks， thousands of fortune hunters from across the country passed through on their way to the northern gold fields. Local business blossomed as Seattle became the banking center for the nouveau riche（爆发户）， and the bars， brothels（妓院） and honky-tonks（下等酒馆） of Pioneer Square overflowed with pleasure-starved miners. The boom continued through WWI， when Northwest lumber was greatly
in demand and shipyards along the Puget Sound 'harvested' the surrounding
forests. WWII furthered the shipbuilding boom， and aircraft and
atomic energy industries added to the region's pattern of profit.
Today， international trade and tech firms （such as Microsoft and
Amazon） make up the backbone（支柱） of Seattle's booming economy. And
although Boeing， for decades as synonymous with Seattle as rain，
announced in 2001 that it was up and leaving for windier pastures
in Chicago， the city's progressive politics， inventive culture and
ready access to outdoor recreation continue to lure restless people
like no place else on the West Coast. Even people who hate the USA love San Francisco. It has an atmosphere of genteel （彬彬有礼的；有教养的）chic（高尚、别致） mixed with offbeat（不跟随时尚主流的；非传统的；特异的）innovation， and a selfeffacing（自我谦逊的）quality so blatantly missing from New York and LA. One of the USA's most attractive cities， San Francisco's hilly streets provide some gorgeous glimpses of the San Francisco Bay and its famous bridges. This is a mosaic（马赛克式的东西）of a city， a big picture made from the colorful tiles of bustling Chinatown， gay Castro （旧金山一著名同性恋社区）and faux-hemian（法语词，故意表现得质朴童稚的）North Beach. San Francisco covers the tip of a 30mi （50km） peninsula （半岛）
in Northern California， with the Pacific Ocean on its western side
and the San Francisco Bay to the north and east. San Francisco is
just one of many cities in the Bay Area； others include Oakland
（east across the Bay Bridge）， Berkeley （just north of Oakland） and
San Jose （an hour's drive southeast of San Francisco， near the southern
tip of the bay）。 Marin County and the Wine Country lie to the north，
across the Golden Gate Bridge. The most touristed part of the city resembles a slice of pie， with Van Ness Ave and Market St making the two sides and the Embarcadero the round edge of the pie. The steaming toppings of this homebaked slice are the classy shops around Union Square， the highrise Financial District， the classy Civic Center， the down-and-out but up-and-coming Tenderloin， swanky（华丽的） Nob Hill and Russian Hill， Chinatown， North Beach and the epicenter of tourist kitsch， Fisherman's Wharf（渔人码头）。 To the south of Market St lies SoMa， an upwardly mobile warehouse zone of clubs and bars that fades in the southwest into the Mission - the city's Latino quarter - and then the Castro， the center of gay life. Making a circuit of the 49-Mile Drive is a good way to check out almost all of the city's highlights（最有意思或精彩的部分）。 The route is well posted with instantly recognizable seagull signs， but a map and an alert navigator are essential. Do yourself a favor and allow a whole day to complete the circuit. Greyhound is the only regular long-distance bus company operating
to the city - all bus services arrive and depart at the Transbay
Terminal in SoMa. Amtrak's rail network connects the Bay Area with
the rest of the continental US and Canada. Its main stations are
in Oakland and Emeryville， both in the East Bay. Caltrain links
San Francisco with the peninsula and San Jose； its depot is in SoMa. Covering 465 sq mi （1200 sq km）， Los Angeles takes in 88 incorporated cities. The Santa Monica Mountains separate Hollywood and Beverly Hills from the San Fernando Valley to the north； adjacent Orange County， home of Disneyland， extends along the coast to the southeast. Santa Monica and Venice are on the coast， just west of Beverly Hills， while the international airport is south of Venice. Downtown （where you'll find Union Station， the Amtrak depot） is east of Hollywood， with Watts and Compton to its south. You'll find the main Greyhound terminal east of downtown and south of Little Tokyo. Head west from Santa Monica to get to Malibu. Basically， LA is a monster of a city to get around. It's a tangle of freeways and sprawling suburbs， where anyone without a car is considered intellectually impaired（弱智）。 Hollywood If you don't manage to spot a real star while you're in Hollywood， drop by the Hollywood Wax Museum. Disneyland Palm trees flank a glamorous Beverly Hills street. Beverly Hills North Beverly Hills is the epicenter of luxury living， home to
the likes of Jack Nicholson， Warren Beatty and Harrison Ford. Beneath the neighborhood's blithely prosperous facade, however,
there is a darker underbelly. Sharp practices continue to flourish,
with traditional extortion and protection rackets still in business.
Non-union sweatshops - their assembly lines grinding from early
morning to late into the evening - are still visited by the US Department
of Labor, who come to investigate workers' testimonies of being
paid below minimum wage for seventy-plus-hour work weeks. Living
conditions are abysmal for the poorer Chinese Throughout the decades, the company has expanded worldwide from shorts to feature-length animated and live-action films and television production; character merchandise licensing; consumer products retailing; book, magazine and music publishing; Internet activities; television and radio broadcasting; cable television programming; and the operation of theme parks and resorts. From the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927 and the debut of Mickey Mouse in 1928 to the premiere of Tarzan in 1999, animation has remained the defining signature of the company. Along the way, Disney has added successful TV shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, opened theme parks in California, Florida, France and Japan, launched more than 700 Disney Stores and added brands such as Touchstone, Miramax, ABC and ESPN to the fold. To make the most of Disneyland - the ultimate escapist fantasy and the blueprint for imitations worldwide - throw yourself right into it. Don't think twice about anything and go on every ride you can. The high admission price ($36) includes them all, although during peak periods each one can entail hours of queueing. Remember, too, that the emphasis is on family fun; the authorities take a dim view of anything remotely anti-social and eject those they consider guilty. Over four hundred "Imaginers" worked to create the Indiana
Jones Adventure, Disneyland's biggest opening in years. Two hours
of queueing are built into the ride, with an interactive archeological
dig and 1930s-style newsreel show leading up to the main feature
- a giddy journey along 2500ft of skull-encrusted corridors in which
you face fireballs, falling rubble, venomous snakes and, inevitably,
a rolling boulder finale. Disney claims that, thanks to computer
engineering, no two Indiana Jones rides are ever alike. Judge for
yourself. Tomorrowland is Disney's vision of the future, where the Space Mountain roller coaster zips through the pitch-blackness of outer space, and the Star Tours ride simulates a journey into the world of George Lucas. The Skyway cable-car line that connects Tomorrowland with the clever but cloyingly sentimental Fantasyland is the only spot in the park from which you can see the outside world. As for accommodation, try to visit Disneyland just for the day and spend the night somewhere else. Most of the hotels and motels nearby cost well in excess of $70 per night. You're not permitted to bring your own food to the park; you can only consume the fast food sold on the premises. Disneyland is at 1313 Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, 45 minutes by car from
downtown using the Santa Ana Freeway. In summer, the park is open
daily between 8am and 1am; otherwise opening hours are weekdays
10am to 6pm, Saturday 9am to midnight, and Sunday 9am to 10pm. Arrive
early; traffic quickly becomes nightmarish, especially in the summer.
For further information, including public transportation details,
call 714/999-4565. Though the visually stunning National Gallery of Art, the nearest of the Mall museums to the Capitol, is not in fact a government institution, it fully deserves its name. It owes its prominence to the efforts of industrialist Andrew Mellon, who bought the building and donated most of the paintings (many were purchased from the cash-poor post-revolutionary government of the USSR, where they had previously hung in the Hermitage). His family have continued as benefactors, raising countless millions to build I M Pei's modernistic East Building in 1978. The original Neoclassical gallery, designed by John Russell Pope in 1941, is now called the West Building and holds the bulk of the permanent collection. It's currently undergoing a major restoration program, in which rooms on the main floor will be closed in rotation, and the relevant works relocated to the ground floor - this process will last until at least 1999, so whenever you visit, some major part of the collection will not be on show in its assigned place. From the domed central rotunda, where you can pick up a floor plan
and gallery guide, a vaulted corridor runs the length of the building.
If you only have limited time, latch onto one of the informative
daily free tours - ask for a schedule at the information desk. Galleries
to the west on the main floor display major works by Renaissance
masters, arranged by nationality: half a dozen Rembrandts fill the
Dutch gallery, Van Eyck and Rubens dominate the Flemish, and El
Greco and Velázquez face off in the Spanish, near eight progressively
darker Goyas. There's also the only Leonardo in the US, the 1474
Ginevra de' Benci, painted in oil on wood, plus wor These days, although only the very wealthy can afford to arrive here by sea, and a would-be immigrant's first (and possibly last) view of the States is more likely to be the customs check at JFK Airport, Liberty remains a stirring sight, with Emma Lazarus's poem, The New Colossus, written originally to raise funds for the statue's base, no less quotable than when it was written... Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips."Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse to your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." The statue, which depicts Liberty throwing off her shackles and
holding a beacon to light the world, was the creation of the French
sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who crafted it a Today you can climb steps up to the crown, but the cramped stairway
though the torch sadly remains closed to the public. Don't be surprised
if there's an hour-long wait to ascend. Even if there is, Liberty
Park's views of the lower Manhattan skyline, the twin towers of
the World Trade Center lording it over the jutting teeth of New
York's financial quarter, are spectacular enough If you like kitsch, you won't want to miss the bizarre melange of cultural artefacts at the National Museum of American History. George Washington's wooden teeth, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, and the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz are set among didactic displays tracing the country's development. It's not so much a center for scholarly study as a sanctuary for vanishing Americana, incorporating Model T Fords, old post offices and even a restored, turn-of-the-century ice-cream parlor, which still serves up banana splits. As you enter from the Mall, directly on to the second floor, a
sound-and-light display showcases the battered red, white and blue
flag that inspired the US national anthem - the Star-Spangled Banner
itself, which survived the British bombing of Baltimore harbor during
the War of 1812. The worthier exhibits are also on this floor: an
account of the rural farm-based society of the early US stands across
from an examination of the mass movement of African-Americans from
Southern farms to the wartime industries of northern cities. A lunch
counter from Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina, evokes the
sit-in of 1960, while "American Encounters" focuses on
New Mexico, looking at how tourism has affected communities such
as the pueblo of Santa Clara and Hispanic Chimayo. On the first
floor, the "Information Age" gallery traces communications
from Morse's first telegraph to Apple Macintoshes, while separate
galleries display in glorious profusion the artefacts and machines
that have shaped modern America - from lightbulbs and motorbikes
to trains and atomic clocks. The top floor holds political memorabilia
(much of it over a century old), stamp and coin collections, old
TV sets and typewriters, though two final outstanding e The best views on the American side are from the Prospect Point
Observation Tower (daily; 50￠), and from the area at its base where
the water rushes past; Terrapin Point on Goat Island in the middle
of the river has similar views of Horseshoe Falls. The nineteenth-century
tightrope-walker Blondin crossed the Niagara repeatedly near here,
and even carried passengers across on his back; other suicidal fools
over the years have taken the plunge in barrels. One survivor among
the many fatalities was the Englishman Bobby Leach, who went over
in a steel barrel in July 1911 and had to spend the rest of the
year in hospital. That practice has since been banned (though a
couple of maniacs did it in summer 1995 and came away with minor
bruises), for reasons which become self-evident when you approach
the towering cascade on the not-to-be-missed Maid of the Mist boat
trip from the foot of the observation tower (summer Mon-Fri 10am-5pm,
Sat & Sun 10am-6pm; $8.50; 716/284-4233). From Goat Island,
the Cave of the Winds tour leads down to the base of the falls by
elevator to within almost touching distance of the water (mid-May
to late Oct; $5.50). A combination pass for th Ten miles east of Niagara Falls, the town of LOCKPORT takes its
name from the series of locks that raise and lower boats some 65ft
at the western end of the Erie Canal. You can see the impressive
flight of locks from the Pine Street Bridge, or up close on canal
boat tours (May - Nov daily at 12.30 & 3pm, also 10am on Sat;
$9; 716/693-3260). If a single place-name encapsulates the LA dream of glamor, money
and overnight success, it's Hollywood. Millions of tourists arrive
on pilgrimages; millions more flock here in pursuit of riches and
glory. Hollywood is a weird combination of insatiable optimism and
total despair. It really does blur the edges of fact and fiction,
simply because so much seems possible – and yet so little, for most
people, actually is. Those who do strike it rich here get out as
soon as they can, just as they always have; the big film companies,
too, long ago relocated well away, leaving Hollywood in isolation,
with prostitution, drug dealing and seedy bookstores as the reality
behind the fantasy. The natural place to begin exploring Hollywood Boulevard is the
junction of Hollywood and Vine – the classic location for budding
stars to be "spotted" by big-shot directors and whisked
off to fame and fortune. At 6608 Hollywood Blvd, the purple and
pink Frederick's of Hollywood has been (under-) clothing Hollywood's
sex goddesses since 1947, as well as mortal bodies all over the
world via mail order. Inside, the lingerie museum (free) displays
some of the company's best corsets, bras and panties, donated by
happy big-name wearers ranging from Lan The Roosevelt Hotel opposite was movieland's first luxury hotel, its Cinegrill restaurant hosting the likes of W C Fields and F Scott Fitzgerald, not to mention hangers-on like Ronald Reagan. In 1929 the first Oscars were presented here, beginning the long tradition of Hollywood rewarding itself in the absence of honors from elsewhere. Despite the beliefs of some of their loopiest fans, even the
biggest Hollywood stars have been mortal; the many LA cemeteries
that hold their tombs get at least as many visitors as the city's
museums. In the southeast corner of the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery,
near Santa Monica Boulevard and Gower Street, a mausoleum contains
the resting place of Rudolph Valentino, the celebrated screen lover
who died aged just 31 in 1926. To this day on each anniversary of
his passing The gentle greenery and rugged mountain slopes that make up vast Griffith Park northeast of Hollywood (daily 5am–10.30pm, mountain roads close at dusk; free) are a welcome escape from the mind-numbing hubbub of the city. The landmark Observatory (Tues–Fri 2–10pm, Sat–Sun 12.30–10pm; free) here has been seen in innumerable Hollywood films, most famously Rebel Without a Cause, and the surrounding acres add up to the largest municipal park in the country, one of the few places where LA's multitude of racial and social groups at least go through the motions of mixing together. Above the landscaped flat sections, the hillsides are rough and wild, marked only by foot and bridle paths, leading into desolate but appealingly unspoiled terrain that gives great views over the LA basin and out to the ocean, provided the city smog isn't too thick. One way to explore is on a rented bike from Woody's Bicycle World, 3157 Los Feliz Blvd (213/661-6665), a short distance away. The park is safe enough by day, but its reputation for after-dark violence is well founded. Hollywood Hills The views from the Hollywood Hills take in a bizarre assortment
of opulent properties. Around these canyons and slopes, which run
from Hollywood itself into Benedict Canyon above Beverly Hills,
mansions are so commonplace that only the half-dozen fully blown
castles (at least, Hollywood-style castles) really stand out. On
Mulholland Drive are Rudolph Valentino's extravagant Falcon Lair
and Errol Flynn's Mulh olland House; down Benedict Canyon is the
former home of actress Sharon Tate, one of the victims of the Manson
Family. Guided tours can point out which is which, but for the most
part you can't get close to the most elaborate dwellings anyway,
and none is open to the public. 华盛顿特区Washington, D.C. 在好莱坞One Day In Hollywood: Los Angeles ·Atlanta (US) Atlanta (US) The city has suffered from the relentless development that has razed much of what it hasn't converted to shopping malls. But there are offbeat neighborhoods to explore and old-fashioned towns nearby where you can still savour（欣赏）something of bygone days. Since being rebuilt after the Civil War, downtown Atlanta has been transformed by waves of development and is now a thoroughly modern metropolis. For a glimpse of the past head to Fairlie-Poplar, which was the city's commercial centre 100 years ago. Its 20-odd blocks are lined with buildings constructed between the 1880s and WWI. Atlanta's weather is mild for much of the year, though July and August tend to be steamy and hot and the area does get snow in December and January. Spring and fall are the best times to visit the city. Bear in mind that thousands of students arrive in late August and early September to attend the area's many colleges - which is good if you're looking to party but bad if you need a hotel room. Atlanta started as railroad junction（铁路枢纽）in the 1830s and quickly became the transport hub（中心）of the South. Its strategic importance was a large part of the reason it made such an inviting target for General Sherman's Union Army, which razed it during the Civil War. Ever ready to convert fact into myth, Hollywood made the burning of Atlanta the set piece（具有众所周知的固定风格的艺术作品）of Gone with the Wind. With rebuilding came the rigid segregation of the post-Reconstruction era, shutting African Americans out of white Atlanta for decades. The efforts of the city's boosters eventually paid off, and Atlanta became known as 'Capital of the New South.' Anchoring its economic renaissance has been the king of fizz, Coca Cola. Atlanta was also the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the nerve centre（控制中心）of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, Atlanta has elected the first black representative to Congress since Reconstruction, Andrew Young (later ambassador to the UN under Jimmy Carter), and the country's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson. The city has in recent years undergone a stunning metamorphosis（变形）.
Although the tourists still flock through the antebellum（南北战争前的）plantation
homes, in reality Atlanta remains the south's capital. The city
became internationally known as the host of the 1996 Olympics and
as the home of such multinational corporations (it's the base of
global broadcasting giant CNN as well as those soda pop sellers). Houston (U.S.) The days when cows and oilmen（石油商）roamed the streets of Houston are long gone. Houston dominates southeastern Texas, thanks to a historic commitment to growth typical of the Lone Star state（得克萨斯州的别名）, characterized by a lack of zoning and other planning restrictions, resulting in a sprawling, confusing city. Downtown Houston, the original business center, is a thicket of highrises interspersed（散布）with parking lots, ringed by elevated freeways. The streets can seem surprisingly empty during the day, with nary a pedestrian（一个行人也没有）to be found braving the hot and shimmering sidewalks. But the people are there. In a variation of a post-apocalyptic（后世界末日）nightmare, most downtown buildings are linked by air-conditioned underground pedestrian tunnels lined with shops and restaurants. After dark, the area is sparsely populated above and below ground, though some life can be found around the new baseball stadium and in the north end's nightclub district. Major neighborhoods include Houston Heights, an affluent, quiet residential area north of downtown, overlooking the Buffalo Bayou（布法罗湾）; Montrose, the center of Houston's gay scene, with a funky mix of shops, restaurants, galleries and tattoo parlors a few blocks southwest of downtown. Houston got its start in 1836, when brothers Augustus and John Allen set up a trading post on the Buffalo Bayou, a river that now meanders（蜿蜒）through the heart of the city. The Allens named their new holding Houston in honor of General Sam Houston, who had just defeated the Mexican Army at San Jacinto. The coming of the railroad boosted the economy in the 1860s and 1870s, but the real prosperity was still around the corner. It was the 1901 discovery of oil at nearby Spindletop that put Houston on the road to riches. The city's only obstacle to growth was its sweltering（闷热的）summer heat, but beginning in the 1930s, the widespread availability of air conditioning made massive downtown development a reality. Beginning in the 1950s, downtown underwent wave after wave of skyscraper construction. Hand in hand with the building boom was a craze to raze: dozens of older commercial and residential buildings were leveled and turned into parking lots for the growing army of office workers. NASA's Mission Control Center opened a few miles from Houston in 1963, and six years later the city's name became the first word ever spoken by a human being on the surface of the moon. Throughout the 1970s, Houston's fortunes continued skyward（向上的）. When oil reached $40 a barrel in 1981, Houston was awash in money as scores of happy Texans got rich quick; four years later, the price of oil plummeted（直线下降）to single digits and Houstonians got poor even faster. Glitzy（耀眼的，炫目的）but empty highrises stood next to giant construction holes that had to be filled back in when the financing ran out. In the 1990s, Houston's economy diversified as the city rode the
general economic boom that swept the US. In 1997, Houston elected
its first black mayor, Lee Brown. The following year, Houston was
drenched by a torrential downpour and menaced by tornadoes. The
floodwaters were strong enough to sweep houses off their foundations.
Several people were killed and large areas of the city remained
under water for days. Philadelphia (U.S.) When the insults finally soaked in - just in time for America's bicentennial（两百周年纪念）in 1976 - the city began renovating（重修）. Philadelphia now enjoys recognition as a major cultural center with world-class museums, performing arts centers and some stunning（极好的）architecture. In March 1681, England's King Charles II granted William Penn a charter to a parcel of land west of the Delaware River（特拉华河）. Charles dubbed the area 'Penn' in honor of William's father, with Penn the Younger adding '-sylvania,' meaning 'woodlands.' Brimming with pacifist Quaker idealism, Penn regarded his colony as a 'holy experiment' and ensured as its governor and proprietor that its laws respected religious freedom and liberal government. Penn chose Philadelphia as the capital of Pennsylvania in 1682, optimistically naming it after the Greek for 'brotherly love.' A survivor of London's Great Fire of 1666, he made sure the city's design included a grid system with wide streets, not the narrow, winding maze that caused so much havoc in England's capital. This format was to become the inspiration for most American cities. Philadelphia quickly grew to become the second largest city (after London) in the British empire, before ceding （让于）that title to New York City. Opposition to British policy in the colonies became seated in the city, where colonial leaders would meet to plan their course of action. The result was the Declaration of Independence, and in 1790 Philadelphia became the temporary capital of the new United States before Washington DC got the job in 1800. The US Constitution was drawn up and first read here in 1786. Often led by the multitalented Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia became a center for developments in the world of arts and science. Between 1793 and 1820, Philadelphia suffered five yellow-fever epidemics（黄热病）, which killed thousands but led to the construction of the US's first city water system. Philadelphia's fortunes declined in the 19th century, as New York took over as the nation's cultural, commercial and industrial center. Philly never regained the stature of its early years, despite continued cultural and educational innovation, commerce and shipbuilding, and a brief boomlet（略微繁荣）following WWII. During the mid-20th century, like many American cities, Philadelphia
watched much of its middle class forsake the city for the suburbs.
The 1970s saw Philly grapple with innercity tensions, typified by
the firefights between the police and the paramilitary MOVE group.
However, by 1976, lavish plans for the nation's bicentennial had
inspired a citywide cleanup and renovation campaign - a restoration
that continues today - and the city is now consistently rated among
the nation's 'best' in national polls of lifestyle and character. Boston (U.S.) Calling this quaint and charming city the 'Athens of America' might seem a bit braggadocio（自夸）, but the city's 19th-century glory radiates through its grand architecture, its population of literati（文人）, artists and educators and its world-renowned academic and cultural institutions. Disastrous 'urban renewal'（城市重建）in the 1950s provoked such a furious backlash that Boston now has some of the best preserved historic buildings and neighbourhoods in the country. Compact, walkable, historic and clean, the city blends old-world beauty and modern convenience. Boston is on a small peninsula in the middle of Massachusetts' Atlantic Coast, a little over 320km northeast of New York City. Most of the city's sights are contained in less than 8 sq km. Cambridge (home of Harvard and MIT) is a short drive or subway ride north across the Charles River. Called Trimountain (from its three hills) in its earliest days, Boston took its permanent name from the English town. The vanguard（先驱）of English settlers, led by Reverend William Blaxton, arrived in 1624 - less than four years after the Pilgrims arrived in nearby Plymouth（普利茅斯）. The colony of Massachusetts Bay was established six years later in 1630 when the elder John Winthrop, official representative of the Massachusetts Bay Company, took up residence. From the beginning this was the centre of Puritan culture and life in the New World. Puritanism was intellectual and theocratic, and so the leading men and women of early Boston society were those who understood and followed Biblical law - and could explain in powerful rhetoric why they did. Thus it comes as no surprise that the Boston Public Latin School was established in 1635 (and continues as an elite public high school today). A year later, Harvard College (now Harvard University) was founded in neighbouring Cambridge. By 1653 Boston had a public library as well, and by 1704 the Thirteen Colonies' first newspaper, the News-Letter. Though the New England coast had many excellent natural ports. Boston was blessed by geography with the best of all. By the early 1700s it was well on its way to being what it remains today: New England's largest and most important city. As the chief city in the region, it drew London's attention. When King George III and Parliament chose to burden the colonies with taxation without representation, the taxes were first levied（征收）in Boston. When resistance surfaced, it was in Boston. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party were signal events in the development of revolutionary sentiments, and the Battle of Bunker Hill solidified colonial resolve to declare independence from the British crown. Following the Revolutionary War, Boston suffered economically as the British government cut off American ships' access to other ports in the British Empire. But as new trading relationships developed, Boston entered a commercial and industrial boom which lasted from the late 1700s until the mid-1800s. Fortunes were made in shipbuilding, maritime trade and manufacturing textiles and shoes. Chartered as a city in 1822, Boston's Beacon Hill was soon crowned with fine mansions built by the leading families, and Back Bay was filled in to make room for more. These same prominent families also patronised arts and culture heavily. Though conservative and traditionalist in their general outlook, Bostonians were firm believers in American ideals of freedom and firm supporters of the abolition of slavery and the activities of the Underground Railroad. As the 19th century drew to a close Boston's prominence was challenged by the growth of other port cities and the westward expansion of the national borders, and New England's economic boom turned into a bust when the textile and shoe factories moved to cheaper labour markets in the South. In the 20th century the city became more culturally diverse than ever before. The city's ethnic and economic profile had already been significantly altered by the 19th-century arrival of thousands of Irish immigrants, driven from home by devastating potato famines. The cultural mix grew more diverse with 20th century arrivals from Italy, the Ottoman Empire and Portugal. Economically, Boston became more of a satellite than a hub, although it remained a prominent centre for medical education, treatment and research, and USA's premiere university centre. Many graduates choose to remain in the Boston area, which has helped fuel a local booming commerce in computer research, development and manufacturing. For all its ties to the past, Boston has always looked forward.
The new millennium saw Boston entering a renaissance, thanks to
the near-completion of the 'Big Dig' - an ambitious public works
project to place the Central Expressway underground. Wealthy young
professionals are moving back to the city in droves and, since the
demise of rent control in the mid-1990s, they are the only ones
who can reasonably afford to live there! Affluent and comfortable,
Boston remains at the centre of US intellectual life. Miami (U.S.) The Greater Miami Area, which includes Miami and Miami Beach as well as distinctive neighborhoods like Little Havana and Little Haiti, is a melting pot that America's founding fathers would be proud of. Half of Miami's population is Hispanic（美籍西班牙人）, and its immigrant communities focus on what's happening in Havana or Caracas（加拉加斯，委内瑞拉首都）as much as they follow events in Washington DC, giving the city an international outlook. For the casual visitor this means a city peppered with the flavors of Latin American food, language, music, politics and spirit. Miami is the most populated city in Florida. It sits at the southeastern tip of the Florida, the most southeastern state of the United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the west and the neighboring states of Alabama and Georgia to the north. Most visitors aren't here for Miami itself, but rather to visit Miami Beach, an entirely separate municipality. Miami is on the mainland, while the city of Miami Beach is on a thin barrier island about 4 miles east, across Biscayne Bay（比斯坎湾） - locals call it the Billion Dollar Sandbar（十亿美元的沙坝）. Many of the beach's locals are imports from New York, people tired of sitting through five hours of snarled traffic on their way to the Hamptons, who decided that Miami Beach made a lot more sense. They brought with them a fledgling art and culture crowd whose numbers included many younger artists. The boundaries of 'season' in Miami - which used to be limited
to winter - have been blurred by the huge number of people moving
to the area and the stampede（蜂拥）of fashion and film shoots. But
the most popular time to come here is still between December and
May, when temperatures average between 16-30°C, and average rainfall
is a scant couple of inches. Detroit (U.S.) But thanks to the car industry boom of the mid-1990s, Detroit is now staging a steady comeback（恢复）. It's not a Chicago or even a Cleveland, but the Motor City is culturally rich. Detroit's population is 80% black, making it a national center for African American culture. One of the most famous attractions is the city's Motown Museum（摩城博物馆）where Stevie Wonder first played, and it's worth your while to spend an evening at one of the many music clubs scattered throughout the city. Detroit is situated in the flat plains of southeast Michigan, located strategically on the Detroit River immediately north of Windsor, Canada - one of very few places where a Canadian city is south of its US neighbor. Not surprisingly, Detroit serves as a major gateway（通路）to the Great White North. It also holds the distinction of being the largest metro area on any international border in the world. Detroit's downtown is dominated by the Renaissance Center （文艺复兴中心）, seven huge circular glass towers along the Detroit River. The RenCen is surrounded by revitalized historic neighborhoods such as Greektown, all connected via an elevated train（轻轨）called the People Mover. Woodward Ave, the city's lifeline, runs north and south and was the first paved concrete highway in the country. Lots of people know that Cadillacs（卡迪拉克，通用汽车公司生 产的一款汽车）come from
Detroit. But what they probably don't know is that Detroit came
from a Cadillac（卡迪拉克，北美州法国总督、底特律 Detroit might have remained little more than a stomping（践踏）ground
for trader types had it not been for an ambitious industrialist
named Henry Ford. Born on a farm in nearby Dearborn（迪尔伯恩 Pre-car, Detroit was an important station along the Underground Railroad, a network of escape routes used by abolitionists and African-American slaves who traveled from America's southern states, through the US north and into Canada. Said to have been in place as early as the colonial period, the height of Underground Railroad activity was between 1830 and 1865. Detroit was a major escape route because of its proximity（接近）to the Canadian border. The new arrivals brought with them the beginnings of jazz and blues music. From the late 1800s on, African-American musicians played an important role in Detroit's entertainment scene, and the city was the first to have an integrated musicians' union. Mississippi transplant John Lee Hooker recorded his first blues hits here in the 1940s. Hooker and his peers paved the way for Motown - the biggest American music phenomenon of this century and African-American Detroit's ticket to the big leagues. But Detroit's prominence on the world music stage didn't prevent
the city from imploding（爆聚）. While everyone was dancing in the streets,
businesses - following Ford's earlier lead - started fleeing for
the suburbs, and middle-class whites followed in painful numbers.
Detroit lost nearly a million residents between the 1950s and 1980s
and, as the auto industry downturned, hyper unemployment（过度失业）set
in, disproportionately affecting African-American men. Along the
way（此后）, bloody race riots（种族暴乱）in 1967 and a cruel recession（不景气）during
the 1970s were just a few of the nails in the coffin. Today, downtown
is quiet, boarded up, desolate in some areas and economically segregated,
leaving Detroit with one of the worst reputations for violence,
crime and decay. Not all of Detroit is depressing, though, and currently
the local economy is on an upswing（高涨）and unemployment is down.
The city's rich history, riverfront locale and considerable dedication
to rejuvenation will really take hold of you, if given the chance. Las Vegas (U.S.) The only natural feature to account for the location of Las Vegas is a spring north of downtown. Once used by Paiute Indians on their seasonal visits to the area, it was re-discovered by Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. The area became known to overland travelers as las vegas - 'the meadows' - a place with reliable water and feed for horses. Las Vegas became a regular stop on the southern emigrant route to California, the Spanish Trail. In the 1850s, Mormons（摩门教徒） built the town's first structures, a small mission（教堂） and fort（堡垒）; the fort became a ranch house（低矮的平房）, but there was little development until 1902, when much of the land was sold to a railroad company. The area that is now downtown was subdivided when the tracks came through, with 1200 lots sold on 15 May 1905 alone - a date now celebrated as the city's birthday. As a railroad town, Las Vegas had machine shops, a good number of hotels, saloons and gambling houses. The railroad laid off（解雇） hundreds in the mid 1920s, but one Depression-era development gave the city a new life. The huge Hoover Dam（胡佛水坝）project commenced in 1931, providing jobs and growth in the short term and water and power for the city's long-term growth. Also in 1931, Nevada legalized gambling and simplified its divorce laws, paving the way for the first big casino, El Rancho, which was built by Los Angeles developers and opened in 1941. The next wave of investors, also from out of town（乡下）, were mobsters like Bugsy Siegel, who built the Flamingo in 1946 and set the tone for the new casinos - big and flashy, with lavish entertainment laid on to attract high rollers（挥金如土的人）. The glitter that brought in the high rollers also attracted smaller spenders, but in larger numbers. Southern California provided a growing market for Las Vegas entertainment, and improvements in transport made it accessible to the rest of the country. Thanks to air conditioning and reliable water supplies, Vegas became one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. In recent years, Vegas has bent over backwards（尽最大的力量） to remake itself into a family resort destination, building theme parks （主题公园）inside its hotels. Hotels have outdone each other with working volcanoes, million-gallon fishtanks and miniature Manhattans. All of which - along with dozens of artificial lakes in the suburbs - has put a huge strain on the city's water supply, but it hasn't slowed the development juggernaut（不可抗拒的力量）. Today Las Vegas boasts 19 of the world's 20 largest hotels, attracts
33 million visitors per year, earns over US$5.25 billion in annual
gaming revenue, and marries over 100,000 people each year. There
are other cities witih terrific entertainment and gaming opportunities,
but there is no place in the world like Las Vegas, and no city even
pretending to be. Seattle (U.S.) Compared to the rest of the city, downtown orientation is pretty straightforward. Historic Pioneer Square contains most of the must-see sites. Seattle Center, home to many of the city's cultural and sport facilities, is just northwest of downtown. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Seattle area was home to the Duwamish, a generally peaceable tribe that fished the bays and rivers of the Puget Sound and befriended（帮助） early white settlers. In 1851, a native New Yorker named David Denny led the first group of settlers across the Oregon Trail with the intention of settling along the Puget Sound. Recognizing the area's seaport possibilities, Denny's band staked a claim on Alki Point in present-day West Seattle. After a winter of wind and rain, the group moved the settlement to Elliott Bay （依利雅特湾）, renaming it Seattle for the Duwamish chief Sealth, a friend of an early merchant. Hardly a boomtown（新兴城市）, early Seattle was peopled mainly by bachelors until one of the founding fathers went back east on a mission to induce young unmarried women to come to Seattle. On two different trips, a total of 57 women made the journey and married into the frontier stock, in the process setting a more civilized tone for the city. A spur（铁路的支线） from the Northern Pacific Railroad's terminus in Portland reached Seattle in 1893, linking the town by rail with the rest of the country. The lumber, shipping and general commerce derived from immigration soon swelled the town's ranks so much that even the Great Fire of 1889 barely slowed the advance. After 50 blocks of the old wooden downtown burned in a single day, the city was reborn in brick and iron, centered on today's Pioneer Square. Seattle's first boom came when the ship Portland docked in 1897 with its now-famous cargo: two tons of Yukon gold. Within weeks, thousands of fortune hunters from across the country passed through on their way to the northern gold fields. Local business blossomed as Seattle became the banking center for the nouveau riche（爆发户）, and the bars, brothels（妓院） and honky-tonks（下等酒馆） of Pioneer Square overflowed with pleasure-starved miners. The boom continued through WWI, when Northwest lumber was greatly
in demand and shipyards along the Puget Sound 'harvested' the surrounding
forests. WWII furthered the shipbuilding boom, and aircraft and
atomic energy industries added to the region's pattern of profit.
Today, international trade and tech firms (such as Microsoft and
Amazon) make up the backbone（支柱） of Seattle's booming economy. And
although Boeing, for decades as synonymous with Seattle as rain,
announced in 2001 that it was up and leaving for windier pastures
in Chicago, the city's progressive politics, inventive culture and
ready access to outdoor recreation continue to lure restless people
like no place else on the West Coast. Sapporo (Japan) In June 2001, Sapporo Dome, nicknamed "HIROBA" - a venue
of the 2002 FIFA World Cup - was completed in Hitsujigaoka on the
outskirts of Sapporo. With a current population of approximately 1.83 million, Sapporo
is Japan's fifth largest city, where the pioneer spirit coexists
with its well-balanced, highly advanced urban functions. Historical
structures stand amidst high-rise buildings. A park full of greenery
embraces relaxing people. There are hot springs in the city. Sapporo's
attraction lies in the unique harmony of urban convenience and oases
of relaxation. Sapporo is a gourmet （美食家）city where delicacies can
be savored during every season. There is also an entertainment district,
Susukino, which accommodates over 5,000 shops, restaurants and pubs.
Sapporo, a core city of Hokkaido's politics and economy, has hosted various international events. Among the Japanese venues for the FIFA World Cup, only Sapporo has hosted the Olympics. Other international sporting events hosted include the Winter Universiade. It has also been successful in holding cultural events such as the Pacific Music Festival (PMF), the brainchild （某人的创作）of the world-known conductor, the late Leonard Bernstein. Sapporo is also a core city where cultural, educational and technological facilities of world standard converge: Sapporo Concert Hall, "Kitara," features performances by leading world-famous musicians; Moerenuma Park is designed by a sculptor, the late Isamu Noguchi; Techno Park houses companies that specialize in advanced technological development and Hokkaido University accommodates exchange students from various countries. Note: Nashville (US) A view from the balcony at the new Grand Ole Opry Many tourists never set foot in downtown Nashville, confining their
visit to the massive Opryland complex a few miles northeast of town.
Here, the prefabricated（预先制造；预先构思） Music Valley boasts budget motels,
franchise restaurants and outlet stores. Cleveland (US) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is the centerpiece of the North
Coast Harbor skyline. The world-famous Cleveland Orchestra performs at Severance Hall
in the winter and at Ohio's Music Festival at Blossom Music Center,
where you can attend concerts, ballet, and popular music programs
in a woodland setting in the summer. Playhouse Square, a complex
of four restored 1920s movie palaces, is the second largest performing
arts center in the country and houses the city's opera, ballet,
and theater festival. It also hosts touring Broadway shows. Karamu
House African American Theater is an international center for the
performing arts. Take a walk on the wild side with a visit to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and its Rain Forest, an indoor tropical ecosystem featuring more than 600 animals and thousands of plants, a 25-foot waterfall, and simulated（仿造的，人工的）rainstorms. Enjoy year-round outdoor activities in Cleveland's Metropark reservations, which span approximately 19,000 acres. There's no shortage of fun for kids in the Cleveland area. Visit
the Children's Museum or take a tour of the NASA Lewis Research
Center. Sea World of Ohio in Aurora, an 80-acre marine-life park,
features live shows and new exhibits like Dolphin Cove, Eagle Point,
and Shark Encounter. For thrill rides and amusements, visit Geauga
Lake Park, or the larger Cedar Point in Sandusky. Phoenix (US) The setting sun enhances the majesty of these canyons in Sedona,
about a two-hour drive north of Phoenix Even downtown Phoenix, long abandoned as simply a place to work,
is taking on a radically new look of late. Two new museums--the
Phoenix Museum of History and the Arizona Science Center--have been
built adjacent to（邻近）historic Heritage Square, and the Phoenix Museum
of Art has undergone a major renovation and expansion. However,
the biggest project in downtown Phoenix in recent years was the
construction of the Bank One Ballpark, a covered baseball stadium
with a retractable（可来回收缩的）roof. Golf and tennis are only the tip of the iceberg (so to speak). With the cooler winter weather comes the cultural season, and between Phoenix and the neighboring cities of Scottsdale, Tempe, and Mesa, there's an impressive array of（一系列；大量）music, dance, and theater to be enjoyed. Scottsdale is also well known as a center of the visual arts, ranking only behind New York and Santa Fe in its concentration of art galleries. Over the years, Phoenix has both enjoyed the benefits and suffered
the problems of rapid urban growth. It has gone from tiny agricultural
village to sprawling（迅速拓展的）cosmopolitan metropolis in little more
than a century. Along the way it has lost its past amid urban sprawl
and unchecked development; at the same time, it has forged a city
that's quintessentially（典型地，标准地）20th-century American. Shopping
malls, the gathering places of America, are raised to an art form
in Phoenix. Luxurious resorts create fantasy worlds of waterfalls
and swimming pools. Wide boulevards（大马路）stretch（延伸）for miles across
land that was once desert but has been made green through irrigation.
Perhaps it's this willingness to create a new world on top of an
old one that attracts people to Phoenix. Then again, maybe it's
just all that sunshine. Chicago (U.S.) Chicago's world-famous skyline Daniel Burnham, the legendary Chicago architect and city planner,
nailed （使固定）it a century ago when he said, "Make no small plans."
This, after all, is where the steel-frame skyscraper was born. Where
Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters, and Thomas Dorsey gave shape to the
signature American music forms known to the world at large as jazz,
blues, and gospel （福音音乐：源于美国黑人歌曲宗教音乐，有流行歌曲或民歌风格）. Where George "Papa
Bear" Halas pioneered the National Football League, and Michael
Jordan--one of the greatest athletes in history--transcended the
game of basketball to become, arguably, the most famous human being
on the planet. Nothing in Chicago, from the Sears Tower to the vast
sweep of parks strung（串起;使排成一列）along Lake Michigan is small. Today, the typical visitor will discover that Chicago is more Paris
than prairie（大草原;牧场）. Within a few minutes you can go from the cosmopolitan
buzz（忙乱） of the downtown Loop to a working-class Latino neighborhood.
Unlike the oppressive density of Manhattan or the smog-choked skies
over LA, there's room to breathe here. This is a living, vibrant,
wonderfully diverse city, and one that offers something for everyone,
whatever your tastes, inclinations（爱好）, or budget may be. You won't
cover it all （看不完）, nor should you try. Chicago demands repeat visits. San Francisco (U.S.) The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most recognizable landmarks
in the world. San Francisco covers the tip of a 30mi (50km) peninsula (半岛) in
Northern California, with the Pacific Ocean on its western side
and the San Francisco Bay to the north and east. San Francisco is
just one of many cities in the Bay Area; others include Oakland
(east across the Bay Bridge), Berkeley (just north of Oakland) and
San Jose (an hour's drive southeast of San Francisco, near the southern
tip of the bay). Marin County and the Wine Country lie to the north,
across the Golden Gate Bridge. Making a circuit of the 49-Mile Drive is a good way to check out almost all of the city's highlights（最有意思或精彩的部分）. The route is well posted with instantly recognizable seagull signs, but a map and an alert navigator are essential. Do yourself a favor and allow a whole day to complete the circuit. Greyhound is the only regular long-distance bus company operating
to the city - all bus services arrive and depart at the Transbay
Terminal in SoMa. Amtrak's rail network connects the Bay Area with
the rest of the continental US and Canada. Its main stations are
in Oakland and Emeryville, both in the East Bay. Caltrain links
San Francisco with the peninsula and San Jose; its depot is in SoMa. Los Angeles (U.S.) Basically, LA is a monster of a city to get around. It's a tangle of freeways and sprawling suburbs, where anyone without a car is considered intellectually impaired（弱智）. Hollywood Los Angeles has built its reputation on the glamour of the movies. Hollywood itself (in northwestern LA) is no longer the movie mecca（圣地）it once was, but it certainly holds plenty of historic interest. Take a walk down Hollywood Blvd and you'll pass by famous sights such as Mann's (née Grauman's) Chinese Theatre, where more than 150 of the glitterati（社会名流）have left their prints on the sidewalk out the front. Head east along the Boulevard, stepping on those famous bronze stars, and you'll find yourself at the Roosevelt Hotel. If you don't manage to spot a real star while you're in Hollywood, drop by the Hollywood Wax Museum. Disneyland Disneyland is divided into four different lands: Adventureland
has a jungle theme and features Indiana Jones and the Forbidden
Eye; Frontierland celebrates the myth of the Wild West; Fantasyland
devotes itself to Disney's favorite characters; and Tomorrowland
is (you guessed it) all about the future. The tour would not be complete without a visit to Beverly Hills, home to the rich and famous. Just west of Hollywood, this city-within-a-city flaunts（炫耀）its wealth with opulent manors （豪宅）on manicured（修剪整齐的）grounds and shopping streets overflowing with designer labels（设计师品牌商标）. North Beverly Hills is the epicenter of luxury living, home to
the likes of Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Harrison Ford. Honolulu (U.S.) Diamond Head, a volcanic peak, offers sweeping views of Oahu. H-1, the main south shore freeway, passes east-west through Honolulu,
connecting it to the airport and all other freeways on the island. Oahu is not a big island, and few places are more than an hour's drive from Honolulu. If you plan on spending all your time in the resorts of Waikiki, forget about renting, but if you plan to get beyond the city limits, a car is the easiest way to do it. The minimum age to drive in Hawaii is 15 years, and most car rental agencies hike that limit to 25. Gasoline is about 25% more expensive on the island than on the US mainland. Driving is on the right. Taxis wait at most major downtown hotels and at the airport. Otherwise,
you'll need to phone for a cab. Bikes are available for rent in
Honolulu and Waikiki, and most bike shops provide maps, helmets
(头盔) and locks. The city is poorly suited for cycling, though, and
most riders prefer to use their bikes for longer jaunts (旅游) around
Oahu. |
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