Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for U.S. travel
Seal Viewing in California
By Linda Tancs
California’s Año Nuevo State Park is prized for its Natural Preserve, a place where up to 10,000 elephant seals return to breed, give birth and molt. April through August is molting season, when elephant seals come ashore to shed their outer layer of skin and fur. This “molting” process takes from four to six weeks per animal as they rest along the beaches. Starting April 1, guided tours are not required to see the seals although a free permit is required. Then you can walk out to the viewing areas on the Año Point Trail. At each of the viewing areas, there is a docent to explain what you’re seeing and answer questions. At other times of the year (the breeding season), a guided walk is required. The farthest viewing area is a 4-mile roundtrip walk from the parking lot, with one tall sand dune to walk over. The park is a quick 21 miles up Highway 1 north of Santa Cruz.
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A Museum of Mental Health
By Linda Tancs
Oregon’s historic State Hospital, formerly known as the Oregon Insane Asylum, was once used as the filming location for the Academy Award-winning movie, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Located in Salem, it’s also the site of the Oregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health. The venue explores the history of mental illness and its treatments, featuring diagnostic and treatment equipment as well as artifacts, documents, photographs and recordings that share the stories of the people who have lived and worked in the hospital. The facility is located on the first floor of the Kirkbride Building on the campus of the hospital.
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Fair History in Queens
By Linda Tancs
One of the city’s most iconic parks, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York, boasts a World’s Fair legacy. In 1939 and again in 1964, the park hosted two of the largest international exhibitions ever held in the United States, the World’s Fair. One of its landmark attractions is the Unisphere, a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth designed by Gilmore D. Clarke for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. It’s also the locale of Arthur Ashe Stadium, site of the U.S. Open tennis championships and headquarters of the National Tennis Center.
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Ohio’s Oldest Settlement
By Linda Tancs
Martins Ferry has the distinction of being the oldest settlement in Ohio, beginning in 1787 when the ground upon which the city is located was purchased by Captain Absalom Martin, one of the surveyors of the Seven Ranges of the Northwest Territory. Absalom started operating a ferry in 1789 (hence, the name). Historical artifacts related to the region are housed in the town’s Sedgwick House Museum, where you’ll find everything from the pioneer days of the Zane and Martin families to the space shuttle.
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Where Everyone’s An Artist
By Linda Tancs
The Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York, is one of America’s oldest and largest art museums. At 560,000 square feet, the museum is New York City’s second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. One of its latest innovations gives anyone the opportunity to be an artist, thanks to a renovated arts education center with three studios offering expanded access to art-making and
learning for all ages and a dedicated gallery hosting rotating family-friendly installations. In addition to general admission and ticketed exhibitions, First Saturdays (monthly evenings of free programming) occur from February to June and in August and October.
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Fairy Tale Forest
By Linda Tancs
Imagine a parkland filled with attractions bringing stories from Grimms’ Fairy Tales to life! That’s exactly what you’ll find at Fairy Tale Forest in Oak Ridge, New Jersey. The story of Fairy Tale Forest began in 1953 when Paul Woehle Sr., a German immigrant, started to build it at the age of 40. He came from a family of 13 children and his mother used to read them the Grimms’ stories every night. What began as a few storybook cottages has evolved into a theme attraction bringing to life over a dozen of the famed fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm.
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Cleveland’s First Skyscraper
By Linda Tancs
Erected in 1890, the Society for Savings Bank building in Cleveland, Ohio, is the city’s first skyscraper. Ten stories tall, it combines elements of the Gothic, Romanesque, and Renaissance styles in red sandstone. Now a branch of Key Bank, it’s worth a visit inside the lobby (during banking hours) to view the stained-glass ceiling and four large murals. The building is located downtown on the north side of Public Square.
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The Kissing Bridge
By Linda Tancs
Alluding to its feature as a spot for a romantic stroll, the Kissing Bridge (Ravine Bridge) is a suspension bridge on the Douglass campus of Rutgers University in New Jersey that was engineered by the same firm that built the Brooklyn and George Washington bridges. As its official name suggests, it was designed to span the ravine dividing the original campus from the land given to the college in the 1800s by James Neilson, a prominent benefactor of the college and colonel of the New Jersey State Militia. The bridge is located behind the Mabel Smith Library.
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Tall Grass Prairie in Texas
By Linda Tancs
Rare remnants of the tallgrass prairie are some of what you’ll find at Eisenhower State Park near Denison, Texas. Nestled on the shores of Lake Texoma, the park’s name honors the 34th U.S. president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was born nearby. Explore trails along high bluffs, swim, or fish for striped bass, crappie and catfish. Some of the wildlife you may encounter include armadillos, beavers, deer, foxes, opossums, bobcats and roadrunners. This time of year, colorful wildflowers bloom throughout the growing season, which lasts until November.
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A Long Shot in Baltimore
By Linda Tancs
Built in 1828, the Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore, Maryland, was the tallest building (at 215 feet) in the United States until 1846. It was a manufacturing facility for drop shot used in small game hunting using a patented process of pouring molten lead down the open shaft, which would cool as it descended and form into a smooth ball. The shot would be collected from a water barrel at the tower’s base and then sorted for distribution. The tower remained active until new methods of production rendered it obsolete in 1892. Now on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, the tower is open to the public as a museum.
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