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
Mayflower Redux
By Linda Tancs
Mayflower was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. Their journey to Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, is commemorated there with a full-scale replica of the historic vessel, Mayflower II. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, she’s both a floating classroom and working vessel. Nearby is Plymouth Rock, the legendary site of disembarkation and arguably the most visited rock in New England, housed under a memorial colonnade.
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Queen of American Lakes
By Linda Tancs
Sometimes referred to as the Queen of American Lakes, Lake George is the longest lake in New York State, stretching 32 miles from north to south in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. One of the most popular hikes in the Lake George region is the Prospect Mountain trail, which begins on Smith Street in Lake George Village. The 3-mile, roundtrip trek is steep in places, not surprising considering that the route once incorporated the Prospect Mountain Cable Incline Railway, at one time the longest cable railroad in the world. At the summit you’ll find remnants of the railway, which was built in the 1800s as an alternative to horse-drawn carriages to transport wealthy guests to the Prospect Mountain House. Although the hotel subsequently burned down, its fireplace is still visible. In addition to its historical features, the 2,030-foot-high summit rewards hikers with 100-mile views of Lake George and the Adirondacks.
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The Spirit of Rural Vermont
By Linda Tancs
The spirit of rural life is alive and well in Woodstock, Vermont, at Billings Farm & Museum. The farm was established by Frederick Billings in 1871 as a model farm run by the Billings family, their farm managers and their farm staff. It remains one of the oldest registered Jersey dairy farms in the country. It features Jersey cows, of course, as well as sheep, horses, oxen, pigs and chickens, all of which you can experience with hands-on activities and events. Farm life exhibits will explain what farming was like in the 1890s. You can also explore the restored 1890 Farm Manager’s House, where interpreters will answer questions about the home. The Billings estate passed on to three generations of Billings women and ultimately to Billings’ granddaughter, Mary Rockefeller, and her husband. The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park adjoins the farm site, and both locales share a visitor’s center.
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From Wagon Ruts to Trading Posts
By Linda Tancs
From wagon ruts to trading posts, remnants of the historical Santa Fe Trail can still be seen at Pecos National Historical Park in Pecos, New Mexico. The Trading Post is home to exhibits on the Santa Fe Trail as well as the Civil War battle, Pecos being the westernmost site of the conflict (the Battle of Glorieta Pass). Hiking is a great way to explore the park’s history, like the 2.3-mile Civil War Battlefield Trail and the Ancestral Sites Trail, where you’ll discover the remains of the Pecos Pueblo and 1717 Spanish mission church. Be sure to check in at the E.E. Fogelson Visitor Center for hiking information.
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A Giant of American Letters
By Linda Tancs
Winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, American John Steinbeck has been hailed as “a giant of American Letters.” Among other things, he wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, and the novella, Of Mice and Men. In his hometown of Salinas, California, you’ll find the National Steinbeck Center, a museum and memorial dedicated to his creative legacy and one of the country’s largest literary museums dedicated to a single author. The facility offers a wide range of programming featuring visiting scholars and speakers. Allow at least two hours for a self-guided experience, which includes a brief orientation by a docent or staff member.
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A Geologic Wonder in Arizona
By Linda Tancs
A media darling, the geologic wonder known as Horseshoe Bend is a landmark feature of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. It’s where the Colorado River created a horseshoe-shaped bend in Glen Canyon roughly 1,000 feet deep. The hike to the overlook is less than 2 miles round-trip over a hardened path; parking for the trailhead is in Page, Arizona.
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Titanic in Tennessee
By Linda Tancs
Museums recounting the tragic sinking of Titanic abound across the world. Although the facility in Belfast is located in the actual shipyard, other venues are no less significant or poignant. For instance, Tennessee boasts Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge, a half-scale replica of the ship. A deeply immersive experience, visitors enter the ship with a boarding pass bearing the name of an actual passenger or crew member. The heart of the ship is the Grand Staircase, constructed from the original Harland & Wolff plans with its oak carvings and cherub statue. Guests also experience what it was like to walk the hallways, parlors and cabins, surrounded by more than 400 artifacts directly from the ship and its passengers. The attraction is self-guided with an audio guide included in your purchase to enhance the tour.
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Colonial Williamsburg
By Linda Tancs
Located in Williamsburg, Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg is the world’s largest living-history museum. The historic 301-acre campus includes 89 original buildings and more than 500 meticulous re-creations of lost structures as well as two world-class art museums under one roof. The former colonial capital features the reconstructed Raleigh Tavern, where patriot members of Virginia’s House of Burgesses met and cast votes during the Revolutionary era in defiance of the colony’s royal governors, whose palace is open for tours. Across the vast site you’ll find costumed, informative staff as well as the interpreting of colonial crafts like cabinetmaking, blacksmithing, silversmithing, spinning and weaving, barbering and wigmaking, and candlemaking.
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Cherry Capital of the World
By Linda Tancs
Traverse City, Michigan, is known as the “Cherry Capital of the World.” That’s because the five counties around Traverse City make up the region that produces 40 percent of the annual tart cherry crop in the United States. It should come as no surprise that there’s an annual cherry festival to celebrate this bounty. This year’s festival, boasting rides, parades and lots of cherry-centric food, runs through July 6.
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Plymouth Colony Comes to Life
By Linda Tancs
Plimoth Patuxet is a complex of living history museums in Plymouth, Massachusetts, recreating the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English colonists who became known as pilgrims. The site features timber-framed houses furnished with reproductions of the types of objects that the pilgrims owned, aromatic kitchen gardens, and livestock, together with actors in period clothing. The complex also features an interpretive homesite of the Patuxet (a Native American band of the Wampanoag tribal confederation) with a replica of a wetu (house) and demonstrations of cooking and canoe production.
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