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
Gardens at the Getty
By Linda Tancs
The J. Paul Getty Museum (the Getty) celebrates visual arts of outstanding quality and historical importance at two locales in California. In Los Angeles, the Getty Center houses an international collection of European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts and photography from its beginnings to the present. In Malibu, the Getty Villa is dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria. What both venues have in common are extraordinary gardens. Just like ancient Rome, the gardens at the villa are integral to the site, boasting fountains, arbors and reflecting ponds designed after ancient Roman models and planted with species known from the ancient Mediterranean. The heart of the Getty Center is its Central Garden, featuring a natural ravine and tree-lined walkway amidst 500 varieties of plant material. The Center has reopened after a rash of wildfires in the area.
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An Empire Builder in Minnesota
By Linda Tancs
James J. Hill was a railroad magnate, builder of the Great Northern Railway. His Minnesota home, near the Cathedral of Saint Paul, is a National Historic Landmark. Completed in 1891, the mansion was the largest and most expensive home in Minnesota and a leader of its age, with central heating, gas and electric lighting, plumbing, ventilation, security and communication. The massive Richardsonian Romanesque style mansion boasts a whopping 36,500 square feet on five floors, including 13 bathrooms, 22 fireplaces, 16 cut-glass chandeliers, a two-story skylit art gallery and a three-story pipe organ created by renowned Boston organ-maker, George Hutchings. Guided tours begin every half hour and last 75 minutes.
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The Merchant’s House
By Linda Tancs
New York City’s Merchant’s House is a National Historic Landmark as well as a state and city landmark. The 19th century row house is considered one of the finest examples of architecture from the period, boasting an 1832 late-Federal brick exterior and Greek Revival interior rooms. The house was purchased by Seabury Tredwell, a prosperous New York City hardware merchant, in 1835. The Tredwell family continued to live in the landmark building for nearly 100 years. Located at 29 East Fourth Street, the house tour includes four floors of period rooms furnished with the family’s original possessions – furniture, decorative objects, household goods, books and clothing. This remarkably preserved home has functioned as a museum for over 80 years now.
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An Iconic Trail’s Highest Peak
By Linda Tancs
The Appalachian Trail stretches from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, following the Appalachian mountain range through 14 states. The trail’s highest peak is Clingmans Dome in Tennessee (at 6,643 feet above sea level) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The observation tower on the summit offers spectacular panoramic views of the Smokies and beyond for visitors willing to climb the steep, half-mile walk. Better be quick about it, though. Although the tower is open year round, the road leading to it is closed from December 1 through March 31.
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Tennessee Pink
By Linda Tancs
Built in 1797, Ramsey House is the first stone home in Knox County, Tennessee. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was built by Knoxville’s first builder, Thomas Hope, for Francis Alexander Ramsey. Constructed of Tennessee pink marble and blue limestone, it’s notable for its original interior and exterior architectural features and its period decorative art collection. Ramsey House also boasts the first attached kitchen in Tennessee, replacing the typical “dog-trot” style of the South where the kitchen was typically stand-alone with a breezeway between it and the house. The pet-friendly grounds are welcoming to picnickers!
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Father of Oklahoma City
By Linda Tancs
Henry Overholser was an Oklahoma businessman and such an important contributor to the development of Oklahoma City that he’s often referred to as the “Father of Oklahoma City.” Among the treasures he left for locals to cherish is the Overholser Mansion, regarded as the first mansion built in the city. Constructed in 1903, the house was once eloquently referred to in the local paper as a “sermon on beauty.” It was built in the Queen Anne and Chateauesque architectural styles, a stark departure from the Mission, Craftsman and Prairie styles of the period. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the home is now owned by the Oklahoma Historical Society. Located on the northwest corner of Hudson & NW 15th Street, it’s open for guided tours.
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An Ancient Pueblo in New Mexico
By Linda Tancs
The history of New Mexico’s southwest Indians is centuries old. Acoma Pueblo, in particular, is regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America, dating to 1150 A.D. Their mesa-top settlement is built atop a sheer-walled, 367-foot sandstone bluff in a valley studded with sacred monoliths. It’s the only Native American site to be designated a Historic Site by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. You can learn more about the tribe at The Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum. Open year-round, the cultural center offers exhibits, guided tours, sought-after Acoma pottery and Native American crafts for sale by local artisans.
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Exploring the Bible in Washington
By Linda Tancs
It’s no secret that America’s Founding Fathers were greatly influenced by the Bible, using it to shape their personal and political views. So it’s perhaps appropriate that the nation’s first museum dedicated to the Bible should be located in Washington, D.C. Opening this Friday, the Museum of the Bible is housed in a 430,000-square-foot building just two blocks from the National Mall and three blocks from the nation’s Capitol. It boasts 40-foot-tall bronze doors at the entrance and a rooftop garden, along with eight floors using modern technology to explain ancient parables. Among its collections are first editions of the King James Bible, fragments of the Dead Sea Scroll, the first Bible to travel to the moon and the largest collection of Torah scrolls.
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Symbol of the American West
By Linda Tancs
The nation’s largest cacti reside in Tucson, Arizona. In particular, that’s the giant saguaro—a large, tree-like columnar cactus that finds protection in Saguaro National Park. A universal symbol of the West, these Sonoran desert sentinels are only found in small portions of the country. The park is uniquely situated around the 500 square miles that make up Tucson. Its two districts—the Tucson Mountain District to the west and the Rincon Mountain District to the east—are separated by the city’s 1 million residents. The western district boasts large stands of saguaro cacti. November through March is the park’s busiest season, when temperatures are cooler and range from the high 50s to the mid-70s.
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Big Snow Country
By Linda Tancs
Ottawa National Forest comprises nearly 1 million acres and is located in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, extending from the south shore of Lake Superior to the Wisconsin border. Along that border is the small town of Ironwood, a gateway to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Once a mining town, it’s now part of “big snow country,” where winters are long with an average snow accumulation of 200 inches. During ski season, there can be as many as 15,000 people in the area frequenting the six area ski hills and resorts with an abundance of snowmobilers plowing over 485 miles of groomed snowmobile trails. Rounding out the winter sports are dog-sledding, cross-country skiing and ice fishing.
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