Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Older Than Yellowstone
By Linda Tancs
Brazil’s Tijuca National Park in Rio is older than Yellowstone, which was established in 1872. It’s a bragging point, of course, as is the fact that it’s one of the largest urban forests in the world. Part of the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Preserve, it should come as no surprise that it’s a haven for more than 1,600 plant species and more than 300 different species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Covering more than 9,600 acres, it’s divided into three sectors: Forest, the Carioca Range and Pedra Bonita/Pedra da Gávea. Hiking trails abound in the forest sector; the more adventurous will find activities like rock climbing and hang gliding at Pedra Bonita and Gávea. Carioca is home to the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue, the only part of the park requiring an entrance fee.
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The Library of Mistakes
By Linda Tancs
Make no mistake about it: The Library of Mistakes highlights financial mistakes of the past in an attempt to avoid their repetition in the future. Located in Edinburgh, Scotland, the facility is a free-to-use public library dedicated to the study of financial history. In addition to their vast collection of books, the library offers online and in-person courses to help financial professionals perform a better service for their clients and to educate the general public.
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The Mother Spring in Colorado
By Linda Tancs
Certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s deepest geothermal hot spring aquifer, the Mother Spring in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, is indeed the mother of all springs. It isn’t a site for soaking or bathing, considering that its depth is at least 1,002 feet (based on at least one instrument of measure) although no one has been able to get to the bottom of it (no pun intended). It acts as a feeder spring for other popular sites in the region, like Springs Resort and Spa (home to the most geothermal hot spring pools in Colorado) as well as several free “hippy dip” springs along the San Juan River.
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A Presidential Church in Rhode Island
By Linda Tancs
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church is the first Catholic church in Rhode Island, but it’s perhaps better known as the venue where Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was married to then-Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy (later the 35th president of the United States). The Newport church is now open to the public Monday through Friday, year-round, in addition to regularly scheduled Mass times. Tourists flock there to see the site of the famous wedding along with the kneelers used during their nuptials. When in town, the couple sat in pew #10. Arguably one of the most stunning churches in New England, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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A Bewitching Place in Massachusetts
By Linda Tancs
Salem, Massachusetts, is famous for its witch trials in 1692, during which many locals were executed for allegedly practicing witchcraft. The Salem Witch Museum explores those unfortunate events and chronicles the history of witchcraft through the ages. In nearby Danvers the Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial is the first such memorial to honor all of the witchcraft victims and is located across the street from the site of the original Salem Village Meeting House where many of the witch examinations took place.
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A Presidential Homestead in Vermont
By Linda Tancs
It’s not everyday that a U.S. president gets to take the oath of office in his childhood home. Yet when President Warren G. Harding died, that’s what Calvin Coolidge, his vice president, did. The modest frame and clapboard house is located in the tiny community of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, all or most of which is included in the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District, a National Historic Landmark. Like a time capsule, the district remains largely unchanged and includes not only the Coolidge home but also the homes of neighbors as well as the town church, a cheese factory, a schoolhouse and a general store. Coolidge and his wife are buried along with seven generations of the family in the town cemetery.
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Step by Step in Colorado
By Linda Tancs
You’ll want to take it literally step by step, walking the 1,257 wooden planks suspended 956 feet over the Arkansas River across the Royal Gorge Bridge. It’s a popular tourist attraction near Cañon City, Colorado, within Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, a 360-acre amusement park located along the edge of the Royal Gorge around both ends of the bridge. If the walk isn’t adventurous enough for you, then you might consider the zip line, or a guided climb or a 50 mph swing from the top of a 100-foot tower, the Skycoaster.
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A Gem in Omaha
By Linda Tancs
At the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, visitors get two gems in one: a landmark building and a seminal collection of the region’s history. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the building housing the museum is the Art Deco-style Union Station. At its peak, 64 passenger trains and over 10,000 passengers utilized the facility every day. The focal point is the Main Waiting Room, currently the Suzanne and Walter Scott Great Hall, which measures 160 feet by 72 feet and is spanned by a 60-foot-high ceiling adorned by six, 13-foot-high chandeliers. The hall features several architectural elements common to the style, like a ceiling of sculptured plaster, cathedral-like plate glass windows, a patterned terrazzo floor and colonnettes of blue Belgian marble. The museum’s permanent galleries also capture a bygone era and include reproductions of Native American abodes as well as a worker’s cottage from the late 1800s and early 1900s, a replica of a grocery store from the 1900s and an authentic streetcar from the 1940s.
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The Life of William Penn
By Linda Tancs
Philadelphia’s Welcome Park is the only site in the city dedicated to celebrating the life and contributions of William Penn, who founded the Commonwealth in 1682. Named for Penn’s ship, Welcome, the park features a marble layout of Penn’s city plan for Philadelphia and boasts a statue of him that is a miniature of the one atop City Hall. The site once hosted the Slate Roof House, where Penn resided from 1699 to 1701. The park is located at Second Street and Samson Street Alley.
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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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