When my husband and I travel, we always have things that surprise us about the locations we visit regardless of how many travel shows we have seen or travel guides we have read. For the people who have visited the U.S., we are interested in the things about the U.S. that surprised you, both the good and the bad.

When I used to travel quite frequently for business, I'd be driving down some big road and I'd forget exactly what town or state I was in. I live in New York City so it always surprised me how much Florida could like California, Texas, New Jersey or anywhere with lots of strip malls and fast food and lots of cars. And how many downtowns are lifeless after dark - though this may be changing.

The sameness of shopping areas is disappointing. In Skagway Alaska it was disappointing to see Little Switzerland shops, just a lot of expensive jewelry for the cruise boat passengers. OTH is Seward there was a great shop with a lot of prints by Alaskan artists. I've also been surprised to see Midwestern cities that become ghost towns after 5PM. Coming from the northeast, I'm used to cities where people live downtown.

I flew to LA for the first time back in February and I was really surprised to see such large snow-covered mountains east of the city as we came in for landing. I knew the area was mountainous, but flying into LA almost made me think of the Alps.

San Francisco: Surprised by everyone having cars, and the number of homeless, dirty streets in some areas. Also surprised by how large the city is.

M