10405 Best Sights in USA

An eco-friendly winery built from straw bales, C&C makes small lots of aromatic Alsatian-style wines such as dry Rieslings and Gewürztraminers, plus Pinot Noir blends, Syrahs, and Chardonnays. The outdoor garden is a prime spot for a bring-your-own picnic when the weather is nice.

In addition to fishing, clam digging is popular at Clam Gulch, 24 miles south of Soldotna on the Sterling Highway. This is a favorite of local children, who love any excuse to dig in the muddy, sloppy goo. Ask locals on the beach how to find the giant razor clams (recognized by their dimples in the sand). Ask also for advice on how to clean the clams—cleaning is pretty labor-intensive, and it's easy to get into a clam-digging frenzy when the conditions are favorable, only to regret your efforts when cleaning time arrives. The clam digging is best when tides are minus 4 or 5 feet. A sportfishing license, available at grocery stores, sporting-goods shops, and drugstores, is required for clam diggers 16 years old and older.

A quiet day at the beach gets an adventurous start when you board a tram and careen down a ¾-mile boardwalk through shaded mangroves and a network of canals. At the end is a pretty, secluded patch of sand where the calm surf is perfect for swimming. In addition to sunbathing, shelling, and sand-castle building, you can spring for a kayak and meander around the marsh. Amenities: food and drink; parking (fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: solitude; swimming.

Beside Glen Echo Park's parking lot is this monument to the founder of the American Red Cross. Barton first used the structure, built by the founders of Glen Echo village, to store Red Cross supplies; later it became both her home and the organization's headquarters. Today, the building is furnished with period artifacts and many of her possessions. Access is by a 45-minute guided tour only, typically offered only on Friday and Saturday. Check the park's website to plan your visit.

College walking tours, architecture tours, and art tours are conducted quarterly by Claremont Heritage. The organization gives 2½-hour guided walking tours ($10) by reservation. Self-guided tour maps can be found on the group's website.

Inspired by the work in Balmy Alley, a new generation of muralists began creating a fresh alley-cum-gallery here in 1992, offering a quick but dense glimpse at the Mission's contemporary art scene. The works by the loosely connected artists of the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP) represent a broad range of styles and imagery, such as an exuberant, flowery exhortation to Tax the Rich, several colorful and powerful messages about hot-button political topics, and poignant murals honoring the legacies of George Floyd and Prince.

The Clark Chateau Museum, an elegant 1898 four-story Victorian mansion that was built by William Clark as a wedding gift for his son Charles, is open for self-guided and guided tours. Call ahead to reserve your spot. The house, a replica of one wing of the Château de Chenonceau in France's Loire Valley, displays 18th- and 19th-century furniture, textiles, and collectibles as well as artwork.

A no-wait marriage certificate can be yours if you bring $77 cash (there's an additional fee for credit cards), identification, and your beloved to the Clark County Marriage License Bureau. Unless the office is unusually busy, the process normally takes less than an hour.

Step into the past (quite literally) at this modest museum, a 30-acre site that features a small exhibit hall with a time-line exhibit about southern Nevada from prehistoric to modern times. The facility also offers a collection of restored historic buildings that depict daily life from different decades in Las Vegas, Boulder City, Henderson, and Goldfield. Other attractions include a replica of a 19th-century frontier print shop and a 1960s wedding chapel that once stood on the Las Vegas Strip. There are also buildings and machinery dating from the turn of the 20th century, a nature trail, and a small ghost town. The museum also hosts a memorial to the 58 people killed in the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting. If you can't get to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, west of the Strip, this is a worthwhile substitute.

As Las Vegas grew, so did the amount of treated water released by its wastewater treatment plant. Recycled water making its way back to Lake Mead carved out a "wash" that needed to be constrained by a series of porous dams (known as weirs); the county turned it into a 2,900-acre refuge in 1999. Its wide-open spaces offer the unique charm of being able to see the Strip one minute, then be completely disoriented as you descend down winding paths surrounded by tall grass. All sorts of birds and critters call the place home, from great blue herons to beavers. The area is open daily from dawn to dusk; there's an impressive Nature Center (open from 9 to 3) complete with a small museum and children's area. But there's no restaurant or food service beyond a few bags of chips in the gift shop. Dogs and bicycles are allowed on the outer loop trail, but not in the inner core of the preserve.

William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition climbed to the top of this limestone bluff in 1805 and took three compass readings. The maps he made from these readings became an important resource for future travelers. A ¼-mile gravel loop trail takes visitors to the top of the bluff, where interpretive signs include a replica of Clark's sketched map of the area.

Swarms of surfers have co-opted these choppy tides almost immediately south of The Breakers' private beach club. With almost no public parking nearby and a lack of basic facilities, this beach caters principally to locals who come here by foot from their posh crash pads. But if you're staying at The Breakers or visiting the main municipal Palm Beach, walk south or north, respectively, and witness the throng of boards in and out of the water and surfers riding the wave crests. Amenities: none. Best for: surfing.

The Native American wing of this museum contains a beautiful collection of northwestern California basketry. Artifacts from Eureka's Victorian, logging, and maritime eras fill the rest of the space.

This Greek Revival structure dates from 1836, making it Chicago's oldest surviving building. It's a clapboard house in a masonry city, built for Henry and Caroline Palmer Clarke to remind them of the East Coast they left behind. The Doric columns and pilasters were an attempt to civilize Chicago's frontier image, while the everyday objects and furnishings inside evoke a typical 1850s–60s middle-class home. The house has been moved three times from its original location on Michigan Avenue between 16th and 17th streets: the last time, in 1977, it had to be hoisted above the nearby elevated train tracks. In 2022, the house was renamed to affirm the profound role of Bishop Louis Henry and Margaret Ford in preserving the house as a significant part of Chicago’s history.

The 48-million-year-old fossil beds in this small section have yielded the oldest remains in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The drive to the beds traverses forests of ponderosa pines and sparsely populated valleys along the John Day River before traveling through a landscape filled with spires and outcroppings that attest to the region's volcanic past. A short trail that runs between the two parking lots contains fossilized evidence of an ancient subtropical forest. Another trail climbs ½ mile from the second parking lot to the base of the Palisades, a series of abrupt, irregular cliffs created by ancient volcanic mud flows.

The headquarters of Astoria's historical society, the graciously restored Queen Ann–style Flavel House offers a glimpse of what life was like for the wealthy in the late 19th century. The organization's other sites include the Heritage Museum ( 1618 Exchange St.), which occupies a 1904 Colonial Revival building that originally served as city hall and now contains two floors of exhibits detailing the history of the early pioneers, Native Americans, and logging and marine industries of Clatsop County, the oldest American settlement west of the Mississippi. Artifacts include finely crafted 19th-century Chinook and Clatsop baskets, otter pelts, a re-created Prohibition-era saloon, and historic logging and fishing tools. There's also the small but engaging Oregon Film Museum ( 732 Duane St.), housed in the old Clatsop County Jail, which celebrates the state's long history of filmmaking and contains artifacts from and displays about prior productions. The building featured prominently in the cult classic The Goonies. The museum also showcases such classics as The General, The Great Race, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Paint Your Wagon, Animal House, Free Willy, Kindergarten Cop, and Twilight. And the Uppertown Firefighters Museum ( 2968 Marine Dr.) is filled with old equipment, including hand-pulled and horse-drawn fire engines, and a collection of photos of some of the town's most notable fires.

The exhibits here explore commercial fishing and the cannery industry, the era of fish traps, the social life of Petersburg, and Tlingit culture. Don't miss the 126½-pound king salmon—the largest ever caught commercially—as well as the Tlingit dugout canoe; the Cape Decision lighthouse station lens; and Earth, Sea and Sky, a 3D wall mural outside.

This 25-acre certified organic farm sells its own produce, in addition to plants, baked goods, and other seasonal treats.

This multiday, 9-mile hike (each way) departs from Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon and crosses the Tonto Platform to Clear Creek, where drinking water is usually available but should be treated. You can continue an additional 6 miles to the Colorado River and, from that point, it's another 5 miles to Cheyava Falls, which flows in the spring after a winter of heavy snows. These last two legs extend the hike several days and require some scrambling and free climbing. Because the slope is south-facing and has no shade, this trail shouldn't be attempted in the summer. Moderate.

Paddling the 3½-mile isolated portion of the Clearwater River, you may see moose and will likely see songbirds, great blue herons, and belted kingfishers. The Seeley Lake Ranger Station has free maps and directions to launch and land for the two-hour trip. A 1.5-mile hiking trail allows you to walk back to pick up your car.

This aquarium gives you the opportunity to participate in the work of saving and caring for endangered marine species. Many of the sea turtles, dolphins, and other animals living at the aquarium were brought here to be rehabilitated from an injury or saved from danger. The dolphin exhibit has an open-air arena giving the dolphins plenty of room to jump during their shows.

This aquarium is also home to Hope, star of the Dolphin Tale film franchise. The aquarium conducts tours of the bays and islands around Clearwater, including a daily cruise on a pontoon boat (you might just see a wild dolphin or two), and kayak tours of Clearwater Harbor and St. Joseph Sound.

This strenuous 2¼-mile round-trip hike descends 700 feet down nearly vertical cliffs along the lake to the boat dock. Be in very good shape before you tackle this well-maintained trail—it's the hike back up that catches some visitors unprepared. Bring along plenty of water. Difficult.

Robert R. Livingston Jr. (1746–1813), who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, was just one of the illustrious Livingstons who made their home on this estate between Tivoli and Hudson. The stately white house reflects the changes made by several generations: it was burned by the British during the Revolutionary War and rebuilt in the late 1700s on the original foundations. The rooms are furnished with family heirlooms and include splendid examples of decorative objects and of cabinetmaking.

The tranquility, vibrancy, and soothing power of six permanent outdoor beds, including a Japanese "dry rock" garden and rose garden, are the mainstays of this sprawling urban horticultural oasis. Two rare ecosystems—a Madagascarian spiny desert and a Costa Rican cloud forest—await you within the confines of the Eleanor Armstrong Smith Glasshouse. The staff also reinvents several "living gardens" in odd years as part of the largest outdoor flower show in America, held in May.

Cleveland's NFL team plays from September through December at Cleveland Browns Stadium, a modern facility in every sense of the word. Football is an unwavering passion here, and tickets are scarce; any individual tickets are sold starting in July. Seats in the Dawg Pound, a lively area behind the northeast end zone, are highly desirable.

Fans mob Quicken Loans Arena, near Jacobs Field in the Gateway District, to see local phenom LeBron James and Cleveland's NBA team.

The Indians, Cleveland's boys of summer, play the pasttime at downtown Jacobs Field between April through September. If they're available, consider grabbing tickets on the lower levels down the right- or left-field lines, where the seats are angled toward home plate. The bleachers offer decent views of the action, too.

This zoo cares for more than 3,000 animals living in naturalistic habitats—giraffes and zebras roam in the African Savanna, kangaroos hop around in the Australian children's area, and gray wolves and beavers dwell in Wolf Wilderness. Rain drenches two indoor acres of tropical Asia, Africa, and South America every 12 minutes in the RainForest. More than 300 reptiles and 10,000 plants live and are on display in the simulated environments, which are spread among three levels. An impressive waterfall spills from 25 feet above the "jungle's" floor.

A 70-foot-long dinosaur skeleton and a model of the world's oldest human fossil—"Lucy"—are among the treasures housed here. The collection contains artifacts and environmental samples from nearly 1,700 sites and documents more than 10,000 years of prehistoric life in Ohio. The largest specimen is the 3,600-year-old Ringler Dugout, one of the oldest watercraft found in North America. The museum is also known for its 1,500-piece collection of rare gems, and the Shafran Planetarium & Astronomy Exhibit Hall. Planetarium shows cost an additional $4 with your museum admission. HealthSpace Cleveland merged with the museum and will begin incorporating health-oriented exhibits here in Fall 2007.

The oldest regional theater in America, founded in 1915, is an architectural landmark. A 1983 addition, designed by architect Phillip Johnson, incorporates four performance spaces under one roof. Throughout the year, the theater stages musicals, comedies, and classic and contemporary dramas.