10457 Best Sights in USA

The oldest operating, biggest, and perhaps most controversial marine-mammal park in the country has been anchoring the Orlando Disney–alternative theme-park business since 1964. Much has been made of the company's handling of animals, and they've been in "rebuild and repair" mode for several years after attendance and stock prices plummeted.

SeaWorld still features dolphins and orcas, but thrill rides and literal spills are now the order of the day, with more swirling, looping, and splashing than just about anywhere. The Kraken Unleashed coaster soars to 150 feet while riders dangle their feet from the floorless track. The Manta and the Mako skim tantalizingly close to the water, with Mako reaching speeds of up to 73 mph. Other offerings include Infinity Falls River Rapids, with the world's tallest river-raft drop, and the 400-foot Sky Tower, with bird’s-eye views of the park. Ice Breaker, a launch coaster, features a 93-foot-tall spike with a 100-degree angle. Pipeline: The Surf Coaster is the first of its kind—you ride standing up going 110 feet in the air at speeds of up to 60 mph!

The Sesame Street area of the park includes meet and greets with neighborhood favorites and kid-friendly rides like Big Bird's Twirl N' Whirl and interactive play areas. Little ones will love dancing along to the Sesame Street Party Parade offered most days and during peak seasons held numerous times each day.

Animal attractions here now focus more on education than performance. Shark Encounter leads you through one of the world’s largest underwater viewing tunnels, and Stingray Lagoon offers encounters with both stingrays and mantas. You can visit the ice-filled home of Puck the penguin in Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin and observe sea lions, walruses, and otters at Pacific Point Preserve, which doubles as a sea-lion rehabilitation facility. Helping injured marine animals is also the focus of the Manatee Rehabilitation Area and the Pelican Preserve, which offer up-close views of rescue operations.

Spread over 190 tropically landscaped bayfront acres, SeaWorld is one of the world’s largest marine-life amusement parks. The majority of its exhibits are walk-through marine environments like Shark Encounter, where guests walk through a 57-foot acrylic tube and come face-to-face with a variety of sharks that call the 280,000-gallon habitat home. Turtle Reef offers an incredible up-close encounter with three species of green sea turtles, while the moving sidewalk at Penguin Encounter whisks you through a colony of nearly 300 penguins.

The park also wows with adventure rides like the Electric Eel, a shocking multilaunch coaster that sends riders twisting forward and backward 150 feet in the air at speeds reaching 60 mph, and the Emperor, a floorless dive coaster with a 14-story face-down vertical drop. Another guest favorite is Arctic Rescue, a family-friendly straddle coaster simulating a perilous animal rescue mission aboard a snowmobile at speeds of 40 mph. For a comparatively milder thrill, Journey to Atlantis water coaster splashes down a 60-foot plunge. Younger children will enjoy the rides, climbing structures, and splash pads at Rescue Jr.

SeaWorld is most famous for its large-arena entertainments, now part of their efforts to refocus its orca program toward education and conservation. The park's Orca Encounter features a nature-inspired backdrop and demonstrates orca behaviors in the wild, and other educational opportunities and live entertainment shows feature dolphins, sea lions and otters. Several upgraded animal encounters are available including the Dolphin In-Water Interaction Program, which gives guests the chance to interact with SeaWorld's bottlenose dolphins in the water. The hour-long program (20 minutes in the water), during which visitors can feed, touch, and give behavior signals, starts at $179.

Significant admission discounts are available by purchasing tickets online ahead of time at seaworld.com/san-diego.

This 1,400-acre expanse on the north shore of Sebago Lake is a great spot for swimming, boating, and fishing for both salmon and togue (lake trout). Its 250-site campground is the largest at any Maine state park. Bicycling along the park's roads is a popular pastime in warm weather, as is hiking on the 13 miles of trails. Come winter, the park offers 6 miles of groomed cross-country trails (stay to the ungroomed side for snowshoeing). On the park's edge, Songo Lock State Historic Site, an operational lock along the twisting, narrow Songo River and a remnant of a 19th-century canal system, is a pleasant—and free—picnic area. You can also fish off the ADA-accessible pier and launch a kayak or canoe.

During low tide these flat, driftwood-strewn expanses are perfect for long afternoon strolls. Second Beach, accessed via an easy forest trail through Quileute lands, opens to a vista of the Pacific Ocean and sea stacks. Third Beach offers a 1¼-mile forest hike for a warm-up before reaching the sands. Amenities: pit toilets. Best for: walking.

When Second Bank president Nicholas Biddle held a design competition for a new building, he required all architects to use the Greek style; William Strickland, one of the foremost architects of the 19th century, won. Built in 1824, the bank, with its Doric columns, was based on the design of the Parthenon and helped establish the popularity of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. The interior hall, though, was Roman, with a dramatic barrel-vault ceiling. Housed here are portraits of prominent Colonial Americans by noted artists such as Charles Willson Peale, William Rush, and Gilbert Stuart. Don't miss Peale's portraits of Jefferson and Lewis and Clark: the former is the only one that shows the third president with red hair, and the latter is the only known portrait of the famous explorers. The permanent exhibition, \"The People of Independence,\" has a life-size wooden statue of George Washington by William Rush; a mural of Philadelphia in the 1830s by John A. Woodside Jr.; and the only known likeness of William Floyd, a lesser-known signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Second Baptist Church of Detroit, organized in 1836, is Detroit's oldest black congregation. The church was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, and African-Americans gathered here to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation.

The second house built in Montauk, this 1700s farmhouse holds a collection of early photos and artifacts that depict the era when it was surrounded by pastures, sheep, and cattle. Now enveloped by gorgeous lawns, rose gardens, and hydrangeas, it is the site of daily tours and two well-attended summer crafts fairs in July and August.

The Mesas are the Hopi universe, and Second Mesa is the "Center of the Universe." Shungopavi, the largest and oldest village on Second Mesa, which was founded by the Bear Clan, is reached by a paved road angling south off AZ 264, between the junction of AZ 87 and the Hopi Cultural Center. The villagers here make silver overlay jewelry and coil plaques. Coil plaques are woven from galleta grass and yucca and are adorned with designs of kachinas, animals, and corn. The art of making the plaques has been passed from mother to daughter for generations, and fine coil plaques have become highly sought-after collector's items. The famous Hopi snake dances (closed to the public) are held here in August during even-numbered years. Two smaller villages are off a paved road that runs north from AZ 264, about 2 miles east of the Hopi Cultural Center. Mishongnovi, the easternmost settlement, was established in the late 1600s.

Constructed in 1874, this handsome Gothic Revival church was designed by James Renwick, also the architect of the Smithsonian's Castle and New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral. The National Historic Landmark features one of the largest collections of Tiffany stained-glass windows anywhere.

The cave was discovered in 1928 on a farm just outside Cobleskill. An hour-long guided tour takes you 85 feet down, via winding stairs, and features fossils, stalagmites and stalactites, natural domes, and a 100-foot-high waterfall. The cavern temperature is usually 50°F, so dress accordingly.

Nearly 3,800 former slaves are buried in this part of Arlington National Cemetery. They're all former residents of Freedman's Village, which operated at the Custis-Lee estate for more than 30 years beginning in 1863 to provide housing, education, and employment training for ex-slaves who had traveled to the capital. In the cemetery the headstones are marked with their names and the word "Civilian" or "Citizen." Buried at Grave 19 in the first row of Section 27 is William Christman, a Union private who died of peritonitis in Washington on May 12, 1864. He was the first soldier (but not the first person) interred at Arlington.

Many distinguished veterans are buried in this area of Arlington National Cemetery near the Tomb of the Unknowns, including boxing champ Joe Louis, ABC newsman Frank Reynolds, actor Lee Marvin, and World War II fighter pilot Colonel "Pappy" Boyington.

The world's largest permanent LEGO installation at minifigure scale, depicting Amoskeag Millyard and Manchester as they looked a century ago, is the star attraction at this hands-on science lab and children's museum. The mind-blowing exhibit, covering 2,000 square feet, is made up of about 3 million LEGO bricks. It conveys the massive size and importance of the mills, which ran a mile on each side of the Merrimack. The museum also contains touch-friendly interactive exhibits and offers daily science demonstrations.

Prairie and peregrine falcons, Canada geese, and various species of hawks and owls inhabit this refuge, which stretches more than 25,000 acres. Trumpeter swans also occasionally use the area. Within or near the refuge there are homestead and ranch sites, Oregon Trail crossings, and ferries that cross the Green River, as well as the spot where Jim Bridger and Henry Fraeb built a trading post in 1839. Visitor information and restrooms are available during daylight hours.

Logging's colorful past is displayed in the big log barn at Seeley Lake Museum and Visitors Center, along with tools of the trade and visitor information.

Seeley Stable, next door to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, became San Diego's stagecoach stop in 1867, and was the transportation hub of Old Town until 1887, when trains became the favored mode of travel. The stable houses a collection of horse-drawn vehicles, some so elaborate that you can see where the term "carriage trade" came from. Also inside are Western memorabilia, including an exhibit on the California vaquero, the original American cowboy, and a collection of Native American artifacts.

After working nearly a decade at Italian Swiss Colony, then among California's largest wine producers, Edoardo Seghesio purchased land in 1895 and planted some of the Alexander Valley's earliest Zinfandel vines. Fruit from them goes into his namesake winery's highly rated Home Ranch Zinfandel, one of several Zins made here. Wines from Italian grapes are another emphasis, most notably Venom, from what Seghesio bills as North America's oldest Sangiovese vineyard. The Vermentino and Barbera are exceptional, too. Some tastings take place on the broad lawn and patio fronting the property.

Sego is one of the most dramatic and mystifying rock-art sites in the entire state. Large, ghostlike rock-art figures painted and etched by Native Americans approximately 4,000 years ago cover these canyon walls. There's also art left by the Ute from the 19th century. Distinctive for their large anthropomorphic figures, and for horses, buffalo, and shields painted with red-and-white pigment, these rare drawings are a must-see. A well-preserved ghost town is also nearby.

Situated above the campus of Western Washington University, 175-acre Sehome Hill Arboretum, with its native trees, shrubs, and other plants, has good views of Bellingham Bay and Lummi Island, especially from the facility's observation tower. More than 6 miles of trails encircle the beautifully landscaped grounds.

Few travelers make it out to the far northwestern tip of the continental United States, but the drive is well worth the time. From Seiku, Highway 112 meanders west along the coastline in roller-coaster dips, rises, and curves, which make the two-lane route seem all too narrow. Right-side passengers have the best views heading toward Neah Bay, as the road hugs the rocky coastline and its frothing, salty bays; the forest is thick and towering on the other side. The drive is best made in the late afternoon, when summer sunlight brings out the colors of the water and trees, or when winter clouds show just how foreboding this edge of the country can be.

This small museum honors Selena Quintanilla Perez—known simply as Selena and considered by some to be the Mexican equivalent of Madonna—a wildly successful singer–songwriter during the 1990s who was murdered by a former president of her fan club. See her red Porsche, some of her favorite outfits, and other items that honor her memory and legendary career.

Founded in 1920 as a retreat and place of worship, the center also offers one of the best views along the Pacific Coast, a sweeping seascape extending north and south as far as the eye can see. Paramahansa Yogananda, author of the classic Autobiography of a Yogi, created two beautiful meditation gardens that are open to the public. The gardens are planted with flowering shrubs and trees and contain a series of koi ponds connected by miniature waterfalls. Swami's Point at the south end of the gardens is a popular surfer's break. Inspirational services are on Sunday 9:30 am–noon and Thursday 7–8 pm.

A quintessential (and free) L.A. experience, the nondenominational Lake Shrine temple and meditation garden was founded by guru Paramahansa Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship, a nonprofit spiritual organization headquartered in Los Angeles that promotes traditional yoga and meditation. The gardens, lakes, trails, windmill, and other structures are enjoyed by practitioners, locals, celebrities, and office workers alike as a place to step out of the rat race and into tranquility for a few minutes. Its miraculous survival in the Palisades fire has inspired new visitors. Free reservations are mandatory and can be made online.

The pleasant, historic neighborhood that begins east of the Sellwood Bridge was once a separate town. Annexed by Portland in the 1890s, it retains a modest charm, with stores and restaurants along 13th Avenue carrying an interesting mix of goods and edibles. Just north is the Westmoreland neighborhood, another cluster of mostly indie retail and dining centered around the intersection of S.E. Milwaukee Avenue and S.E. Bybee Boulevard.

Nearly 17 acres of tall old pines and grassy lawns overlooking the Willamette River make a visit here purely relaxing. A paved path circles the park and most of the action—ballpark, ball fields, playground, and tennis court. Sellwood also sports a terrific location—Oaks Bottom Refuge and Oaks Amusement Park are nearby, and the easy-going Sellwood neighborhood has charming shops and restaurants, convenient for a takeout picnic.

Hamilton, like Stevensville and Darby, is on the doorstep of the 1.3-million-acre Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area and is not far from the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness Area to the east. Hundreds of miles of trails wend through the forests, where visitors may encounter bears, elk, moose, deer, and bighorn sheep. There are also songbirds and birds of prey such as eagles and owls.

You can fish, boat, and water-ski on the Seminoe Reservoir, the primary attraction within Seminoe State Park. This is also a popular spot for camping and picnicking. It's on a Bureau of Land Management backcountry byway, Carbon County Road 351, which links Sinclair with Alcova.

This brick courtyard is an oasis of flowering fruit trees and inviting benches, along with a charming fountain. Surrounding it is a plethora of interesting shops selling clothing, shoes, chocolates, and various other artsy and touristy items. Longtime favorite La Casa Sena has a popular patio that takes up a good chunk of the courtyard, creating a downright magical environment for summer dining. The buildings, erected in the 1700s as a single-family residence, once included quarters for blacksmiths, bakers, farmers, and all manner of help.

Housed in a former ice house, the celebrates and documents the region's history, from the French and Indian War to the city's ascent as America's premier industrial center. Located in the Strip District, the center features the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, as well as exhibits on the history of glass, Lewis & Clark, and Pittsburgh's diverse ethnic heritage.

Follow a sandy mine road for the first section of this 8-mile round-trip trail in Saguaro West, then ascend via a series of switchbacks to the top of a ridge and cross the Hugh Norris Trail. Descending on the other side, you'll meet up with the King Canyon Trail. The Esperanza ("Hope") Trail is often rocky and sometimes steep, but rewards include ruins of the Gould Mine, dating back to 1907. Moderate.