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With one of the largest tasting rooms in San Diego, this microbrewery offers tastings at its out-of-the-way locale in the Miramar area. Try AleSmith's popular Speedway Stout, brewed in various editions ranging from peanut butter and maple bar to German chocolate and coffee.
Just across the harbor from Beaufort—but three bridges driving—this beach is a family-friendly spot known for its wide stretches of sand (even at high tide) and beautiful green water. Free outdoor movies, movie festivals, playgrounds, and a park are featured on the town's Circle. A boardwalk fronts part of the clean, wide beach, where buoys mark lifeguard-protected swimming areas. It's home to Fort Macon, a renowned surf break, and several bustling, quality restaurants, including Amos Mosquito's, the Island Grille, and the Idle Hour Biergarten. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; toilets. Best for: surfing; swimming; windsurfing.
More than 20 bird species, including hawks, eagles, owls, falcons, and vultures, make their home at this wildlife rehabilitation center on Lake Sybelia. You can take a self-guided conservation tour with interactive exhibits and walkways through the wetlands, or you can call ahead for a private tour ($30 annual pass), which includes an up-close look at different birds in the center. There's an earnestness to this working facility, which takes in more than 800 injured wild birds of prey each year. Fewer than half can return to the wild; some permanently injured birds continue to live at the center and can be seen in aviaries along the pathways. To get here, take U.S. 17–92, and turn west on Lake Avenue and then north on East Street.
The frozen ash and lava of the 2.8-million-acre Bering Land Bridge National Preserve lie between Nome and Kotzebue, immediately south of the Arctic Circle, one of the most remote parks in the world. The Lost Jim lava flow is the northernmost flow of major size in the United States, and the paired maars (clear volcanic lakes) are a geological rarity.
Of equal interest are the paleontological features of this preserve. Sealed into the permafrost are flora and fauna—bits of twigs and leaves, tiny insects, small mammals, even the fossilized remains of woolly mammoths—that flourished here when the Bering Land Bridge linked North America to what is now Russia. "Bridge" is something of a misnomer; essentially, the Bering Sea was dry at the time, and the intercontinental connection was as much as 600 miles wide in places. Early people wandered through this treeless landscape, perhaps following sources of food and materials, such as the musk ox, whose descendants still occupy this terrain, or the mammoths and steppe bison, which are both long gone. Flowering plants thrive in this seemingly barren region, about 250 species in all, and tens of thousands of migrating birds can be seen in season. More than 100 species, including ducks, geese, swans, sandhill cranes, and various shorebirds and songbirds, come here from around the world each spring.
At this meticulously run family operation, artisanal honey is produced slowly and organically. They focus on three varietals: Lehua, Macadamia Nut, and Wilelaiki (Christmasberry). You can take a secured, screened tour of the bee hives, see how the queen lives and is cared for, and enjoy free samples of honey. Reservations are required for the tour, but you can peruse the museum and shop free of charge.
Walking the stretch of Bleecker Street between 7th Avenue and Broadway provides a smattering of just about everything synonymous with Greenwich Village these days: NYU buildings, record stores, Italian cafés and food shops, pizza and takeout joints, bars and nightclubs, and funky boutiques. A lazy afternoon here may consist of sampling some of the city's best pizza, grabbing an espresso, and soaking up the downtown fashion scene. Foodies love the blocks between 6th and 7th Avenues for the specialty purveyors like Murray's Cheese (No. 254). At the intersection of Bleecker and Carmine Streets is Our Lady of Pompeii Church, where Mother Cabrini, a naturalized Italian immigrant who became the first American citizen to be canonized, often prayed. West of 7th Avenue, the shops get more upscale, with fashion and home-furnishings boutiques featuring antiques, eyeglasses, handbags, shoes, and designer clothing.
The Blowing Rock itself is a jagged boulder atop a cliff that overlooks the Johns River Gorge about 3,000 feet below. If you throw your hat over the sheer precipice, it may blow back to you, should the wind gods be playful. The story goes that a Cherokee man and a Chickasaw maiden fell in love. Torn between his tribe and his love, he jumped from the cliff, but she prayed to the Great Spirit, and he was blown safely back to her. The compact grounds at this worthwhile attraction include an observation tower, several overlooks, and the fascinating Blowing Rock Museum, which tells the century-old history of this area as a tourist destination and includes a display of locally mined gemstones.
Built in 1852 as a church, this local landmark has been a typical New England general store since 1866, with such essentials as daily newspapers, penny candy, groceries, and benches out front for conversation. It specializes in oil lamps and antique lanterns of all types, jigsaw puzzles, and unique kitchenware. Next door, the Brewster Scoop serves ice cream from Memorial Day–Labor. Upstairs, memorabilia from antique toys to World War II bond posters is displayed. Downstairs there's a working antique nickelodeon; locals warm themselves by the old coal stove in colder months.
A long-running community outreach program that used to operate a mobile children's museum out of a purple bus has now found a permanent home within the cavernous, former Powerhouse building in Mill Pond Park. Kids can play and create in this bright, colorful, and bilingual space (English and Spanish) with two arts and crafts areas, a learning area about local nature, a flowing water play table to learn about boats on the river, and "The Block"—a kid's version of a neighborhood street scene. Programs, like story times and animal encounters, are scheduled regularly.
The fossilized skeleton of a 1.5-million-year-old giant sloth (20 feet long, 6,000 pounds) makes a great photo backdrop as you enter North Carolina's oldest continuously operating museum, founded in 1898. The chronological Cape Fear Stories exhibit includes a room-sized diorama of colonial Wilmington and traces local history from early Native Americans through the Civil War to the 20th century. There's also an interactive model of the International Space Station, a case of mementos from basketball star Michael Jordan, and a kid-friendly nature-based wing with an oversized Venus flytrap and a beaver dam children can crawl inside. A rotating exhibit space displays photographs and items on loan from the Smithsonian Institution.
It's impossible to miss this delightfully weird roadside collection of massive scrap-metal sculptures, from huge dinosaurs to tiny, buglike creatures. The longer you stay, the more details you see, and somehow the small sign reading "Welcome to the Center of the Universe" feels right on. The "garden" promotes love and is free, though it does take donations in a little box.
Four centuries' worth of artifacts bring Brooklyn's story to life at this marvelous, renovated space inside an 1881 Queen Anne–style National Historic Landmark building. The center surveys the borough's changing identity through interactive exhibitions, landscape paintings, photographs, portraits of Brooklynites, and fascinating memorabilia. Upstairs, the Othmer Library’s spectacular reading room, with its stained-glass windows and carved wooden columns, transports visitors to an earlier era.
Paleontologists and geologists have excavated more than 12,000 dinosaur bones from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, making this the densest concentration of Jurassic fossils ever found. Since the quarry's discovery by herders in the 1920s, scores of dinosaur remains have been uncovered here, and much of what the world knows about the Allosaurus was discovered on these grounds. Although many of the bones found in the quarry now reside in museums around the world, a trip to the remote landscape surrounding the quarry pit is worth the journey. Paleontologists still come here for digs every year. The visitor center, which generates its own electricity from rooftop solar panels, has a reconstructed dinosaur skeleton and exhibits about the quarry, and the area has some short hiking trails. The center is 15 miles on a gravel road from the nearest services, so bring food and water and dress for desert conditions. It's 33 miles south of Price: take Highway 10 south to the Cleveland/Elmo turnoff and follow the signs.
There's free admission for ages 15 and younger.
The cast of talented freaks and geeks who keep Coney Island's carnival tradition alive include sword swallowers, fire-eaters, knife throwers, and contortionists. Every postmodern show is an extravaganza of 10 different acts to fascinate and impress. Next door is The Coney Island Museum with a large collection of artifacts celebrating the history of this legendary amusement area. The vibe continues at the Freak Bar, offering beverages and pinball. Museum and bar open year-round.
This relaxing oasis in northern Key Biscayne offers renowned tennis facilities, a great golf course, a family amusement center, and 2 miles of beach dotted with palm trees. The park is divided by Key Biscayne's main road, with tennis and golf on the bay side, the beaches on the ocean side. Families really enjoy the beaches here—the sand is soft, there are no riptides, there's a great view of the Atlantic, and parking is both inexpensive and plentiful. Nevertheless, on weekends be prepared for a long hike from your car to the beach. There are bathrooms, outdoor showers, plenty of picnic tables, and concession stands. Kiteboard rentals and lessons are offered from the northern-end water-sports concessions, as are kayak rentals. Ecotours and nature trails showcase the myriad ecosystems of Key Biscayne, including mangroves, coastal hammock, and seagrass beds. Bird-watching is great at the southern end of the park. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: swimming; walking.
Life-size dino replicas in dramatic poses will delight kids. The small museum also features many skeletons, fossils, and footprints—and reportedly the world's largest collection of movie posters starring Godzilla and other monsters dating back to the early days of film.
This beach is one of Southern California's top surfing destinations, especially for beginners. There's a lot to do within the 5-acre grass area with volleyball courts, tide pools, picnic areas, and an interpretive center devoted to the wildlife of the Doheny Marine Refuge. Campgrounds are located at the southern end of the beach. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: partiers; sunset; swimming; walking.
This earthy outpost of edgy-cool shops, restaurants, bars, and concert venues started growing, beginning in 1996, thanks to a group of proprietors with dreams much bigger than their bank accounts. Spurning the high rents of fancier parts of town, they set up businesses in this then-blighted but beautiful ruin of a neighborhood 4 miles southeast of Downtown. Soon artists and others came to soak up the creative atmosphere. East Atlanta, which is centered at Flat Shoals and Glenwood Avenues, just southeast of Moreland Avenue at Interstate 20, has had its ups and downs but has experienced a resurgence. Many of the majestic homes have been renovated, and what remains untouched romanticizes the area's gritty appeal.
A quiet lake surrounded by woods in the shadow of Beech Mountain, Echo Lake is one of Acadia’s few swimming beaches. The water is considerably warmer, if muckier, than nearby ocean beaches, and dogs are allowed in the off-season. The surrounding trail network ascends the mountain, and the trailhead for the challenging Beech Cliff Trail begins at the parking lot. A sign alerts you when the iron ladders and steep cliffs are ahead; for an easier hike, soak up the view at the overlook before the ladders and head back down. A boat ramp is north of here along Route 102 at Ikes Point. From May to October, parking at Echo Lake requires the purchase of a park entrance pass, but there are no additional lot fees. Amenities: parking (free); toilets. Best for: solitude; sunset; swimming.
Opened in 2023 with great fanfare, this historic post office–turned–new-neighborhood-bookstore and café has quickly become an always-happening Hyde Park institution. Early birds show up at the walk-up window and charming front patio seating for coffee and select baked goods starting at 9 am. The cozy, brightly colored interiors stay filled throughout the day, with small groups browsing the curated shelves of books, periodicals, and children's literature, and remote workers perched at a small smattering of tables and counter space. The shop stays open until 9 pm, and it's next door to a wonderful Tiny Grocer location and the Bureau de Poste restaurant. Check their events calendar in advance for free community events like author talks, book signings, and live outdoor music.
Comprising two parks—an amusement park and a water park—this sprawling complex of 50 thrill and kiddie rides, waterslides, play pools, and more evolved from a single drive-in restaurant built in 1960 that the founders have kept expanding ever since. Admission is by bracelet, which can be purchased for one park or both (the combo is a good deal). On the Funtown side, the Astrosphere—an enclosed scrambler-style ride and one of the park’s best known attractions—features a fantastic and dramatic multimedia experience, while the Wild Mouse is the largest roller coaster in the state. On the Splashtown side, up to five people can ride the Mammoth Thrill Slide water coaster together, while the 60-foot drop of the single-person Poseidon’s Plunge is stomach-churning. In both parks, height and weight restrictions vary by ride. Dining and snacking options abound. Note that heavy rains may temporarily put a halt to rides (gift shops and arcades will remain open). Admission is discounted after 3 pm.
On the campus of the University of Georgia, the museum serves a dual purpose as an academic institution and the official public art museum of the State of Georgia. The permanent collection contains a wealth of 19th- and 20th-century paintings—some from noted American artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Winslow Homer. It also houses the Samuel H. Kress Study Collection of Italian Renaissance art. Special exhibitions display cherished works of art from around the world.
More than 30 artists and craftspeople are represented in this small but lovely gallery. They feature original works as well as archival giclée pieces. If you are looking for Big Island artists, a stop at Glyph is a must.
From the road it's just 100 yards to this stunning view of the Green River to the south and west. It's not far from the Island in the Sky (Willow Flat) Campground; there are restrooms at the parking lot.
If you're in need of an Instagram-able memento of your trip to the capital city, head to the Greetings from Austin mural on South 1st Street. The welcoming phrase is depicted in the form of a colorful 1940s-inspired postcard that draws crowds of snapshot-happy visitors for a quick photo op. On any given day, you'll see tour bus groups, costumed bachelorette parties, high-end fashion shoots, and even locals taking their annual Christmas card photo with an on-site Santa Claus, at this popular public artwork. The mural is on the side of Roadhouse Relics, a small art studio and gallery showcasing the incredible work of local neon artist Todd Sanders.
Highway 21 Drive In is a charming throwback that's fun for the whole family. Showing a variety of classic movies and recent hits, the outdoor theater has been attracting crowds since 1978. A recent change in ownership brought on a refresh, including updates to the projection system and grooming of the grounds. What hasn’t changed: the old-school concessions stand has everything from popcorn and candy to burgers and corn dogs, as well as funnel cakes and root beer floats. Even the ticket prices are a nod to another time and include double features on two screens. It’s totally worth the trip for this slice of nostalgia to see "where the stars come out at night."
This Historic Entrance to Mammoth Cave provides the centerpiece of historic locations in the visitor center area, a singular point to which human beings have gravitated—and into which they have descended—for 5,000 years. It is easily found at the end of the Historic Entrance Trail.
This once-flourishing coal town along the Chesapeake and Ohio rail line is now little more than a memory, but restored buildings, including retail stores and a bank, allow your imagination to bring this town to life. Start at the Thurmond Depot (now a seasonal visitor center), then stroll the once-bustling commercial district, which met its demise when the swanky Lafayette Hotel burned down in 1963.
Not technically a beach, this beautiful small bay is an underwater wonderland. Living in and among a wide stretch of lovely coral gardens, yellow tangs, coronet fish, triggerfish, eels, eagle rays, and even Hawaiian green sea turtles make daily appearances. Access is via a lava rock step. Due to its easy access, this spot has seen much overuse in recent years and can get very crowded. Only a few parking spots are available outside the bay as it's also an active fishing launch area. Please visit with the utmost respect to other users of the bay, including residents, canoe club members, fishermen, and others. Please do not stand on coral, use toxic sunscreen, or chase or herd dolphins ($500 fines for violators). Early is best for all conditions—there will be fewer humans and more fish.
