Top Ten 4th of July Celebrations
Fireworks, barbeques, parades, and live
music—no other holiday spells summer fun quite like the 4th of July. Since the 4th falls on a Saturday this year, most people get Friday, July 3rd off from work, giving you a long weekend to celebrate America's birthday—and that means the perfect opportunity to take a road trip. Although you could just as easily watch the festivities on TV or set out some lawn chairs and a
grill in your backyard, some Independence Day celebrations are worth
the trip, especially if they're right up the road from you. Here are
our picks for the country's top ten places to ring in the 4th. Make sure to tell us if we've missed any of your favorite local July 4th celebrations in the comments section—we're always up for a new party suggestion!
Top Ten 4th of July Celebrations
10. Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
9. Greater Williamsburg, Virginia
8. Miami, Florida
7. San Diego, California
6. New Orleans, Louisiana
5. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
4. New York City, New York
3. Chicago, Illinois
2. Washington, D.C.
1. Boston, Massachusetts
Bonus: U.S. Virgin Islands
If you want to spend your July 4th weekend in one of America's smaller coastal towns, check out the Best Beaches for a July 4th Celebration. Or if you want more Top Ten travel ideas, get some inspiration here.
PHOTO: The Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular over Boston Harbor (Jay Connor/courtesy, B4 Productions)
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June 26, 2009
New Habitat Opens at the International Crane Foundation, Wisconsin
HOME ON THE RANGE: Grey-crowned crane (Mike Endres/Wanderlust Photos)
This past Saturday, the International Crane Foundation (ICF) unveiled a new 15-acre Spirit of Africa habitat at its headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin. I happened to be up in the area for a visit to nearby Wisconsin Dells with my family, so we dropped by the woodlands facility for a closer look at these majestic birds on the opening day of the new exhibit. The ICF is the only place in the world where you can see all 15 species of cranes, including the endangered whooping crane and red-crowned crane.
Unlike a zoo, where you can sometimes feel quite distant from the animals, the ICF's holding pens and open habitats allow you to get fairly close to these statuesque birds, which have become potent symbols for conservation because of threats to their survival that include habitat loss, predation, and pollution. Being there with small kids was a stark reminder that some of the species we were viewing might not even be around by the time my kids become adults. The ICF is dedicated to worldwide efforts to conserve the species as well as the grasslands and wetlands on which they depend for survival.
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June 24, 2009
Beach Bytes: Best Beaches for a July 4th Celebration
HAPPY FOURTH!: Holiday decorations at a coastal celebration (Liz Mitchell)
It’s not too late to plan a beach trip for the July 4th weekend, when Independence Day is celebrated in thousands of coastal towns throughout the United States. You’ll find the biggest festivals and warmest welcomes—sometimes hot—during this prime summer holiday when Americans celebrate the birth of their country (or at the very least, celebrate a day off from work!). A few suggestions for events follow, and I would be excited to join any of them for fireworks and festivities.
- Visit the coast of New Hampshire for a unique, historical day of festivities. An American Celebration at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth is a fabulous old-fashioned way to celebrate July 4th, offering an opportunity to experience four centuries of New England life. One of the highlights of a New Hampshire summer, this event includes a children’s bike and wagon parade, games and crafts, historic garden tours, live music, living history, hands-on activities, and lots of food.
- Off the coast of Massachusetts, Nantucket's July 4th Celebration includes face painting, watermelon and pie-eating contests, a dunk tank, children's parades, three-legged races, tug-o-war, music, and a huge water fight. Fireworks set off from Jetties Beach, a family-friendly spot on the North Shore.
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June 11, 2009
Statue of Liberty Crown to Reopen on July 4th
WELCOME BACK: Statue of Liberty, New York (Photodisc/Getty)
After being shuttered for over eight years following the events of 9/11, the Statue of Liberty will reopen its crown to the public on July 4, 2009. Tickets will go on sale this Saturday, June 13, at 10 a.m. EST. Purchase them online at www.statuecruises.com or by calling 877-523-9849. You'll have to act quickly, though, as only 240 people per day will be allowed up to Lady Liberty's crown in groups of ten, no more than three times an hour.
Crown tickets are a mere $3 on top of the reserved ferry tickets to 12-acre Statue of Liberty National Monument, which cost $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $5 for children ages 4 to 12. Up to four tickets can be reserved per customer once during any six-month period and are eligible for visits up to one year in advance. Note that free "monument access" passes are also available to enter the monument and ascend the lower pedestal but not the crown; these passes are issued by the ferry operators and will be printed on your ferry ticket. --Erin Pak
For help planning your New York City vacation, visit Away.com's New York City Travel Guide.
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June 08, 2009
Vancouver: A City on the Move
Granville Island in Vancouver (Al Harvey/courtesy, Tourism Vancouver)
Okay, a show of hands: Is there anyone out there who hasn't witnessed how beautiful Vancouver is? If you’ve never been there, go. Take the kids. Show them an extraordinary place.
This way-cool city on Canada’s raw West Coast is pretty much Ground Zero for X-Gamers. Every way-out-there-sport has a venue in this city—from kayaking alongside whales to scare-your-mother mountain biking on the infamous North Shore. Next February, Vancouver hosts the Winter Olympic Games. But the time to visit Vancouver is summer.
From seemingly endless sandy beaches to salmon-spawning streams flowing from tree-lined Olympic ski slopes, Vancouver is a foaming double-espresso of wild nature sprinkled with vibrant city. This is the poster child for the Pacific Northwest. Make that the YouTube clip of the Pacific Northwest, because this is a city on the move. Everyone is cycling, sailing, running, kayaking, swimming, cliff-jumping, golfing, or just plain old paragliding. Life doesn’t get much richer for vacationing families who can't wait to Just Do It.
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June 03, 2009
National Parks to Be Fee-Free This Summer
IN THE LAP OF THE GODS: View from Angels Landing in Zion National Park, Utah (Nathan Borchelt)
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that the National Park Service will offer three fee-free weekends this summer at 147 of its park units (a further 244 of the country's parks are already free). Parks affected by this announcement include blockbuster names like Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Yosemite National Park (the full list is available here). Speaking at a press conference in Ohio's Cuyahoga National Park, Salazar announced that admission fees will be waived on the weekends of June 20-21, July 18-19, and August 15-16, 2009. The Department of Interior anticipates that the increase in park tourism—and the direct benefits to sagging local economies—will offset the estimated half-million-dollar loss each day in entrance fees.
Start planning your fee-free weekend now with Away.com's Parks & Outdoors Travel Guide, including destination guides, expert advice, photos, trail descriptions, and more.
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May 27, 2009
Revisiting Luray Caverns, Virginia
OPTICAL ILLUSION: What looks like stalagmites rising from the floor is really a reflection of the ceiling in a perfectly still pool of water (Karen Chen)
Sometimes revisiting a place results in seeing it in a totally different light than before. I recently went to Luray Caverns in Virginia, and even though I'd been once before while on family vacation as a kid (yes, it was part of the requisite family road trip to Washington D.C.), this time was more fascinating than the first—probably because I actually listened to the tour guide. Located just 90 minutes outside of D.C., Luray makes for a convenient day-trip destination, or a good stopover on the way to Shenandoah National Park, a favorite camping and hiking spot for weekenders from the surrounding area.
Though not by any means the largest, longest, or most beautiful cave in the world, the truth is that caves, no matter which ones, are a wondrous thing. I had evidently forgotten this because as we pulled up to the caverns' Information Center, I half expected a sorry excuse for a natural wonder. Adding to that feeling of doubt was the entryway to the caves, a swinging door just next to the gift shop, looking more like the door to the bathroom than the entry point to a great geological wonder. But as soon as we descended into the cool, damp caverns, my attention was immediately captured by all the awe-inspiring stalactites and stalagmites jutting out from every surface of the underground rooms. The caverns' lights cast a magical golden glow over the millions of spiky cones, giant columns, and bubbly rock formations. We'd been transported to a different world—and the gift shop was still right above us, though completely forgotten.
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May 19, 2009
Beach Bytes: Paradise Found in Holden Beach, North Carolina
Holden Beach, North Carolina (Liz Mitchell)
Driving across the high bridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway to reach Holden Beach, I can never understand why they call it a causeway. It’s an impressive approach to an 11-mile strip of North Carolina coast. It’s time to take a deep breath and begin a week of escape from rushing around in your normal nine-to-five life.
As soon as we cross the bridge and I spot Paradise Cafe, I cannot resist the urge to stop for their fried flounder sandwich. Calling this a sandwich is a misnomer; it is actually two large fillets of real fish, about four times too big to fit on a bun and nothing square or frozen in sight. Fresh and delicious, it’s served with thick-cut homemade potato chips. Have it with a beer, a standard part of this lunch. Of course, one trip to Paradise Cafe is never enough; I’ll be back for cheese grits for breakfast, too. And even though plenty of other restaurants also serve fresh local seafood with a beachy ambiance, I just happen to fancy the idea of going to paradise.
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May 13, 2009
The Great Known: Top Three Reasons to Become a Serial Vacationer
LEADER OF THE PACK: On the go at Amelia Island Plantation Resort (Alistair Wearmouth)
My mantra for travel has always been pretty simple: experience as many places as I can and have as much fun as possible while there. So it felt like a total cop-out this year when my wife and I decided to go back to the same beach resort, northeast Florida's Amelia Island Plantation, that we visited with our two kids last April. So much for the mantra. As it turns out, though, there are some easily compelling reasons for returning to a place you already know. Here are the three that stood out most on our recent trip.
1. A Savvy Traveler Is a Penny-Saving Traveler: The down economy is kicking up unreal savings throughout the travel marketplace. We scored a package that shaved $40 off the nightly rate on our two-room condo, plus the resort threw in complimentary bike rentals, kids' club activities, kids' meals, and on-property nature tours. Just knowing what we paid the year before made the decision to book a no-brainer. We also learned from other budgetary missteps last year, including organizing a local taxi service to get us to and from the airport instead of the more expensive hotel shuttle ($60 savings) and doing one big shop at the nearby grocery store instead of shelling out for overpriced lattes and breakfast in the resort eateries (mucho dinero saved).
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April 23, 2009
Putumayo Kids to Release European Playground CD
Here at Away.com we are firm believers that music is one of the best ways to really immerse yourself in a locale. From the jazz of New Orleans to the samba and bossa nova beats of Brazil, it's an art form that hurdles language barriers, communicating the essence of a place as quickly as the opening notes of an iconic tune. And for children, music can become an instant passport to other worlds—without the hassles of airfare, terminal hopping, or even packing.
Putumayo, a fantastic label that has helped distill the abstract genre of world music into digestible introductory CDs, continues their global conquest of the knee-high set this May with their latest Playground series: European Playground. The songs come from all over the Old Country, from Sweden to Hungary, France to Scotland, Ireland to Italy. The younger set will find fantastical tales of teddy bears coming to life and a strong friendship between a cow and a mouse, while older kids can start to notice how other cultural musical styles like American folk and Caribbean salsa influence music from places half a world away. And, as an added altruistic benefit, a portion of the proceeds from all CD sales will be donated to the Brussels-based NGO European Federation for Street Children.
Check out some of our other favorite Putumayo titles:
French Cafe
Music from the Tea Lands
New Orleans
Acoustic Brazil
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