USA Travel Guide

While Sundance, Toronto and Telluride are the bells of the film festival ball, they are just the biggest names in a craze that started years earlier with the Columbus International Film Festival and the even more prominent San Francisco International Film Festival. With the lineup and schedule just announced today, now is the time to start planning a visit to this landmark American event.

While the movies have been a favorite American pastime for over 100 years, it wasn’t until the mid-1950’s that the festival format found its way into our collective filmgoing experience, first in Columbus, Ohio, then in San Francisco, where the longest-running film festival in North America will soon hold its fifty-second event.

Despite its age, the San Francisco International Film Festival has never faltered in its aim: to bring a diverse array of international and domestic films to a spirited audience of film-lovers. SFIFF celebrates passion over budget, skill over talk, and talent over celebrity. It is, in a manner of speaking, the real deal; a place where the art always outweighs the prestige.

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Amusement park season is finally upon us again, so I thought we’d do our own little kickoff with an annual favorite: Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

With loads of yearly awards and commendations to weigh down their metaphorical mantle, including “Most Beautiful Park”, “Best Landscaping”, “Best Food”, awards for management and operations, and rankings on lists for best coasters, rides and live entertainment, I can assure you that we’re not the only ones expounding on the greatness of Busch Gardens Williamsburg. This place is a must for any theme park fan’s bucket list.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a combination amusement and animal park not all that different from Anheuser-Busch’s other line of successful parks, SeaWorld, only at the Gardens the focus is much more on thrills than our animal friends. The park, renowned for its memorable décor and quaint beauty, is separated into ten sections, or hamlets, based on six European countries: England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Germany and France*. This unique theme gave the park its original name, Busch Gardens: The Old Country.

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It’s the truth: California isn’t known as the place to go to save money. Likewise, USA Travel Guide isn’t always the most cost-conscious travel resource either. We know what’s good, but we leave it up to the reader to decide what’s worth it. And according to our About Us page, we promised nothing more, so :p

However, we, like California, have our moments. You can have a fantabulous time in California, and you can do it for less if you only know where to look. One go-to attraction for cost-control in Cali is undoubtedly the world famous Santa Monica Pier, what with its high-spirited sightseeing, admission-free amusement park and blissfully inexpensive aquarium. We just had to mention it!

A historic Santa Monica landmark and fun-filled attraction for visitors of all ages, Santa Monica Pier manages to be both nostalgic and modern at the same time. The look of the Pier, aided in no small part by the presence of a carousel from 1922, eagerly recalls the glory days of New York’s Coney Island. All the while, there’s plenty more going on for those wanting more of a 21^st-century era thrill.

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While the rest of the country is celebrating spring with azaleas and cherry blossoms, the great state of Texas is keeping it real with some old-fashioned Lone Star pride!

This April, the abundant Texas Hill Country will hold the 26th Annual Bluebonnet Festival in Burnet, Texas. Spring is now upon us, and the state flower of Texas is soon to be in full bloom. Burnet and the surrounding areas grow brightest of all, with hundreds of thousands of bluebonnets dotting the countryside.

Fortunately for the not-so-botanically-enthused like myself, the Bluebonnet Festival is a lot more than flowers. Beginning on Friday, April 10^th and going strong throughout the weekend, the festival offers non-stop live entertainment and attractions. You’ve got your pet parades, your bird and flower shows, your vintage car shows, street dances, a wiener dog race, a grand parade, luncheons, a cowboy breakfast, gunfighting shows, a destruction derby, live music, arts and crafts, and a carnival, just to name a few.

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By this point, most of the student body has either gone back to class already or is deeply-depressed watching the last few days of their Spring Break slip away from them.  They’re like a small child who lets go of his balloon. Still, there are plenty more with Spring Break yet to come.

Judging by our poll, Spring Break beach vacations are the hands down favorite, so I thought we’d return to our series with something a little different. Consider, won’t you, the beaches of North Carolina.

Name recognition they have not, but buzz they do have, especially in the late Spring Break season when the weather tends to be warmer. The beaches along North Carolina’s Atlantic coast, especially in the Cape Fear region that we like so much, offer miles to explore and are perfect for those who think beaches are for more than music videos. You might be surprised to find vibrant beachfront communities to rival many more famous destinations.

Cape Fear has three major beaches, each of which can do a Spring Break vacation justice:

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With so much to see and do around our Nation’s Capital, it’s a wonder that anyone finds time to visit the sixteen-miles-out Mount Vernon. Yet all throughout the year tourists, history buffs, students, families and just about everyone else takes the short drive down George Washington Parkway to visit this awesome historic estate.

Mount Vernon is famous for being the home of George Washington and wife Martha Washington beginning with their marriage in 1759. The home and grounds, which George worked tirelessly to expand and develop, remained in the Washington family until 1858 when the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association purchased it. In a quick two-year turnaround, the Association opened the grounds to the public in 1860, making Mount Vernon one of America’s oldest and longest-running historic attractions.

Today the grounds are open year-round and with nearly 150 years to get it right, you can bet that this is a well worthwhile destination with loads to offer. So much I couldn’t possibly recount it all, so instead, here are some favorites: 

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A reader asked about this, oh, awhile ago, and with Spring Break 2009 winding down, I finally have time to catch up on some topics I’ve been neglecting (thanks, Michelle). Don’t say USA Travel Guide never gets to your questions. We may not get to them quickly, but we get to them

As a devout Food Network and Good Eats fan, the notion of clarifying a culinary conundrum is like the proverbial slow pitch, especially when the case in question is “Creole vs. Cajun“. Not only are we big fans of both cuisines, we never pass up an opportunity to talk New Orleans.

As the “vs.” no doubt gave away, Cajun cuisine and Creole cuisine are not the same thing, not even a little bit. They share some ingredients, they even share some dishes, but when you consider that German Schnitzel and Texas Chicken Fried Steak are basically the same thing, you’ll realize that a dish, or a cuisine, is more than the ingredients that made it.

Both Creole and Cajun cuisine vary greatly in history, attitude, style and flavor. Let’s take a closer look:

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Another last minute suggestion for you festival fans out there.

Spirited dance, tongue-tickling cuisine, awe-striking craft, passionate art and ebullient people* – the rich cultures of the Japanese and Japanese Americans are the focus of the annual Cherry Blossom Festival of Southern California in Los Angeles, and if you’re in the area on April 4 or 5, 2009, you owe it to yourself to experience it.

This exciting free admission festival features exhibits, demonstrations and pavilions dedicated to every facet of Japanese heritage. The main stage is the best place to see and hear traditional Japanese fashion, dance and music presented with the honor and reverence that it should so readily command. You’ll enjoy authentic Japanese dance, Taiko (Japanese ensemble drumming), a Kimono fashion show, and a wedding and ceremonial congratulatory dance.

Outside the main stage the presentations and exhibits range from historical to artistic to just plain entertaining. Hawaiian entertainers have a stage to themselves along with a selection of native crafts and goods at the Hawaiian Pavilion. The Cultural Pavilion has a number of delights: a demonstration of kimekomi dolls, a place to play ancient Chinese board game GO, and what everybody really wants, martial arts demonstrations (including Sumo Wrestling).

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I’m starting to think we should just rename it “Houston Travel Guide”.

Just 11 days out now, I couldn’t believe there were still tickets, but sure enough it’s not too late to see WrestleMania XXV live on April 5, 2009 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

In celebration of their 25^th anniversary, WrestleMania is putting together the biggest event to date. Stars from Raw, SmackDown and ECW will take the stage in nine titanic matches back-to-back. The biggest stars in wrestling today will be there to settle the score: Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Kane, Triple H, Edge, The Big Show, John Cena, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton and so many others.

With a live audience of over 70,000 fans, you know these guys will be pumped up and ready to please, and they’ve lined up an incredible schedule of events to make it happen. You’ve got your eight-man “Money in the Bank” Ladder match, a Lumberjack Tag Team match,   a Hardcore match featuring the Hardy brothers, and of course, the main event: a surprise Triple Threat showdown between Edge, The Big Show and John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship.

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That’s right, Houston again. Finishing our last piece about the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science stirred up some interest in off-the-beaten-path Houston attractions. I got to thinking how Houston, Texas has a heck of a drive market:

Of course there’s Galveston on the coast, home of Moody Gardens and Kemah Boardwalk, and also Surfside beach. A little north from that you’ll find San Jacinto State Park, where you can see Battleship Texas. And for those willing to make a day of it, you’ve got Huntsville, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Austin, all with plenty to see and do.

There’s actually one more option, closer than any of those, that we happen to like a lot: Sugar Land. Technically a suburb of Houston and about 20 miles from downtown to downtown, Sugar Land is a rapidly growing upscale Texas community that has racked up a lot of positive press over the past few years by the likes of Forbes, CNN, and the state itself with rankings in lists like “Top Suburbs to Live Well” and “100 Best Cities to Live In”.

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