USA Travel Guide

It’s a children’s museum that a parent can love, it’s a nationally accredited zoo, it’s a top downtown Dayton, Ohio attraction, and it has a name you can set your watch by: the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery brings a whole lot of “yes” to the Midwest. Let’s check it out together.

The history of the Boonshoft tendrils all the way back to the 1800’s, when the Dayton Museum of Natural History first began. Actually, the Natural History Museum was the history of the Boonshoft for nearly 100 years, when the idea for a dedicated children’s museum finally crept its way onto the scene

Noting their similar goals, the Dayton Museum of Natural History and this new children’s museum combined from day one to create the Dayton Museum of Discovery. The museum was later named for majority benefactor Oscar Boonshoft.

With no other zoo, aquarium, planetarium or science center in town, the Boonshoft Museum of Discover sets out to do it all and succeeds admirably. Bring along the kids or simply visit yourself for a day of fun and learning at any age.

So what do we like:

• Wild Ohio Zoo – this AZA-accredited “zoo within a museum” is modest in scope, but always a worthwhile visit. While I’m partial to the creepies and crawlies, the two river otters are the most popular exhibit.
• Tidal Pool – if aquatic animals are your bag, the Tidal Pool offers a chance to meet sea stars, sea cucumbers, anemones and more.
• Science on a Sphere – this hi-tech exhibit consists of a large animated globe that is used to display fascinating shows about our planet and solar system. Kind of an IMAX in reverse. See it in action (not from the Boonshoft).
• Mead Tree House – it must be the boy in me, but tree houses are awesome. This artificial tree house is a children-geared exhibit, so if you’ve got the little ones in tow, don’t skip it.

The museum regularly hosts temporary and traveling exhibits. View the current schedule.

The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio is open daily but for a few holidays, and better yet, it’s way affordable. Only $8.50 for adults and $7.50 for children (2-12). As you can probably guess, the Boonshoft is a popular field trip destination, so I recommend calling ahead and trying to dodge the school groups. Learn more.

Hotels in Dayton, Ohio:
Stay less than 2 miles away at the Ramada Plaza Dayton Hotel. The hotel features a free area shuttle the travels to the museum as well as a kid-friendly Atrium Fun Center for swimming, games and play. A good choice for families in a business-minded city. Learn more about the Ramada Plaza Dayton Hotel.

Have fun!

Welcome back to USA Travel Guide. Two opening thoughts:

1. Can you believe that hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, of all people, was the first to break the news?
2. I love John Cena. The man can wrestle, he can act, he can crack a joke … he’s the muscle-head version of a triple-threat.

It’s time for “Destruction in the Desert” as WrestleMania XXVI comes to the University of Phoenix Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. Although the action is still more than a month out – the rumble kicks off on March 28, 2010 – the bill is already jam-packed with titanic matches and lots more fun to go with.

Some of the biggest names in the game will be there, shirts thoroughly removed, to settle some scores:

• Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho vs. Edge
• The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
• WWE Champion Batista vs. John Cena
• 8-Person Ladder Match Starring Christian

For the trouble of your trip, you’ll certainly get more than one day of bone-breaking action. There’s a full week of WrestleMania XXVI activities leading up to the big night. They’re brining back the charity art showcase, WrestleMania Art, as well as WrestleMania Axxess, a massive fan event with your opportunity to meet the wrestlers, the WWE Divas and even a few legends. See the schedule.

Live music always plays a big part of WrestleMania, but if they’ve released the schedule, I can’t find it. Anyway, last year it was Kidd Rock and one of the Pussycat Dolls, so expect something like that, and if you really want to know, stay glued to the official Web site. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.

The University of Phoenix Stadium is located slightly out of the way in Glendale, Arizona, but we’re going to stay cozy in Phoenix at one of our favorite. A couple recommendations for you:

• Crowne Plaza Phoenix – this stylish North Phoenix hotel offers discount rates for guests attend events at University of Phoenix Stadium. Since the offer ends April, this is great timing.
• Hotel Highland at Biltmore – a little boutique flavor awaits you at this charming Phoenix, AZ hotel in the Biltmore district. Amazingly, the only thing that isn’t “upscale” about this joint is the price.

Have fun this March 28, 2010 at WrestleMania XXVI in Phoenix!

Let’s face it: we are a sports worshiping country. We watch’em every Sunday, we dress up in special attire, and we celebrate in some of the most famous churches in the world: Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, Fenway Park … … … TD Garden? Okay, so the Garden might not be the most famous arena we could feature today, but that’s the power of Celts fans.

Besides, the TD Garden proves that when it comes to stadiums, age isn’t everything. Since it opened in 1995, the Garden has been a major stage for professional and college sports, and not just because it’s home to two titanic teams. While both the NBA’s Boston Celtics and NHL’s Boston Bruins bring illustrious histories to the Garden, the stadium is fast building a legacy of interest all its own.

In 2004, the Democratic National Convention at the then-named FleetCenter introduced the nation to a handsome, charismatic, big-eared nobody that just four years later became President Barack Obama. As a concert stage, the Garden has seen some of the world’s biggest acts – The Who, Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Madonna and even the bad boys from Boston themselves, Aerosmith.

The Garden is still known best for sports, though. Along with the Bruins and Celts, the arena is the yearly home of the Beanpot, a college hockey square-off between the major Boston area schools – Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College and Boston University. In its time, Boston has also hosted the Women’s Final Four and several NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball regionals. Add WBA boxing and WWE exhibitions, Smackdown and Raw, and the TD Garden event schedule is always packed.

So it’s busy, and those events are top notch, but that’s not why we love the TD Garden. We chose it today, because it managed to replace its predecessor, the Boston Garden, gracefully. It pushed ahead into the world of modern stadia, but retained some of that old-school flavor. For Celts fans especially, the Garden feels like home with the incorporation of the unusual parquet floor that the Celtics have played on since 1946. It’s not the exact same floor, but original pieces from the Garden floor we’re “stitched” into the geometric patterns that give the new court its one-of-a-kind look. It’s the little things like this that give TD Garden its soul, under any name.

Want to go see it? This is the time to do it! Both the Celtics and Bruins are looking at a busy schedule over the next month, so if you don’t have tickets already, it’s time to start looking. Recommendations include:

Boston Bruins
Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens, March 2
Boston Bruins vs. New York Rangers, March 21

Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks, March 17
Boston Celtics vs. Cleveland Cavaliers, April 4

Learn more about the TD Garden and purchase tickets here.

If you’re traveling in to the game, our choice of Boston hotels near TD Garden is the Holiday Inn Boston at Beacon Hill. At less than half a mile from the arena, you can literally walk to your seat (and save big time on parking by doing so). On top of that, the hotel is quick from the airport and offers free high-speed Internet.

Have fun at the TD Garden, one of America’s Stadiums.

Maybe it’s the romantic idealist in me, but I always like to imagine Mark Twain lounging on a rickety steamboat somewhere along the Mississippi. Peppery white hair frizzing every which way. Pipe hung low from his lips. Scrawling out the last few lines of Huck Finn.

Truth is, Twain was a thousand miles away from the Mississippi when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, not to mention Tom Sawyer, The Gilded Age, The Prince and the Pauper and even Life on the Mississippi. He was, in fact, at his home in Hartford, Connecticut.

While the scenery may never live up to my ideal, it’s nevertheless fascinating to learn about the real life and times of the Great American Author at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.

He only spent 16 years of his long life in Hartford, but during that time author and humorist Mark Twain wrote some of his most important, controversial and ultimately beloved works. A visit to the Mark Twain House is your chance to see where a lifetime of adventure became words.

Not surprisingly, the main house tour is the likely highlight of your visit. Knowledgeable docents guide you on an hour-long tour of the home, somehow quaint, huge and whimsical all at once. The architecture is known for its embellished wood features and striking outer façade. As you explore room after room, your guide gives you an idea of the day-to-day Twain: where he wrote, how he spent his days, how he entertained guests (which he loved to do).

In 2003, the Mark Twain House became the Mark Twain House and Museum. The attached museum can hardly do justice to the original mansion, but is a looker enough in itself and manages not to spoil the authenticity of the site. In the museum wing you can view a video biography by documentarian Ken Burns and photographs, artifacts, clothing and rare manuscripts written by Twain himself. The museum regularly hosts temporary exhibits as well.

All-in-all, it’s a high-concentration booster shot of Mark Twain in the span of about two hours. An absolute must for Twain superfans and history buffs.

The Mark Twain House and Museum is open daily through much of the year, with tours starting about every half hour. On the weekends, these tours do fill up quickly and whole days can sell out early, so be sure to call ahead if visiting on a weekend. Adult admission is $15. Learn more about the Mark Twain House.

Unbelievable, the Mark Twain House is located just off downtown, and that’s where we like to stay. For hotels in downtown Hartford, CT, look to the Crowne Plaza Hartford Downtown. The hotel offers free Internet, free area shuttle and free weekend parking, which is hard to find in Hartford.

Have fun!

If you’re anything like me, you didn’t much care about the La Brea Tar Pits until Arnold Schwarzenegger took a face plant into them in Last Action Hero. Turns out there’s, like, a whole museum and stuff. Do something different the next time you cruise L.A.’s Miracle Mile and visit the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park.

Compared to the massive dinosaur skeletons you’ll see at the flagship facility, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Page Museum has a relatively modern collection. The oldest of its finds, a chunk of wood, dates back only 40,000 years, and all of its once-mobile specimens date back only 10,000-40,000 years. This is as much a warning as it is a fact: at the Tar Pits, you will not see dinosaurs!

What you will see is an exhaustive collection of remarkably preserved and perilously restored bird, mammal and plant fossils fished from the inky depths of La Brea. Well, they dig them out of the ground like a normal excavation, but the process in these asphalt-strewn pits is not without considerable challenge. It’s something you’ll learn a lot about at the museum.

At the park you’ve got the pits themselves, many of which you can explore free of charge and at your leisure, and then you’ve got the Page Museum, which does carry a small free but benefits you by adding some context to all the holes in the ground. Inside the museum you’ll see the very best specimens from an enormous collection of over 3 million bones and fossils.

Fossils on display, bits and whole skeletons, include the remains of Harlan’s ground sloths, American bison, American mastodons, Columbian mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, dire wolves, California condors, mountain lions, prehistoric skunks, mice, rabbits, several kinds of bear, and the partial skull of one human.

Until recently you could watch a live excavation at Pit 91 during the summer months, but the dig has gone on temporary hiatus with no set schedule to restart. It’s definitely a missed feature for you summertime visitors.

The Page Museum is located at 5801 Wilshire Boulevard in Hancock Park in Los Angeles. Make it to the museum, you won’t have any trouble finding the Pits. The Page Museum is open daily except for select holidays, offers daily tours as park of the Hancock Park guided tour, and charges an adult admission of $7. Learn more.

Hotels in Los Angeles, CA
If you’re traveling in, stay well and for not too much money at either of today’s recommendations:

• Holiday Inn Express – Century City Hotel – This surprisingly chic HI Express is never overpriced and is located just 5 miles from the pits. Stay “green” with their hybrid car package.
• Holiday Inn LAX Airport Hotel – Stay simple in Los Angeles at this airport hotel which was recently renovated up to a more than modern standard. The hotel is 100% smoke-free and offers an airport shuttle.

Have fun visiting the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California.

One day USA Travel Guide may get to Napa Valley, what with all its pomp and prestige, but until then we’re perfectly happy sipping our way through the lesser-knowns. A couple months back we visited the Livermore Valley outside of San Francisco. Today we’re heading even farther afield to the Santa Ynez wine region just north of Santa Barbara, California. Join us for a Back-Country Wine Tour out of Santa Barbara.

The Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours Company knows Santa Barbara and the wine region better than anyone, having run comprehensive tours of the area for over 10 years. In fact, the company much resembles the wineries on their tours: family run and inspired by the beauty and bounty of Southern California.

The company offers several tour options, from excursions deep into the Santa Ynez Mountains to hunting trips, but today we’re all about that beloved beverage that my wife assures me “tastes like burning”: wine. Whatever your poison – red, white, varietals – the wineries of Santa Ynez have the perfect pour, and the Back-Country Wine Tour is your chance to sample from the best.

You’re morning starts when you climb aboard a cushy 4-7 passenger jeep in Santa Barbara. It’s about an hour drive up to the wine region (near Solvang), but the splendid scenery and your driver’s friendly narration will have the time passed before long. You’ll know when you made it. The lush vineyards stretch for miles in every direction, rolling along with the attractive contours of the wine country.

Don’t go all Avatar on us now, there’s wine to taste. The Back-Country Wine Tour includes visits to four wineries for tastings, wine discussions and conversation. The Santa Ynez Wine Country has over 20 excellent wineries, and your scheduled four aren’t necessarily set in stone. I can’t predict just where you’ll be headed, so if you’d like a little prep, I recommend you read up on the Santa Barbara wineries.

After four stops and a gourmet deli lunch (sandwiches, but, you know, good sandwiches), it’s finally time to head back home. On the return trip, your driver will give you a taste of Cloud Climbers’ gamier tours with a couple canyon trails.

All in all, it’s a good a use of six and a half hours as any you’ll find in Santa Barbara. If you’re a wine lover in Southern California looking for something new, treat yourself to the Back-Country Wine Tour of Santa Barbara by Cloud Climbers Jeep Tours.

Info: $120 per adult/semi-private tour, or $550 for a private jeep for four. Includes live narrated tour, tastings at 4 wineries, a logo wine glass and gourmet lunch at one of the wineries. Tours depart from Santa Barbara at 10:00 a.m. Learn more.

Hotel: We love staying in Santa Barbara as much as we love exploring its top attractions. Stay at one of our favorite Santa Barbara hotels with the Holiday Inn Santa Barbara – Goleta Hotel.

Have fun!

Okay, maybe it’s a little early for Spring Break in your neck of the woods, but who knows? Maybe it’s senior year and you promised your future-graduate something awesome. Well, unless you’re MacGyver, something awesome requires a bit of planning.

Spring Break vacation in Maui, Hawaii? Now that’s something awesome!

Atlantis Submarine Tour in Maui, Hawaii
We’ve talked about Hawaii’s second-largest a couple times before. From Maui golf vacations to whale watching. Today we’re headed back for our most adventurous pick yet: Atlantis Submarine Tours.

The sub is real, and so is the wonderment. Atlantis Submarines Maui invites you aboard a 48-passenger shallow dive submarine for a nearly two-hour tour of the Maui coast – from the fishes’ point of view! Descending more than 100 ft. below the surface, you’ll explore natural and artificial reefs and all the amazing creatures that call them home.

Fairly new to the tour (2005) is the Carthaginian, a 19^th-century supply vessel replica that Atlantis Submarines intentionally sank to create an additional landscape for the tour. This handsome tall ship, now teeming with life and young reef, proves a highlight of the tour if you can turn off your authenticity filter. As someone who loved that Speed Racer movie, I can do that just fine.

The basic tour runs roughly 105 minutes and costs $89.10 per person online (ages 13 and up). That includes a submarine trip only. Atlantis also offers a few combo packages which include the submarine tour along with other popular Maui attractions: Royal Lahaina Luau, Maui Ocean Center, Maui Tropical Plantation, Hawaii Nature Center, snorkeling and dolphin adventures among the choices.

Explore all of their Maui tour options here.

Whether planning for a Spring Break trip to Maui, or any other kind of trip, what’s most important is that you score your reservations early. Like, right now, if you can. With only 48 seats per trip, they do fill up quick, and it’s not like you can just go back any time.

It’d be a shame to stay anywhere but the beach in Maui, so of course we recommend the Maui Oceanfront Inn, located right on Keawakapu Beach – great for couples, great for families, great for anyone who like soft sand and warm sun. The hotel offers great rates if you stay so many nights, so be sure to look into that. Maui vacation specials here.

Have fun on your Spring Break (or anytime!)

Now here’s one you don’t see often: a Valentine’s Day package that doesn’t so much pamper you with lovey-dovey crap as it does get you off your butt for a little cardio. I’m not sure I see the Valentine’s connection myself, but even with no package at all, Valentine’s Day in Redondo Beach, California is a good idea.

Valentine’s Day Packages in Redondo Beach, CA
We’ve mentioned our fair share of Southern California beach hotels over the past 16 months – Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Laguna, Dana Point – but for that well-honed blend of peace and personality, we really do like Redondo Beach and the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach Hotel.

Days are all about the beach, all about luxuriating in the warm South Cali sun and letting the resonant hum of the surf melt away your stress. Nights are whatever you want to make them. Hit up a vibrant dance scene, or keep it laid back with a meal and a beachfront stroll. You might even let the Crowne Plaza decide for you with a couple of Valentine’s Day Packages:

Valentine Bikes at the Beach
Like I said, unusual. This package includes a half-day bike rental so you two can celebrate your love in heart-healthy style. Might we recommend that South Bay Bicycle Trail. Package also includes:

• Deluxe accommodations
• Full American breakfast for two
• ½ day bicycle rental
  

Crowne Royal Spa Package
Don’t want to spend Valentine’s Day working on your gluts? Can’t blame you. The hotel also has a more luxurious package:

• Deluxe ocean-view accommodations
• Two full-session (50 minute) spa treatments of your choice:
  • European Facial
  • Body Massage
• OR One couple’s massage
• Buffet breakfast for two

View all Redondo Beach hotel packages at the Crowne.

With the day less than a week away, our Valentine’s Day coverage is dwindling down, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a great option in your area. Head to our Valentine’s Day Getaways and Packages portal for all of our stories.

Throw care to the wind, escape the retched cold of February, and turn this Valentine’s Day into a three, four, or even five night romantic retreat for two on the idyllic coasts of Baja California. It’s not too late to reserve a Valentine’s Day getaway to Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort in beautiful Los Cabos, Mexico.

Mexico Valentine’s Day Packages
Just imagine it: soft sands beneath your feat, a warm tropical sun, vivid blue waters that roll on to infinity – who needs a partner? I’m just joking, the Hilton Los Cabos is picture perfect for romantic couples looking to celebrate together. Whether its candlelit fine dining, an adventurous hike, a shared day at the spa or just a quiet evening on your private balcony, the escape is sweeter when you share it with loved ones.

The packages help, too

Fun in the Sun Package
While not a romance package per se, the Fun in the Sun package encourages you to enjoy what the Hilton Los Cabos Resort has to offer however suits you best. Use your resort credit at the spa, on drinks and dining, on an excursion. The fun part is, you get to decide.

• 2 or 3-night stay = $100 resort credit per stay
• 4 or 5-night stay = $200 resort credit per stay
• 6+ nights stay = $300 resort credit per stay
• Option: for every 3-night stay, you earn a fourth night free. Don’t think that affects the credit though – I’m sure that’s based on paid nights.

Learn more about their Mexico vacation packages.

Tucked away in the reservations system you can also find an actual “Romance” package, which includes a bottle of wine, full breakfast and accommodations, but honestly we’d go Fun in the Sun. Do it your way, ya know.

You might also check out Fun in the Sun PLUS.

Have an incredible Valentine’s Day, or a romantic escape anytime, to the Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort in Mexico.

A bit extravagant for your budget? We’ve got plenty of more affordable Valentine’s Day suggestions, and one of them might be in your neighborhood. Head to the Valentine’s Day Getaways and Packages portal.

If you’ve never been to a fringe festival, well, then you’re either in for the time of your life or a wicked bad case of attendee’s remorse. You will either be blown away or thoroughly stupefied. Actually, you’ll probably be a little of both.

The Fresno Rogue Performing Arts Festivals in Fresno, California takes this Europe-inspired tradition, slaps on a new name, and delivers it to all lovers of off-the-mainstream entertainment. What’s a fringe festival? Simply, it’s a non-professional, typically non-juried art and theatre festival dedicated to alternative entertainment. Fringe festivals skim the outskirts looking for one-of-a-kind acts. The outliers, if you will.

The Fresno Rogue Festival (because “Fresno Fringe Festival” was too alliterative for those fussy Fresno folk) truly operates on every level: they’ve got main stages, auxiliary café venues, art galleries, and even Bring-Your-Own-Venue venues. For these brave do-it-yourselfers, the festival doesn’t even provide the space. BYO Venue acts must arrange their own space, act as box office, set prices, and manage everything themselves. That’s pretty rogue.

What can you expect to see at the festival? Plenty of stuff you won’t see anywhere else! Off-off-off-Broadway type theatre, avante garde dance, experimental film, multi-discipline performance art, puppetry, storytelling and just about anything else the participants can dream up. There’s no jury, no glad-handing – the Rogue is the very essence of “just be yourself”.

If at this point you’re thinking, “Hey, I don’t want to get ripped off watching 30 minutes of leotarded albinos doing interpretive dance to Iron & Wine’s The Creek Drank the Cradle!”, then maybe the Fresno Rogue Festival isn’t for you. Festival organizers stand behind the quality of their performers, and the growing attendance since 2002 backs them up, but fringe festivals are as much a state of mind as a set of shows. Get yourself in the Rogue spirit, and you will absolutely have a good time.

The 2010 Fresno Rogue Performing Arts Festival will take place from March 4 – 13, 2010. The festival is free to attend, and you pay per show (the performers keep 80-100%, depending on venue). For more information, check the Web site.

Need a hotel in Fresno? The Holiday Inn Fresno Hotel Downtown offers a convenient location to several common performance venues, free weekend parking, free Internet, and approachable rates. Have fun!