I just returned from a week’s vacation in one of the USA’s big national parks. As usual, there were many visitors speaking languages other than English. I can assume, pretty safely, that most were foreign visitors.
So - I was wondering. Suppose you won an all-expense, two-week vacation to the US. You can visit where you wanted & travel how you wanted.
Where would you go? How would you like to travel? We saw visitors in rented RV’s (Dutch (they had a flag in the window)), staying in hotels, & the Germans’s across from us in the camp ground.
Are you a Broadway/New York visitor? Wonders of the american west? Museum junkie?
Things I dream about doing:
New York. Trouble is, I’m sure it’ll be just like Rome or Paris in that I would know I need to spend a month, a year or a lifetime to get to know the place.
Alaska has an undefinable attraction, despite my lack of knowledge.
I’d really like to spend a summer driving Route 66, in the time-isn’t-a-constraint way, taking whatever detours I wanted to, really just taking things as they come and wandering-on-wheels.
What I don’t want to do (which might be more informative}:
Go to New York and consider the highlights to be climbing big buildings.
Las Vegas, except in a very ironic way.
Anything revolving around Disney, especially the perfection of a whole holiday in one resort which they’ve perfected.
Los Angeles, if all I’m going to see is a few star-shaped paving slabs and a big sign on a hill.
I would spend my time in New York and Boston. I would also give myself a few days in New England as I’ve always loved this area of the United States. I bet I could have a lot of fun in Maine with that money.
I’ve been to the US twice - the first time I visited friends in Norfolk, Virginia for a couple of weeks, then did Chicago for a week, Niagara Falls for a day, New York for a few days, and Washington DC for a few days. The second time I just went to Viriginia again.
Obviously, a few days in New York is Just. Not. Enough. Time. I would love to go back there for at least a couple of weeks. But since I’ve just got a fortnight this time, I’ll allocate, say 5 days.
I’d also love to do the Grand Canyon. Lets say 3 days.
San Francisco - 3 days
Disneyland (hey, don’t judge me!) - 1 day
And maybe a couple of days in Vegas. Or Boston. Or visiting the giant redwoods.
Last time I was in the US was when I was 7 years old. My parents lived in Canada (in BC) for 3 years in the 60’s (when they first got married), and took all of us (4 kids) on a 5 month driving tour around Canada and the States, so there are some things I remember and other things that I want to experience as an adult now. But ONLY 2 weeks - okay, here goes …
New York - 3 days (you can’t NOT go to New York)
Cleveland, Ohio - 3 days (my sister just moved there to work at the Cleveland Clinic)
LA - 2 days (including a trip to Disneyland - It’s a small world after all …)
Las Vegas - 3 days (hubbie lurves to play poker!!!)
New Orleans - 3 days (need to experience Bourbon Street!)
I’d love to drive across the desert. This may sound boring to some of you, but I’d really like to see it.
Apart from that - of course, there are many things I’d like to see. It’s a big country, and two weeks isn’t that much. But San Francisco is high on the list.
Or maybe I’d do a redneck tour. Get me a pickup truck and a dog, and drive around seeing Elvis-O-Rama, the Tupperware Museum, the Boll Weevil Monument, and Cranberry World, the Shuffleboard Hall Of Fame, Poodle Dog Rock, and the Mecca of Albino Squirrels. And the biggest ball of twine in Minnesota, of course.
California: San Francisco, the Redwoods, Any where sea otters are, Visit the place that make wine
Arizona: Grand Canyon
New York City, Chicago, Washington DC and Atlanta
Three days is much too long to spend in Cleveland. Trust me. I once lived there. The best way to visit Cleveland is to drive by it on your way to somewhere better.
I hear people complaining about the ‘boring drive’ from L.A. to Las Vegas all the time. But there’s a lot to see for anyone willing to look. Depending on the time of year there will be wildflowers of various colours. There are mountains of red rock and black rock. There’s the yellow sand. There are dry lakebeds that have water in them during the rainy season. There may be very white clouds in a very blue sky. There’s the Zyzzyx Rd. sign. There are amazing vistas. The desolation and the enormity are breathtaking.
In the Western Mojave there are, as Tom Wolfe called them in The Right Stuff, ‘arthritic joshua trees’. In Arizona there are tall cacti. You may see various raptors flying around as well as small birds, crows and vultures. At night sidewinders like to warm themselves on roads and there are plenty of rodents about. The London Bridge has retired to the desert at Lake Havasu. Another popular structure in that area is Hoover Dam. (I’ve heard they’ve stopped giving tours since the terror attack.) In Utah there is the Great Salt Lake.
Lots of deserts to choose from, and something interesting about each one. Which reminds me, there are ghosts towns too.
Please note, Orlando does not equal Disney World. In addition to other theme parks, we have a lot of excellent resturants and museums, the beaches, and cute little souvenier shops. Don’t forget Gatorland!
Come. Spend your money. We love tourists…it’s why Florida doesn’t have a state income tax.
A surprising number. In addition to many and varied arid lands in the southwest, both Alaska and Hawaii have areas that qualify.
We also have several mountain ranges, a couple of areas of really big lakes, forests, plains, and big cities. Whatever sort of terrain you want to see, the US has it somewhere.
I have found that a surprising number of Germans are attracted to the old West, so I imagine (if I can be so bold as to speak for them) that a lot of them would spend some time out there – Tucson, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Texas (large parts of which were, IIRC, largely settled by German immigrants). In fact, it might just be a Central European thing, because I read an article once about these groups in the Czech Republic that live in little compounds that try to recreate the look and feel of a frontier town…!
I hate the cold, so I’ll have to pass on Alaska. The Hawaiian volcanic ash thingies would be nice to see, but the one I had my mind on when I wrote that was one like the one you see at the end of 25th Hour, which must have been just outside New York unless I totally misunderstood, which I must have done, 'cause I can’t really see there being a desert just outside of New York… right?
- okay, here goes …