Other sights in USA
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Alcatraz
Alcatraz: for almost 150 years, the name has given the innocent chills and the guilty cold sweats. Over the years it’s been the nation’s first military prison, a forbidding maximum-security penitentiary and disputed territory between Native American activists and the FBI. No wonder that first step you take off the ferry and onto ‘the Rock’ seems to cue ominous music: dunh-dunh-dunnnnh! It all started innocently enough back in 1775, when Spanish lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala sailed the San Carlos past the 12-acre island he called Isla de Alcatraces (Isle of the Pelicans). In 1859 a new post on Alcatraz became the first US West Coast fort, and soon proved handy as…
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Classical Chinese Gardens
The Classical Chinese Garden is a one-block haven of tranquillity, reflecting ponds and manicured greenery. Free tours are available with admission.
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Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- New Mexico, USA
- Sights › Other
Scores of wondrous caves hide under the hills at this unique national park, which covers 73 sq miles. The cavern formations are an ethereal wonderland of stalactites and fantastical geological features. You can ride an elevator from the visitor center or take a 2-mile subterranean walk from the cave mouth to the Big Room, an underground chamber 1800ft long, 255ft high and over 800ft below the surface. For claustrophobics and those prone to panic attacks, the chamber and the elevator ride down to it (which descends the length of the Empire State Building in under a minute) may be a less than enjoyable experience.
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Amitabha Stupa
An example of sacred architecture can be admired across town in the West Sedona hills at the Amitabha Stupa, a consecrated Buddhist shrine set quite stunningly amid piñon and juniper pine and the ubiquitous rocks. There’s a smaller stupa further down and an entire park is being planned. Heading along Hwy 89A west from the Y, turn right on Andante Dr, left on Pueblo Dr, then head up the gated trail on your right.
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Universal Studios
Universal Studios first opened to the public in 1915, when studio head Carl Laemmle invited visitors at a quaint 25¢ each (including a boxed lunch) to watch silent films being made. Nearly a century later, Universal remains one of the world's largest movie studios, even if today's visitors are directed to movie-based theme parks at which their chances of seeing an actual movie shoot are approximately nil.
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Mt Tamalpais State Park
Mt Tamalpais State Park encompasses 6300 acres of parklands, plus over 200 miles of trails; get a map and don't miss East Peak. Panoramic Hwy climbs from Hwy 1 through the park to Stinson Beach, a mellow seaside town with a great beach. Park headquarters are at Pantoll Station, the nexus of many trails and location of a wooded first-come, first-served campground.
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Bradbury Building
This 1893 building is one of LA's undisputed architectural jewels. Its red-brick facade conceals a stunning galleried atrium with inky filigree grillwork, a rickety birdcage elevator and yellow brick walls that glisten golden in the afternoon light filtering through the tent-shaped glass roof. Location scouts love the place, whose star-turn came in the cult flick Blade Runner.
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Dry Tortugas National Park
Dry Tortugas National Park is America's most inaccessible national park. Reachable only by boat, it rewards you for your effort in getting there with amazing snorkeling, diving, bird-watching and star-gazing.
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Coit Tower
Up the Filbert Street steps at Coit Tower, you'll find 360-degree views of downtown and wrap-around 1930s murals glorifying SF workers - once denounced as Communist, but now a landmark.
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Lotusland
Book ahead for Lotusland, the legacy of eccentric Madame Ganna Walska; two-hour walking tours take in rare botanical species.
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) was destined from the start in 1935 to be an eclectic, unconventional museum. But when it moved into architect Mario Botta’s light-filled brick box in 1995, it became clear just how far this museum was prepared to push the art world. The new museum showed its backside to New York and leaned full-tilt towards the western horizon, taking risks on then-unknowns like Matthew Barney and his poetic videos involving industrial quantities of Vaseline, and Olafur Eliasson’s outer-space installations that distort all sense of reality. Finally SFMOMA had room to launch international traveling shows by squeegee-wielding German painter…
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California Academy of Sciences
Architect Renzo Piano's 2008 landmark LEED-certified green building houses 38,000 weird and wonderful animals in a four-story rainforest and split-level aquarium under a 'living roof' of California wildflowers. After the penguins nod off to sleep, the wild rumpus starts at kids'-only Academy Sleepovers and over-21 NightLife Thursdays, when rainforest-themed cocktails encourage strange mating rituals among shy internet daters.
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Channel Islands National Park
The Channel Islands is an eight-island chain lying off the coast from Newport Beach to Santa Barbara. The four northern islands - San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa - along with tiny Santa Barbara island 38mi (61km) west of San Pedro comprise the Channel Islands National Park. The islands have unique flora and fauna and extensive tidepools and kelp forests.
Here you'll find almost around 150 plant and a few animal species that are not found anywhere else in the world.
On Anacapa, Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa are several snorkeling, diving, swimming and kayaking opportunities among the kelp beds and sandy beaches. San Miguel and Santa Barbara are host to colonies…
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Telegraph Ave
Telegraph Ave is undeniably the throbbing heart of studentville in Berkeley, pumping out a sidewalk-flow of students and shoppers, vagrants and vendors, brisk walkers and sluggish strollers, those trying to squeeze their way out and those who never seem to leave. The frenetic energy buzzing from the university's Sather Gate on any given day is a mix of youthful post-hippies reminiscing about days before their time and young hipsters who sneer at tie-dyed nostalgia.
Ponytailed panhandlers press you for change, and street stalls hawk everything from crystals to bumper stickers to self-published books. It's all very interesting, but the street is also immensely useful to…
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Taos Pueblo
One of the most photographed destinations in New Mexico and continuously inhabited for more than a thousand years, this quintessential example of Pueblo Revival architecture is a must-see for anyone interested in Native American life, history and culture.
Built entirely out of adobe and set against the stunning backdrop of the Sangre de Cristos, Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a National Historic Landmark. The two five-story complexes, built between 1000 and 1450 AD, are one of the best examples of pueblo-revival architecture in the country, and have been continuously inhabited for 1000 years.…
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International Boulevard
Formerly known as E 14th St and once a neglected part of town, International Blvd is now a great place to stroll on a Sunday afternoon. Latino and Asian immigrants have turned it into a 3-mile carnival of food and festivities. You'll find an impressive fleet of excellent taco trucks parked along Fruitvale Ave or at the corner of High St and International Blvd. The Bay Area's best pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) joints are just blocks away.
Mexican and Central American restaurants rub elbows with Vietnamese. Dive bars selling cheap beer and margaritas open their doors here and there. Families out for the paseo, squads of young men, bevies of young women, strolling musicians…
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Nelson Algren's House
You can’t go inside, but on the third floor of this apartment building writer Nelson Algren created some of his greatest works about life in the once down-and-out neighborhood. He won the 1950 National Book Award for his novel The Man with the Golden Arm, set on Division St near Milwaukee Ave (about a half-mile southeast). A Walk on the Wild Side contains the classic advice: ‘Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.’ And his short Chicago: City on the Make summarizes 120 years of thorny local history and is the definitive read on the city’s character.
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Arcosanti
The brainchild of groundbreaking architect and urban planner Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti is a desert outpost based on 'acrology': architecture meets ecology. This cross between a kibbutz and design school 65 miles north of Phoenix looks like a village on Luke Skywalker's home planet. Radical when conceived in the 1960s, Soleri's ideas now seem cutting-edge in this age of urban sprawl and global warming. Arcosanti is good for a day trip or a long stay - there are week- and month-long seminars, a café, one-hour tours, concerts and other events. Basic accommodation is available, and the Sky Suite is designed for great views of a dark desert night.
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Ballard Fish Ladder
On the southern side of the Hiram M Chittenden Locks, the fish ladder was built in 1976 to allow salmon to fight their way to spawning grounds in the Cascade headwaters of the Sammamish River, which feeds Lake Washington. Visitors can watch the fish from underwater glass-sided tanks or from above (there are nets to keep salmon from over-leaping and stranding themselves on the pavement). Sea lions munch on the salmon while the fish attempt to negotiate the ladder. Just what to do about the sea lions has stymied environmentalists, anglers and the local Fish & Wildlife Department. The best time to visit is during spawning season, from mid-June to September.
On the northern…
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Alamo Square Park
The finest restaurants in town can’t provide views as spectacular as the picnic tables atop Alamo Square Park facing Steiner St’s Postcard Row, a row of pastel Victorian ‘Painted Lady’ houses with gingerbread detailing and frosting flourishes that may leave you craving dessert. The city skyline looms in the background, and from the corner of Steiner and Fulton Sts you can glimpse City Hall. On the crest of the hill, check out the old shoes creatively reused as planters. On foggy days, you may want to wear a parka – as you can guess from the wind-sculpted pines, it can get a tad blustery up here.
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Mammoth Cave National Park
With the longest cave system on earth, Mammoth Cave National Park has some 300 miles of surveyed passageways. Mammoth is at least three times bigger than any other known cave, with vast interior cathedrals, bottomless pits, and strange, undulating rock formations. The caves have been used for prehistoric mineral gathering, as a source of saltpeter for gunpowder and as a tuberculosis hospital. Tourists started visiting around 1810 and guided tours have been offered since the 1830s. The area became a national park in 1926 and now brings nearly two million visitors each year.
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Crissy Field
The Presidio's army airstrip has been stripped of asphalt and reinvented as a haven for coastal birds, kite-fliers and windsurfers enjoying sweeping views of Golden Gate Bridge.
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Experience Music Project
The Experience Music Project (EMP) is worth a look for the architecture alone. The shimmering, abstract building – designed by Frank Gehry – was inspired by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s passion for Jimi Hendrix’s music and was initially intended as a tribute to Hendrix alone. It now houses 80,000 music artifacts, including handwritten lyrics by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and a Fender Stratocaster that Hendrix demolished. There’s also Janis Joplin’s pink feather boa, the world’s first steel guitar and Hendrix’s signed contract to play at Woodstock.
Appropriately, the best exhibits are the Hendrix Gallery, a major tribute to Jimi; the Northwest Passage,…
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David & Alfred Smart Museum of Art
Named after the founders of Esquire magazine, who contributed the money to get it started, this fine arts museum opened in 1974 and expanded in 1999. The 8000 items in the collection include some excellent works from ancient China and Japan, and a colorful and detailed Syrian mosaic from about AD 600. The strength of the collection lies in the paintings and sculpture contemporary to the university’s existence, including works by Arthur Davies, Jean Arp, Henry Moore and many others.
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Dinosaur National Monument
In the meantime, the monument is still accessible, with a scaled-back, temporary visitor center. You can drive, hike, backpack and raft through the dramatic and starkly eroded canyons. Budding scientists can walk through seven different periods of geologic history, and see a few bones on the Fossil Discovery Hike. The monument straddles the Utah-Colorado state line. The Utah portion of the park is about 15 miles east of Vernal via Hwys 40 and 149.
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