Sights in The South
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Old Slave Mart Museum
African men, women and children were once auctioned off here, now a museum of South Carolina's shameful past. Text-heavy exhibits illuminate the slave experience; the few artifacts, such as leg shackles, are especially chilling.
reviewed
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Petit Jean State Park
The excellently maintained trails of Petit Jean State Park, west of Morrilton, wind past a lush 95ft waterfall, romantic grottoes, expansive vistas, and dense forests. There's a rustic stone lodge, reasonable cabins (per night $75), and campgrounds.
reviewed
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Hunting Island State Park
The Hunting Island State Park has acres of spooky maritime forest, tidal lagoons, and empty, bone-white beach. The Vietnam War scenes from Forrest Gump were filmed in the marsh, a nature-lover's dream. Campgrounds fill up quickly in summer.
reviewed
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Oak Alley Plantation
In Vacherie, the most impressive aspect of Oak Alley Plantation is its canopy of 28 majestic live oaks lining the entry to the grandiose Greek Revival-style house. The tour is relatively staid, but there are guest cottages and a restaurant on-site.
reviewed
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Children's Museum of South Carolina
Afraid your tot is being dumbed-down by too much cotton candy and miniature golf? This museum can help. Created for kids from 1 to 11, it has lots of interactive displays, including a doctor's examining room, a dentist's office, a science lab and a kiddie ATM.
reviewed
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Headley-Whitney Museum
This marvelously old place holds the private collection of the late George Headley, a jewelry designer whose gemstone trinkets and handmade dollhouses are on display, along with a truly bizarre garage turned 'seashell grotto.'
reviewed
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B
St Augustine's Church
The 1824 church is the second-oldest African American Catholic church in the US; many jazz funeral processions originate here. It has Sunday services but you'll need to call ahead for a tour – it's still understaffed post-Katrina and usually closed.
reviewed
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C
Piedmont Park
In the middle of midtown, a glorious, rambling urban park and the setting of many cultural and music festivals. The park has fantastic bike paths, a Saturday Green Market, a well-loved dog area and pleasant green spaces.
reviewed
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Charleston Tea Plantation
The agricultural Wadmalaw Island is home to Charleston Tea Plantation, America's only working tea farm. Ride a trolley through the fields, or buy prettily packaged Plantation Peach and Island Green teas in the gift shop.
reviewed
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D
Grand Ole Opry House
This unassuming modern brick building seats 4400 for the Grand Ole Opry on Friday and Saturday from March to November. Guided backstage tours are offered daily by reservation – book online up to two weeks ahead. Across the plaza, a small, free museum tells the story of the Opry with wax characters, colorful costumes and dioramas.
reviewed
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Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Visitor Center
The visitor center has exhibits, artifacts, maps and a free film to fuel the imagination. Look for the prints based on 1585 illustrations by colony leader John White, now some of the best-known depictions of pre-European North America.
reviewed
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Heyward-Washington House
Built in 1772, this house belonged to Thomas Heyward Jr, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and contains some lovely examples of Charleston-made mahogany furniture and the city's only preserved historic kitchen.
reviewed
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Hot Springs National Park
Hot Springs National Park is a tiny preserve, has thermal waters in and around that spout a million gallons of 143°F (62°C) water daily from 47 natural springs, and attract modern-day pilgrims that bathe in or sip its waters.
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North Carolina Aquarium
Watch tiger sharks glide through the gloomy depths, chill by the gator pond or stroke the slimy bellies of (de-barbed) stingrays in the touch tank. Great for kids.
reviewed
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F
Jepson Center for the Arts
Now over five years old but still looking pretty darn space-age by Savannah's standards, the JCA focuses on 20th- and 21st-century art. Its contents are modest in size but intriguing. There's also a neat interactive area for kids. The $20 multivenue ticket allows discounted admission to two affiliated museums, the Telfair and the Owens-Thomas House.
reviewed
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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
At 208ft, this striking black-and-white-striped edifice is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US and is one of North Carolina's most iconic images. Climb the 248 steps and check out the visitor center (open year-round).
reviewed
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Zoo Atlanta
The Zoo Atlanta, which features flamingos, elephants, kangaroos and the odd tiger. But the zoo's pride and joy are the giant pandas. They tend to have cubs that slaughter you with cuteness. Be prepared to wait to see the cubs.
reviewed
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Gardens of the American Rose Center
If you're a rose-lover, it would be a shame to miss the Gardens of the American Rose Center, which contains more than 65 individual gardens designed to show how roses can be grown in a home garden - take Exit 5 off the I-20.
reviewed
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Insectarium
A supremely kid-friendly learning center that's a joy for budding entomologists. The Japanese garden dotted with whispering butterflies is particularly beautiful.
reviewed
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Nathaniel Russell House
Built by a Rhode Islander, known in Charleston as 'the king of the Yankees,' the 1808 Federal-style house is noted especially for its spectacular, self-supporting spiral staircase and lush English garden.
reviewed
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Harouni Gallery
Artist David Harouni is a native of Iran who has lived and worked in New Orleans for several decades. He creates works of absorbing depth by painting and scraping multiple layers of medium; the finished product has a surreal eerie beauty.
reviewed
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Old State Capitol
The Gothic Revival, pink fairytale-castlelike building makes you think Governor Bobby Jindal is going to 'throw down his long hair' to Louisianans. It houses exhibits about the state's colorful political history.
reviewed
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Hope Visitor Center & Museum
Clinton buffs might stop at Hope, where the ex-Pres spent his first seven years, but there's not much to see other than the spiffy Hope Visitor Center & Museum, in the old depot, and his boyhood home.
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K
Charleston Museum
Founded in 1773, this claims to be the country's oldest museum, with exhibits from various periods of Charleston's long and storied history, from prehistoric whale skeletons to slave tags and Civil War weapons.
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Gangster Museum of America
See the intriguing underbelly of Hot Springs' history, which explains the sin-filled glory days of Hot Springs when this small town in the middle of nowhere turned into a pinpoint of lavish wealth. Highlights include original slots – that still spew money! – and other gambling tables and equipment.
reviewed