Travel through North America by country:
Travel through North America by U.S. state:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Travel through North America by popular city:
Acapulco, Austin, Boston, Cabo San Lucas, Charlotte, NC, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Memphis, Mexico City, New Orleans, NYC, Ontario, Orlando, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Quebec, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, San Jose, Washington, D.C.
Travel through North America by popular things to do:
Alcatraz, Broadway, Central Park, Disneyland, Disneyworld, Golden Gate Bridge, Graceland, Grand Canyon, Pearl Harbor, Statue of Liberty, Times Square
Today’s Photo of the Day comes from Flickr user James Wheeler who tells us “One of the great things about Vancouver is the wildlife along the shoreline near Kitsilano.”
Got an image you’d like to show off to the world? Submit it to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. It might just get chosen as a future Photo of the Day.
Not sure what ISO, aperture, metering and all that photography lingo means? Gadling’s Dana Murph does and breaks it down for us in a series of Travel Photo Tips.
When travelers choose a cruise vacation its often because they get to visit several different destinations bundled into an itinerary they find attractive. They may have traveled to those destinations on land before or simply dreamed of going there one day. Cruise line web sites do a good job of describing various ports of call as do online sources like CruiseCritic.com. Now, a major seller of cruise vacations is offering a live virtual cruise lecture series that gets up close and personal on a variety of topics.
“The cruise experience differs widely from cruise line to cruise line and from ship to ship. Our virtual presentation series will allow customers to learn about the different cruise opportunities from the comfort of their own home. Registration is free and a variety of topics are covered. We hope to give consumers a much better understanding of cruising and what the different options are to choose from,” said Jeanne Wyndrum, senior vice-president of Cruise.com, a major, reputable online seller of cruise vacations.
The program is designed to provide consumers with a unique venue to learn about the cruise experience from the comfort of their own home. A number of cruise destinations and topics will be covered. Virtual Cruise Lecture Series allows consumers, whether a first time cruiser or a seasoned sailor, to take a virtual tour of almost every aspect of the cruise experience.The a wide array of topics are being offered at the live presentations set up for 7:00 PM Eastern time starting August 2nd. Advance registration is required and allows viewers to ask questions and interact with program presenters.
Topics include specific destinations like cruising in South America or Asia as well as general topics like Winter cruising in the Caribbean, river cruising or information about themed culinary cruises.
Not able to attend at 7:00PM Eastern time? All cruise lectures will be available on the Cruise.com website for viewing later, just no asking questions. To take advantage of recorded sessions simply register for the presentation(s) of your choice. An e-mail will be sent after the presentation is completed with a link to view the recorded program.
Flickr photo by pmarkham
Central Park is sometimes called the “lungs of New York City”. Locals and visitors alike come here to enjoy a bit of fresh air and greenery. The park was approved in 1853 in order to leave a green patch in the rapidly expanding metropolis. The city government took the land between 59th and 106th Streets, between Fifth and Eighth Avenues, by eminent domain. About 1,600 residents were paid for their property and forced to move by the summer of 1856.
While a beautiful park was born, its birth was the death of Seneca Village, a prosperous community of almost 300 people. Two-thirds of the population was black and it may have been the first community of middle-class black landowners is New York. The rest were white, many of them Irish immigrants. Of the village’s three churches, at least one was integrated.
Seneca Village was founded in 1825, two years before New York freed most of its slaves, and expanded quickly in the following few years. Living conditions downtown were unhealthy and property prices high (some things never change) so blacks with enough money were eager to move up to this area. The map, Columbia University, shows Seneca Village. Eighth Avenue is at the top of the picture. Seventh Avenue is at the bottom, with 82nd St. on the left and 86th St. is on the right.
Today archaeologists from the Seneca Village Project have finished the first-ever excavation of this historic community. After painstaking research through city records, they were able to locate the precise spots where many of the houses stood. They decided to excavate the property of two black residents: the yard of Nancy Moore, and the home of William G. Wilson. They found a wealth of nineteenth-century artifacts, including some porcelain imported from China, showing that some residents were quite well off. They even found a shoe that may have belonged to one of Mr. Wilson’s children.
If you’re heading to Central Park, check the project’s interactive map to see the history under your feet.
The Land of Enchantment just became the Land of Advancement. “Catch the Kid,” a new summer travel promotion launched by New Mexico Tourism Department, has turned the entire state into a “real life video game,” with the prize being $10,000 in cold, hard cash. “The Kid” in question is one William H. Bonney, aka “Billy the Kid.” Participants (it’s geared toward families) try to track down this most iconic of New Mexico outlaws by finding clues hidden throughout the state.
Now through September 24th, you can register your family online at www.CatchtheKid.com to create a “posse profile,” as well as gain access to exclusive New Mexico travel deals and weekly vacation giveaways throughout the summer. The reward money is the inflation equivalent of the $500 reward offered by Governor Lew Wallace in 1881 for the Kid’s head.
If you have a smartphone, you can download the “Catch the Kid” smartphone app. Alternatively, you can play by taking pictures or you or your family posing next to clue posters placed throughout New Mexico, and upload them to your profile page. Designated locations around the state will unlock clues that lead to the Kid’s New Mexico hideout. The more clues you collect, the more information you’ll gather on when and how to capture the wily criminal. The first posse to present the Kid with an arrest warrant will win their handsome reward.
Players using a smartphone to play can unlock additional New Mexico travel deals and win prizes, because the app allows players to find Billy’s money bag loot which is virtually placed and hidden in every county in New Mexico. You’ll have the chance to use this loot to buy vacations, deals, or meals online in the general store section of the “Catch the Kid” website. Good luck, pardners.
Watch New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez announce contest details, below
I’m very interested in loud cars that go really fast, even if I still don’t understand NASCAR. Earlier this summer, I drove my road trip ride around the speedway in Watkins Glen. As much fun as it was–lots!–I was itching to get a vehicle up to triple-digit speeds. Near the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, I had that chance at the Richard Petty Driving Experience.
It works like this: After plunking down $449, fellow drivers and I got a fairly serious driving class, complete with info on how to operate our 600-horsepower stock cars, what to do in the unlikely event of a fire and why drivers should stay on the line that racers in front of you are following. (Hint: It keeps you from crashing into the wall.)
Considering what a war zone Central Florida’s highways have become, it was easy to believe my instructor’s reassurance that this driving, even strapped in to a super-powered race car, would be the safest I’d do all day. Nevertheless, the more warnings my fellow racers and I received, the more nervous I became. What if I forgot to throw my car into fourth gear? What if I followed the car in front of me too closely? What if I started skidding toward the wall at 120 mph? Putting on a helmet and HANS device to protect the base of my skull in the event of a catastrophic accident sadly did not make me more comfortable.
The upside to the experience is that you’re guided through the eight laps by a faceless but presumably over-qualified “instructor,” who you never meet and whose movements you follow on the track. The more precisely you handle your car, the faster he or she will drive in front of you–meaning you’ll go faster too. I would’ve liked to meet my lead driver, but instead, I was being buckled into a five-point harness inside the rumbling number 11 car, helmet on, HANS on, and GoPro camera mounted to the dash. A crewman gave the sign, and we were off, jerking forward, as I figured out the clutch on the way out of pit road.
The first lap was ragged, a chance to get a feel for the car–which does not handle like my Ford Explorer–learn the racing line and get used to the deafening noise of the engine at track speed. Stock cars don’t have speedometers, only tachometers, but I later learned I averaged 78 mph on the first go-round. A good start.
As I loosened up, I learned to trust the car and its fat, sticky tires. My instructor sped up. I started to smile around lap four. By lap six, I was tearing into turns, letting off the throttle at the last possible moment to keep distance from the car in front of me and revving back up on the turn exit to burn through the straights. The banked turns seemed to flatten as we accelerated. My tunnel vision expanded just in time to see the flag signaling the end of my eight laps.
I watched more drivers take their turns, soaking up the sounds and vibrations in the pits. Data from a USB stick plugged into my car was downloaded. My top speed was 122.38. Not bad, but I’d like to go faster.
