Starting from Alaska’s largest city, take a scenic drive on the Seward Highway to gape at glaciers, moose, tundra, mountains and other treasures of the landscape.
Bat watching is big in this self-styled “weird city”: Every day at sunset, from March to November, watch what’s billed as the world's largest colony of urban bats fly above the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge.
Stroll the Venice Ocean Front Walk and, in addition to the Pacific, see the eccentrics, including a man who walks on glass. Then check out Venice’s winding, canal-lined streets.
At the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, walk among works by Claes Oldenburg, Sol LeWitt and others in this 11-acre park adjacent to the Walker Art Center.
For simple pleasures in a complicated city, escape to Governors Island: Board a ferry on summer weekends and cruise past the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Manhattan skyline before disembarking at the historic Governors Island. Among the free offerings are Free Bike Fridays and a 14-hole minigolf course created by an arts group.
Tour the stomping grounds of Benjamin Franklin—the fun Founding Father—as well as the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Betsy Ross’s flag, the U.S. Mint and the Liberty Bell.
