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AP Wire |
TRAVEL BRIEFS NEW ORLEANS World War II Museum starts major expansion The $300-million expansion of the National World War II Museum is under way. The project, slated for completion by 2015, “will be a fitting monument to the sacrifices of a generation of Americans,” said Gordon “Nick” Mueller, president and CEO of the museum. The first two buildings in the expansion are scheduled to be open next year. Plans call for an advanced format theater and a restaurant and entertainment venue dubbed the “Stage Door Canteen” to be constructed across the street from the popular museum. The expansion will eventually include seven buildings on 6 acres. The 250-seat theater will present a signature film being developed in cooperation with Tom Hanks. It will feature what’s called a 4-D theater that will provide a “multisensory experience,” Mueller said. The museum, called the D-Day Museum when it opened June 6, 2000, was designated by Congress as the official World War II Museum for the country in 2004 and subsequently changed its name. Originally, it had been envisioned by historian Stephen E. Ambrose as a small facility to hold World War II momentos he was collecting from veterans. Ambrose taught at the University of New Orleans. The city’s other connection to D-Day was a local boat designer, Andrew Jackson Higgins, who built the boats that were used to offload soldiers and vehicles from massive ships anchored offshore onto the beaches at Normandy. When completed, the museum complex will house a variety of exhibits including a U.S. Freedom Pavilion, Great Campaigns of the War, Land Sea and Air Pavilion to house major artifacts such as ships and planes, and a Liberation Pavilion, which will focus on the Holocaust and the advances in human rights and technology following the Allied victory in 1945. For more information visit www.nationalww2museum.org or call (877) 813-3329. NEW YORK Tax rebate vacation packages from Expedia If you’re lucky enough to be able to use your tax rebate for a vacation, Expedia is offering “Explore America” packages to dozens of U.S. cities starting at under $600 at www.expedia.com/exploreamerica. The packages can be booked through Monday for travel completed by May 31. Some additional options will be made available Monday-May 13, for travel by Sept. 5. Destinations for trips starting at less than $399, including three nights of hotel stays and airfare, include Baltimore, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Savannah, Ga. Expedia is also offering trips starting at less than $599 including five nights and airfare to many cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Orlando, San Francisco and Vail, Colo. Airfare varies depending on your departure city. Expedia says the rates are up to 30 percent off usual prices. If you spring for a trip that runs $1,800 or more of at least five nights, Expedia is also offering an instant $200 coupon using the coupon code TAX200. Those trips can be booked through Monday for travel through May 31. MENLO PARK, CALIF. Top 10 city parks to visit in the West It’s the best of both worlds: outdoor green spaces and vibrant big cities. Sunset magazine has recommendations in its April issue for 10 places to enjoy springtime in the West without leaving civilization. In San Diego, there’s Balboa Park, with its Botanical Building and Lily Pond, plus museums and gardens. In Sacramento, William Land Park offers green space, big trees, the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town. In Seattle, Carkeek Park has 6 miles of walking trails, as well as views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. Golden Gate Park is a must-see in San Francisco, home to a bison herd, the Conservatory of Flowers and a Japanese tea house. In Phoenix, South Mountain Park/Preserve offers 16,000 desert acres and a program called “Silent Sundays,” where one Sunday a month, the park’s main Central Avenue-access roadways are closed to motorized vehicles. Denver’s Central Park at Stapleton features 80 acres of woods, flowers, a playground — and a view of the city skyline. Forest Park is one of Portland’s outdoor gems, with 5,000 acres of woods, trails and scenic views of the mountains. Albuquerque Biological Park includes an aquarium, the Rio Grande Botanic Garden, a zoo and Tingley Beach, where you can fish or rent pedal boats or bikes. Last fall, the park opened a 4-acre Japanese-theme garden. Sunset magazine says Los Angeles’ “wildest oasis” is Griffith Park. The park’s trails are still recovering from a fire last year, but the park is also home to the Griffith Observatory and Autry National Center. The magazine recommends the park’s Trails Cafe as a “rustic yet four-star concession.” The jewel of Vancouver is Stanley Park, where you’ll find woods, gardens, waterfront and cricket being played in the park’s Brockton Oval. NEW YORK TV’s ‘Good Morning America’ to name ‘Seven U.S. Wonders’ ABC’s “Good Morning America” has assembled a panel of experts to name the seven wonders of the United States. The destinations — which will include natural landmarks as well as manmade wonders — will be announced one at a time over the course of seven shows, with the first one airing May 5 and the final one airing May 13. Each show will include a segment about the wonder, reported live from the destination by one of the show’s anchors — Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo and Sam Champion — and three other ABC News anchors or correspondents. Experts on the panel deciding the seven U.S. wonders are Annie Griffith Belt, a photographer for the National Geographic Society; Brent D. Glass, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History; Michael Roberts, executive editor of Outside Magazine; Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History; Patricia Schultz, author of “1,000 Places to See Before You Die,” and the travel guidebook writer and editor Pauline Frommer. In November 2006, “Good Morning America” and USA Today teamed up to name the seven wonders of the world. The wonders were Jerusalem’s Old City; Mayan pyramids in Central America; the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument; the polar ice caps; Tibet’s Potala Palace/Jokhang Temple; the wildlife migration on the Serengeti in Tanzania, and the Internet. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Heavy snow breaking plows in Yellowstone Two bulldozers have broken down in Yellowstone National Park since crews began clearing park roads of the heavy snow-pack that accumulated during the winter. The park has rented two machines as replacements in an attempt to clear roads from Mammoth to the West Entrance, and south to Old Faithful. Weather and equipment permitting, the roads was to begin opening again to vehicles last week, from Mammoth to Old Faithful; Madison to the West Entrance and Norris to Canyon. The roads from Canyon to Lake and from Lake to the East Entrance are scheduled to open on Friday, May 2; Lake to the South Entrance and West Thumb to Old Faithful, Tower to Tower Fall on Friday, May 9; and Tower Fall to Canyon over Dunraven Pass on Friday, May 23. Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said the park this winter may have had the most snowfall it has seen in seven to 10 years. Nash said that, during the month of March alone, the park’s South Entrance received 101 inches. He said the snow is so deep in some places that the bulldozers have to push it off the roadway in layers, to feed it to rotary plows that then blow it off the road surface. JACKSON, WYO. Snowfall exceeds 600 inches at ski resort Total snowfall has exceeded 600 inches at one of the measuring stations at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. It’s the first time in 42 winters that a measuring station there has recorded that much snow. The resort closed April 6 for the season. Total snowfall measured at the Raymer study station at more than 9,300 feet was 605 inches since last October, according to the Jackson Hole News and Guide. Avalanche forecaster Bob Comey at the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center says snowfall totals on the upper mountain snowfall totals were regularly under-reported during the resort’s early years. He says forecasters wouldn’t regularly visit the upper mountain to measure snowfall. Comey says this winter has been one of the top five seasons in terms of snowfall. CONCORD, N.H. State luring tourists with gas vouchers A tank of gas goes a long way in New Hampshire, particularly for tourists who take advantage of new discounts being offered this spring and summer. “Everybody’s concerned about the high cost of gas, so we’re looking for ways to make it easier on visitors,” said Tai Freligh, spokesman for the state’s Division of Travel and Tourism Development. Those feeling pinched at the pumps can take advantage of numerous discounts. For example, the Inn at Mill Falls in Meredith is offering a $20 per night gas voucher to guests, while the Highlands Inn in Bethlehem will give guests rebates of up to $50 based on how far they drive. Hybrid car drivers will get 30 cents a mile for the gas it takes to get to the northern New Hampshire inn, while conventional car drivers will get 25 cents a mile. Tourism officials also are emphasizing the state’s com-pact geography, which brings mountains, lakes and seashore well within the range of one tank of gas, as well as its highly walkable communities where visitors can park their cars and enjoy themselves on foot. Details at www.VisitNH.gov. ATLANTA King Tut’s treasures to open at university An exhibition featuring more than 130 treasures from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun and other ancient sites will begin a United States tour with an opening November in Atlanta. The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University announced it will open the exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center from November through May 22, 2009. The exhibit will then move to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum from June to October 2009. “Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs” is the second National Geographic exhibition dedicated to the treasures of King Tutankhamun and ancient Egyptian royalty. The first exhibition, “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,” was visited by nearly 4 million people during a four-city U.S. tour from 2005 to 2007. The exhibition is organized by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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