When in the United States, there is an endless list of places to visit and much will depend on your interests, the time you have to spend, and how far you wish to travel.
In the state of Arizona, you will find the Grand Canyon. Created by the Colorado River over 6 million years ago, the Grand Canyon is a spectacular gorge stretching 277 miles with widths between 4 to 18 miles and depths of more than a mile.
California boasts some really interesting places to visit, including the infamous Alcatraz Prison; Death Valley National Park, which is the hottest, driest and lowest desert on earth; The Hearst Castle; the J.Paul Getty Museum and the Griffith Observatory, which are both in Los Angeles. Depending on what time of year you plan to visit, Yosemite National Park will offer you sights that you can tell your grandchildren about. A visit to California would not be complete without a tour of Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank.
The Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum and the USS Nautilus Submarine Museum make Connecticut a must stop for those of you interested in the sea and the vessels that traverse under and over the waves.
The Historical Society of Delaware takes up a 500 block area of a mall in Wilmington and includes the Delaware History Museum, the Old Town Hall, Willington Square and HSD’s research Library.
High on the list of places to visit in the USA would have to be NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where for over thirty years tours groups have heard stories about men in space and voyages to the moon. Castillo de San Marcos and the Florida Museum of Natural History are well worth a look as well.
Popping over to Hawaii, you can visit the great beaches and many monuments and sights, but the one that immediately comes to mind is the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
Back on the mainland, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and Lincoln’s Home at Springfield, Illinois, are places any traveller would love to see. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio at Oak Park are architectural marvels that you should visit while in Illinois.
Lincoln City, Indiana, is home to Abraham Lincoln’s Boyhood National Memorial, and Louisiana boasts the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and Oak Valley Plantation in Vacherie.
In Maine, there is the Maine Maritime Museum for sea lovers and the Seashore Trolley Museum for land lovers. While in Maryland, you can see the Antietam (Civil War) National Battlefield and the Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture.
Massachusetts offers a smorgasbord of places to visit, including Historic Salem, famous for the Witch Trial. You can visit Plymouth Plantation and the Pilgrim Hall Museum, both at Plymouth. If you find yourself in Boston, you can visit Paul Revere’s House, the John F Kennedy Presidential Library, the Museum of Fine Arts, the USS Constitution Ship Museum, and The Freedom Trail. Do not forget Harvard University and Historic Deerfield, as well as the National Heritage Museum at Lexington and Battleship Cove at Fall River.
In Michigan, there is the Henry Ford Museum at Dearborn and the Gerald R Ford Museum at Grand Rapids.
Missouri is home to the Harry S Truman Presidential Library.
Nevada has the Hoover Dam.
In New Jersey there are the Morristown National Historical Park and the Thomas Edison National Historical Site.
Places to visit in New York are the Empire State Building, the world Famous Statue of Liberty, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, National Baseball Hall of Fame, West Point (US Military Academy, and the American Museum of Natural History.
The home of the Vanderbilts, Biltmore Estate, and the historic Latta Plantation are both situated in North Carolina. South Carolina is the home to Fort Sumter, the fort where the American Civil War began.
The United States Air Force Museum is near Dayton, Ohio. In Oregon you can visit the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks.
Steeped in history, Pennsylvania is the home of several historical must-sees: Gettysburg Battlefield, National Civil War Museum, Independence Hall, National Constitution Center, and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Mount Rushmore National Park in South Dakota is known the world over. While you are in the area, don’t forget the Badlands National Park and Black Hills National Forest as well.
In Tennessee, there is the National Civil Rights Museum. In Texas, there is the home of The Alamo and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
In Virginia, there are several historical sites and atrractions: the Home of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello; the Home of George Washington, Mount Vernon; and the birthplace of Robert E. Lee, Stratford Hall Plantation.
The name Washington D.C., the Nation’s Capital, speaks for itself: The White House, Arlington National Cemetery, Smithsonian Museums, Lincoln Memorial, and the Memorials for the Holocaust, WWII and Vietnam Veterans and Ford’s Theatre.
In Wyoming, there is the beautiful Yellowstone National Park.
And for the young and the young at heart, one of the most popular places to visit is, of course, Disneyland.