Couple of Coffees

Favorite tourist attractions

Here's our next list, in no particular order, of our picks for best tourist attractions:

Schlitterbahn, New Braunfels, Texas. The massive, Bavarian themed waterpark offers all kinds of fun for all ages. We liked the tube rides down bumps and drops and landing down in the Comal River. The park uses untreated riverwater for its rides, which is especially cool. And for a hot Texas summer day, you can't beat the experience.

Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's home, in Oxford, Mississippi. It was beautiful. Even though we got there too late to take the tour. I really connected to the landscape in relation to what he describes in his incredible novels.

Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. The history there is all so incredible. A visitor could spend days there learning about the American Revolution and reading all the plaques.

The Maker's Mark Distillery tour, Loretto, Kentucky. You, too, can dip your finger in a vat of fermenting alcohol in the middle of the Kentucky countryside.

Rockefeller Center tour (the history and architecture tour), New York City. Our guide threw in lots of anecdotes about celebrities, mixing history and art knowledge with fun comments.

Ben and Jerry's, Waterbury, Vermont. Free samples included! And the old flavor "graveyard" is hysterical:



Celestial Seasonings factory tour, Boulder, Colorado. Who knew that so much mint in the mint room could clear out sinuses so quickly? The full-size artwork that graces the tea boxes was also worth a look. And there were samples galore.

Scout's Rest, Buffalo Bill Cody's ranch in North Platte, Nebraska. The house is small and full of artifacts, but it's the outlying buildings, especially the horse barn, that were chock full of posters and other memorabilia from his traveling Wild West show.

Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee. What's an American road trip without Elvis? The green shag carpet on the ceiling of the jungle room was a highlight.

The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Seeing his studio set up just the way it was and the huge canvases on the walls of the museum was a quintessentially American experience.

Honorable mention: Bill Clinton's presidential library, Little Rock, Arkansas. It's definitely an enormous monument to the man, complete with a spin on the scandals and a beautiful Dale Chihuly glass tree from one of the White House Christmases. It also boasts the only full-sized replica of the oval office in a presidential library.

posted by Laura the Writer @ 2:21 PM