The Grand Ole Opry and Country Music Hall of Fame are must-visits.

  I’ve been a country fan since country wasn’t cool, so Nashville had been high on my travel list for a long time. The Grand Ole Opry, the Bluebird Café and the Country Music Hall of Fame: That’s my kind of paradise.
  With my cowboy boots at the ready, I did not expect to find a revitalized city with top-notch cultural and educational attractions. But in the past decade, Nashville has seen the opening of a major arts center, a high-tech planetarium and one of the world’s most acoustically sound symphony halls.
  On open studios nights, the foot traffic outside art galleries rivals that on honky-tonk row. And while there’s no shortage of mouth-watering barbecue, the restaurant scene is far more eclectic than ribs and grits.
  Certainly, if your sole mission is a Music City pilgrimage that would make Hank Williams proud, Nashville delivers. But, if your travel companions insist twang makes their ears bleed, they may reconsider when they hear what the area has to offer.
The Arts
  Nashville is not just known as the “Athens of the South,” it’s also home to a full-sized replica of the Parthenon, complete with a 42-foot statue of Athena. “This is the only place in the world where you can see what the ancient Greeks wanted you to see,” said Museum Director Wesley Paine.
  Despite the nickname, it wasn’t until the Frist Center for the Visual Arts opened in 2001 that Nashville had a museum large enough to host major exhibits. And so, the Frist — a former U.S. Post Office with an Art Deco interior — has no permanent collection but instead offers a changing mix of works by local artists and national and international shows. Among the current offerings: “Georgia O’Keeffe and Her Times,” running through January.
  More O’Keeffe can be viewed at Fisk University — and only there. The small school boasts an extensive catalogue of African art and an O’Keeffe collection gifted by the artist with the stipulation it not be shown anywhere but the campus gallery she chose.
  Nashville also gives star treatment to the performing arts. When the Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened in 2006, it was the country’s most technically innovative concert hall. The shoebox-shaped building offers near-perfect acoustics for the Nashville Symphony’s classical, pops, cabaret, jazz, choral and world music.
History
  Nashville is steeped in history, from its founding as a Revolutionary War fort to its role in the Civil Rights Movement.
  Step just outside the city to the Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. Cows still wander the fields of the 1,100-acre plantation, and inside, 90 percent of the furnishings are original. After viewing an introductory video, follow a costumed interpreter through the mansion.    
  There’s a bit of musical heritage here, too: The driveway is shaped like a guitar, and the family’s piano, guitar and lute rest in the parlor.
  For Civil War history, view the collection at the Nashville State Museum and visit Fort Negley, an important Union fortification after Nashville fell in 1862.
  Almost a century later, the city took center stage in the fight against segregation when African-American students held a sit-in at lunch counters near the Nashville Public Library. Today, the library hosts a Civil Rights   Collection where visitors can sit on stools at a symbolic lunch counter and view black-and-white newspaper photos from the era.
Family Fun
  Children will find plenty to do in Nashville, starting with the Adventure Science Center, which emphasizes hands-on education. “We want you to touch things, feel things, climb on things,” said Marketing Director Virginia Crowe.
  Its newest addition is Space Chase, where you can wander an imaginary galaxy and experience weightlessness like an astronaut. In the Sudekum Planetarium, watch award-winning, original productions that use new technology to immerse you in the experience.
  At the Nashville Zoo, get up close to alligators, giraffes and other critters. Ride the Wild Animal Carousel, and let loose at the huge Jungle Gym playground.
Country Time
  Whatever your taste, it would be a crime to skip the legendary country music sites. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Grand Ole Opry and Bluebird Café are musts.
  The Hall moved from Music Row to its stunning, bass-clef-shaped home in 2001. Among the artifacts: Elvis’ gold Cadillac and Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black” costumes. Sound booths offer a musical tour, and a wall of gold records doubles as a listening station.
  Most performances of the Grand Ole Opry take place at the Opryland complex, but there are occasional shows at the Ryman Auditorium, the “Mother Church” of country music. Legends like Emmylou Harris and Marty Stuart frequent the Opry, but the lineup changes daily, and you might catch a current star like Carrie Underwood or Keith Urban. No matter where you see the Opry or who’s on stage, it’s magical.
  Glimpse stars of tomorrow in an intimate setting at the Bluebird Café, whose stage has hosted the likes of Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton and Bill Monroe.
  If you were already a country fan, you’ll be in your glory. And if you weren’t, you just might become a convert.
  Log on to AAA.com/horizons for information on where to stay and eat.

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Families enjoy Nordic skiing on the 1,250-foot Mount Tom.

  It may be a village of 3,500 residents, but Woodstock is a cosmopolitan town that offers the best of rural Vermont life with a decidedly down-home upscale approach.
  In the center of the state, Woodstock surrounds an idyllic town green. In addition to quaint shops and cozy restaurants, it contains a fine collection of Federal homes and the stately Woodstock Inn and Resort ().
  The Inn, on the town green, is a graceful yet comfortable example of Vermont hospitality and country charm.   It has a classic resort-hotel feel, with a roaring fireplace, casual yet chic dining, and a library filled with games, books (and free hot chocolate morning and afternoons). A quintessentially Vermont covered bridge can be found across the street.
  Winter is a wonderful time to stroll the small downtown, with its eclectic collection of art shops, hardware stores, restaurants and cafes that line the two main streets.
  Step into the past at F.H. Gillingham & Sons: the most general of general stores. It’s easy to lose yourself in aisles stocked with everything from Vermont honey and cocoa to toilet seats and fertilizer. A combination grocery, hardware, liquor, kitchen and farm store, if you want it, Gillingham’s has it.
  Down the street, the Clover Gift shop is stuffed with gorgeous handmade quilts at reasonable prices, delicate glassware and other gifts.
  Woodstock’s Winter Wassail Weekend is a perfect way to kick off the holidays and get into the winter spirit. It’s held Dec. 11 to 13, and the village lights up with luminaries around the town green, a traditional Yule log, concerts, house tours and a parade featuring the Green Mountain Horse Association.
  “The parade is a real Currier & Ives-type event, featuring wagons, surreys and period riders,” said Beth Finlayson, director of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce. “Antoinette Matlins, the founder of the parade, even rides sidesaddle in a flowing gown from before the turn of the last century.”
  Wassail Weekend is just the beginning of wintertime fun in Woodstock, which offers an abundance of activities for the rest of the season.
  You can also capture a feel for a Vermont holiday at Billings Farm, one of the country’s premier agricultural museums. Christmas at the Farm (December weekends and Dec. 26 to Jan. 3) features a traditionally decorated 1890s farmhouse, period musical performances and horse-drawn sleigh rides.
  “Billings Farm even has a Christmas tree decorated with real candles,” Ms. Finlayson said. “Just like people did 120 years ago.”
  Of course, there are plenty of outlets for snow sports. Suicide Six Ski Area (run by the Woodstock Inn) provides a family-friendly alternative to massive mountains like Killington. It has good snowmaking capability and 23 trails for skiers of all abilities.
  Cross-country types will want to take advantage of the Inn’s Nordic Center, with two separate trail systems, featuring century-old carriage roads and a log cabin rest stop on nearby Mount Tom. Inn guests can ski for free Sunday through Thursday on non-holiday weeks.
  Not a skier? Try sledding down the edge of Mount Tom. About a half-mile north on Route 12, past Billings Farm, is the perfect sledding hill. Visitors can park on the right, cross the road and fly down the snowy hill on a sled, tube or snow disk. Sleds are rented at Woodstock Sports and Fine Clothing on Central Street and sold at F. H. Gillingham & Sons or the Woodstock Ski Touring Center.
  The area also offers opportunities to snowshoe. Simply cross the covered bridge near the Green and continue on Mountain Avenue to Faulkner Park on the right. A variety of easy switchback trails lead to the top of Mount Tom.
All in all, Woodstock is a slice of fresh country apple pie with a double-shot café latte. From skiing to sledding to snowshoeing to shopping, it’s easy to see why it’s a great place to warm up to winter.

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A boat tours an iceberg in Newfoundland’s Witless Bay.

  Cold is a relative thing. To anyone living south of the Canadian border, Newfoundland’s climate could be compared with that of a meat locker.
  But to adventurer Captain Bob Bartlett – who enabled Admiral Robert Peary to be the first man to reach the North Pole a century ago — Newfoundland represented the last warm glow of civilization before making the big push toward the Arctic Circle.
  The coastal hamlet of Brigus (where birdhouses surely outnumber homes two to one) seems like an odd place for a stopover for an expedition of global significance. Even today, less than 800 people call this paradise home. But, as I wander along a path strewn with summer wildflowers, I discover Bartlett’s real motivation: a home-cooked meal.
  Bartlett grew up in Brigus but left when he was 21 to seek fame and fortune. He conducted more than 40 polar voyages throughout his life and stopped in to see mom each time. His house (now a museum) has been left as if he might return at any moment; furniture and maps still fill the bedrooms. One wall of the lounge is covered with accolades from storied institutions and presidents past, but it’s the “Friendly Order of the Original Bad Eggs” awards that get my attention.
  It turns out Bartlett was a ham. A “Crocodile Hunter” of polar waters, he often filmed his Arctic voyages. Upstairs in the multimedia room, they play on endless loop. This is among the earliest exploration footage on Earth.
  I settle into a chair as Bartlett blithely narrates the harpooning of a narwhal (his exhibition relied on seals and whales for food and finance) but the most extraordinary footage is yet to come. Bartlett collected many samples of unusual creatures for zoos all over the world, and the cameras were rolling when he spotted a polar bear (later named Miss Carmichael) drifting on an iceberg. It took the entire crew to haul the reluctant creature on board, at which time it made a desperate break for freedom, attempting to jump overboard.
  In what is possibly the most outrageous example of he-followed-me-home-can-I-keep-him, Bartlett brought the animals (bears, walruses, musk oxen — the works) to Brigus and let them roam free in his parents’ yard.
While strolling the grounds (now devoid of predators), I hear talk of two icebergs crowding the waters around Corner Brook further north.
  “If you’re there at exactly the right time, you’ll hear them explode,” swears a local. Like an ice cube in a glass of lemonade, they make an audible crack before dissolving into the sea.
  I drive north, keen to discover by car the coast Bartlett surveyed by boat. Road trips are a relatively new phenomenon in Newfoundland. It took until 1975 (roughly 365 years after the first settlement in 1610) for a road system to link all the villages together. Towns like Keels, Heart’s Desire and the aptly named Come By Chance were left to develop in splendid isolation.
  I make a wide loop of Trinity Bay scanning the horizon for floating snowcapped peaks, but find nothing (it’s mid-summer and the soft warmth has coaxed flowers from even the rockiest crevice). In Cupids, I happen upon Bill Gilbert, chief archaeologist charged with unearthing the home of founding father John Guy. Gilbert and his team have amassed more than 138,000 artifacts: items from pipes to coins dating back to 1560 to Bellamine jars (beer mugs on which the face of a tee-totaling Cardinal Bellamine was emblazoned) now line the walls of the local museum.
  Finally, I land in Port Rexton and rest my bones at Fishers’ Loft. It’s here that I see my first iceberg. The following morning, with local fisherman/guide Bruce Miller at the helm, we weave through the mist over rocks hidden by inky waters. The air turns cold, then the mist parts dramatically.
  “Iceberg dead ahead!” I call. It had been sculpted expertly by wind and waves and glows an unearthly turquoise at the waterline. I feel I have discovered a gigantic gem. It’s absolutely mesmerizing. I want to wait until it detonates or until the sun shrinks it small enough to pop in my mouth.
Immediately, Captain Bartlett’s obsession with ice makes perfect sense.

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The ship’s Royal Promenade is open 24 hours.

  A Caribbean cruise is all fruity drinks, crystal-clear water, day trips to white-sand beaches, reading on the deck by the pool and soaking in the sun. In a word, relaxing.
  But what about rushing to the airport, paying to check your luggage with the airline, security, customs and the three-hour flight to Florida?
And don’t forget, you have to do it again to get home.
  OK, so flying to take an extravagant vacation isn’t necessarily a hardship. And some people actually like to fly. But if you’re not one of them, don’t give up on cruising the Caribbean.
  This spring, New Englanders can spend 13 nights aboard the Explorer of the Seas, without setting foot on an airplane. Royal Caribbean is offering the cruise out of Cape Liberty, N.J.
  If you don’t want to drive, either, that’s fine. Roundtrip motorcoach transportation to the pier is included in the package. A bus makes stops bringing New Englanders directly to the port.
Not only is the package convenient, it also can easily save you hundreds of dollars.
  “If you have a family of four, you don’t have to pay four airfares or four fees for baggage,” said AAA Cranston Travel Counselor Pauline Costantino.
Ms. Costantino has sailed from Cape Liberty — and many other ports — and doesn’t hesitate to recommend homeport cruises.
  “It’s so nice to avoid the airport,” she said. “It’s becoming more popular, especially for people who have a fear of flying.”
The cruise departs from Cape Liberty in March and stops for shore excursions in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Antigua and Puerto Rico.
  And if you cruise from one of many New England ports, you have all of the amenities of the ship to keep you occupied – the food, the casinos, the entertainment – even if the weather isn’t quite tropical for the first leg of the trip in the Atlantic.
  Go rock climbing; play a round of miniature golf; shoot hoops on a full-sized basketball court; work out or relax – or both – at the day spa and fitness center. You can even go ice-skating. Yes. There is an ice-skating rink on the Explorer of the Seas. Glide across the ice as you sail into the Caribbean.
  The ship is also home to a University of Miami Ocean Lab, using high-tech capabilities to conduct atmospheric and oceanographic research.
  All that, with room to accommodate more than 3,000 people – it’s no surprise Explorer is more than 1,000 feet long and weighs nearly 140,000 tons.
  If you can’t make the March cruise, there are plenty of alternate ports of call and destinations; Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Princess sail roundtrip from New Jersey to the Caribbean and to Canada. Holland America leaves Boston and cruises New England, or heads to Europe, also visiting Norway, Iceland, and the Netherlands, among other places.
  And if you want to stay domestic, Norwegian Cruise Line sails from Boston to New Orleans.
  Even though all cruises are not round trip, members need not worry about being stressed when they return to an unfamiliar port, said Charlotte Nichols, AAA’s Manager of Travel Sales and Marketing.
  “Our travel counselors work with our members to ascertain exactly what is desired and needed,” she said. “Many people like to add on a pre- or post-stay to their vacation along with the air back home.”
  AAA Travel Supervisor Venilia Sousa agrees; homeport cruises can relieve a lot of the burdens of travel. And she should know.
  “I’ve been on 46 cruises,” she said. “When you return, you get your luggage and you can be home in an hour or two — there’s no hassle of getting to the airport, clearing customs and flying.”
  Sounds relaxing, like a vacation was meant to be.

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AAA’s Adrian Petrie shared savings tips for traveling to Europe and NYC on recent episodes.

  Planning a celebration? Head to Disney World – the happiest place on Earth.
  Looking for tips for cruising on a family budget or how to stretch your dollar in a down economy for that fabulous honeymoon?
  There’s also some sage advice for how to pack light for a weekend trip and the pros of using a AAA travel counselor contrasted with the cons of planning a trip yourself.
  Anyone tuning in to Fox Providence’s fun, chatty, magazine-format “The Rhode Show” on a Friday mornings on Channel 12 might have caught one of AAA’s live “Going Places” segments. The pieces feature a variety of helpful travel information from AAA experts and others.
  “We look for creative ways to focus our members’ attention on the expertise of our people,” said William Sutherland, Vice President of AAA Travel. “The information we present is reliable and well-informed and presents a basis by which members can make travel arrangements in a confident manner. ‘The Rhode Show’ has been a way for us to do that.”
  Back in March, viewers learned of AAA’s Travel Marketplace that month with World of Discovery animals visiting for the occasion and live on-air interviews.
Warwick Travel Counselor Bruce Hebert has been on the lifestyle show to gab with hosts Shawn Tempesta, Elizabeth Hopkins and Vince DeMentri about the many benefits of using one of AAA’s experienced travel counselors as opposed to “doing it yourself.”
  And Cranston Travel Counselor Pauline Costantino offered tips for cruising on a friendly budget – beginning with the advice that selecting a cruise that departs from a nearby “homeport” tops this list for value and convenience.
  “We feature some of our travel counselors to show the depth of their expertise and how they can help members with their travel planning and arrangements in a myriad of ways,” said Anne Berg, AAA’s Director of Marketing Services.
  AAA has been involved with “The Rhode Show” since its early stages and was on board with its Going Places segment when the show debuted in February.
  Topics have ranged from visiting Canada at any time to Smithsonian Journey’s Travel Adventures to how to plan for and take shore excursions during a cruise vacation.
  A two-time guest on the program, Auto Travel Information Specialist Adrian Petrie has spoken about the value of European travel in recent months and how to travel affordably in New York City.
  In addition to AAA’s expert employees, Going Places guests have included industry insiders such as Disney’s Peter Figueiredo, Universal’s Dennis Quinn, Quebec City Tourism’s Katie Lepage, Royal Caribbean’s Kelly Corbett and Member Choice Vacations’ Frank Marini, who discussed travel to South Africa.
  “It was fun to work with some of our travel partners and get their perspective embedded in the shows,” Mr. Sutherland said. “And what’s really good about this is even if you missed one of the shows, you can click onto AAA.com and view it.”
  For more Going Places tips and advice, tune in to Fox Providence at 8 a.m. Fridays. Those who want to revisit AAA’s segments or watch them for the first time should visit AAA.com’s Travel page and click on “The Rhode Show” link to access the video library.

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A tour group glimpses the magic of pastry-making at the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, N.Y.

  Cat Cora, Todd English, Duff Goldman, Sara Moulton, Anthony Bourdain — if you know who these people are, or even if you don’t, but just love all things food, you might want to consider a pilgrimage to their alma mater, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
  The gorgeous 170-acre campus, formerly a Jesuit School built in 1901, sits regally overlooking the Hudson River. It is more than welcoming to guests who want to take a tour or eat at one of the excellent student-run restaurants. For more intense foodies, workshops, seminars and longer one- to five-day boot camps are offered. Prices range from $250 for a workshop to $2,095 for longer programs.
  On a public tour, I was surprised to learn the college is a nonprofit whose modest mission is only to “provide the world’s best professional culinary education.” The nonprofit status explains why classrooms and lecture halls are named for sponsors such as the Conrad N. Hilton Library, the General Mills Food Nutrition Center and so on.
  As my guide, a current student, took my daughter and me around campus, we got to peek in on some of the 41 kitchens and bakeshops and the five restaurants. Tours are offered whenever the Institute’s school is in session.   They’re held at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays and 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, for $5 per person. Having a 10-year-old in tow was a definite advantage on the tour. Pastry chef professors came out of their classrooms with treats for us to taste more than once.
  Food enthusiasts can choose from a variety of classes. “Weekends at the CIA” classes take their topics from the many cookbooks the Institute has published. They include everything from bread-baking to Asian cuisine to soups to grilling. The classes are five hours long and include the cookbook you work from and an apron. While most classes are geared toward adults, there is usually a parent and teen day (kids must be at least 12) a few times a year.
  Boot camps are more intense and hone in on learning and polishing skills. In most classes, you’ll receive a chef’s uniform and eat dinner in one of the school’s restaurants. Topics include a basic training boot camp, skill development, BBQ, Italian cuisine, among many others.
  Special holiday programs in November and December include a two-day boot camp ($850) or a class just on holiday pies or cookies ($200).
  Professor Mark Ainsworth, who often runs the holiday boot camp, tries to get people to move away from some of their ingrained cooking habits. People get “tied to recipes,” especially traditional ones, but he stresses concepts over following a recipe. If you “understand how to roast a turkey, you can roast anything,” he said.
  A great component of the class focuses on what to do with leftovers, always a conundrum, especially if the same old turkey sandwiches bore you. You learn how to use all of the turkey, for example, plying the bones for stock, butterflying the breast and making a roulade. During the course, which runs from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, you will learn carving techniques, tips on making holiday beverages and how to pair wines with courses. And, oh yes, you will be critiqued on your food, which is served up to everyone.
  If you’d rather enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor, the campus has you covered. The excellent Apple Pie Bakery Café, run by the pastry chef students, has a nonstop line out the door almost all day long, if the day I was there is any indication. American Bounty Restaurant, open for lunch and dinner, features local Hudson River Valley ingredients. Escoffier, in tribute to its famous chef namesake, serves up French cuisine. Other options include the Italian Ristorante Caterina de Medicini and the more casual St. Andrews Café.
  Because students staff the restaurants, the prices are unbelievably inexpensive; yet because these are perhaps the next top chefs in the country, the food is outstanding. Bon appétit!

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Photo courtesy of Tara Watkins BJ Hill edges closer to home, walking in Granby, Conn.

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Klein Above and below: BJ Hill ends his 4,250-mile journey in Copley Square.

  Boston never looked so good.
It was a snowy January afternoon with the temperature at a blustery 26 degrees. I had just crossed Mass. Ave., and I was hiking down Boylston Street toward Copley Square. It was the last mile of my Walk Across America.
  I had been crossing the country on foot since the previous March. I started on the Golden Gate Bridge, traveled over the California mountains and the Nevada desert to Salt Lake City, then through Wyoming and Nebraska to Omaha. The sizzling summer sun saw me sauntering to St. Louis, down to Mississippi, across the Deep South to Atlanta, toward the East Coast.
  Crammed in my backpack with my tent and sleeping bag was a small leather-bound notebook. Within this journal were personal notes from people I met along the way for the soon-to-be elected U.S. president.
  Some were hopeful: “Mr. President, I want to feel pride in my country again. Tired of seeing others with their heads hung low. Inspire us, so we can inspire each other. Please use your power wisely,” wrote a man from Paducah, Ky.
  And some were concerned. A woman from Mississippi wrote, “I would like more done for our troops; my son is there now.”
  Summer turned into fall, which brought Election Day. I was in High Point, N.C., staying with a Russian couple I had met online and watching the results roll in. We were glued to a giant flat-screen as Barack Hussein Obama was chosen as the 44th President of the United States.
  The following week I was headed into Greensboro, S.C., home of the 1960s lunch-counter sit-ins. The messages here, in these largely African-American neighborhoods, were of congratulations.
  “Mr. Obama, my family and I are so glad that you are the president,” wrote a Greensboro woman. “America is going to expect a lot of you but we all have faith in you. We wish you the best of luck.”
  When I first envisioned hiking across the country, I pictured rolling hills and wide-open farmlands. This is exactly what I found in central Virginia. The only downside was the late-autumn chill. I camped out behind a church near Spotsylvania one evening and woke to find frost clinging to my tent.
As New England reeled from a paralyzing December ice storm, I marched through D.C., Maryland and Delaware.
  In gray, overcast New Jersey, the sun didn’t peep out once. I trudged around the bottom corner of New York at Christmastime, into frozen Connecticut — New Milford, Torrington, Enfield — and into Sturbridge, my hometown of Leicester, Worcester, Framingham and Boston.
  As I hiked into Copley Square that Sunday afternoon, I can’t say a cavalcade of emotions overwhelmed me. Maybe I was tired; maybe the winter weather had worn me out; maybe I realized all things must come to an end.
  A few friends braved the cold to watch me cross the finish line. A few TV cameras were waiting; I gave my last of many interviews of the walk. Afterward, we ate at a nearby restaurant. And it was over.
  The event I had been planning for years, which I had dreaming of since I was a boy reading Peter Jenkins’ “A Walk across America,” was over. That night I boarded the commuter rail alone and headed back to Worcester. I suddenly found myself transitioning from “living my dream” to “lived my dream.”
  In reality, the walk is not finished. I still have three books, full of thousands of messages for the President. I am working with local lawmakers to present these to Mr. Obama personally. What he does with these journals is out of my hands; whether he archives them, tosses them aside, or maybe even keeps them nearby and opens them once in a while to remember why we voted for him.
  I’d like to think if he is reminded that one man was inspired to walk 4,250 miles across America to bring him the voices of the people, then maybe, just maybe, he’ll also be inspired to go the extra mile.
  And maybe, just maybe, when I do have an appointment with the President, I’ll walk to it.

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Photo Credit: Celebrity Cruises Cruises offer family members the chance to reunite and relax.

  As the holidays approach and families gather to celebrate together, now is the perfect time to plan that big family reunion everyone has long discussed.
The challenge has always been finding the place where Grandma and the teenagers want to go — a place with activities for the 8-year-old twins and their 40-something parents, and where the college kids can get a cup of coffee and keep up with their online social network.
This can be a near impossible task, but there’s a remarkably simple solution. Best of all, it’s within the reach and budget of every extended family: a family reunion cruise vacation.
  Shipboard multigenerational vacations represent one of the fastest growing segments of the cruise industry for many reasons.
  Tops on the list: On a cruise, all family members can do whatever they want, when they want, individually or with others.
  There are babysitters for the youngest travelers, supervised activities for toddlers and young children, clubs and dances for teens, and a broad range of activities for adults and seniors.
  Depending on the ship, recreational activities may include climbing walls, ice skating rinks, fitness programs, spa treatments, cooking classes, wine tastings, and other opportunities
  Multiple choices of dining experiences and venues — from poolside snacks to the most elegant cuisine — ensure all guests enjoy themselves in the style and ambience they prefer.
  Daily entertainment, from movies to Broadway-style musicals, guarantees that every taste and interest is accommodated. And, in each port — there may be as many as six destinations visited during a seven-day cruise — a variety of shore excursions means land activities of interest to everyone.
  Other advantages of a family reunion cruise:
  • With pricing that includes accommodations, meals, entertainment, use of most of the ship’s recreational facilities, and travel from destination to destination, any cruise represents excellent value for the money spent. Cruise lines also make special offers to groups. These may include reduced fares for groups as small as eight and free berths for every 10 to 15 paying passengers.
  • Family groups may have the option to buy everything in advance, including cruise fares, onboard beverages shore excursions, spa packages and prepaid gratuities.
  • Further savings can be realized through reduced fares for third and fourth passengers in each stateroom.
  • Cruise lines offer vacations as short as a weekend, so there’s an itinerary to meet every family’s needs.
  • Family reunions may have opportunities to take advantage of accommodation upgrades, private events and special shipboard credits.
From voyages down the great rivers of Europe to the Caribbean’s tropical beaches, the diversity of cruise experiences means there is a cruise vacation for every interest and budget.

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Bridges connect Pittsburgh’s 89 diverse neighborhoods.

  A city for all seasons, Pittsburgh glitters even when the leaves are gone and the crisp chill of autumn fills the air.
  Skyscrapers made of steel and glass stretch deep into the Western Pennsylvania sky, reflecting a balance of heritage and innovation. Boats slice through the three rivers that ring the city center. Football fans flock across a gold-toned pedestrian bridge to Heinz Field, home of the powerful Steelers.
  Perched in the Alleghenies, halfway between New York and Chicago, Pittsburgh is a college town with a low crime rate, low cost of living and high interest in sports.
  Vendors peddling black-and-gold souvenirs of all sorts dot every neighborhood in the Steel City. As the official palette of all three Pittsburgh professional sports teams, it is no wonder these two colors seem ubiquitous here.
  Both the Steelers and the Pirates moved to new riverside parks in 2001. The horseshoe-shaped Heinz Field, which seats 65,000 for both pro and college football, has an open south end that faces Point State Park, at the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela rivers.
  PNC Park, with a retro feel, fronts bridges and skyline, creating a vivid setting for the park’s frequent firework displays. The pyrotechnics celebrate the area’s own Zambelli Fireworks, one of the oldest and largest fireworks companies in America.
  Pittsburgh is a handsome city, thanks to hundreds of bridges and the constant parade of trains and boats.
  Its cityscapes are even more sensational when sampled from the top of the Monongahela Incline, a funicular that climbs Mount Washington. Steeper, shorter and older than the nearby Duquesne Incline, the Monongahela went into service in 1869. The 35-percent grade makes the climb an experience to remember, though the other incline (circa 1877) still uses its original Victorian carriers.
  Too many trips on the incline may explain Andy Warhol’s dizzying sense of design, revealed without censorship at the Pittsburgh museum that carries his name. The most comprehensive single-artist museum on the planet, the Andy Warhol Museum contains thousands of the Pittsburgh native’s works.
  It is one of four impressive in­stitutions that comprise the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh – the others being the Museums of Art, the Museum of Natural History and the Science Center. Steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie established the museums more than 110 years ago, and today they are home to exhibits on Renoir, robots, rock formations and more.
  In addition to Warhol and Carnegie (a Pittsburgh transplant by way of Scotland), Pittsburgh has given the world legends like Perry Como, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Joe Montana and Mr. Rogers. Even Heinz ketchup, a creation of H.J. Heinz, hails from the Steel City.
  An entire floor of the Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center is devoted to the evolution of the Heinz Company, with an exhibit of foreign TV commercials for pickles and baked beans. The six-story center also includes the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, featuring such Pittsburgh icons as Bill Mazeroski and Mario Lemieux, plus artifacts from the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays.
  Pittsburgh’s diverse heritage results in fun food finds for visitors. From Pad Thai to pasta to pierogi, authentic ethnic cuisine is prominent throughout the city at family-owned establishments, many of which have been around for decades. Several local eateries have even been featured on the popular Food Network show “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.” For an authentic (if not healthy) Pittsburgh experience, order the Pittsburgh salad – a heap of vegetables topped by French fries.
  With its old-meets-new skyline, impressive muse­ums, and plethora of parks and neighborhoods, Pittsburgh is thriving. Old-timers from the steel mill days wouldn’t recognize the place. But they should try: Pittsburgh is within a day’s drive of more than half the population in North America.

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Not having to buy airfare makes homeport cruising more affordable for families.

  A cruise is an adventure. If you live in New England, part of the adventure – a potentially expensive part — is getting to the port of call. Here’s your chance to escape to the Caribbean without having to foot the bill for two trips: one to fly to Florida and another to the islands.
AAA hosts two special 13-day homeport cruises on Royal Caribbean – one departing from Cape Liberty, N.J., in the spring, and another from Boston in the fall.
  “It’s become increasingly popular to sail from a home port,” said Charlotte Nichols, Manager of AAA Travel Sales and Marketing. “Our members have choices now that weren’t available a few years ago.”
  The Explorer of the Seas sails round trip from Cape Liberty to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Antigua and Puerto Rico. The ship offers you the chance to do something you may not expect in the Caribbean – ice-skating.
  In the fall, the Jewel of the Seas will cruise from Boston to St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Dominica, Barbados, Aruba and Curaçao and end in Fort Lauderdale. On-board, find a rock-climbing wall and self-leveling pool tables.
  The fall cruise is ideal for New Englanders who migrate to Florida for the winter. “Imagine ‘moving’ south via a relaxing cruise ship!” Ms. Nichols said. Travel counselors can help you plan the return home.

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Photo by Jason Savage Ken Burns films at Montana’s Glacier Bay National Park.

 If Ken Burns has it his way, Americans will soon be pouring through the gates of the U.S. National Parks.
 The acclaimed director — dubbed the rock star of public television — has been a fan of the parks since he was 6 and his father took him to Shenandoah, in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. His newest film,  “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” does more than boast stunning footage. It brings to light the stories of people who fought their entire lives to preserve natural landmarks for generations of Americans.
Mr. Burns spoke with AAA Horizons, as the six-episode series was set to debut on PBS beginning Sept. 27.
 Q: It’s interesting that the history of the parks is so connected with personal stories. This isn’t a travelogue, and this isn’t just a nature film. This is the history of the ideas and the individuals that made this uniquely American thing possible. This is a story filled with great great drama. There will always be people who look at a beautiful river and think dam. They will look at a canyon and think what mineral wells can be explored. There were people in American history who said, “No” — big, capital letter, emphatic “no” — “think about saving a relatively small portion of our environment to have a glimpse of who we are.” It crosses all political spectrums. This is a look at creation.
 Q: The “Father of our National Parks” John Muir is prominent in the film. Were you glad for the chance to cast a spotlight on him? I think people will be stunned to think, here is a man whose name they may or may not have heard, and he’s one of the top 10 important people of all American history — throwing in Washington and Lincoln. This is a hugely important person who got us to understand what our potentiality is and who could articulate in a way that Americans would understand. Far and away, he’s one of the most compelling characters I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know.
 Q: How about others? We worked on this for 10 years, and people would say, “National Parks: Teddy Roosevelt.” He’s huge, wonderful and central, but he’s one character in our second episode. We introduce you to 50 or so people who are not just white and male and famous, but black and brown and red and yellow and female and unknown. That’s a wonderful story: This did not come from any kind of political correctness on our part — this is a natural occurring diversity we are celebrating here. The story of each park involves so-called ordinary people saying, “I want to save this for people I will never meet.”
 Q: Do you have a favorite park? They’re so varied and so interesting and so beautiful that it’s hard to just say, “Do you have a favorite?” It’s like a movie or a favorite painting — there are so many and they’re so different. Yosemite always holds a very special place in my heart. The Grand Canyon is funny: People describe going for the first time and being awestruck, but other times being less so. I was awestruck the first time and it just keeps getting better; I’ve been five or six times, and each time is better.
 Q: What was the first National Park you visited? In 1959 when I was 6, my Dad took me for a weekend alone — just the two of us —to Shenandoah National Park. We drove from Delaware, where we lived, to the Northern entrance. We drove down Skyline Drive, checked into a little cabin. We went on hikes and I can still remember to this day what his hand felt like holding mine, the songs that he sang to me that I’ve sung to my daughters. It was hugely intimate and transformational.
 Q: What’s the message of your film? We see this as the Declaration of Independence applied to the landscape — democracy with a small “d” working at its very best. What democracy does is it levels things. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a billionaire or working in the factory of a billionaire. You are a co-owner of the most spectacular oceanfront property, the highest free-falling waterfall on the continent, the greatest collection of geysers in the world and the grandest canyon on Earth. That’s a pretty great thing to own. It makes us all rich beyond belief.
 I think what we understood in the history of the U.S., in the early days, the parks were visited by the rich, who could afford the cost of cross-country railroad tickets and package tours. With the introduction of the automobile, it was the great democratizing factor. The parks were rebuilt to accommodate ordinary folks.
 The big debate in film school was whether films could actually get people to do anything or whether they just preached to the choir. I’ve learn positively that they do make people do things. So, what we want people to come away with is a sense of the glory — the complicated glory — of these amazing parks that we’ve set aside.
 But then, also, we want them to go to them. Today everybody’s so digitally preoccupied that some of these places aren’t getting the kind of visitation they were getting a few years ago. Let’s change that. Let’s have every park superintendent angry at you and me for spreading the word about the parks.

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Albany will be a focal point of the Hudson 400 Celebration.

 He was English but flew the banner of the Dutch East India Company from the mast of his tiny ship. With little more than a sextant and a compass, he braved the dangerous North Atlantic, seeking a quick route to the riches of the Orient.
 Four hundred years after his Half Moon arrived in the New World, Henry Hudson’s name survives on the river he discovered, the surrounding valley, cities and counties in several states, and on buildings that sprang up on land once occupied by Native Americans.
 Hudson’s vessel left Amsterdam on April 4, 1609, and navigated north into icy Russian waters before heading west in search of the elusive Northwest Passage. His Dutch and English crew wanted him to return home but Hudson pressed on – motivated by a letter from Capt. John Smith in the new Jamestown colony.
 The Half Moon floated into New York Harbor on Sept. 12, journeyed upriver to Albany a week later and embarked on the month-long voyage home on Oct. 4. Though he arrived with beaver pelts instead of Chinese silks, Hudson told his sponsors, “This land may be profitable to those that will adventure it.”
 It was the biggest understatement of the last 400 years.
The Half Moon arrives again this September when a full-sized replica docks in Albany and offers public tours. A week after its mid-month arrival, the Hudson 400 Celebration marks the quadricentennial with music, fireworks and re-enactments of historic events.
 One of those events was Hudson’s befriending of local tribes, laying the groundwork for the settlements that followed. Initially called Beverwyck, Albany played key roles in the French & Indian and Revolutionary wars. Local merchants supplied the Continental Army and helped turn the tide in the Battle of Saratoga. The growing city later served as a transportation hub, government center and hotbed for arts, architecture and technology. River commerce boomed – especially after Robert Fulton invented the steamboat 200 years after Hudson arrived under sail.
 The epicenter of the yearlong Hudson 400 Celebration of Discovery, Albany continues to showcase its heritage through museum exhibits and educational programs featuring frequent appearances of a life-sized Henry Hudson doll. Festivals feature historic ships, riverside bonfires, Dutch-inspired tulips and music inspired by the Hudson’s changing seasons.
 Celebrations are continuing along the entire 275-mile corridor from Northern New Jersey, separated from Manhattan by the Hudson, to Plattsburgh, an upstate New York hamlet near the Canadian border.
 Thanks to Hudson, Dutch names survive everywhere. Watervliet Arsenal, an Albany County factory that made cannons and ammunition for the War of 1812, has exhibits on the evolution of artillery. Van Schaick, an 18th-century brick mansion at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, served as a military headquarters in three wars.
 Open for tours are the 36-room home of pre-Civil War president Martin van Buren, in Lindenwald, Columbia County; the 244-acre Essex County farm where abolitionist John Brown lived before leading the 1859 raid that resulted in his trial and execution; and the 54-room riverside mansion occupied by railroad tycoon Frederick Vanderbilt.
 Other places to celebrate in the Hudson Valley are the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidential library in Hyde Park, Boscobel House & Gardens in Garrison, and Kykuit, the 40-room John D. Rockefeller mansion in Westchester County.
 Saratoga Monument, a 155-foot granite obelisk built a century after the famous 1777 battle, is part of a national historic park with a museum, movie and battlefield. Not far away are Saratoga Race Course, America’s oldest thoroughbred track and the adjacent National Museum of Racing. Restored Victorian bathhouses dot Saratoga Spa State Park.
 Henry Hudson would be pleased to know the lush river valley he discovered is thriving. There’s no better symbol of that success than Albany’s Hudson River Way, a pedestrian walkway that links downtown Albany to the banks of the river, telling the region’s story through a series of paintings and murals.

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