Touring the Great National Parks of North America
The best place to view Maine’s Acadia National Park is from the top of 1,530-foot Cadillac Mountain. From there, you can see a good bit of Mt. Desert Island and most of the parkland itself. Hikers who take the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail usually take two days to make the trip. The drive into Utah’s Zion National Park goes through a tunnel, the rock walls of which are pierced by arched “windows” that allow motorists flashing views of the canyon. Such information takes this two-volume video set beyond showing pretty scenery and tells you, subtly, how you can see those very views for yourself. Those subtle messages are in keeping with the soft background music, soothing voice-overs and the undeniable beauty of 20 U.S. and 21 Canadian national parks, each filmed during the season and time of day that shows it at its best. The parks are divided by country into two volumes: The one for U.S. parks favors scenery and visitation; the one for Canadian parks leans toward wildlife and solitude. Admire the set for its cinematography, buy it for its advice. $34.95 for the set. From Questar. (800-544-8422)
BOOKS
“Chicago” (Lonely Planet, $15.95)
Perhaps the best way to judge a guidebook series is to see how it covers your own hometown. Will it describe your favorite places as lovingly as you might? Will it divulge secrets you hope no one else has discovered? It’s a big job, sharing all of Chicago. Lonely Planet guidebooks got started years ago by telling backpackers where to pitch a tent in remote regions of the Third World. Now they’re tackling some of the world’s most expensive real estate, in the not-so-lonely parts of the planet. So this title offers a complete section on Chicago’s architecture, a strategy for making it through the Art Institute in 90 minutes, a tip on which high-falutin hotel has the best swimming pool. The book unashamedly describes ours as “the most American of cities,” lists restaurants neighborhood-by-neighborhood, tells which movies besides “The Blues Brothers” were filmed here and what now occupies the address where the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre took place. For Chicagoans, this book should prove itself a friendly shepherd for visiting friends and relatives. For the travelers themselves, it’s the ultimate wish book.
KID STUFF
Travel Games 1
This colorful deck of cards is used to play three games. Travel Match-Up is geared so even a 3-year-old can play along. Cards feature cartoon images of items such as a flag, a water tower, a bicycle or a bird; players find the item, keep the card, and the player collecting the most cards wins. Use the same cards to play the Memory Game. Cards are placed face down and turned face up two at a time. If the two match, the player collects them, if not those cards are turned face down again and the next player repeats the process. Again, the player with the most cards wins. A version of Old Maid can be played as well. The cards are part of Rand McNally’s KidsCards series. Another is Travel Games 2. Twenty-eight cards in its deck are similar to dominoes in that they have one picture on each half of the card: Play “dominoes” on a flat surface; or in the car, have two players compete to see who can find the item depicted on his half of the card. The rest of the deck has the alphabet and can be can be used for letter- or word-search games. Each deck sells for $3.95. (847-329-8100)
“Fun Places to Go With Children in Colorado” (Chronicle Books, $11.95)
Cripple Creek used to be a mining town. It still is, though the ore these days is extracted in the casinos rather than from the ground. This book doesn’t mind telling you that the casinos in this Colorado town are loud and crowded and may not have a place for your kids. Its authors tell you what you can expect if you decide to tour the Molly Kathleen, a real, if former, gold mine. They’ve covered the state region by region, town by town, focusing on specific places (such as Doc Holliday’s grave in Glenwood Springs) and activities (such as dog-sledding in Snowmass), each with descriptions, contact information and age recommendations. Perhaps their work is a little too comprehensive, considering the inclusion of the Pitkin County Library. We’re not saying it isn’t a nice place, but with only its kindly librarian, children’s collection and separate children’s entrance to recommend it, most families who vacation in Aspen will likely find a gold mine of other interests to pursue. (800-722-6657)
INTERNET
Fresh Guide to St. Petersburg (www.online.ru/sp/fresh)
We don’t object to this site’s mean-spirited moments, only that they are not clever ones. “Any bag larger than a ladies'(sic) handbag must be checked at the cloakroom,” states a section of the Russian city’s Museums page. “They are very strict about this rule because stealing from museums is a privilege accorded only to the museum administrators.” There is much to learn from this site (what you’ll see in which room of The Hermitage). There’s juicy gossip (they had to drown Rasputin to kill him) and the odd bit of irony (St. Petersburg’s architecture was preserved because Stalin hated this city). There’s even advice on what to expect if you go to a bathhouse. What this site sadly omits is photography. Instead, Fresh Guide provides cartoons. Although the omission of photos does a disservice to St. Petersburg, it’s a strategy that may well work in favor of this Web site: Jewelbox photography would, by contrast, prove the sarcasm even more out of place.
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Toni Stroud’s e-mail address is tstroud@tribune.com.
