and everything in between
Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course is located in the heart of Pennsylvania. It doesn’t attract the big city players, but it’s as good as just about any casino not found on the Vegas strip (and better than many of those!). And this has something those casinos lack: live thoroughbred horse racing.
Dollywood and Splash Country are located side by side in the beautiful Tennessee mountains. Though the parks are clean and well maintained, they are both small and somewhat disappointing. Dollywood Theme Park is like a large fair with shops and carnival games but only has a handful of thrill rides. My teenage nieces, who have been to Cedar Point and are season pass holders to Busch Gardens, actually described it as kind of boring with not enough roller coasters. Similarly, Splash Country is the smallest water park we have ever been to with only a few big rides.
(For a detailed review of Dollywood’s Dream More Resort, click here.)
No matter which direction you approach the Dealey Plaza Museum, there are parking lots on both sides of the building. In the picture below, Dealey Plaza museum is the orangey brown building ahead on the right. When parking, remember the number of the space you park in because when you pay the parking machine, you need to enter in that number. We only paid $4 for parking since we were only there for 2 hours.
Casa Loma was built as the home of Sir Henry Mill Pellatt. The castle took three years to build and was completed in 1914. The home itself is a feast for the eyes, but if have had the opportunity to tour the plantations of the south, you’ll know that what makes these homes so fascinating is not just the appearance of the home or its decor, but the story of the family that lived there. The tour that you listen to on your headset while roaming freely through the home and grounds barely mentions anything about the family but instead focuses on how the house was built and decorated.
We came to Toronto just to see giant pandas. In the United States, the only zoos with giant pandas would have required a flight to get there but we could easily drive to Toronto. The panda exhibit is very impressive and definitely worth visiting.
Every year my husband and I visit the Disney parks but this year we also tried out Universal. A lot of people refuse to compare Universal to Disney because they are so different, but I am going to because with tickets being so ridiculously expensive, sometimes you have to choose one or the other.
My husband and I and my parents-in-law stopped here one afternoon and had a fun time for four hours which was much longer than we expected. It was a Thursday and there was no crowd at all. The parking garage was cheap and we found coupons for $2 off per person in a little magazine we got at our hotel in Orlando.
Ripley’s is located in a tourist area that has all kinds of attractions, restaurants, and hotels. We purchased tickets to all three Ripley’s attractions because it is cheaper than buying them individually. The attractions are the mirror maze, a 3D movie, and the Ripley’s museum.
The museum itself is small but very interesting. This is a place that any baseball lover will appreciate. There’s a lot of neat things to see including a signature wall of players who signed contracts with Louisville Slugger.
The Titanic Exhibition is located inside the Luxor and though it’s overpriced, it is worth a visit.
