One month Stateside

This was actually written for the camp staff facebook group, but I thought it might be of interest here. It's my version of the perfect one month trip around the states for an international staff member after the summer is over (many international staff travel around after camp is over). Unfortunately the footnotes don't transfer from the original word file. It looked way prettier before.

So reading this thread about travel seems to have evoked primarily two pieces of advice. First that you shouldn’t plan anything until you are at camp, which is I think good advice and secondly, that Timpson thinks you should go to the South, which is perhaps somewhat more dubious advice. It did however get me thinking about the many times over the years I have been solicited for advice from international staff about where they should go. Usually I just give an off the cuff answer most of which is to say that the west rules and they should go there. Thinking more about it though it has become an interesting question to me. What would be my version of the ideal American trip?
I decided I am going to try to answer it. I don’t know if it will help anyone, it was really just for me to see what I thought on the subject. Still it might be of some help. For the sake of the exercise I assumed I am dealing with the following situation.
-A group of four people traveling together.
-30 days to spend before their flight out of New York.
-They each have US$1250 dollars saved from home and US$1250 dollars saved up at camp for a total of US$2500.
I tried to include a few different regions and a good mix of entertainment, outdoors, and cultural/historical opportunities. Above all I tried to make this as American an experience as possible and focused on some of those things that I think are most unique in my country. I tried to make transport economical but also practical, using buses/trains when it made sense but accepting that a car is a necessity in certain parts of the states and only flying from/to airports where you can get cheap flights. There are also footnotes. Yep footnotes.
I’ve divided the trip up into four regions; Upper Midwest, California, Southwest and Northeast with each of the regions taking about a week. I left a couple days extra in case someone wanted to add something in. With all that in mind, away we go.
Upper Midwest
So it may seem strange to some Americans that in a one- month trip of the States I would garner a week on this area. My reasoning is that John Q Staffmember will have just finished a summer working at a tiny part of this region of the country but won’t really know it. I think it would be a worthwhile time to get to know this area that (s)he has called home for three months. I also think it is one of the most pleasant parts of the country and would afford a good opportunity to get off the tourist beaten path.
2 Nights- Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Minnesota
The Twin Cities. You’ve just spent your summer working just three hours away but likely have seen little of the cities. Spend a couple days here getting your bearings straight before you start traveling and enjoy one of America’s most under-appreciated cities. If the Minnesota State Fair is still going it is a must. It is one of the best State Fairs in the country and will be the best chance for this unique slice of Americana . Go to the Walker modern art museum with the awesome and free sculpture garden across the street and consider the free Minneapolis Institute of Art as well. Check out the wide selection of international eateries on Nicollet’s ‘Eat Street’. Check out the University of Minnesota campus and walk across the Mississippi river. And if you must, go to Mall of America.
1-2 Nights – Madison, Wisconsin
Grab a bus and head to America’s best University town . Live the life of an American Uni student and enjoy the nice accessibility of the only American city to lie on an ismuth . Walk down State St. to the state capital building, which includes the classiest drinking fountains I’ve ever seen. If the timing is just right and you can get tickets catch a University of Wisconsin Football game.
1-2 Nights – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Another bus to Milwaukee and enter maybe the coolest working class city in the States. To me this is the quintessential Upper- Midwest city. The place you find the casual friendliness and good nature this part of the country is known for. A city with a strong German heritage which influenced both the beer and the sausage it is known for. If you’re looking for excitement, well, this isn’t the place, but there is plenty of time for that soon. Catch a Milwaukee Brewer’s baseball game, check out the coolest modern building in the United States , and don’t leave without eating cheese and sausage.
2 Nights- Chicago, Illinois
One last bus gets you to America’ s ‘Second City’ but arguably it’s best. There is no shortage of things to do here and it is easily worth a third day if you like. Avoid paying fifteen bucks to go up the Sears Tower and instead take the free elevator to the lounge at the top of the Hancock Building which provides better views of the cityscape . Check out the theater scene with all of the quality and half the price of New York’s. For natural history nerds the Field Museum is world class. The art museum is also spectacular. Skip silly, touristy Navy Pier. If possible catch a Chicago Cubs baseball game at America’s arguably most venerated still in operation sports complex, Wrigley Field. Eat deep dish pizza and Italian Beef Sandwiches with extra hot peppers . Check out a Blues show at night. Then, catch a flight out west.
California
It’s been said that California has it all and although that isn’t quite true there is more worthwhile to see and do here then probably in any other three states. You could spend a month here and not see everything. If it were a nation it’s economy would be the tenth largest in the world . It has beautiful mountains and roaming deserts but this trip will focus on what California is truly famous for, the coast.
3 Nights – San Francisco, California.
It’s been called the Paris of North America by some and the modern Gomorrah by others; welcome to America’s most liberal city. Check out one of the United State’s most attractive cities and walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Eat clam chowder out of a sourdough bread bowl with the tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf then leave them behind to check out the indie art scene. The Alcatraz tour is admittedly cool, if a tad expensive . Hire a car and head out to Napa Valley/Sonoma to see what has become one of the most important wine producing areas in the world.
1 Night – The Pacific Coast Highway, California
Keep the car and start on one of the true pastimes of this Nation; the Great American Roadtrip. The western U.S. was the first place in the world truly designed around the automobile and it remains the only way to see it as it was meant to be seen. Drive down the famous HWY 1 or Pacific Coast Highway as it is known (PCH) and take stops wherever you feel like it. Take you’re time, stop at a beach that looks nice on the way. Check out upscale, and attractive Santa Barbara and camp nearby.
2 Nights- Los Angeles, California
My least favorite city in the entire country makes it onto the itinerary somehow. Love it or hate it this is the city that started the Orange Country revolution and made the American West what it has become in the last 75 years. No city is more evocative to foreigners of America except New York. It is the city of the freeway and the suburb, of Hollywood and Mickey Mouse, of the fast food phenomenon and ten million dollar homes, welcome to the aptly nicknamed ‘lala land’. Check out a movie studio and Hollywood boulevard, and see how your hands compare to Harrison Ford’s. Window shop on Rodeo Drive and forget about the arm and a leg that it costs and go to Disneyland. Save the beaches for our next stop where they are nicer and the water is incrementally warmer. Sure there is cultural stuff to do in L.A. , and the mountains are a reasonably drive, but who are you kidding anyway, that isn’t why you’re in this town. Get the best fast food hamburger America has to offer at In-N-Out Burger.
2 Nights- San Diego, California
Drive down to L.A.’s smaller, prettier, and all around superior little brother, San Diego. Check out Mission Beach and head to either Coronado or La Jolla to look at the places you will now wish you lived. The San Diego Zoo is the largest traditional zoo in the world and some would say the best . If the season is right head to Torrey Pines and check out the races at one of the best thoroughbred racing venues in the country and perhaps the only one with an ocean view. You’re a stones throw from Mexico and there is a large immigrant population; eat Mexican food. Drop the car off and a grab a short plane flight.
The Southwest
I said this trip was about things that were uniquely American and that’s defiantly what you are going to find here. Starting off with a city truly like no other and then heading to what I think is the most physically unique place in the 48 contiguous states; Northern Arizona/ Southern Utah . It is an area of raw physical beauty that is very accessible.
2 Nights- Las Vegas, Nevada
I always say, you haven’t really been to America until you’ve been to Vegas. This is the best and worst of America on display. It is American Capitalist ingenuity and American excess. A man made oasis in the desert where anything is possible. Vegas has nothing if not options and I wouldn’t even know where to start in telling you how to spend your time. I only have three tips. Don’t spend the money to go up in the fake Eifel tower. If you want to splurge on one meal during your trip you could do worse then dropping $40 to go the Rio Seafood buffet and eat unlimited lobster for maybe the only time in your life. The Bellagio fountain show is really really neat.
1 Night – Grand Canyon, Arizona
Although I would love to tell you to spend more time in my home state I am only going to allot a single night to go and see the one thing that everyone else does. Camp nearby the night before and get a crack of dawn start. You can make it to the bottom, dunk you’re head into the Colorado River , and go back up in a day if you keep a reasonable pace. Bring enough water or pay $8 per small bottle at the bottom. You are in one of the seven wonders of the natural world, don’t forget to take a look around.
3 nights – Moab, Utah
Drive to the small town of Moab and camp. Welcome to Southern Utah, often called ‘National Park Country’ . Go to Arches National Park and marvel at the rock formations nature has created. Take lots of pictures, these will be the most impressive ones when you show your friends pack home. Do a day hike in Canyonlands. Hire a mountain bike and go on a trail of some of the best slick rock mountain biking in the world . Eat … cheap. This is the part of the trip where spending money isn’t going to help you have fun, almost everything worth doing is free.
2 Nights- Bryce Canyon, Utah
Drive west with a brief stop at Capital Reef National Park. Look at the Native American art on the rock face. Read the information and try to understand why this is such an important geological spot . Keep going. Camp in Bryce Canyon National Park. Spend the next day leisurely driving and walking through the most striking views of the trip. Camp again the next night and then drive back to Vegas to drop off the car and fly east.
The Northeast
The northeast is the most densely populated area of the States and the corridor from Washington D.C. to New York City is practically one huge urban area . Not known for the good nature of Midwesterners or the laid back attitude of the West, the North East has a reputation as being the more severe part of the country. It does have unquestionably the most quality cities of any region of its size, and is ripe with culture and history. For this itinerary I am limiting it to two cities but a trip to Boston or Philadelphia would be well worth it time permitting.
3 Nights- Washington, D.C.
Washington is different from the capitals of many other nations in that it was designed for that exact purpose. It was a city built to be the capital for the new nation situated at what was at the time was more or less the middle. Government is pervasive and everywhere in Washington. Visit Obama’s new home and check out the many well-known memorials . Take a tour of the treasury, the supreme court, or the capital building, whatever interests you. Don’t miss the museums. The Smithsonian system of museums is most of what gives D.C. probably the second best group of museums of any city in the world . The Holocaust museum is generally considered one of the two best in the world along with the one in Isreal. At night go to a jazz club. Take a cheap bus or a somewhat more expensive but much faster train to…
3 Nights- New York, New York
I wouldn’t live there for all bialys in Brooklyn , but the fact of the matter is New York is a truly great city and there is an extraordinary amount of things to do and see. Go up to the Empire State Building or take a harbor cruise. Go to the theater or walk Central Park. Hit up a world class museum or MTV studios. Do whatever you want, it doesn’t really matter. You’re in the city of Rockefeller and Carnegie, of Madison Avenue and Wall Street, thin crust pizza an bagel and lox, Broadway and The Yankees, Chinatown and Little Italy, the Waldorf- Astoria and Hell’s Kitchen, Seinfeld and Spiderman, the Statue of Liberty and the erstwhile World Trade Center. You’re in the Big Apple, Metropolis incarnate, the city that never sleeps. If the world had a capital this would be it and I can’t imagine a better place to finish your trip. Just make sure you find a few moments to take a seat and reflect, because you are about to end what has just been the four best months of your life.