Close to home: 51 fresh summer destinations
— -- As Memorial Day Weekend kicks off summer road-trip season, high gas prices may be prompting travelers to stay closer to home. With that in mind, USA TODAY's travel staff uncovered one new event or attraction in each state to enliven vacationers' warm-weather travels — no matter where they live.
Alabama
Stretching 631 miles from the Georgia state line to the Gulf of Mexico, the just-launched Alabama Scenic River Trail lets kayakers, canoers and motorboaters glide through scenic portions of nine lakes, seven rivers, two creeks and the USA's second-largest river delta. A flotilla will gather at Montgomery's Riverwalk for the June 6 dedication, and Paddle Alabama hosts group trips on portions of the trail through mid-July. 800-252-2262; alabamascenicrivertrail.com — Laura Bly
Arkansas
Once part of two-time governor Winthrop Rockefeller's homestead and model cattle farm, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute atop Petit Jean Mountain near Morrilton now welcomes individuals as well as groups. Guests can fish at Lake Abby, take in an art class or learn to cook with ingredients plucked from a demonstration garden that resembles what the mountain looked like when Rockefeller arrived in 1953. 866-972-7778; uawri.org — Laura Bly
Alaska
Hikers, campers and cruise day-trippers can go farther into the Chugach National Forest southeast of Anchorage, thanks to "Whistle Stop" service on the Alaska Railroad. Cars can't reach iceberg-dotted Spencer Lake (with shutter-clicking views of the Spencer Glacier), but tourists now can, via a train that allows riders to hop on and off in the wilderness and take a new trail to the lake. Trains can be boarded at Anchorage, Portage, Girdwood and Whittier. Once in the back country, keep an eye out for brown bears and moose. 800-544-0552; alaskarailroad.com — Kitty Bean Yancey
Arizona
The air may be as dry as toast in the desert north of Tucson, but inside Biosphere 2's rain forest, the weather is positively lush. New tours of the tropical 3-acre garden, with its 150 species of plants, mark the first time visitors have been allowed into the habitat within the glass-enclosed Biosphere 2, where University of Arizona researchers study a variety of biomes. $20 adults; $13 children. 520-838-6200; b2science.org — Jayne Clark
California
Brigs and brigantines, schooners and sloops (including the full-rigged HMS Bounty of Mutinyon the Bounty fame) will breeze into five California ports from July to September as part of the Festival of Sail 2008 and Tall Ships Challenge port-to-port race. Each port of call will host festivities with nautical-themed activities and a chance to visit with the crews competing in the tall ships race. The lineup: San Francisco, July 23-27; Channel Islands, Aug. 7-10; Los Angeles, Aug. 15-17; San Diego, Aug. 20-24; Dana Point, Sept. 6-7. 401-846-1775; sailtraining.org — Jayne Clark
Colorado
Get down and dirty in Steamboat Springs' 10-acre adult sandbox Dig This in what's billed as "America's first heavy-equipment play area." For $350 for a half-day ($650 full day), participants can commandeer bulldozers and excavators and skid steer loaders around individual work areas. The drill starts with simple stuff — moving dirt around — and works up to knocking 1-ton boulders through an obstacle course. 888-344-8447; 20tonsoffun.com — Jayne Clark
Connecticut
MGM Grand continues its march from Las Vegas with a $700 million casino resort in the Foxwoods gaming complex. Just-opened MGM Grand at Foxwoods boasts 825 guest rooms and suites, with 300-thread-count sheets. There's a 4,000-seat performance arena, too. Eateries range from upscale Craftsteak to deli-style Junior's. Introductory rates start at just under $300 a night. 866-646-0050; mgmatfoxwoods.com — Kitty Bean Yancey
Delaware
The over-the-top estate of an eccentric member of the du Pont clan is back on display after a three-year, $39 million face lift. Nemours Mansion & Gardens, constructed in Louis XVI style for Alfred I. du Pont in 1910, boasts a world-class art collection and formal gardens modeled after those at Versailles. It's named for the French city from which the du Ponts emigrated and later made a fortune in chemicals. Alfred was on such uneasy terms with his family that it's said the estate's perimeter walls topped with glass shards were meant to keep them out. 302-651-6912; nemours mansion.org — Kitty Bean Yancey
District of Columbia
D.C.'s Extra! Extra! special attraction is the $450 million Newseum, reopened after a six-year hiatus in jaw-dropping new digs on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol. This 643,000-square-foot celebration of the First Amendment has a 90-foot atrium and contains more than 6,000 artifacts (from pieces of the Berlin Wall to a TV traffic helicopter) and 130 interactive stations. Visitors play newscaster, watch 3-D films of headline-making events and view historic front pages. 888-639-7386; newseum.org — Kitty Bean Yancey
Florida
Move over, Shamu: Central Florida's newest water attraction is Sea World Orlando's Aquatica, a South Seas-inspired park that lures the bathing-suit crowd with 36 slides, six rivers and lagoons, and 80,000 square feet of sandy beaches. The Dolphin Plunge sends riders down 250 feet of see-through tubes through a lagoon with black-and-white Commerson's dolphins, while surfers in training can paddle through crashing waves and 5-foot swells at Cutback Cove. 888-800-5447; aquaticabyseaworld.com — Laura Bly
Georgia
Look, up in the sky! Millions of necks have craned heavenward during suburban Atlanta's Stone Mountain Lasershow Spectacular, the most popular attraction at a park named for a granite dome carved with representations of Confederate heroes. In honor of its 25th anniversary — and the park's 50th — the show is revving up its sound system and adding new tunes and pyrotechnics. Traditionalists needn't worry: Such sacred cows as The Devil Went Down to Georgia are still on the lineup. 800-401-2407; stonemountainpark.com — Laura Bly
Hawaii
It has been a rocky ride for the Hawaii Superferry. Since late last summer, the ferry has launched, canceled and relaunched its inter-island passenger and vehicle service in the wake of local protests and high winter seas that earned it the nickname "barf barge." But the 866-seat Alakai recently added a second Honolulu-Maui trip four days a week, and its summer one-way promotional rate of $49 per passenger is competitive with advance-purchase airline fares. 877-443-3779; hawaiisuperferry.com — Laura Bly