Things to Do in Usa

Dedicated in 2008, this roughly 2-acre site honors the 184 people who died in the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon. Set on the west side of the Pentagon Reservation and landscaped with 85 maple trees, this quiet memorial is largely composed of 184 illuminated benches and reflecting pools which face the south side of the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 hit the building on 9/11.

Each illuminated bench, as well as a nearby granite wall, bears the name and age of an individual victim; the wall grows higher from east to west in relation to the victims’ ages. Visitors can see that the youngest person killed was three, the oldest was 71, and several of the 59 people killed aboard Flight 77 were family members.

An audio tour of the Pentagon Memorial is available by phone at (202) 741-1004. Parking is available at the Pentagon’s South Lot, and the memorial is adjacent to the Metrorail’s Pentagon station, which serves the Blue and Yellow Lines.

Petco Park is an open-air stadium in downtown San Diego located just minutes from the Gaslamp Quarter. In bygone days, you might have heard people refer to this as Qualcomm Stadium, but no more. Since 2004, the San Diego Padres have called Petco Park their home and it’s here you’ll be able to catch a game during baseball season. Known for its comfortable seating, diverse restaurant selection, and even a mini play area for kids before a game, Petco Park is the stadium of choice for anyone visiting the San Diego area.

In the middle of Midtown, Piedmont Park is where locals come to play, picnic, and commune with nature. Indeed, the park is a glorious, rambling urban park, filled with verdant lawns, rolling hillsides, and Lake Clara Meer – all set against the backdrop of the Midtown Atlanta skyline. The park also is the setting of many cultural and music festivals, as well as some superb people watching.

For the active, Piedmont Park has softball and soccer fields, tennis courts, a public swimming pool, and fantastic paths for jogging, skating, and biking. For leisure activities, there’s fishing on Lake Clara Meer, picnic tables and benches, and expansive lawns for lazing in the sun. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is also here. Children will have endless fun, as open, car-free spaces abound. Make sure they don’t miss PlayScape, at the 12th Street gate. The geometrically shaped, modernist playground includes a soaring swing set, slide, sand pit, climbing dome, and more made of bright and exciting colors.

Come Saturday for the Saturday Green Market, where you can browse locally grown produce, artisan cheeses, fresh-cut flowers, and arts and crafts.

One of the country’s largest art museums -- the third largest, to be exact -- the Philadelphia Museum of Art encompasses 10 acres (4 hectares) with more than 300,000 works spanning over 2,000 years. Impressive collections in Renaissance, American, Impressionist and Modern art abound, as well as pieces from cultures around the world and different time periods. In fact, the second floor of the museum holds over 80 period-themed rooms to explore.

While the entire museum is interesting, there are some highlights not to miss. Check out their collection of arms and armor, the second largest in the United States. Explore architecture by visiting a reconstructed Japanese tea house or a Muromachi period Buddhist temple. For some local art culture, peruse the room dedicated to Philadelphia local Thomas Eakins. Outside, the Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden features one acre (0.4 hectares) of well-manicured gardens littered with rotating sculptures. Before visiting, check the Philadelphia Museum of Art calendar for current and upcoming exhibitions.

Rocky Balboa fans will also love taking a jog up the museum’s front steps, as this is the same grand staircase Sylvester Stallone ran up in the movie Rocky. Outside the museum are numerous vendors selling Rocky memorabilia, as the steps are commonly referred to as “The Rocky Steps.” Before leaving, have your photo taken next to the two-ton (4,409-pound),10-foot (three-meter) tall bronze Rocky statue.

Petrified Forest National Park is one of the treasures of the US Park Service, featuring more than 230 square miles (59,570 hectares) of colorful desert landscape that covers parts of Navajo and Apache counties and features significant deposits of petrified wood from the late Triassic period. The Painted Desert, an area of desert badlands featuring varied shades of sedimentary rock, covers the northern part of the national park. Highlights include Newspaper Rock, covered with ancient petroglyphs, and the Blue Mesa Road Loop.

In the midst of Philadelphia's steel and concrete urban setting lies acres of beautiful green parkland. While relaxing on a beautiful park bench beneath the shade of a tree, you can thank the Fairmount Park for providing you with such a serene sense of nature in a big city.

Fairmount Park is Philadelphia's Park System. With over 9,200 acres (3,723 hectares), it claims 10% of the land in Philadelphia and is comprised of 63 regional and neighborhood parks. The largest of these parks are East and West Parks, Franklin D. Roosevelt Park, Pennypack Park, Poquessing Park, Tacony Creek Park and Wissahickon Valley Park.