Things to Do in North America

The retirement home for President Woodrow Wilson his wife Edith, this Georgian Revival house on Embassy Row earned its National Historic Preservation Site status for both its inhabitants and its architect. It was designed in 1915 by Waddy Butler Wood, the man behind a slew of D.C.’s finest private homes, as well the Masonic Temple, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and headquarters of the Department of the Interior.

Washington’s only presidential museum, the home has been maintained much as it looked at the time of Wilson’s death here in 1924; Edith continued to live in the house until her own death in 1961. In addition to an 8000-volume library and a slew of personal artifacts and memorabilia, Woodrow Wilson House features an elevator installed to accommodate the former president, who had suffered a semi-paralyzing stroke in 1919.

In Woodland Park, up the hill from Green Lake Park, the Woodland Park Zoo is one of Seattle's greatest tourist attractions, consistently rated as one of the top 10 zoos in the country. It was one of the first in the nation to free animals from their restrictive cages in favor of ecosystem enclosures, where animals from similar environments share large spaces designed to replicate their natural surroundings.

The Woodland Park Zoo thrills with superb attractions including such exhibits as a tropical rain forest, two gorilla exhibits, and an African savanna. One of the best exhibits is the brown bear enclosure, which realistically resembles an Alaskan stream and hillside. Another highlight is the elephant forest, where the zoo’s pachyderms have plenty of space to rumble around. For kids, there’s the farm-animal area and the interactive Zoomazium, where kids can see what its like to be wild animals.

Open from November through March, the Wollman Rink (formerly Trump Rink) is an outdoor ice-skating rink in Central Park. Accessible from the south entrance of West 59th Street and 6th Avenue, the rink offers open skating as well as lessons. For New Yorkers and visitors, skating on the rink is a tradition that symbolizes the magic and romance of the winter holidays. In fact the scenic rink, with its park and Manhattan skyline backdrop, has been featured in various movies, including “Serendipity” and “Love Story.”

During the summer months, the rink turns into the Victorian Gardens.

Well-known as the hipster-hub of Brooklyn, Williamsburg is full of creative types and indie venues. It’s safest and most vibrant areas lie near the L train stops, with the main street of the neighborhood being Bedford Avenue and having shops, bars, restaurants, galleries, performance spaces and museums extending out from there. It’s the type of neighborhood where you’ll forever be stumbling across unusual, eclectic and ironically hip spaces. For example, The Brooklyn Flea Market sells vintage clothes, antiques and a variety of artwork, while Buffalo Exchange allows you to buy and trade your clothing for trendy outfits and vintage duds. If you like music and performance, the Knitting Factory puts on concerts and comedy shows and offers old-school video games, cheap beer and quirky art. Artsy folk enjoy one of Williamsburg’s newest additions, Nitehawk Cinema, which shows independent films and serves fluffy homemade popcorn. If you want to gallery hop, you’ll find free creative spaces littered all over the neighborhood, especially on Grand Avenue. And for something completely quirky, visit the City Reliquary which showcases unusual New York City artifacts like horse bones, rotting birthday cakes, antique subway maps and L train paint chips.

A firm departure from the everyday, WonderWorks Orlando offers what most attractions cannot – a spin on this thing we call reality. Built to resemble an upside-down laboratory, this science museum offers over 100 hands-on exhibits built to test your belief of what is real and what is illusion. Filled with “oh, wow” moments that include rope obstacle courses, zip lines and laser tag, WonderWorks Orlando is an engaging step into science and discovery – one that will leave the whole family full of wonder.

Australian natives and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Bill and Dawn Williamson create their award-winning Sonoma County wines from a dozen of their own sustainably farmed vineyards strung along the Dry Creek Valley, which is famed for it’s wine friendly conditions. With vineyards across three different microclimates, Williamson Wines specializes in many varietals, including Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone style wines. Visitors looking to sample their wines don’t need to venture outside of Healdsburg however, as the winery’s tasting room is located downtown, where tasters can enjoy a complimentary wine sample, or reserve a table to try a more immersive experience, with artfully prepared food and wine pairings, including cheese plates dusted with Williamson’s famous truffle salt.