Things to Do in North America

Civic Center Park was created more than 100 years ago as the civic heart for the city of Denver. The urban green space is the site of the Colorado State Capitol, and arching footpaths across the park offer a chance to stroll among the gardens and marvel at the surrounding architecture, including the Denver City and County Building, the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Central Library. The park is also home to the Greek Theater and the historic Carnegie Library.

Located on the I-5 Freeway, 10 minutes south of Downtown L.A., this fortress-like, faux-Mesopotamian complex houses the city's only shopping outlets. (The outlet malls in Camarillo and Ontario both lie outside of Los Angeles County.)

With 115 outlet stores, including Banana Republic, Calvin Klein and Old Navy, the Citadel can be a multi-hour diversion. Several casual/fast food restaurants provide a sense of true Southern California cuisine, with outposts of Ruby's Diner and Hot Dog on a Stick, as well as Maui Style Hawaiian BBQ and Nibi Pho Bistro; the latter reflects the influence of Orange County's Vietnamese population, which is the largest in the country.

Developed by L.A. real estate giants Charles E. Toberman and Sid Grauman, the vaudeville showman and movie-palace mogul behind the nearby Chinese Theatre, this 1922 Egyptian-themed landmark capitalized on the national fervor of British archeologists' early 1920s discoveries of ancient Egyptian tombs and artifacts. The Egyptian Theatre's dramatic entrance courtyard bears huge columns and mock hieroglyphics, similar in feel (if not scale) to the Babylonian design details of its neighbor, the Hollywood & Highland mall complex.

The first Hollywood theater to host a national movie premiere (The Ten Commandments, 1922), the Egyptian became famous for its pre-screening live performances staged by Grauman himself; eventually, the theater became best known for long-term engagements of big box office films like My Fair Lady and Ben-Hur.

The Egyptian -- and Hollywood itself -- began to experience a slow decline in the 1970s, and by the early '90s, the theater's owner, United Artists, opted to let it go. By 1998, though, non-profit cinephile organization American Cinematheque had chosen it as its Eastside home (the Westside branch is the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica), invested over $12 million in its full restoration, and re-launched it as a working movie theater.

These days, screenings at the Egyptian's two theaters (one with 616 seats, the other 78) include American Film Institute events, gala premieres, and double features of movies by the same director. The organization's American Cinematheque Awards are televised here each year and all screenings are open to the public.