Things to Do in North America

Mission Beach is a cozy, beachside community that rests on a sandbar between the Pacific Ocean and Mission Bay. It’s a perfect spot to indulge in a myriad of outdoor activities including sunbathing, horseshoes, surfing, bicycling, skateboarding, and tossing a Frisbee. With courts available for both, beach volleyball and basketball are also popular draws to the beach.

For activities away from Mission Beach, there’s SeaWorld in Mission Bay Park and historic Belmont Park in South Mission Beach, which features the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster as well as other rides including the FlowRider, Chaos, Vertical Plunge, Krazy Kars, and Tilt-a-Whirl. Also here is the the Mission Beach Plunge, once the largest saltwater (now freshwater) pool in the world and the only remaining structure left from the original Belmont Park structures.

Water activities at Mission Beach include sailboat, rowboat, and kayak rentals, as well as charter boats. On shore, gray whales pass San Diego from mid-December to late February on their way south to Baja California, and again in mid-March on their way up to Alaska.

One of the most famous Catholic monuments in the city, Mission Santa Barbara has come to represent all that is historic and cultural in the area as one of the longest continuously operating missions in California. Visitors who venture to this 1786 Catholic outpost will find beautiful construction of stunning stonework, impressive columns and two sky-high domed towers, as well as plenty of local history.

A relatively small Mixtec/Zapotec ruin, Mitla is notable for the detailed and well-preserved geometric stonework that decorates the buildings. The setting is pretty, with a cactus garden and shaded benches. From the ruins you can see the domed Church of San Pablo, built in the 16th century when the Spanish pillaged stones from Mitla. At the gates to the ruins, a small artesanía (folk art) market is home to aggressively competitive vendors, a situation that can yield great deals. Outside the gates, a clean and efficient comedor (diner) serves authentic Oaxacan specialties.

The name Mitla comes from the Náhuatl word Mictlan, which means place of the dead or underworld. An ancient ceremonial center, Mitla includes two cross-shaped tombs, a promenade of hefty stone columns, and an elevated suite of ornately-decorated rooms that were once occupied by the Zapotec high priest. Although theories on the subject differ, Mitla was likely built by the Zapotecs, occupied by the Mixtecs, reclaimed by the Zapotecs, and finally conquered by the Aztecs, who took control in 1494.

This mission was originally established in 1716 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas with the purpose of converting  local Native Americas to Christianity. It was moved to San Antonio in 1731, and today stands as the best preserved of the Texas missions. An interesting fact about these missions is they were not churches but Indian towns with the church as the focus where Native Americans learned to become Spanish citizens -- a process that required becoming Catholic.

Visiting the site today, you’ll get a clear sense of what mission life was like hundreds of years ago. It’s also interesting to take in the stone building with its Spanish Colonial architecture. Notice the intricate Renaissance details, colorful Moorish designs, Romanesque attributes and gothic arches. On the grounds, you can still see the quarry from which the Native Americans collected the stone to build the mission. The preserved church is now an active parish where you can attend services and hear the choir sing beautiful Spanish songs. While much of the facade’s geometrical designs have faded, you can still view original symbolic and decorative frescos in several of the rooms. The most well-known fresco resides on the convento room ceiling, thought to be a rendering of God as a mestizo.

There was once a time when traveling by train was the image of American romance— galloping across the open plains on the back of a steaming steel horse. With the advent of planes and automobiles, however, the era of train travel in the United States has long since passed its twilight. Unless, of course, you’re at the Model Railroad Museum, where the power of locomotives is as clear as the trains are timeless. Here at this 27,000 square foot enclosure inside of Balboa Park, railroad clubs have created artistic scale models of classic American trains. Follow a train as it plies the rails of the historic Tehachapi Pass, and look at models for the Pacific Desert Line—a track that was planned from San Diego to the east but never came to fruition. The meticulous craftsmanship that’s gone into the models is nothing short of astounding, and in addition to the models and trains themselves, visitors can learn about the legendary history of traveling the U.S. by train.

For three days a year this quiet mountain village just south of Mexico City becomes the ultimate cultural destination. Between October 31 and November 2 residents gather to commemorate the Day of the Dead, a celebration of loved ones who are no longer living. Travelers make the voyage from Mexico City to the rolling hills of an otherwise quiet countryside to experience this truly unique festival.

Graves are decorated with flowers and skeletons and fragrant incense wafts through the air as residents sing songs honoring those who have passed. Colorful murals cover typically empty walls and stalls selling strong drinks, spicy food and tokens for the dead line the bustling streets. Halls of the local church come alive with traditional artwork and intricate masks to commemorate those who are no longer living. While the journey from Mexico City can be long due to traffic, experiencing this once-a-year festival is well worth the trip.

Located in Yosemite Valley, Mirror Lake is famous for its reflections of Half Dome and Mount Watkins when the water level is high enough; to be fair, it's more of a pond than a lake. But it's a pretty pond that can be accessed by an easy two-mile round trip stroll from the valley floor.

If photographs are what you're looking to capture, be sure to visit in the spring and early summer; birders will enjoy catching glimpses of white-headed woodpeckers and martens. If you’d prefer a circumferential view of the lake, there’s a five-mile (eight kilometer) loop hike that is sure to satisfy.