Amazing Places to Visit Around the USA

Address: 253 Barcelona Rd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401

The Ann Norton Sculpture Garden is an amazing combination of several huge, abstract sculptures by the artist Ann Norton, a multi-acre peaceful jungle-like garden with over 250 types of palms and cycads, and Ann's artist studio demonstrating how her huge sculptures went from ideas to models to actual giant sculptures.

We found the sculptures to be interesting. The garden itself was very shady, beautiful and peaceful. The artist's studio was very interesting.

There are also changing art exhibits in the beautiful home attached to the garden.

In all we spent about 2 hours there between the garden and the studio, and hope to go back there again. It made for a very peaceful and enjoyable afternoon.

As of this writing, the Gardens are open November – June, Wed – Sun, 10 am – 4 pm. Adults are $15, Seniors are $10 and Children & Students are $7. Memberships are also available.

The Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens are a great place to spend an interesting and peaceful few hours for a minimal cost during your time in Florida's Palm Beach area.

Address: 4010 Twiggs St, San Diego, CA 92101

San Diego offers so much to experience and taking an Old Town Trolley Tour is the best way to get an overall idea of the city and all it has to offer. There are areas of natural beauty, history, culture and entertainment attractions. One of the best ways to see it all is on board the Old Town Trolley Tour of San Diego.

Combining points of interest with fascinating history and amusing anecdotes, the tour stops at all of San Diego’s most popular attractions. Led by interesting conductors, this two hour tour allows you to get off and on as often as you wish, spend as much time as you like at each stop, and re-board another trolley when you are ready.

Highlights include lovely views of the Big Bay and the city skyline from the top of the two mile long Coronado Bridge. Travel through the historic Gaslamp Quarter, the birthplace of California, the Embarcadero and Little Italy. We also visited the island of Coronado – home to the well-known Hotel del Coronado as well as Coronado Beach, one of California's most beautiful beaches. There is a stop at Balboa Park, home to over 12 museums, free gardens, the Old Globe Theatre and the San Diego Zoo.

We think this hop-on-hop-off tour is a perfect way to enjoy all that San Diego has to offer.

The cost per person is about $38, and tickets can be purchased on-line or in person.

Address: 221 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012

When we were in Los Angeles we visited The Broad art museum. We had no idea what a delight it would be.

The Broad is a contemporary art museum in a very contemporary honeycomb style building. It contains a collection of art that is so current you can almost smell the paint drying.

How Long Do You Need?

With a special exhibition ticket and walking without spending much time at each work of art you can get through the museum in an hour. If you love to take in art and experience it can take 2 hours and up. The Infinity Room always has a wait line. It took 15 minutes waiting in line for 45 seconds by yourself in the small but very cool installation.

Did We Love It?

We loved the size of The Broad. It's not huge like L.A's other museums so we never felt like we were worn out from looking at too much art. It also felt fresh, everything is very contemporary, and easy to navigate. We enjoyed being able to be close to art without needing to wait for crowds to move on. And the architecture of the building itself was wonderful to enjoy. Even the restrooms are interesting, you'll be surprised by the unusual darkness, almost as if you're in a cave.

Walking through the museum is like a Who's Who of contemporary art. Featured artists like Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Roy Liechtenstein round out the museum's holdings.

Getting Tickets

General tickets to see the main galleries and the famous installation, Mirrored Room, by Yayoi Kusama are free, but must be reserved in advance online so plan ahead. The wait can be as long as one month to get tickets. But if you are more spur-of-the-moment like we are you can wait in stand-by. Check the museum's Twitter to see if standby is available on the day you want to go and you may get lucky! Special exhibitions have a $12 entry fee.

Address: 1625 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004

We left with both wonderful and odd impressions from the Phoenix Art Museum.

The best part of our visit was the American Art section which was large & diverse. What they offer is very good and includes quite a few American Indian and Southwestern theme pieces.

The Legends of Speed exhibit was a great surprise for any car enthusiast. The cars were all priceless legacy racers like the Ferrari 250 and the Shelby Daytona.

The LED light exhibit "Fireflies" by Yayoi Kusama was a great experience since there were no lines and we could spend as long as we wanted to inside the room, unlike another museum we visited where his work is displayed, where you waited up to half and hour to spend 45 seconds in the interactive experience.

The Ansel Adams special display was wonderful. We love black and white photography and Ansel Adams scenes are just incredible. The photos on display and descriptions were great. The museum was not overly crowded so you could get close to each photo and spend time examining and pondering them.

It seemed like the museum was in some state of upheaval due to some management issues (or so we read afterwards when we Googled our experience). Two of the four floors were basically closed for new exhibits to be set up and the general layout of the museum has you checking your map and wondering how to navigate.

The biggest challenge we found was navigating the place. Parts of the upper floor were on opposite sides of the building and you had to go down, across and back up to get there. We were able to easily find assistance but it took more work than usual to get around. Better signage would be a welcomed improvement.

The cost for admission is around $15, and less for students and children.