Frank Lloyd Wright house opens to guests in western Pennsylvania

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A relocated Frank Lloyd Wright home built in the 1950s now welcomes overnight guests with 21st century necessities — including a microwave and a wireless Internet connection.

The Duncan House, built in the Chicago suburb of Lisle in the 1950s for Don and Elizabeth Duncan, opened to overnight guests in June, one of only a half-dozen other Wright homes nationwide that offers guests a chance to spend the night, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The house in Greensburg is about 15 miles from Wright's famous Fallingwater house.

The Duncan House is one of Wright's Usonian structures, from an acronym coined by the architect for United States of North America. Eventually, he built more than 100 such affordable, single-story, middle-class homes.

The house is now owned by Tom Papinchak, who says he's had guests nearly every night since opening.

Although hundreds of miles from its original location, the house still faces south. The kitchen's island still has its original red laminate, along with a newer note asking guests to avoid using the range, dishwasher, pink refrigerator or oven "to preserve the historical integrity."

Instead, guests have the use of more modern comforts: a microwave, wireless Internet and a TV set in the master bedroom.

The house has many of Wright's trademarks, including an entrance hall with a low-ceiling and a three-step drop into a spacious living room. It has three bedrooms and a master bath with a glass-walled shower facing the woods. A conference room with its own stone fireplace and terrace is off limits to guests.

A stone fireplace is one of the few changes made — the original was a less expensive concrete block. It was suggested by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which thought the stone would be more appropriate in the house's new surroundings.

A two-night weekend stay in August runs $385 a night. Details at http://www.polymathpark.com/reservations.asp.

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Top 50 adventure towns - one in every state

WASHINGTON (AP) — What are the best places to live, play and seek adventure?

National Geographic Adventure magazine's September issue includes a list of the best towns nationwide, one in each state.

Best wilderness towns - meaning they offer access to forests, canyons, swamps, grasslands, prairies and other wild places - are Homer, Alaska; Cody, Wyo.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Valdosta, Ga.; Medora, N.D.; Rochester, Minn.; Alexandria, La.; Valentine, Neb.; and St. George, Utah.

Best small towns on the list were Spearfish, S.D.; Bloomington, Ind.; Iowa City, Iowa; Northampton, Mass.; Lynchburg, Va.; Marietta, Ohio, Fayetteville, W.Va.; Bowling Green, Ky.; Chatsworth, N.J.; Hot Springs, Ark.; and Smyrna, Del.

Best mountain towns, according to the magazine, are Bishop, Calif.; Gunnison, Colo.; Missoula, Mont.; Hanover, N.H.; Wenatchee, Wash.; Hood River, Ore.; Boone, N.C.; Jim Thorpe, Pa.; Montpelier, Vt.; and New Paltz, N.Y.

Best waterfront towns, according to National Geographic Adventure, are Waimea, Hawaii; Fond du Lac, Wis.; Newport, R.I.; Rockland, Maine; Mystic, Conn.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Annapolis, Md; Beaufort, S.C., and Lewiston, Idaho.

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Delta employees film, star in "travelcasts"

ATLANTA (AP) — It's pretty clear what Dezirae Bridges likes to do when she visits Los Angeles — shop and eat good food.

In a five-minute Internet "travelcast," the flight attendant talks about exclusive boutiques and places like Pink's, a Hollywood institution that's famous for its hot dogs and for attracting celebrities.

"I am not going to Los Angeles and not go to Pink's," Bridges, 34, says.

Bridges' travelcast is one of 10 now featured on Delta Air Lines Inc.'s Web site as part of the airline's new post-bankruptcy look. The videos, showcased under a "Delta Siteseer" logo, all are filmed by Delta employees. Destinations range from New York and Los Angeles to Mumbai, India, and Seoul, South Korea.

The travelcasts are the brainchild of Rachael Steegar, a former Delta flight attendant who now works for the airline's marketing department.

Whenever she visited places the airline flies to, she'd ask other flight attendants what to see — and quickly found their unique jobs make them sightseeing experts.

"It occurred to me this is information adults don't get and can't read in a guidebook," Steegar said.

Any Delta employee — not just flight attendants — may submit an introduction video to participate in the travelcast program. If accepted, the airline outfits the employee with a camera and recording tips. The videos are shaky at times from an untrained hand and shots on occasion appear dark.

Steegar created the first travelcast, recording a trip to Brussels, Belgium, that included architecture, a chocolate shop (which wouldn't let her video its treasures) and an environmental day in which no cars were allowed in the city. Salt Lake City-based flight attendant Tracey Budge filmed her hike along Mount Inwangsan in Seoul, South Korea, and a trip to a fortuneteller in the city.

A second round of travelcast applications from employees are now being collected.

You can access the travelcasts at http://www.delta.com/marketing/siteseertravelcasts/index.jsp.

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Belle Fourche dedicating new center of nation marker

BELLE FOURCHE, S.D. (AP) — Belle Fourche's claim to fame will soon be easier to find.

A spot about 10 miles north of the western South Dakota town is the geographical center of the United States, if Alaska and Hawaii are included.

It's just off a gravel road on pastureland and designated merely by a red-topped fence post that replaced a flag pole dedicated Aug. 21, 1959, when Hawaii became the 50th state, said Teresa Schanzenbach, director of the Belle Fourche Chamber of Commerce.

"It's very inaccessible because it is on private property and barbed wire fenced off and it's not visitor friendly at all. We've had many requests and disappointed people saying, 'You're the center of the nation and you don't have anything of significance to say you're proud of that?'" Schanzenbach told the Rapid City Journal.

So to take better advantage of the geologic tourist attraction, town leaders raised the money and will dedicate a monument Aug. 21 next to the Center of the Nation Visitor Center in Belle Fourche. It will be easier to find and much more significant: a 21-by-40 foot compass rose made of South Dakota granite.

The monument does not have to be at the exact center of the nation, and Belle Fourche is already designated as the center of the nation city, according to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Society.

As for the true site outside of town, the plan is to replace the fence post with a sign and offer directions to visitors who ask, Schanzenbach said.

Details at http://www.bellefourche.org

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Spirit of Washington dinner train rolling toward Rainier

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Seventy-five years after a train regularly carried travelers from Tacoma to Mount Rainier, the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train has tourists riding the rails again.

The red-and-white 1950s vintage streamliner rolled out of Tacoma's Freighthouse Square on Aug. 3 after Mayor Bill Baarsma and dinner train owner Eric Temple drove a ceremonial golden spike into the track.

The National Park Limited carried an average of 120,000 passengers a year in the 1920s in its run from Seattle to Tacoma and onward to Mount Rainier. It stopped running in 1932, a victim of the Great Depression and the automobile.

The city and the dinner train's owners have set up a 10-month trial to test whether the dinner train, formerly based in Renton, can survive in Tacoma.

The train goes almost all the way to Mount Rainier. It stops at Lake Kapowsin and then returns to Tacoma — all in a 3 1/2 hour trip. It will probably take $7 million to $9 million in rail upgrades and a bridge repair for the train to reach Ashford and the gateway to Rainier, said Paul Henry, Tacoma Rail superintendent.

Details at http://www.spiritofwashingtondinnertrain.com/

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China to close scenic peak on tourist attraction Huangshan to visitors for maintenance

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese tourism authorities have closed one of the peaks on popular tourist attraction Huangshan mountain for three years to allow vegetation to recover from the hordes of tourists who visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The barring of visitors to Danxia Feng, or "Purple Cloud Peak," is part of a revolving series of closures of sites on the mountain, located in Anhui province, about 745 miles south of the Chinese capital, Beijing.

Another of the mountain's scenic spots, Shixin Peak, reopened to tourists on July 1 after authorities restored trees and shrubs. The official China Daily newspaper called the closure the "latest move to protect one of China's World Heritage Sites."

Famed for stunning scenery that has inspired countless landscape paintings, Huangshan, or "Yellow Mountain," attracts millions of visitors each year who clamber up thousands of steps. The area boasts 72 named peaks within a 59-square-mile area, with the three highest rising above 5,905 feet.

China has among UNESCO's largest number of listed sites, although their management has sometimes come under criticism. UNESCO this year expressed concern over development at Tibet's Potala palace and five other Chinese sites.

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Disney raises ticket prices

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney World has raised ticket prices for third time in two years, company officials announced.

An adult one-day, one-park pass increased 6 percent, $67 to $71. Discount packages also will be affected, but the per-day cost could be less than $23 for adults who buy as large as a 10-day package.

The change is due to an annual planning cycle of travel wholesalers, tour organizers and commercial publications, Disney officials told the Orlando Sentinel.

Disney last raised prices last August when a one-day, one-park ticket went from $63 to $67.

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Tour operators rate Paris airport one of world's worst

PARIS (AP) — France may be the world's top tourist destination, but the 23 million passengers arriving in Paris this summer have one hurdle to cross before they can get to all that wonderful food and wine: the airport.

The International Air Transport Association says the service offered by Aeroports de Paris, which runs Charles de Gaulle and other airports around Paris, is one of the worst in the world.

"Airports range from very good — Singapore for example — to the very bad and Paris unfortunately comes in at the bottom end of the spectrum," IATA Director Anthony Concil told The Associated Press.

He faults the "public service mentality" of ADP for a nonchalant attitude toward customers — both passengers and airlines. The airport operator is 68 percent state-owned, and its charges make Charles de Gaulle the seventh-most expensive airport in the world.

In the gray concrete underbelly of Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle, Herve Quillet waited for an Aer Lingus flight to Ireland. The real estate agent travels regularly for work, flying several times a month to Dublin; Munich, Germany, and the south of France.

"The queues are always too long and there is never enough people manning the desks, especially at the passport control," he said.

With its seven satellites each served by four gates, the 1970s-designed terminal "must be a nightmarish maze" for the uninitiated, said Quillet.

Michel-Yves Labbe, president of French travel company Directours, agreed. "Charles de Gaulle is a disgrace," he said. "The interminable queues, the overcrowding, the complete indifference of the personnel: it's like a third-world airport."

Newly appointed Tourism Minister Luc Chatel wants ADP to improve customer services. On a recent tour around Terminal 2E, one of the airport's newest, he recounted his own experience.

"I've had to wait one hour at a police control, I've had to wait half an hour to collect my luggage and taken a quarter of an hour to get to the plane because I was in a shuttle bus," he said.

To be fair, Charles de Gaulle is improving. To accommodate the 57 million passengers using the airport in 2006 — 20 million more than in 1997 — ADP Chairman Pierre Graff plans to invest $3.73 billion.

In June, President Nicolas Sarkozy opened glitzy a new facility capable of handling up to six Airbus A380 superjumbos simultaneously and as many as 8.5 million passengers a year.

The S3 terminal also features "La Galerie Parisienne" with more than 49,500 square feet of retail space for fashion, food, perfumes and cosmetics.

This summer, as part of its image remake, ADP is also offering free aromatherapy and Korean relaxation classes — to help relieve the stress.

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ZipRider tour in Alaska

ICY STRAIT POINT, Alaska (AP) — Heading to Alaska for an end-of-the-summer cruise?

You'll find a multitude of shore excursions to choose from - taking a helicopter ride to a glacier, eagle-watching, fishing, and more. But one of the most unusual is the Icy Strait Point ZipRider, which bills itself as the longest and highest zip-line tour in North America.

The 5,330-foot-long zip line runs from the heights of a mountaintop to the beach below.

The launch pad is located amid the dense forest 1,330 feet above sea level. Riders are buckled in and reach the bottom in 90 seconds.

Riders must be at least 90 pounds and no more than 275 pounds.

You can reserve the zip-line tour through your cruise or upon arrival at Icy Strait Point, if space is available. The zip-line rider is open each day that a ship is in port, with Sept. 26 the last day this season.

Icy Strait point is 50 miles west of Juneau and a mile and a-half from the Tlingit village of Hoonah.

For details, visit http://www.icystraitpoint.com.

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Conservationists serious about making fun green

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The valley stretching from Aspen to Glenwood Springs is known for being serious about conservation. Now there's a move to be serious about conserving while having fun.

Several of the Roaring Fork's biggest festivals — Strawberry Days in Glenwood Springs, the jazz concerts in Aspen and Snowmass — have recycling programs.

The Carbondale Mountain Fair has gone even further, requiring food vendors to use utensils and cups that can be used for compost.

Mark Weinhold, credited with pushing the Mountain Fair's recycling efforts, said when he first volunteered for the fair as a "Green Team" member, recycling wasn't that successful.

"Basically, everything went into the garbage," he said.

Festival-goers often would put their trash and recyclables in the wrong bins. Organizers created the "Green Team," which posted members at all the bins to make sure items were put in the right containers.

Other event organizers have adopted the practice.

Weinhold said 85 percent of the trash from this year's fair could be used for compost and was placed in biodegradable bags.

In 2004, Weinhold began working with other events, including Strawberry Days and Jazz in the Park in Glenwood Springs, River Day in Basalt and other Carbondale festivals.

He hasn't worked with the Jazz Aspen Snowmass music festivals, held in June and Labor Day weekend. The music festivals have their own recycling program, with volunteers on hand to show where items should go, said Jennica Lundin, the festivals' development and education director.

Lundin said the festivals contracted with the NativeEnergy wind farm this year to buy wind-energy credits to offset carbon dioxide emissions.

"We are a very visible special event in a community where our environment is, not only our first love, but also our economic engine," said Joe Lang, Jass Aspen Snowmass director.

The Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen has started using corn-based products that can go to compost and recycling wine bottles. Organizers are also working with Aspen's Canary Initiative on an inventory of emissions for the event, including tracking the use of energy from traditional power sources and generators.

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