Travel

From Wire Reports

HANNIBAL, Mo. - Historic sites in Mark Twain's hometown are open and safe despite reports of some flooding.

The Mississippi River was a few feet above flood stage, and some low-lying streets were flooded as of early May, according to The Hannibal Courier-Post, but downtown is protected by a flood levee.

The eight properties that belong to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum - including the Becky Thatcher House, Huckleberry Finn House and Grant's Drug Store - are operating normally. Even the Mark Twain Riverboat is still taking cruises.

Details at http://www.marktwainmuseum.org.

PARDEEVILLE, Wis. - The watermelon seeds will fly again in Pardeeville.

The 41st annual Watermelon Festival, complete with its trademark seed-spitting contest, has gotten the go-ahead after a core of about 10 volunteers stepped forward to run the event.

A decline in volunteers in recent years left only a few people trying to put on the festival. When a community meeting on the festival was held in late March, few people turned out and planners said the festival might be called off this year.

But festival chairman Clark Hodgson said a group of Pardeeville residents met and decided they have enough people to hold the festival at Chandler Park as scheduled Sept. 6. Featured attractions include free all-you-can-eat-watermelon for everyone, the seed-spitting contest and a contest to see who can eat watermelon the fastest.

WASHINGTON - One of Washington's new high-priced museums is lowering its admission fee in response to the economic slowdown.

The Madame Tussauds wax museum cut its admission price from $21.15 to $18 for adults. The price for children will be reduced from nearly $16 to $12.

There will be even bigger discounts for Washington-area residents, with prices lowered to $13 for adults and $9 for children ages 12 and under.

The regional discount applies to residents of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

Museum officials say they want to make it easier for people to visit exhibits that include lifelike figures of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Hollywood stars and other Washington celebrities.

Tussauds cited the increasing cost of fuel and food, as well as consumer opinion on acceptable prices in the Washington tourism market.

BLOOMFIELD, N.J. (AP) - Allison O'Sullivan, managing director of the Women's Travel Club, divides her company's top destinations into three categories. There are traditional favorites like London, Paris and Rome; more recently discovered favorites like Croatia, Prague and Patagonia; and then there are exotic locales -- like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Sure, many Americans couldn't place those last two countries on a map and probably couldn't guess the local religions, languages or diet.

But O'Sullivan says Uzbekistan and destinations like it are increasingly popular. "It's a whole new world between Russia and China," O'Sullivan said in a phone interview. She said her tours to the region include "desert towns, ancient markets, magnificent mosques and minarets ... but you're in modern buses and new Boeing airplanes. It's the Silk Route, so there are gorgeous carpets and jewelry; caviar is $10, and hotels are small and friendly."

The Women's Travel Club is offering a trip to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan Oct. 30-Nov. 10, $3,710 per person, double occupancy, plus airfare.

For travelers looking for more affordable destinations, O'Sullivan recommends Portugal and China as two destinations that give outstanding value. Portugal tours start as low as $950, including air, hotel for four nights and some meals; a "Beijing Blowout" tour starts at $899 including roundtrip air from New York and six nights in China.

The Women's Travel Club is also teaming up with the KN Karen Neuburger brand for an Oct. 24-28 "Rosa in Roma: Eat, Pray,

Live!" trip to Italy. Participants will get KN merchandise, and KN and the Travel Club will make $200 donations on behalf of each guest to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The trip, at $2,695 per person (double occupancy, including group airfare from New York), will include a leisurely 5K "Walk for Wellness" in Rome with a "pink penny toss" in the Trevi fountain, using spray-painted coins.

Details at 800-480-4448 or http://www.womenstravelclub.com.

BRYANS ROAD, Md. - The view across the Potomac from George Washington's Mount Vernon estate will remain pristine, as it was more than 200 years ago, thanks in part to a purchase of 63 acres by the National Park Service on the banks of the river.

The purchase conserves the last major block of shoreline on the Maryland side of the river that can be seen from Mount Vernon, which sits in Virginia just a few miles south of the nation's capital.

The complicated transaction began in 2005, when a private landowner listed 73 acres for sale in Charles County, on the southern Maryland shore across from the estate.

Mount Vernon wanted to ensure that the land was not turned into housing developments, and inquired to see if the National Park Service would be interested in purchasing the land and annexing it to Piscataway Park, an existing national park that protects more than 5,000 acres along the shore.

The park service was interested, but could not put a deal together quickly enough. So Mount Vernon bought the land to protect it while a final deal could be put into place.

However, the park service was not interested in maintaining a restored 18th-century farmhouse on the land, so private homeowners were found who bought a portion of the land on the condition of forgoing the development rights.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - A wildlife park in central Illinois began its 30th anniversary celebration with help from Animal Planet TV host Jeff Corwin.

Corwin was among more than 450 people at a dinner and auction April 25 that raised about $80,000 for Wildlife Prairie State Park, just outside Peoria.

The 2,000-acre park features restored native habitat and animals, including bison, elk, otters and wolves. Attractions include a reconstructed log cabin, playgrounds and a petting zoo.

Owned by the state and operated by a foundation, the park was created by the late William Rutherford, an attorney, outdoors enthusiast and one-time director of the state Conservation Department. He deeded the park to the state in 2000.

His son, William Rutherford Jr., is the current president of the Forest Park Foundation.

Events during the yearlong anniversary are aimed at drawing more people to the park, Rutherford said.

"We need to build attendance at the park for it to be sustainable," he said.

The park has seen attendance fluctuate over the years. Current admission is $5.50 for ages 13 and older, $3.50 for children 4 to 12 and free for children 3 and younger.

Details at http://www.wildlifeprairiestatepark.org/.

WAYCROSS, Ga. (AP) - The most famous resident of Okefenokee Swamp Park - an alligator that attracted the stares of tourists for decades - will soon be immortalized nearly a year after his death.

The skeleton of Oscar is being assembled and will be put on display like a museum dinosaur. The 14-foot, 1,000-pound alligator had roamed the swamp from the time the park opened in 1946.

As his bones show, Oscar was a tough customer, surviving a shotgun blast to the face, at least three bullet wounds, broken bones and arthritis. By some estimates, the geezer gator was 95 to 100 years old when he died last summer.

The display also will include what park officials found in Oscar's belly - including a plastic dog collar, a dog's tag, a penny and the top section of a flagpole.

The Okefenokee is a 438,000-acre National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Georgia that attracts 350,000 to 400,000 visitors a year.

The other famous Okefenokee alligator is fictional: a cigar-smoking critter named Albert in the late Walt Kelly's long-running comic strip, Pogo.

WILLAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - A giant hotel and retail center near Washington will include a taste of Colonial Williamsburg.

A Colonial Williamsburg store is one of five shops in the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center that opened in Maryland's Prince George's County.

The $865 million combined hotel and convention center bills itself as the largest on the East Coast.

The Williamsburg Marketplace can be found in an 18-story climate-controlled atrium that is enclosed by a huge glass dome.

The store is owned and operated by Gaylord under a partnership that is a first for Colonial Williamsburg, which chooses the merchandise and designed the store.

Colonial Williamsburg owns 24 retail stores in the Williamsburg area. Locating a store at a convention space near the nation's capital will give the nonprofit a chance to market its brands and appeal as a tourism destination to a wide audience, Easton said.

The store will sell colonial products and collectibles associated with Williamsburg, along with food and tavern items.

The convention center has 470,000 square feet of meeting space and 2,000 rooms.

At a computer in the store, visitors can also make reservations for a trip to Colonial Williamsburg.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A mother convicted of beating another woman at Walt Disney World for allegedly cutting in line has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Victoria Walker apologized to the victim and was given credit for 32 days already served. The 52-year-old Anniston, Ala., woman was accused of beating and kicking Aimee Krause in May 2007 in line at Disney's Mad Tea Party.

Judge Jose Rodriguez said he took into account Walker's remorse. She admitted pulling Krause's hair but said the central Florida woman provoked her.

Walker was taken into custody in Alabama and extradited to Florida months after the incident.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - George Barber said he plans to nearly double the size of his motorcycle museum and add a motocross track at Barber Motorsports Park, which was built with $70 million of his own money, according to The Birmingham News.

Barber, a dairy and real estate millionaire, said ground likely will be broken next year on an expansion that would add at least 100,000 square feet to the museum and enable the display of hundreds more motorcycles. The existing 140,000-square-foot museum allows for the display of less than half of Barber's 1,200-bike collection, widely regarded as the world's best.

The Barber park and museum, in its sixth year of operation, has been a tourism magnet for the Birmingham metropolitan area. A study by the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitor's Bureau estimated its economic impact at $372 million since its opening.