TripCart :: The Travel Blog

Vroom Vroom - 10 Motorhead Museums

If you've been driving around aimlessly this Labor Day weekend looking for something to do, you might want to go and check out a car museum.  MSNBC covers 10 of the best car museums in the country from coast to coast.  Odds are this one might break the family up as most likely there's someone in everyone's car who won't be happy about this little excursion but for those who dig on motors and automobiles here's a quick rundown on the places they recommend-

• The Nethercutt Collection - Free to the public and includes car from as far back as 1898
• Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum - About 100 cars and costs $8 to get in
• Saratoga Automobile Museum - This museum includes a 7-passenger convertible
• Wall Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum - Packed full of crazy hot rods
• Volo Auto Museum - Just outside Chicago with over 300 cars on display
• Larz Anderson Auto Museum - Lots of French motor cars here
• Darryl Starbird's Rod & Custon Hall Of Fame Museum - Ridiculously long name
• Don Garlits Museums - Drag racing museum with $15 admission
• Antique Automobile Club Of America Museum - Tons of buses
• National Automobile Museum - Over 200 cars

Honk. Honk.

Picture of the Day (03/23/07) - From TripCart

A statue of King Louis the IX in front of the art museum in St. Louis.

(thanks again creativity+)

LEGO Art at Discovery Center Museum

Why be a lawyer when you can play with LEGOs for a living?  We guess that's what Nathan Sawaya was thinking when he quit his day job to play with the famous little plastic bricks all day.  This show at the Discovery Center in Rockford, Illinois features 30 of his pieces as part of his first solo art exhibit.  Some of his work includes a 7-foot Brooklyn Bridge and life-size version of a Tyronasaurus Rex.  The show is $5 for adults and runs through Labor Day.

(thanks flyawaycafe)

Shuttle Launch Experience Puts you in Space

NASA is gearing up for a launch in a little over a week (June 8th) but now you can get the same experience (sort of) whenever you want.  The Kennedy Space Center has just opened the Shuttle Launch Experience, a $60 million, 44,000-square-foot simulator that lets visitors experience the start of the main engines, the firing of the solid rocket boosters and their separation.  The creators spent three years trying to capture every minute detail from ambient sounds to the creaking in the cabin and a few astronauts now claim that the new ride is even more accurate than training simulators currently being used by NASA.  We can't wait to go.

(thanks space.com)

Free Museums

Bank of America is using our nation's finest museums to lure you into banking with them and it's not a bad deal.  If you happen to be a Bank of America customer you and a friend will receive free admission into one of more than 95 museums across the US.  The program is in its 10th year and celebrates the National Museum Month of May.  You can check their goofy flash site for available museums in New York, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine and Vermont.

(thanks gadling)

Annie Leibovitz Last Weekend in San Diego

We told you back in October about Annie Leibovitz's retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum. Well, her exhibit is now on the West Coast for one last weekend.  If you want to see a fifteen year retrospective of some of her best professional work, swing by the San Diego Museum of Art by April 22nd before the exhibit ends (the museum warns that you may be waiting up to an hour to get in over the weekend). Leibovitz is known for her portraits of many notable public figures including: Colin Powell, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Bill Clinton, Demi Moore, William S. Burroughs and many more.

(thanks flyawaycafe)

Related posts: Annie and the Bigwigs in Brooklyn • Magritte in LA • Ron Mueck at the Brooklyn Museum of Art • LEGO Art at Discovery Center Museum • Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art Opens on the Water • Free Museums

Related travel guides: Arts and Entertainment in Southern California Coast

Lovely Prices for Tours for Two at the MOMA

Love is in the air this month and for the next week you and your significant other can make googly eyes at each other while you walk around after hours at the Modern Museum of Art in NYC-

This February, enjoy a romantic after-hours Tour for Two of MoMA's galleries! A special 50% discount is available on Tours for Two taking place in February, Saturday through Thursday, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. These private guided tours include collection highlights such as Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night and Henri Matisse's Dance (I).

(thanks newyorkology)

Ron Mueck at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

The amazing work of hyperrealist Ron Meuck is currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  Mueck is an Australian-born artist who is the child of toy makers and used to make props for movies. These pieces are all visually stunning and well worth a look if you're lucky enough to be in the area.  If you can't see them up close and personal here is a link to more of his work and a few behind-the-scenes shots of his installations being moved into place at the Brooklyn Museum.

Related posts: LEGO Art at Discovery Center Museum • Annie and the Bigwigs in Brooklyn • Free Museums • Lovely Prices for Tours for Two at the MOMA • Woody Allen - Why New York is Great: The People • Run Your Pants Off in New York City • Stirring up the Pot in South Brooklyn • Menus for Me and You • Tomorrow is Museum Day • Hit the Museums for Free on September 30th

Related travel guides: New York City • Aarts and entertainment in New York City • Romantic vacations in New York City • Luxury vacations in New York City • Kids and family vacations in New York City

Spiffing-up Seattle

Good things are going on in Seattle.  A nasty fuel storage center bordering the Puget Sound waterfront is now the site of the Olympic Sculpture Park due to open next weekend.  It will feature 21 sculptures by well-known artists.  The park runs a cool $85 million and is part of a project to expand the Seattle Art Museum, another beneficiary of some of the Microsoft/Starbucks money that has been filtering into the public sphere lately.  No matter where the money's coming from it's always nice to see some urban renewal, too bad that for now it's too cold to enjoy it.

related travel guides: northwest washington and the cascades

The Burt Reynolds Museum in Jupiter

Ironic Sans has directed us to the Burt Reynolds & Friends museum in Jupiter, Florida. It appears that Mr. Reynolds is a bit of a pack rat and this unique museum is full of all kinds of kitsch, including keys to cities, movie posters, signed photographs, movie scripts and movie props (that canoe propped up against the wall in the corner in the picture above is the canoe from Deliverance). Burt also teaches intensive three-week courses for aspiring actors and he's a deputy sheriff in about half a dozen cities and the entire state of Hawaii, Arizona and South Carolina.

(thanks ironicsans)

Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art Opens on the Water

Boston's got a new building opening up today in the Seaport District.  As a continuation of Boston's recent remodeling efforts via the Big Dig, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art will be opening it's doors today. The 65,000-square-foot behemoth hopes to help rejuvenate the views of Boston's Harbor. The building also houses a 300+ seat theater and is in walking distance of the Boston Children's Museum. If you're traveling through Boston sometime in the near future definitely take the opportunity to visit the newest of Boston's cultural offerings.

Magritte in LA

Over at the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) a new exhibit has just gone up featuring over 60 works by renowned surrealist Rene Magritte. There also another 60 pieces on display by the likes of Jeff Koons, Barbara Krueger, and Andy Warhol. Ironic Sans checked out the show this past week and here's what he's got to say about it-

Designed by John Baldessari, the museum space is transformed into a surreal experience worthy of the artwork it contains. The floor is a carpeted Magritte-esque sky. The ceiling is covered with images of freeways. The guards all wear suits and bowlers, like they’ve stepped out of a Magritte painting. The entrance to the exhibit is a larger-than-life replica of Magritte’s painting The Unexpected Answer. When you enter the exhibit, it’s like walking into Magritte’s world. For a different exhibit, something like this could have been distracting, cheesy, or overbearing. But for this exhibit, it was just right.

(thanks Ironic Sans)

Steve's Weird House in Seattle

Steve's a weirdo and his house is even odder. His Victorian house is decked from floor to ceiling with all sorts of crazy crap.  Stephen has a two-faced pig, cow and kitten and siamese calves, weasels and goats. The man collects anything esoteric and his abode is a great place to just walk around and gape.  There's a great virtual tour which tries to encapsulate the weirdness that is Steve's house.  If you're in Seattle in the near future, this is definitely worth checking out.

(thanks ursi)

Related posts: The Burt Reynolds Museum in Jupiter • Recycling Vegas • Write on Your City • Bubble Gum Alley in SLO

Related travel guides: Northwest Washington and the Cascades

Scary Scholarship

Halloween is but a few days away, you've carved up the pumpkin and sewn up the costume, but have you brushed up on your parapsychology lately? Well, the New York City public libraries have been collecting heaps of material on "alchemy, ghosts, magic, palmistry, witchcraft, UFOs, Bigfoot and yoga," as well as the "scientific investigation of clairvoyance, reincarnation and other     paranormal phenomena." If you're going to be a vampire you might as well be an authentic one.

(thanks axiomsun)

Spending the Day at Storm King Sculpture Park

Here's a cool place to spend the day if you're around NYC and want to get out of the city and get some fresh air. Plus the leaves are rocking right now. Here's a quote from the Storm King Art Center-

Annie and the Bigwigs in Brooklyn

Annie Leibovitz has decided to put on a retrospective of sorts at the Brooklyn Museum. "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005," comprises over 200 pictures - it's a combination of pictures with deep personal significance for Leibovitz (including pictures of her friends and family) as well as shots of some of the most famous people on the planet (Brad Pitt, Kate Moss, Johnny Depp, etc.). You can check out the pictures until January, then the exhibition will be moving to San Diego and Washington before heading overseas.

Related posts: Annie Leibovitz Last Weekend in San Diego • Ron Mueck at the Brooklyn Museum of Art • LEGO Art at Discovery Center Museum • Free Museums • Lovely Prices for Tours for Two at the MOMA • Run Your Pants Off in New York City • Stirring up the Pot in South Brooklyn

Related travel guides: New York City travel guide • Aarts and entertainment in New York City • Romantic vacations in New York City • Luxury vacations in New York City • Kids and family vacations in New York City

Recycling Vegas

If you're looking for something to do after you've cashed in all your chips you can check out the little-known Neon Museum. Here lie the ghosts of Vegas' past, a huge graveyard of neon signs no longer in use. Some go way back to the 1940s but the Neon Museum's goal is "to collect, preserve, study and exhibit neon signs and associated artifacts to inspire educational and cultural enrichment for diverse members of our international community." You can visit the 3-acre "Boneyard" by appointment only in the afternoon during the week, if there's at least ten of you someone will give you a tour to boot.

(thanks mefi)

Art Gets Bigger in the Mile High City

If you happen to be around Denver, tomorrow's the day. The Denver Art Museum's new  Frederick C. Hamilton Building will be opening its doors for the first time making the museum one of the largest between the West coast and Chicago. The new structure, designed by famed architect Daniel Libeskind (he devised the original plans for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center), weighs in at almost 150,000-square-feet and will allow space for three traveling exhibits as well as parts of the permanent collection. The $90 million structure houses two atriums, one of which is over ten stories tall. The party kicks off tomorrow morning around 10 and there's free admission over the weekend. The Washington Post has more information about places to stay and eat in the area.

Tomorrow is Museum Day

Want to hit every museum in the city, but don't have the money to enjoy the finer things? Have no fear, because tomorrow is the day, Museum Day.  Museums all over America are opening their doors and they're not going to be charging you for walking through them.  You can print out a card from the Smithsonian website that's valid for two general admission tickets to one of the roughly 500 participating museums.

Hit the Museums for Free on September 30th

Want to hit every museum in the city, but don't have the money to enjoy the finer things? Have no fear, September 30th is the day, Museum Day.  Museums all over America are opening their doors and they're not going to be charging you for walking through them.  You can print out a card from the Smithsonian website that's valid for  two general admission tickets to one of the roughly 500 participating museums.

(thanks gadling)

5 Podcast Tours for The City by the Bay

We're still stuck on San Francisco and the Bay Area.  TripCart's been researching the museums and restaurants throughout the area and came accross a whole slew of podcast tours to help you find your way around. Below is a roundup of the best podcast tours in San Fran and its environs, happy listening-

• Check out the San Francisco Modern Museum of Art's newest exhibition, Mathew Barney:DRAWING RESTRAINT. This podcast tour features both the artist and curators.
• The San Francisco Chronicle gives us the scoop on Inner Sunset's 9th Avenue - this fascinating podcast tour of just two blocks will help you appreciate why San Franciscan's love their city.
• Turn your head skywards as Bing Quock of the Morrison Planetarium explores the heavens around San Francisco with you on his "Sky Tour."
• Grace Ann Walden of the San Francisco Chronicle takes us on a fascinating restaurant tour of the popular Italian neighborhood of North Beach.
• A Guy, A Girl, and a Bottle have dozens of podcast tours of wineries around the Bay Area. Their most recent podcast was from the Loxton Winery in Sonoma.

Lastly, Amateur Traveler has a mesmerizing time-lapse video driving tour of San Francisco that includes hotspots like Lombard Street, Chinatown and the Golden Gate Bridge.