Scenic America

Do you want to take a break? Do you want to get away from it all? Do you want to take a vacation? Well, look no farther than the USA. One way to get away is to indulge yourself with an excursion through scenic America. For, in the USA, there are lots of exciting places to see, interesting residents to meet, and fun things to do.

The purpose of this page is to provide a visual excursion into "scenic America." I realize that this page equally could have been called scenic China, scenic Russia, scenic Switzerland, scenic Peru, and so forth. Undoubtedly, each of these other countries contains some equally compelling nature scenery and city life to explore.

This page, however, focuses on scenic America because this page was inspired by the book titled "Reader's Digest Scenic Wonders of America," which also explains the selection of the 50 scenic sites featured below. Going a step beyond the Reader's Digest book, this page also features the 30 largest USA cities. The featured cities were selected strictly on the basis of population size. The 31st city selected, Roanoke, Virginia, was an exception. Roanoke, Virginia was selected because (as of 2017) it had won the annual All-American City award more than any other USA city (that is, for a total of 7 times).

The 50 scenic sites on the map—and in the slideshow—below are labeled in alphabetical order based on the name of the scenic site (for example, 1 of 50 with Acadia National Park as the first scenic site because its name begins with the letter A). The map uses a red marker to represent the 50 scenic sites depicted on this page. Click a marker on the map to reveal additional information. After opening a scenic marker, you can right click the mouse on the (red scenic) marker to close the marker.

The 31 cities on the map—and in the slideshow—are numbered from 1 to 31 based on the population size of the city (for example, New York City is labeled 1 of 31 on the map because it is the USA's largest city with almost 9 million inhabitants as of 2016). The map uses a gold marker to represent the 31 cities depicted on this page. Again, after opening a city marker, you can right click the mouse on the (gold city) marker to close the marker.

Going another step beyond the Reader's Digest book, the slideshow below also contains 26 bonus photographs. The bonus photographs represent a depiction of "America on the move" (for example, 1 of 26). In a nutshell, America represents an enterprising, innovative, dynamic, and generous mosaic of residents. Much like a multi-patterned quilt, the Americans are amalgamated, interwoven, or stitched together into a united or cohesive whole—and, yes, occasionally, they become entangled into a tad bit of a disjointed or divisive whole—and, yet, the end product is a thing of exquisite beauty. America is a society where its residents are constantly on the move. Its residents, for the most part, are constantly chasing both the almighty dollar and the American Dream. In the process of chasing the American dream, the Americans also find the time to enjoy having a good party (as evidenced by the music videos featured below).

Some refer to the USA as the land of opportunity, and others refer to the USA as "America the Beautiful"—and, yes, a few detractors across the globe even refer to America as "the Great Satan" with designs on ruling the world. Photographs such as the ones featured in the slideshow below, however, form the basis for "America the Beautiful." The 26 bonus "America on the move" photographs in the slideshow below are not depicted on the map.

• Left click the mouse on a marker to open it for more information
• Right click the mouse on the open marker to close it

• Hover mouse cursor over a photograph/slide to pause the slideshow
• Move mouse cursor off the photograph/slide to resume the slideshow

For the more adventuresome visitors and travelers who also enjoy experiencing the great outdoors, the following map (courtesy of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration) presents some scenic routes to try while driving and vacationing in America. Enjoy the USA. It is a free country, a great country, and more importantly, a great place to visit.

This "Scenic America" page concludes with a bloc of accompanying or complementary music videos. The below-featured music videos represent one of the reasons why some refer to America as the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

The reader should keep in mind, however, that there is a "great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world" out there called Earth (to quote William Brighty Rands). It is very important not to lose sight of the fact that the USA is but a part of a much bigger whole known as planet Earth. And, of course, hospitable-to-life planet Earth is a part of an even much bigger whole known as the (vast and desolate) Solar System. Beyond the Solar System, the gargantuan Universe continues seemingly ad infinitum.

One final aside: The name of the country is the United States of America. Some refer to the country simply as the United States by dropping the "America" part of the country's name. Others drop the "United States" part of the country's name and simply refer to it as America. Still others choose to refer to the country by its abbreviations of USA or US. Whether you call it the USA, US, America, United States, or the United States of America, in effect, they mean the same thing.