Today is the reddest of red letter days. The election of Barack Obama as America's first black president has already heightened interest in a country that is never far from the thoughts of UK tourists, and his inauguration will keep things at fever pitch.
Certainly, 2009 is set to be a great year to take a holiday in the United States. But where to go? Chris Leadbeater picks a handful of locations that have played a part in the 44th President's road to the White House - but which also offer a lot to overseas visitors.
WASHINGTON DCThe US capital is a fascinating city. The key attraction is the National Mall, with its famous landmarks such as the Washington Monument (the obelisk dedicated to the first president) and the Lincoln Memorial (where a 20ft statue of Abraham Lincoln watches the steps where Martin Luther King gave his 'I Have A Dream' speech).
But there is also diversion in the museums of the Smithsonian Institution (such as the National Air And Space Museum). And there's always the chance to go to the White House and wave through the window at its latest resident.
More information:
http://www.washington.org/http://www.si.edu/http://www.%20whitehouse.gov/CHICAGO Obama cut his political teeth in Chicago from 1997 onwards, the last three years as an Illinois senator - an enviable situation, because the Windy City is a first-rate metropolis.
Michelle Obama recently revealed that the couple had their first date at two of its finest attractions, the Art Institute Of Chicago (home to works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Warhol) and the panoramic bar at the top of the 1,127ft John Hancock Center skyscraper.
Both should be included on any itinerary - as should two sights that lurk nearby. North Michigan Avenue is a shopping street of endless temptations, while Grant Park, where Obama celebrated his election win, is a lovely green lung on the banks of Lake Michigan.
More information:
http://www.gochicago.com/http://www.artic.edu/http://www.%20signatureroom.com/HONOLULU
Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961, and was back at Christmas, enjoying a pause-for-breath holiday at Kailua, just north of the city. It isn't hard to understand his decision.
The capital of Hawaii is a popular place in the sun, thanks partly to Waikiki Beach, and the bars and eateries that run alongside it. It would be easy to spend an entire stay on the sand, although that would be to miss a good deal else.
The USS Arizona Memorial, built atop the wreck of the sunken battleship, pays sober tribute to the dead of Pearl Harbor, while Oahu island (on which Honolulu sits) is blessed with a nigh-on obscene amount of glorious scenery, including the towering Diamond Head volcano - and the views from it.
More information:
http://www.gohawaii.com/www.nps.gov/usarNEW YORK
The future 44th President spent four years in New York in the early Eighties, studying at Columbia University. The main campus of this Ivy League institution is at Morningside Heights, above the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
It's a grid reference that placed Obama in the midst of a city that offers thrills galore to locals and tourists alike - whether that means crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and gazing down the East River at the Statue Of Liberty, climbing to the top of the 1250ft Empire State Building, strolling in Central Park, dining in Greenwich Village or admiring the
Vermeer and Rembrandt paintings at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. New York requires little introduction, but much exploration.
More information:
http://nycgo.com/http://www.esbnyc.com/index2.cfmhttp://www.metmuseum.org/BOSTON
The late Eighties saw Obama finish his training at Harvard Law School, that icon of US education that sits on leafy streets in Cambridge, west of central Boston.
The state capital of Massachusetts has, of course, been a proving ground for American public figures since the Boston Tea Party, and still wears its 18th century heritage with pride.
Visitors are drawn to the Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile path through the city that links key historic sites, including the Old South Meeting Hall, where revolutionary anger spilled into action, and the Bunker Hill Monument, where a fiery battle with colonial Britain troops reached its endgame.
But don't forget your stomach. Boston has several enticing seafood restaurants.
More information:
www.bostonusa.com
http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/FLORIDA
If anything is symbolic of the mood change in America that swept Obama to power, it is perhaps the fact that Florida voted Democrat. This is not a common occurrence. Obama's triumph was only the fourth time the Sunshine State has 'turned blue' in half a century (even the flamboyant JFK failed to take it).
Not that Florida really markets itself as a hotbed of political activism. Its blue-riband attractions are well known - the theme parks and family fun of Orlando, the Art Deco architecture and bars of Miami, the many-varied islands of the Keys.
But you can still find less-discovered pleasures, not least the lush swampland of the Everglades or the soft beaches around Sarasota, on the Gulf shoreline.
More information:
http://www.visitflorida.com/http://www.orlandoinfo.com/MEMPHIS
To fully trace the journey of the first black politician to America's top job, you need to start not in Honolulu but on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial - and in Memphis, where Martin Luther King was assassinated.
King was shot down in April 1968 at the Lorraine Motel. But what was a place of despair has been turned to a positive use. The motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum, where the struggle for African-American emancipation over four centuries is detailed in full.
Of course, this atmospheric Tennessee city is tied to another muchmourned figure. And while Elvis Presley's Graceland home is a rather more frivolous experience than the Lorraine Motel, in its own gaudy way it is just as unmissable.
More information:
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/home.htmwww.elvis.com/gracelandPost Comment
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