Rounding out the top 10 this year were No. 2, Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii; No. 3, Main Beach, East Hampton, N.Y.; No. 4, St. George Island State Park, Florida Panhandle; No. 5, Hamoa Beach, Maui, Hawaii; No. 6, Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Mass.; No. 7, Waimanalo Bay Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii; No. 8, Cape Florida State Park near Miami.; No. 9, Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, S.C.; and No. 10, Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. Leatherman ranks beaches on 50 criteria, including the look and feel of the sand, water quality, weather, facilities and crowds. Coronado came in the 230s, losing points because its water temperature hovering in the 60s allows for only a quick dip for most, Leatherman said. California's chilly coastal waters have cost its pristine beaches points when they've been up against balmy contenders in Florida and Hawaii in the past. Known as "Hotel Del," the National Historic Landmark with its peaked red roof was built in 1888 and is the last of California's Victorian seaside resorts. "If you look at the sand you can see it sparkling," said a tanned Pavlacka, with gray locks peeking out from under his baseball cap.

[...] the savvy traveler quickly learns how to navigate Bangkok's legendary traffic jams and discover its soul, a mix of urban jungle and Buddhist serenity where shopping and eating are national pastimes. Beat traffic by zipping down side streets in a tuk-tuk or cruising up the Chao Praya on public express boats for stunning views of the city's premier attractions — both for about a dollar. Browsing is free at the largest outdoor market in Thailand, and it's a sight to see whether or not you take something home. A temple compound's shaded walkways and quiet corners are a perfect place to escape the sensory overload on Bangkok's busy streets. A thriving night market selling T-shirts, pirated DVDs and other souvenirs runs through the red-light district and spills onto the adjacent Silom Road, which is packed with street food vendors, restaurants and bars.

[...] in Canada, the War of 1812 is seen as an attempted land grab by the U.S. The U.S. invaded Canada and at one point controlled Toronto, but the British, seeking control of the Great Lakes, won Detroit and other important ports. The War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" after soldiers at Fort McHenry in Baltimore raised an American flag to mark a victory over the British on Sept. 14, 1814. [...] in Baltimore, a June 13-19 "Star-Spangled Sailabration" will include a parade of 40 tall ships and naval vessels, an airshow featuring the Blue Angels and other festivities, http://www.starspangled200.com/. The flotilla is one of several organized by Operation Sail, Inc., which has partnered with the U.S. Navy to mark the War of 1812 bicentennial, with additional tall ship events scheduled for May 23-30 in New York City, June 1-12 in Norfolk, Va., June 30-July 5 in Boston and July 6-8 in New London, Conn. In Washington, D.C., you can see the flag that inspired the national anthem, tattered with age and on display in a darkened room to help preserve it, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/. Here Andrew Jackson led the slaughter of the Creek Red Sticks tribe, ending a longstanding conflict with the natives and securing 23 million acres of territory for the U.S. Jackson also led the final American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans, which took place on the Chalmette Battlefield, now part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, http://www.nps.gov/jela/chalmette-battlefield.htm. On Lake Ontario in New York, important locations connected to the War of 1812 include Sackets Harbor, N.Y., where a major U.S. naval base fended off a British attack in 1813, http://www.sacketsharborbattlefield.org/, and Old Fort Niagara, which was a base for the U.S. invasion of Canada but was captured by the British in 1813. Canada is also hosting major commemorations of the bicentennial, including a War of 1812 Heritage Trail, http://www.discover1812.com, and ongoing living history programs at Fort Malden, in Amherstburg, Ontario, 20 miles from Detroit, http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/malden/index.aspx.

NEW YORK (AP) — In a travel story about locations associated with the War of 1812 bicentennial, The Associated Press misidentified the location of the USS Constitution. It is located in Charlestown, Mass., a neighborhood of Boston.

MONTROSE, S.D. (AP) — Cartoonlike buzzards wielding a knife and fork, anvil and oversized mallet might seem like an odd way to welcome tourists, but Porter Sculpture Park is no typical roadside attraction. The vultures representing reincarnated politicians are just a few of the more than 40 quirky creations originating in the mind of Wayne Porter, who uses his blacksmith know-how and appreciation of history to turn twisted concepts into metallic works of art. The sheer size of the piece is amazing, and to weld it with such defined form and scale is even more impressive, said Kelly Ludwig, a Kansas City-based graphic designer who lists the park on the iPhone app she created called "Best Road Trip Ever!" After earning degrees in political science and history from South Dakota State University, he returned to the town of less than 200 to become a sheep rancher and help Dad in the shop. The prospect of people handing over cash to see his art intrigued Porter more than sheep, so his brother helped him purchase some rolling prairie hills along an interstate exit in Montrose, S.D. He packed up his creations and opened Porter Sculpture Park in 2000. Winters are spent back home in St. Lawrence crafting in the blacksmith shop, but Porter's summer home is an on-site camper shared by his trusty Australian shepherd, Bambino. Porter offers guided tours whenever possible, providing insight into his inspirations while straying off on tangents ranging from his love of unsweetened iced tea and chocolate to the dangers of zombie attacks. A mowed path lets visitors meander through the many goldfish, dragons, flowers and birds constructed of such junk metal pieces as old farm equipment, a cement mixer and hot water tanks.

We followed the musical strains through the hot August air into a video room where indeed the old black-and-white movie flickered. The plan had been hatched at short notice when my daughter, Clara, had to stay home for university study during high summer and my wife refused to abandon her. Immediately after ditching our luggage at the hotel, we settled under the trees of the adjacent Parque del Retiro, a spectacular expanse of greenery, water and air smack in the center of town that was once the private garden of the king. Often in total silence, we spent half an hour going through all the depicted torments of the 1937 bombing of the ancestral capital of the Basque country by German and Italian warplanes aiding Gen. Francisco Franco's fascist forces. Beyond the moral and political significance, the museum also makes the exhibit an artistic highlight by bringing together sketches and partial paintings to show in a timeline how all came to fit in one of the world's greatest masterpieces. In Spain few are more pleasurable than those contained in these five letters: "Tapas" — those bite-size delights that can grease conversation from sundown till well past midnight. Slivers of ham were sliced before our hungry eyes, and even after all these years it continues to amaze me how a tiny morsel of ruby red meat lined with off-white fat can pack such a punch. Madrid, though, specializes in late nights, not early mornings, and it took us until our final day in the city to find a terrace that served the real thing — crispy churros. Even if our Spanish is elementary, we do know our football (not the American game, of course, but what Europeans call soccer), and through pictures combined with key words and names of players we dissected the fortunes of Real Madrid and Barcelona from the fiercely partisan pages. More impressive still was the darkness and horror of "The Third of May 1808" execution of rebels and his "Black Paintings" series, including the crazed vision of Saturn devouring one of his sons.

The site lets pet owners look up hosts in the area who will care for a dog in their own homes, giving a pet the food, exercise and attention you would give if you stayed home — sort of a doggy version of couch-surfing, for an average price of $25 to $30 a day. Hirschhorn and his fiance went on a trip to visit family in 2010 and left their dogs Rocky and Rambo in a kennel. At the end of their experiment, they had two things: enough money to pay for their 2011 wedding and a business model. The company's website provides host bios, location, home photos, prices, availability, notes on what they can handle and reviews. DogVacay provides insurance (up to $25,000 per animal) for emergencies, the company has a partnership with VCA Animal Hospitals and owners can rent GPS-enabled dog collars if they want to track their pets constantly. About a third of the hosts are professional pet care providers while two-thirds are casual dog lovers who might be retired, unemployed, stay-at-home moms or veterans, Hirschhorn said. DogVacay takes credit cards for payment when reservations are made, then pays the hosts. Interviews and security checks by DogVacay and meet-and-greets with host and owner are designed to overcome concerns about adjusting to the new environment. DogVacay has a concierge, a customer service representative who can help if there is a problem or if someone can't navigate the website.

The accident Wednesday comes nearly three months after a head-on collision of two trains in southern Poland killed 16 people. The trains were apparently not traveling at great speed because photos from the scene showed them nose-to-nose on the track with only slight damage.

(AP) — The first phases of a reimagined Fantasyland at Florida's Walt Disney World, the new Cars Land at California's Disneyland based on the "Cars" movies, and Universal Studios Hollywood's new Transformers ride top the list of new attractions at theme parks across the country in 2012. Disney says the renovation and new construction at Fantasyland inside the Magic Kingdom in Florida is the largest expansion project in the park's 40-year history, doubling the size of the current Fantasyland. Industry consultant Dennis Speigel said the Fantasyland expansion with detail-oriented areas immersing guests in Disney-themed worlds is expected to pay dividends for years, much like the hugely successful Harry Potter mini-park at Universal Orlando, where visitors feel like they've been dropped right into meticulously decorated movie sets. Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles is expected to debut the new Transformers ride — a dark ride with motion-simulator vehicles inspired by the science fiction action film — on Friday (May 25), with gates opening early Memorial Day weekend (starting at 7:30 a.m. Saturday) due to expected interest in the ride. In April, SeaWorld Orlando opened a new attraction centered on sea turtles, including a first-of-its-kind 360-degree domed theater showing a 3-D movie about the endangered creatures. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay this spring rolled out an elaborate ice show called "Iceploration," which features everything from bombastically costumed skaters to real live exotic birds flying around the indoor theater.

Necessary prep included wearing a wide-rimmed sunhat and sunglasses, carrying a cross-body bag complete with hand sanitizer and tissues, plus literally drenching my body in sunscreen. [...] Joanna and I stuck to shady spots and marveled at the street's quaint store signs and clusters of barber shop quartets singing in unison. There's something comforting, as Joanna said, about Main Street's turn-of-the-20th-century inspired shops, from ice cream parlors to the Victorian-themed Plaza Inn, that pre-date our tech-heavy, cell phone and social media savvy era. The park itself, created by director, animator and entrepreneur Walt Disney, opened in 1955, and Main Street was modeled after his childhood hometown, Marceline, Mo. Joanna downloaded to her iPhone the mobile app MouseWait to keep track of real-time wait times. By the time of our last stop in the afternoon at pink, princess-y Fantasyland, we started to feel the pull of theme park exhaustion. The glittering lights and London tableau spread out below our pirate galleon during Peter Pan's Flight reminded me of Disneyland's creativity, still artfully maintained.

The Ride — 3D, which debuts Friday at Universal Studios Hollywood and opened in December at Universal Studios Singapore, their first inclination was to build life-size versions of the famous 'bots, but Russell said they quickly learned that even the most sophisticated animatronics wouldn't do the trick. The attraction puts riders inside a 12-person vehicle designed to look like a nimble new Transformer named Evac, who goes on a breakneck chase from the headquarters of the top-secret NEST agency through city streets, across rooftops and even inside an office building on the hunt for a missing shard of the AllSpark, the powerful Transformers artifact. The action is digitally projected on 14 screens among real-world sets that the ride vehicles move into and past, mixing computer-generated fantasy with reality. Jeff White, the visual effects supervisor from Industrial Light and Magic who worked on both the films and the attraction, said designers created the footage in 4K resolution, which has quadruple the number of pixels found on most screens, and used photographs of the actual Chicago cityscape to craft the virtual urban terrain where the robots battle. The ride's footage was crafted by ILM at the same time they did effects for the "Transformers" sequels "Revenge of the Fallen" and "Dark of the Moon," which allowed the designers to include new additions like Bumblebee's gun-toting hybrid mode and hulking baddie Devastator, who sucks up everything in his path in Egypt at the end of "Revenge of the Fallen." Ultimately, "Transformers" mastermind Bay and the ride's designers are featuring 13 different characters from the "Transformers" movies in the ride, as well as new 'bot Evac and human General Morshower, who pops up in videos broadcast in the ride's waiting area.

Crews had to install a bracing system after high winds lashed and twisted the span in the 1950s, raising fears it would collapse. The bridge, which rises majestically above a Civil War era fort on the San Francisco side and arches across to the Marin County headlands on the north side, is currently in the midst of a seismic upgrade that has seen many of its key structures replaced or modified. "When (one of the bridge's designers) made his final speech during opening day ceremonies in 1937, he said, 'I present to you a bridge that will last forever,'" said Daniel Mohn, the bridge's former chief engineer, who co-authored a book about the span. Engineers discovered in the 1970s that the bridge's suspender ropes — the vertical cables that connect the deck to the main cables — had corroded, some so badly that they could be picked apart with a pocket knife. There was another scare on the bridge during its 50th anniversary in 1987 when an estimated 300,000 pedestrians gathered on the span, which was closed to vehicle traffic. The weight of the crowd flattened out the arch of the bridge deck and caused some revelers to suffer motion sickness as the bridge swayed. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which occurred during a live broadcast of the World Series, caused two 50-foot sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to collapse. Retrofitting the suspension span is the project's final phase although experts say its flexibility makes it less vulnerable in an earthquake. Funding for the project, which is estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars, has not yet been secured but work on its final design is underway.

The series captures everything from the downtown skyline rising from the prairie to the colorful bright lights of a street once filled with theaters to a man with a cowboy hat striding down the street. The exhibit says the city expanded from 50 square miles at the end of World War II to 198 square miles by 1955. Grosz, an expatriate German best known for satirical works depicting the rise of fascism in his home country, was commissioned in 1952 by department store executive Leon Harris Jr., whose family founded A. Harris & Company in Dallas in 1887, to commemorate the store's 65th anniversary. A couple of the works depict residents in black neighborhoods of the city, including one called "A Glimpse into the Negro Section of Dallas," showing a grouping of well-dressed African-Americans. Three works show the city's historic sources of wealth — one of cattle, another depicting an oil refinery and another showing people picking cotton — though the exhibit notes that by the 1950s, the city's economy was already dominated by banking. "Refreshments on the Way," shows a man in a cowboy hat standing outside of a restaurant called the Pig Stand, famous for a pork sandwich. The exhibit said that with growing competition from the entertainment venues in the suburbs, most of those theaters were closed by the 1970s.

Along with the improvements in access and aesthetics comes added space for a restaurant and cafe, a gift shop, classrooms and an auditorium, and more parking than its predecessor. Opponents said Philadelphia's political and corporate powerbrokers, hungry to reap the economic spoils and bragging rights to the legendary trove, conspired to orchestrate the undoing of Barnes' trust, which stated the collection could never be moved. Opponents say removing the collection from its original context has created a "McBarnes," despite the efforts to replicate the dizzying floor-to-ceiling arrangements of paintings, furniture and metalwork that underscored Barnes' eccentric philosophy of art appreciation. Introduced in the 1910s to then-radical works of Gaugin, Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne by his friend, Ashcan School painter William Glackens, Barnes went on to amass the world's most comprehensive private collection of French impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern paintings. A side exhibit at the new Barnes Foundation — explaining his art philosophy and presenting newspaper clippings and letters — lets visitors get inside Barnes' head, in a way the former location could not, to understand the rhyme and reason of his collection. The legal squabbling continues in Montgomery County Court, largely related to legal fees in the epic case, even as champions of the move attend a week of galas welcoming the Barnes to the neighborhood it shares with the Rodin Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.