actor's theatre of louisville
most notable as the home of the Humana Festival (March-April yearly), this regional theatre is much cooler than it lets on during the rest of the year.
[added on 11/18/02]

alphaville
vintage toys! lots of them! meant for grownups! a nice place to start wandering through Greenwich Village. close to the Orpheum Theater, as I recall.
[added on 11/18/02]

american visionary art museum
possibly the best thing on baltimore's inner harbor, the vam features a wide variety of work created by self-taught artist's whose bios appear to say they're all schizophrenic. that must be the secret - the vast majority of work here is compelling and stare-worthy. add a small but fabulous gift shop and pricey but fabulous cafe, and your whole day is planned. ps - i so would want to have my wedding in the tall sculpture barn, if i ever decided to get married.
[added on 11/18/02]

baltimore aquarium
so, it's not quite as amazing as when you were eight. it's still pretty nifty. and, how proud are you that they picked the "aqua.org" URL?
[added on 11/18/02]

california pizza kitchen
i know it's a chain, but the boyfriend still gets all excited by it whenever we see one. and that man knows his pizza; trust him.
[added on 11/18/02]

center for puppetry arts
one of the most fascinating things in atlanta. seriously, if you go through the self-guided when no schoolkids are there, the place feels eerie and almost religious.
[added on 10/23/03]

charis books
excellent atlanta-based feminist bookstore. they ship.
[added on 01/02/03]

d.c. metro system
it seems like everytime i visit d.c., i end up having to re-find this site. it has all the metro line and station info online.
[added on 12/25/02]

emily morgan hotel
posh deco hotel next to the Alamo in San Antonio; one of the few things San Antonio has to recommend.
[added on 11/18/02]

fernbank
fernbank has fossils of the world's largest dinosaurs. hey, it's cool! the Georgia/Atlanta natural history part's pretty boring, but the museum is a nice place to spend an afternoon - if the rotating exhibits are something interesting or you just want to see some really big fake bones.
[added on 11/18/02]

hotel helix
our latest DC hotel find. i lurve boutique hotels, and this one is particularly fun. bright-colored and slightly crazy, the decor is a welcome departure for stuffy florals and stripes.
[added on 11/18/02]

jamestown/yorktown
if you find yourself in southeastern virginia, skip colonial williamsburg and head for the really cool stuff: the jamestown/yorktown "living museums" allow you to do stuff like make colonial candles and watch powhatan reenactors clean bear skins, and the historic jamestowne site smells really good.
[added on 11/23/03]

kimpton group hotels
so far we've loved both of the kimpton group hotels we've visited (they're listed on this page, too). so, next time i'm travelling somewhere and have an option to stay at one of their hotels, i fully intend to. if you're looking for fun hotels, you might also try searching utell.com's online guide, too - hotels with the "style" selection seem to largely be fun.
[added on 11/18/02]

san antonio's riverwalk
the only two things you should do here: buy one of those "texas halos" (head wreaths made of paper flowers) and go on one of the cheesy boat tours. do not, under any circumstances, eat at riverwalk.
[added on 11/18/02]

shaker village
quaint stopping-off point on the way from Louisville to somewhere less Kentucky. good food, chances to buy Bybee pottery. worth going once, but not twice. skip the guided tour, though - it's entirely too focused on restoring the village.
[added on 11/18/02]

skewers
when i was in DC in high school, i met Jerry Brown and Ralph Nader at this superb mediterranean place. it's still amazingly tasty food at prices a well-funded high schooler could afford. surprisingly free of acronym-peppered conversations.
[added on 11/18/02]

the melting pot
so, it's a chain restaurant. but it's a chain fondue restaurant. not as romantic as it claims, but the food is good enough to still be worth an occasional celebratory visit.
[added on 12/01/02]

the pier five
slightly funky baltimore inner harbor hotel. prettily purple, good service, unnecessarily expensive as are most tourist district things.
[added on 01/05/04]

topaz hotel
from the fez-wearing bellhop to the teeny aveda toiletries to the kooky little stones they leave on your pillow, this hotel's "zen-like" aura will make you giggle like a schoolgirl. near dupont circle and within walking distance of some of DC's best - and not overpriced - restaurants.
[added on 11/18/02]

world arts west
dance performance and education in san francisco
[added on 10/27/04]