Getting the flavor of...Ohio’s mysterious mounds

Ohio’s mysterious mounds

Ohio has come up with a way to give a lost civilization the attention it deserves, said Rich Warren in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A new driving itinerary called the Ancient Ohio Trail (ancientohiotrail.org) links the major earthworks built more than 2,000 years ago by three cultures collectively known as the Mound Builders. The trail begins in Newark, a central Ohio town where the mysterious Octagon Earthworks apparently mark the moon’s movements across its 18.6-year cycle. Near the state’s southern tip lies Serpent Mound, a 1,348-foot-long effigy of a writhing snake that seems to be swallowing an egg. The 70-foot-high Miamisburg Mound, located northeast of Cincinnati, ranks as one of the largest burial mounds in the world. The trail passes through “some of the state’s most gorgeous scenery” and near many of its other major tourist sites. “That makes it possible to shape an entire vacation around the Ancient Ohio trail.”

Disney’s upgraded adventure park

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Once “Disneyland’s ugly stepsister,” Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif., has suddenly become a star attraction in its own right, said Jason Cochran in the New York Post. Cars Land, based on the popular Cars film franchise, might represent a “last-ditch effort” to redeem the struggling 11-year-old theme park, but Disney “spent the money to do it right,” and the effort paid off: “From now on, California Adventure will be known as The Park With Cars Land.” Passengers in convertibles race over hillocks and through caverns in a man-made canyon, while others maneuver bumper cars on “what can only be called the world’s largest air hockey board.” Not everything’s perfect. Some attractions are too small, causing “bumper-to-bumper lines.” Cars Land “can’t quite best” the Harry Potter park in Orlando. But it has made Southern California arguably a better all-around choice for an amusement-park vacation.