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Antarctica When you sail south from Hobart, Tasmania, you have 1,000 miles of empty sea ahead of you before reaching Antarctica, the most desolate continent on Earth. Ten of us went on the Spirit of Sydney, a retired, round-the- world racing yacht which is available for charter to the more adventurous. The landfall is at Commonwealth Bay, where world-record wind speeds in excess of 200mph have been recorded, a fine place you might think for a sailing holiday. Our aim was to sail there, land if possible, and sail back via the Magnetic South Pole, an imaginary entity which roams the seas off the coast of Antarctica as unpredictably as the albatrosses that live there. It can only be located by satellite navigation; compasses just don’t work.
We left before the yacht was ready. Holes appeared in the soft aluminium of the hull, eaten by electrolytic corrosion, so the boat would fill with water. Even I, who have climbed Everest, was unprepared for the savagery of the sea. Unimpeded by land, waves roll around the world in the roaring Forties and the furious Fifties, built up by winds of hurricane speeds and Antarctic temperatures.

NEW YORK (NYT) — Business travelers who think variety is the spice of car-rental life can now drive pickup trucks off Budget Group’s Budget Rent-A-Car lots. The company, a leader in providing specialty vehicles from Jaguars and Mercedes-Benzes to Jeeps and Harley-Davidson “hogs,” is now stocking its outlets worldwide with some 5,000 Ford Rangers and Chevy S-10 Blazers.

I am in my sixties and for 30 years have had to take cortisone replacement tablets to compensate for the fact that I have no adrenal glands. A doctor once told me that if I (or anyone on a course of life- supporting medication) should ever suffer from a severe attack of diarrhoea or vomiting I would need emergency treatment. My husband now wants to take me on a trip of a lifetime to India and I am afraid that a tummy- bug will finish me off. What should I do?
Juliana Roper Oxford Dr Gill Lea replies: Obviously you must discuss your individual case with the doctor looking after your adrenal condition, but here are some suggestions which may help. For any overseas travel it would be wise to carry extra supplies of your tablets
prescription medication but especially so as your requirements might increase with travelling. As you realise, severe vomiting or diarrhoea might prevent sufficient absorption of the cortisone. You could discuss with your doctor whether you should carry injectable hydrocortisone and a pack containing sterile needles and syringes. You would also need a letter explaining your medical history and the necessity for the medicines, needles and syringes. It would be sensible to choose a trip which does not venture far from main centres. If concerns arose you should be able to get to medical help, taking your own supplies in case they were not easily available. On a trip of a lifetime it may be worth staying in hotels with an international reputation to maintain. The aim is to reduce the chance of diarrhoea and vomiting to a minimum. Eating in the dining-room of such a hotel may be safer than in small restaurants, and it is easy to wash your hands first. Most people know they should avoid tap water and ice in drinks unless certain it is from a satisfactorily chlorinated supply. Choice of food is important and freshly cooked, piping-hot meals are safest. Indian dishes such as curries where meat and vegetables are in pieces, which have been thoroughly heated, are likely to be safer than splendid-looking cold buffets. Cold meats, salads, shellfish and creamy desserts are often displayed for hours without adequate refrigeration and sometimes open to flies. Peel all fruit and avoid salads and shellfish. Carry treatment for diarrhoea including rehydration salts and request medical help earlier rather than later. Remember to take out good travel medical insurance, having informed your insurer of your condition in advance. l Dr Gill Lea is chief medical adviser at Trailfinders’ immunisation clinic, 194 Kensington High Street, London W8 7RG (0171 938 3999) To swap or not to swap? As a family we are keen to do a home-exchange holiday with a family from abroad, probably the US. What are the snags, how do we start and can you give us details of firms that can arrange this? Rupert Littlecote London W12 Jill Crawshaw replies: Low cost - you only have to pay your fares and living expenses - and a family home, car, sometimes even a second holiday home are yours for the vacation, plus the appeal of living in a real community, mixing with locals rather than other tourists in a hotel . . . these are the obvious advantages and the chief motivators of home-swap holidays. The main snag is the time it takes to plan the holiday, and the number of letters you have to write to your opposite number before you can even book your flight. The usual procedure is to have your own home listed for a fee of between pounds 50-pounds 80 in a directory, and then you contact any exchange partners whose offer interests you. Several companies now also have pages on the Internet which can shortcircuit procedures considerably. Green Theme International (01208 873123) is a founder member of the International Home Exchange Association, with a wide choice of homes, from city flats to large country houses. It publishes three directories each year in five languages, and it covers 30 countries. It is particularly strong in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and increasingly the former Eastern bloc countries. It admits that it is difficult to arrange home swaps in Third World countries. One of the reasons that it gives for being involved in this type of holiday is that “our clients are not contributing to the march of mass tourism and the many problems generated by the short-term profit motive”. It costs pounds 38 to be listed in Green Theme directories, and the closing date for the next edition is 15 February. The benefits and pitfalls of home exchange are also described in some detail in Home Exchange Vacationing (Rutledge Hill Press), pounds 9.95 from bookshops or pounds 9 from Homelink International (01344 842642), Linfield House, Gorse Hill, Virginia Water, Surrey GU25 4AS. An annual subscription for five directories each year is pounds 65. Among American criticisms: the vagaries of British plumbing and domestic appliances - and the neighbours! 2 Jill Crawshaw is a travel expert, writer and broadcaster How a woman can travel alone in Islamic countries without being harassed I am planning to travel alone through the Middle East, as a means of sampling some Islamic culture. I am, however, slightly concerned, as a woman, about the possibility of sexual harassment. I would like to do a fairly extensive tour of, say, six weeks, taking in as many places as possible, but I want to feel comfortable. Are there any particular places to recommend or to avoid? A Drinkwater Redruth, Cornwall The Travel Editor replies: As a single woman travelling in the Middle East, you are presumably a hardy person, and apart from Algeria and Afghanistan, both of which are off-limits to foreigners, there is nowhere you must avoid. As a bare minimum, there are certain courtesies you can follow that should minimise the risk of serious harassment. The main point, quite simply, is to dress and behave more modestly than you would at home. Keep your eyes down, look serious, and do not expose more of your flesh than the local women do. In certain resorts in Tunisia, Turkey and Lebanon this can mean virtually anything. In Syria, Jordan and most parts of Egypt it can mean bare knees and forearms. In Iran and eastern Turkey you should cover up as much as possible, including your hair. If you follow these guidelines the chances are that the Islamic propriety that keeps a clear distance between men and women will apply to you too. If you don’t follow them, there is a greater chance that it will be waived. Legal queries Our legal expert can reply to queries regarding any holiday rip- off you may have suffered on condition that you have already complained to the airline or tour operator and received an unsatisfactory response. All correspondence and relevant documentation should be supplied. Unfortunately we can only reply to letters we print.

When in Crete, do as the Cretans do - even down to living in their houses. The traditional stone houses that Pure Crete offers to British holidaymakers are scattered in and around the village of Magala Chorafia. They are owned by the locals, and most are named after them - the 300-year-old Andreas’s House, for example, has been in that family for generations. The place has remained derelict for many years, but now much of it has been restored by the current Andreas. An ancient tombstone which he uncovered during the rebuilding is set into the walls.

Downtown Hartford combines Yankee colonialism with a modern business atmosphere. Historic Hartford attractions include the State Capitol atop Capital Hill. With its gold dome, gray Connecticut marble walls, and soaring arches, the capitol, which opened in 1879, is considered an architectural gem. The state legislature continues to meet in the building's chambers. Inside, memorabilia of Connecticut history include Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette's camp bed, Civil War battle flags, ships' figureheads, and tomb-stones. The Old State House, the oldest in the nation, was designed by noted architect Charles Bulfinch and has been completely restored. The homes of authors Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe have been restored and contain many original furnishings. The Butler-McCook Homestead offers a view of Victoriana, complete with paintings, silver, toys, and a backyard garden. The Isham Terry house, built in 1854 for a Hartford businessman, was designed in the Italian Vila style; its fixtures and decor have been carefully preserved. The bell in the steeple at First Church of Christ (1807) contains portions of the bell brought to Hartford by English colonists fleeing Massachusetts in 1636. Adjacent to the church is the Ancient Burying Ground, where lie the city's early leaders near Carl Andre's controversial 36-boulder "Stone Field" sculpture. Self-guided walking tours of Hartford's historic sites are available.

The home of a Hartford insurance company, The Travelers Tower, is New England's oldest skyscraper. A landmark since 1936, the tower offers a panoramic view of the Connecticut River Valley. The observation deck is open to visitors on weekdays. Aetna Insurance's headquarters on Farmington Avenue is the largest colonial brick structure in the United States. St. Joseph's Cathedral, with its huge stained-glass windows, is an example of contemporary ecclesiastical architecture. The Phoenix is housed in a boat-shaped structure thought to be the world's only two-sided building. The glass and steel structure is now connected to downtown's Riverfront Plaza. The Menczer Museum of Medicine & Dentistry displays instruments and medications used for the past two centuries. Pictures and artifacts pertaining to the 134-year history of the Police Department are on exhibit at the Hartford Police Museum.

Bushnell Park, adjacent to the state capitol, boasts a 1914 carousel with a Wurlitzer organ and 48 intricately carved and painted wooden horses. The park, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, is reputed to be America's oldest public park. Within the park is the Pump House Gallery, site of many summer concerts; Veterans' Memorial Arch; Corning Fountain, celebrating the Native-American heritage; and a number of sculptural pieces. "Stegosaurus," a statute by Alexander Calder, is located between the Wadsworth Atheneum and City Hall. Elizabeth Park Rose Gardens contains thousands of common and rare plants, some in carefully landscaped beds and others in greenhouses. Another popular tourist attraction is the Connecticut River cruise aboard a restored steam-powered yacht.

Arts and Culture

Author Mark Twain's home in Hartford has been restored and is open to visitors.

The Connecticut Opera Association, based in Hartford, puts on four annual productions at Bushnell Memorial Hall and features some of the finest voices in the world. Major popular music concerts ranging from rock to country are held at the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum. In addition, Bushnell Memorial Hall hosts visiting opera troupes and symphonies, off-Broadway productions, jazz, blues, and comedy performances. The Meadows Music Theatre, which provides a venue for concerts of various genres, is New England's only indoor and outdoor performing arts center.

Professional theater in Hartford revived with the advent of the Hartford Stage Company, the city's resident company and considered one of the nation's leading regional troupes. The Hartford Stage Company often premieres contemporary works by American and international playwrights during an October-June season. The Hartford Stage Company also puts on Summerstage, a series of three summer stock performances. Other theater groups include the Producing Guild and TheaterWorks.

The Wadsworth Atheneum, the country's oldest public art museum and highly ranked nationally, features exhibits ranging from pre-history to the present. Some of its 45,000 works are displayed in a special exhibit for the sight-impaired while others appear in changing exhibits of contemporary art. Major collections include Baroque art, Hudson River School landscapes, Meissen and Sevres porcelain, and early American decorative arts. The Atheneum presents more than 15 special shows each year. The Museum of Connecticut History in the State Library and Supreme Court Building focuses on the manufacture of firearms, while the Connecticut Historical Society Museum features changing exhibitions on the state's history in a beautiful old building on Elizabeth Street. The Historical Museum of Medicine and Dentistry includes an old-time dentist's office, along with exhibits of instruments and medicines.

A visitor to the Phoenix metropolitan area will find many sights and attractions, some of them related to frontier history and the natural beauty of Salt River Valley. A principal attraction in Phoenix since 1939 is the Desert Botanical Garden on 50 acres of Papago Park, containing 10,000 desert plants that represent half of the 1,800 existing species of cactus. Also located in Papago Park is the Phoenix Zoo, a privately funded, non-profit zoo, where 1,200 animals are exhibited.

Historic Heritage Square near downtown is a city block of restored Victorian houses preserved as replicas of homes in the late 1800s and converted into museums, shops, and restaurants; a highlight is the elegant Rosson House. Also downtown is the National Native American Cooperative, which features dancers, foods and crafts, and a monthly Indian market October through May. In neighboring Scottsdale is Taliesin West, a national historic landmark built as the desert home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Scottsdale is also the site of Rawhide, a replica of a 1880s western town that offers a variety of activities, including stagecoach and burro rides, a petting zoo, and stunt shows. Located in nearby Tempe is Big Surf, "Arizona's ocean."

Old West-style entertainment, such as stagecoach rides, covered wagon campfire circles, and simulated gunfighter shoot-outs, is available to groups by reservation through various commercial enterprises in the area. Scenic day trips to the Grand Canyon and other sights near metropolitan Phoenix are provided by several bus and airplane charter services. Encanto Park is the home of the Enchanted Island Amusement Park with a variety of rides geared for the younger set.

Arts and Culture

Phoenix has a vital performing arts community, which was enriched with the 1989 opening of the Herberger Theatre Center. Located downtown next to the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center and Symphony Hall, the complex is designed to augment existing cultural facilities. The Herberger Theater is used primarily for music, dance, and dramatic performances and includes an art gallery.

The Phoenix Center Youth Theatre, CityJazz, Dance Phoenix, and the Phoenix Children's Chorus call the Phoenix Center for the Arts their home. A variety of theater and drama, including amateur, professional, children/family-oriented, and experimental productions, is offered by companies in the Phoenix area. Founded in 1920, the Phoenix Theatre Little Theater is one of the oldest continuously running companies in the country. The Arizona Theatre Company, based in Phoenix, is in residence at the Herberger Theater Center and offers about 25 weeks of performances. Other local troupes include Childsplay, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, and Centre Dance Ensemble.

Housed in Symphony Hall, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra performs an extensive classical repertoire and presents pops concerts with well-known guest artists. Phoenix hosts the state's professional ballet company and other international dance companies. The Arizona Opera also gives regular performances for Phoenix area audiences. Touring artists perform at the America West Arena, Celebrity Theatre, Gammage Auditorium, and the Cricket Pavilion.

More than 40 museums and 150 art galleries in the Phoenix area offer a range of educational and cultural experiences. The Arizona Hall of Fame Museum, opened in 1902, honors people who have contributed to Arizona heritage. Featuring the history of central Arizona, the Arizona Historical Society Museum includes replications of old-time shops and stores. The family-oriented Shemer Art Center and Museum presents primarily local and state artists. The Arizona Science Center provides interactive exhibits for children and adults in such areas as energy, life science, and health. The Hall of Flame Fire Fighting Museum houses the world's most extensive collection of fire-fighting apparatus, equipment, and memorabilia. Anthropological exhibits, fine arts, and historic arts of Native American cultures of the Southwest are specialties at the Heard Museum, which boasts 18,000 works of art and artifacts. The Phoenix Art Museum contains a permanent collection of 17,000 objects focusing on European, American, Western American, Latin American, and Asian arts and costume design. Owned and operated by artisan members, the Craftsmen's Cooperative Gallery at Heritage Square features handmade arts and crafts.

Festivals and Holidays

Highlights from the Phoenix special events calendar include the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Football Classic, which opens the year with a game between two of the country's best collegiate teams on New Year's Day at Sun Devil Stadium. Also held in January are the Arizona National Livestock Show (since 1948) and the Parada del Sol Parade and Rodeo.

Sports for the Spectator

Phoenix fields teams in all major league sports. The city is home to two professional basketball teams, the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association, and the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association, both of which play their games at the America West Arena. Professional football is represented by the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals and the Arena Football League's Rattlers while professional hockey is represented by the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes and the East Coast Hockey League's Phoenix Roadrunners. In 1998 the major league baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, were formed and began play at Bank One Ball Park, built especially for them. In 2001 the expansion team defeated the powerhouse New York Yankees to capture their first World Series crown.

Mel Brooks (born 1926) transformed traditional burlesque and Jewish humor into a hit-and-miss career writing and directing film parodies of traditional Hollywood genres. His biggest success came late in his career when he adapted his first film, The Producers, into a smash Broadway musical.

From Catskills to Television

Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn, New York, on June 28, 1926. He was a short and often sickly child, and his peers often ridiculed him. Reacting to this treatment, he learned how to strike back with stinging forms of abusive and satirical humor.

After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II in Europe as a combat engineer, Brooks took his talent for insults and pratfalls to the Catskills resorts, then famous for nurturing Jewish comics. For several years he performed the role of a "toomler," a kind of court jester who would stage impromptu monologues or pretend to insult the resort staff and the customers. The roots of Brooks's comedy were in vaudeville and burlesque, two dying forms of entertainment that emphasized physical humor, insults, sight gags, and outrageous lampooning. Among his many gags was leaping into the swimming pool fully clothed with a suit and tie.

Brooks's style of humor was perfectly suited to early television. In 1950, desperate to get a job writing gags and skits for pioneering TV comedian Sid Caesar, Brooks auditioned by falling to his knees before Caesar and singing a comic song about himself. Caesar hired the young comic to concoct jokes for his hit series Your Show of Shows. Among the writers Brooks worked with in Caesar's stable were Woody Allen, playwright Neil Simon, and Carl Reiner. It was during these years that Brooks honed his gift for sharp, sometimes mean satire and rapid-fire wordplay. By the time Brooks parted ways with Caesar in the mid-1950s, he was earning $2,500 per show, a substantial amount in those days.

Brooks remained in television, though without regular income, as a gag writer and script doctor. He also worked on dialogue and scripts for radio and theater and occasionally appeared as a comic on television variety shows, such as 1962's Timex All-Star Comedy Show. One of his frequent skit partners was Reiner, with whom he developed a sketch called "The 2,000-Year-Old Man," in which Brooks played a smart-alecky Jewish curmudgeon who has seen it all and has comments on everything in history. With variations and elaboration, this routine developed into a staple on television shows and the two comics eventually had a hit record album on their hands. "The 2,000-Year-Old Man" was Brooks's first big success.

In 1964 Brooks married actress Anne Bancroft, with whom he would have four children. That same year he did the voice-over on a cartoon film titled The Critic, playing the equivalent of the 2000-Year-Old Man commenting on modern art. The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject. In 1965 Brooks and writer Buck Henry developed the hit television show Get Smart, a comic spoof of the spy genre. Starring Don Adams as the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart, Get Smart became one of the most popular shows of the late 1960s. After television audiences began to turn away from comedy and variety shows in favor of drama in the next decade, and as his radio work dried up, Brooks would see his income plummet.

Springtime for Hitler

Buoyed by the success of Get Smart, Brooks wrote and directed the low-budget movie The Producers, which was released in 1968. Starring Zero Mostel and including a role for Brooks, The Producers is a tall tale about a down-and-out theatrical producer named Max Bialystock (Mostel) who is persuaded by corrupt accountant Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) to deliberately stage a money-losing play and abscond with the excess cash finagled from their naive, elderly investors. The two hire a neo-Nazi director and a drug-crazed hippie star (Dick Shawn) to stage a musical comedy called Springtime for Hitler, a light-hearted romp featuring the German Chancellor who waged war on Europe and exterminated six million Jews. When the show turns out to be a success, Bloom and Bialystock find themselves in trouble.

The Producers was an outrageous and risky venture that depended on audiences laughing at the idea of a Hitlerian musical little more than two decades after the end of the war, during a time when many older adults with firsthand experience of World War II and the Holocaust were still living. In fact, the film is the epitome of Brooks's satirical attitude, and his belief that show business knows no bounds. Despite its low budget, The Producers was hailed as something of a minor comic masterpiece. Unfortunately, it flopped at the box office and was unable to buoy Brooks's sinking income.

After getting an acting role in the black comedy Putney Swope in 1969, Brooks wrote and directed The Twelve Chairs, an adaptation of a 1928 Russian novel about a former aristocrat who has hidden his fortune in a dozen chairs. Less a satire than a straight comedy and complete with chase scenes and comic suspense—and another role for Brooks— The Twelve Chairs was also a flop, both commercially and critically.

Various Native American tribes knew the Otter Creek Valley where Rutland now stands primarily as a place to fish and hunt beaver. The first description of the creek's falls was recorded in the journal of James Cross, a fur trader, in 1730. Otter Creek served as a junction on the military road connecting the Champlain forts to the north with the Connecticut Valley during the French and Indian War, and settlement was not attempted until that hostility ceased. The first grantee of a patent to settle the territory was John Murray of Rutland, Massachusetts, who was responsible for the name of the town. The first actual settler was John Mead, who brought his wife and ten children there in 1770. Mead built a gristmill and sawmill, and Rutland soon became an active frontier community. Fort Rutland was built in 1775, and in 1778 the city became the headquarters for state troops during the American Revolution.

Among the city's early notables was the Reverend Samuel Williams, brilliant scholar, author of the first history of Vermont, and founder in 1794 of the Rutland Herald, Vermont's oldest continuously published newspaper. Between 1800 and 1880 Rutland's population grew from 2,124 to 12,149 people, surpassing for the first and only time the population of Burlington, the largest community in the state. This explosive growth is attributed to the arrival in 1849 of the railroad and the resulting boom in the marble industry, which had been operating on a small scale since the early nineteenth century. Colonel Redfield Proctor is credited with transforming the marble business into one of the country's greatest industries, bringing prosperity to Rutland and power to Proctor. In 1886 Proctor succeeded in convincing the state legislature that two new townships should be created from the original town. The new townships of Proctor and West Rutland, largely owned or controlled by the Proctor family, contained some of the richest marble deposits in the world; thus did Rutland lose its title as Marble City (in 1993 a long chapter in the city's history sadly came to a close when the Vermont Marble company closed its quarry operations in Proctor).

The city continued to prosper, however, largely due to the Howe Scales company, which moved there in 1877. The opening up of the ski industry in the 1930s added considerably to Rutland's prosperity, as did the decision in the 1960s of General Electric Corporation to build two defense contract plants in the area. City leaders have been engaged since the 1960s in the renovation of the downtown core, and the modern city exists as a retail trading and industrial center as well as the gateway to two famous ski resorts. Rutland's tree-lined streets and Victorian mansions add to the charm of this vigorous small community.

A small, progressive community with the cultural and recreational attractions of a much larger city, Rutland is the kind of city many of today's younger professional and high-technology workers seem drawn to. For that reason the city's economic picture remains bright.

Santa Fe's historic downtown plaza, once the terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, has been a center of activity in Santa Fe since the city's founding. The plaza area is full of restaurants, shops, art galleries, and museums. Also here is St. Francis Cathedral, a grand structure built in the French Romanesque style, unusual in this city of Spanish-Pueblo architecture. Santa Fe's first Roman Catholic archbishop, Jean Baptiste Lamy, started the cathedral; both the bishop and the building were the inspiration for Willa Cather's novel, Death Comes to the Archbishop. A wooden icon in the cathedral's north chapel is the oldest representation of the Madonna in the United States.

Other historical buildings include Santuario de Guadalupe, the nation's oldest shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe; built in the late 1700s, its adobe walls are three feet thick. Our Lady of Light Chapel, also known as Loretto Chapel, was built between 1873 and 1878 and is the oldest stone masonry building in the city; it is known for its spiral wooden Miraculous Staircase, apparently made without nails or a support beam. San Miguel Mission, one of the oldest mission churches in the nation, was built in 1610 by the Tlaxcala natives, who were servants of Spanish soldiers and missionaries; on display is a bell that was cast in Spain in 1356 and brought to Santa Fe in the early 19th century. The New Mexico State Capitol building, the only round capitol building in the United States, was built in the shape of a Southwestern Indian zia, which represents the circle of life. The Palace of the Governors has been home to 60 Spanish, Mexican, and American governors, among them Lew Wallace, who wrote the novel Ben Hur there during his 1877-1881 tenure. Built in 1610, it became a history museum in 1909.

Canyon Road, just north of the capitol building, was once a Native American trail and defines one of the oldest districts in the city. Just west of Canyon Road is Barrio de Analco, now called East de Vargas Street, among the oldest continuously inhabited streets in the nation; many historic homes are located here. The Cross of the Martyrs, overlooking the city, is a large white cross built in 1920 to commemorate the Franciscans killed by native Pueblos in 1680. The Commemorative Walkway leading to the monument has been the route for various religious processions, particularly in September during Fiesta, the celebration of the return of the Spanish to Santa Fe in 1692.

Santa Fe is surrounded by twelve Pueblo villages, each of which retains its own distinct culture and holds special events relating to its unique traditions; all are located within an hour's drive of the city.

The Palace of the Governors was originally built as Spain's seat of government in the early seventeenth century.

Arts and Culture

Home of more than 20 music groups, theater companies, and dance groups, Santa Fe supports one of the best and most active arts communities in the country. The famous Santa Fe Opera, which attracts audiences from throughout the world, presents its performances in a partially open-air amphitheater located on a wooded hill north of the city. It is known for its performances of the classics, obscure works by classical composers, and American premiers of modern works. Its eight-week season runs from June to August. The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performs classical and popular works at the Lensic Performing Arts Center; the center's lavish Lensic Theater, built in 1931 as a film and vaudeville house, received an $8.2 million restoration, which was completed in 2001. The Desert Chorale choral group performs at venues throughout the city and is known for blending Renaissance melodies and avant-garde compositions.

Students at the College of Santa Fe stage their productions in the Greer Garson Theatre. Their season, which runs from October to May, consists of several presentations of four plays. Santa Fe Playhouse, established in the 1920s, performs dramas, avant-garde works, and musical comedy in a historic adobe theater.

The María Benitez Teatro Flamenco performs flamenco music and dance in a summer season at the María Benitez Theatre at the Radisson Hotel. The company is comprised of Benitez, who has been named the best flamenco dancer of her generation by Dance magazine, and flamenco dancers and musicians from throughout the United States and Spain.

Santa Fe is home to several museums specializing in a variety of fields. The Museum of New Mexico, described as the most important modern cultural institution in the state, houses the Palace of Governors, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Museum of Fine Arts, and Museum of International Folk Art. The Palace of the Governors, the nation's oldest continually used building, houses exhibits relating to Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and American frontier history. Its governor offices have been restored and preserved. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture showcases exhibits pertaining to the history and contemporary culture of the Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache peoples, including pottery, basketry, woven fabrics, jewelry, and contemporary crafts. Opened in 1987, its massive collection has been built over the course of nearly 80 years of research and acquisition by the Laboratory of Anthropology. The Museum of Fine Arts, built in 1917, is the oldest art museum in the state; it was built in the style of the mission church at nearby Acoma Pueblo. The museum maintains a collection of more than 20,000 works, with a specialty in regional art from throughout the 20th century to the present. The Museum of International Folk Art, the largest of its kind in the world, has more than 130,000 items of folk art from around the world, including dolls and puppets, masks, textiles, ceramics, furniture, clothing, and Spanish colonial artworks.

Scottsdale is a popular winter vacation mecca in the area of Arizona known as the "Valley of the Sun." A tiny farming community of 2,000 people covering only 1 square mile in 1951, Scottsdale has become a vibrant city of more than 200,000 residents encompassing nearly 200 square miles. Its many golf courses and resorts attract visitors from around the world. Art galleries abound amid the towering palm trees, purple shadowed mountains, and pastel landscapes. The city boasts more than 300 sunny days per year. The lively restaurants, nightclubs, and cultural and sporting events add a metropolitan touch, yet cowboy ranches and Indian reservations are a brief ride away. In addition to its booming tourism industry, Scottsdale has become a diverse high technology center and is becoming recognized as a leader in health care and medical research. It offers a vast array of recreational activities including biking, hiking, white water rafting, horseback riding, and ballooning. The arts are flourishing in the city, which has its own symphony orchestra and more art showcases per capita than almost any other world city.