SV Weekend � D6
Travelwww.saukvalley.com Saturday, November 21, 2009
Heritage
Square
620 N. Ottawa, Dixon
(815) 288-2251
www.heritagesquaredixon.com"Retirement Living At Its Best!"
Licensed By IDPH
CELEBRA
TING OUR 35
TH
YEAR
IN
BUS INESS
24 Hour Nursing Care
Public Trust
Heritage Square Happenings...
American Legion
Honoring Heritage Square Veterans Nov. 11, 2009.
ITEMS TO NOTE
CruiseCompete
offers guidelines
DETROIT, Mich. � If
you're thinking of taking a
cruise with young children,
you'll want to be sure the
ship has age-appropriate
programs and child-care
facilities.
CruiseCompete.com is
offering guidelines specific
to each cruise line that can
help you make the right
decision at http://tinyurl.
com/yg9p43z online.
Most cruise lines have
a minimum age for chil-
dren to sail, according to
CruiseCompete, with ages
ranging from 3 months on
Disney ships to 12 years
on Viking River Cruises.
End the decade
in Times Square
NEW YORK � Say good-
bye to 2010 in Times
Square when the famous
ball drops at midnight on
New Year's Eve.
The ball that descends
the flagpole atop One
Times Square is a 12-foot
geodesic sphere weighing
11,875 pounds, covered
in 2,668 crystals and pow-
ered by 32,256 LED lights
that create millions of col-
ors and patterns in a kalei-
doscopic effect. The ball
is lit and raised at around
6 p.m. on New Year's Eve,
then dropped at midnight
after a countdown by the
crowd.
Visitors can also offer
their wishes for the new
year at the Times Square
Information Center on
Broadway between
46th and 47th streets.
The wishes will be writ-
ten on pieces of paper,
displayed on a Confetti
Wishing Wall at the infor-
mation center, and then
included in the shower of
confetti that rains down
on New Year's Eve. Spe-
cific dates for the Con-
fetti Wishing Wall will be
posted at http://www.
timessquarenyc.org.
For general visitor infor-
mation, go to www.nycgo.
com online.
Fireworks return
to the rooftops
LAS VEGAS � New
Year's Eve fireworks will
return to the rooftops of
Las Vegas Strip hotels to
ring in 2010 after ground-
level displays disap-
pointed revelers last year,
event and county officials
said.
"We're moving the
fireworks show back to
where it should be," said
Pat Christenson, presi-
dent of the event promot-
er, Las Vegas Events.
Christenson said the
$550,000 fireworks show
will be fired from atop
seven tall hotels lining Las
Vegas Boulevard. The
street will again be closed
to form a pedestrian mall
for the event that tour-
ism officials have dubbed
"America's Party."
� The Associated Press
O' Christmas Tree
Seasonal lightings from Rock Center to The Grove
N
EW YORK (AP) � This season's
Christmas tree displays include
trees made from feathers at a his-
toric home in Indianapolis, a thank-you
tree in Boston sent from Nova Scotia, and
the Obamas' first National Christmas Tree
ceremony in Washington.
The National Christmas Tree is sched-
uled to be lit on Dec. 3. Details of this year's
ceremony have not been released yet, but
traditionally the president and his family
preside. Tickets have already been distrib-
uted by lottery to nearly 10,000 people, but
the tree stays lit through Jan. 1 with free
performances nightly. The tree is located
less than a block from the White House.
Also in Washington, the Capitol Christ-
mas Tree goes on display on the West Lawn
of the U.S. Capitol near Constitution and
Independence avenues. The tree comes
from a different state every year, and this
year an 85-foot blue spruce from Ari-
zona's Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest
becomes the first tree from that state to fill
the role. The tree is scheduled to be lit Dec.
8 by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
In Indianapolis, the President Benjamin
Harrison Home hosts a Victorian-themed
Christmas, Nov. 20-Dec. 30. Decorations
at the 1875 Italianate home will include a
half-dozen feather trees, based on a Ger-
man tradition popular in that era. The trees
are made from white and dyed-green goose
feathers wrapped around wires and shaped
like small trees, according to curator Jen-
nifer Capps.
The home will also have a replica of the
tree the Harrisons had in the White House
in 1889. "They were the first family to have
a decorated Christmas tree in the White
House," she said. The original decorations
included wooden soldiers, and the Harri-
son home in Indianapolis has been inviting
children who visit to create soldier decora-
tions for the tree there for 40 years.
In Boston, Nova Scotia sends a Christmas
tree every year as thanks for disaster aid
from Massachusetts after the Halifax Explo-
sion in 1917. This year's tree will be lit on
the Boston Common Dec. 3.
The Rockefeller Center tree, a 76-foot
Norway spruce, will be decorated with
30,000 lights and lit Dec. 2. You can see it
any time until Jan. 7. The first Rockefeller
Center Christmas tree was put up in 1931
by workers building the complex during the
Depression, and the first official tree light-
ing there was in 1933.
In Los Angeles, a fir tree from north-
ern California decorated with more than
10,000 lights and 15,000 ornaments will
be lit at The Grove at 7:30 p.m. on Nov.
22. The attraction stays up through the
first of the year. An enormous Santa and
sleigh, designed to look like Santa's sailing
through the night sky with the tree behind
him, are part of the decorations.
In Houston, the 24th annual Uptown Hol-
iday Lighting includes a half-million lights
on 80 trees along Post Oak Boulevard, with
fireworks at the opening ceremony Nov. 26.
Also in Houston, the Downtown Holiday
Spectacular kicks off Thanksgiving Day
with a holiday parade and a weekend of
activities that includes the Nov. 28 opening
of the ice skating rink at Discovery Green
and a nighttime illuminated art car parade
along Avenida de Las Americas, also on the
28th.
Honolulu City Lights, which includes
a tree, wreath displays and gingerbread
houses, kicks off Dec. 5 and lasts a month.
Opening night festivities typically draw
75,000 people. Later in the month, on Dec.
13, the 24,000 runners taking part in the
Honolulu Marathon will run right past the
Christmas display at Honolulu Hale, which
is the name of the City Hall there.
Christmas at Biltmore, in Asheville, N.C.,
is a tradition that goes back to Christmas
Eve 1895. That's when its owner, George
Vanderbilt, officially opened the massive
home to friends and family. This season's
holiday display at the estate, which is a
National Historic Landmark, features
dozens of decorated trees and runs through
Jan. 3.
In Riverside, Calif., The Mission Inn Hotel
& Spa offers its annual Festival of Lights
Nov. 27-Jan. 3, with 3.5 million lights, car-
riage rides and Santa visits. The elaborate
lighting display has turned the inn into
a must-see attraction for the holidays in
Southern California. Tens of thousands of
people attend the lighting ceremony each
year and many more come through the
grounds before the festival ends. The lights
depict toy soldiers, elves, swans, Santa and
many other symbols of Christmas.
Arkansas showcases a trail of holiday
lights around the state in six regions and
dozens of communities, with details at
http://www.arkansas.com/things-to-do/
trail-of-lights/. But Arkansas' most famous
lighting display is now in Florida, at Dis-
ney's Hollywood Studios. A lawsuit forced
Jennings Osborne to stop putting up his
massive home lighting display in Little
Rock in 1994, but Disney brought the dis-
play to Disney World, where visitors can see
it lit up every night except Nov. 22, through
Jan. 4, from dusk to when the park closes.
Chicago's 96th annual tree-lighting cer-
emony takes place Nov. 25, at Daley Plaza.
A Christkindlmarket inspired by the cen-
turies-old Nuremberg Christmas market in
Germany opens there that day as well.
In Atlanta, the 62nd lighting of Macy's
Department Store's Great Tree takes place
Nov. 26 at the Lenox Square Mall.
Springfield, Mass., hosts the drive-
through Bright Nights in Forest Park
Nov. 25-Dec. 6, with colorful light displays
depicting a Victorian village, Peter Pan,
Noah's Ark, and an American flag among
other things.
In Des Moines, Iowa, the city hosts a
nighttime drive-through lighting display
called "Jolly Holiday Lights" at Water
Works Park, Nov. 24-Jan. 2. With a 3-mile
route, it's the state's largest light display
and it benefits the Make-A-Wish Founda-
tion.
The Oglebay Resort & Conference Cen-
ter in Wheeling, W.Va., hosts the Winter
Festival of Lights, Nov. 13-Jan. 3. Oglebay
says it is one of the nation's largest such
attractions, covering more than 300 acres
on a 6-mile drive. Favorite displays from
past years include the Snowflake Tunnel, a
candy cane wreath, and a poinsettia wreath
and candle.
In Idaho, the Coeur d'Alene Resort deco-
rates a 161-foot-tall living tree, which, the
resort claims, is the tallest living Christmas
tree, decorated with ornaments that are 10
feet tall. A holiday light show at the resort
includes 1.5 million lights on the shores of
Lake Coeur d'Alene, Nov. 27-Jan. 1.
AP
Main Street Square is lit up for the holidays as part of Houston's Downtown Holiday
Spectacular.

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5Page 6Page 7Page 8Page 9Page 10Page 11Page 12Page 13Page 14Page 15Page 16Page 17Page 18Page 19Page 20Page 21Page 22Page 23Page 24Page 25Page 26Page 27Page 28Page 29Page 30Page 31Page 32Page 33Page 34Page 35Page 36Page 37Page 38Page 39Page 40Page 41Page 42Page 43Page 44Page 45Page 46 Produced by PageSuite