The 5-acre, 40-plus-year-old Japanese garden is one of Fresno’s most notable attractions and was built partly in dedication to Kochi, its sister city in Japan. It recognizes “the significant role of early Japanese immigrants and citizens in the founding and development of our community,” as written in a brief history on the garden’s website.

Though Python Huntress Amy Siewe says ‘No experience is necessary to come on a hunt,’ snake hunting is not for the faint of heart or anyone who thinks a Florida vacation should involve lounge chairs and piña coladas.

Cruise, paddle, bike, hike or climb your way into the kaleidoscope of fall.

The People’s House, created by the White House Historical Association, gives the public a free, interactive way to explore 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Don’t breeze through southern Idaho without stopping to visit the quirky Museum of Clean in Pocatello, the resort town of Lava Hot Springs and the Experimental Breeder Reactor-I Atomic Museum near Arco, the world’s first city powered by nuclear energy.

Destinations don’t always live up to their hype, but the motto of this bucolic community nestled in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York (“Easy to reach ... always exceptional”) could be considered, in racing terms, right on the money.

Dating back nearly four decades, the Route 127 Yard Sale snakes through Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan.

Go back in time in the Badger State by visiting Wisconsin’s version of Colonial Williamsburg: Old World Wisconsin, which depicts 19th century rural life in the nation’s heartland; learning about the various cultures (Ojibwe, French, English and American) that have called Madeline Island home at its museum; and eating at the Duck Inn Supper Club in Delavan, which was built in 1920 during Prohibition and still has its trap door.

Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum, with its many historic vessels and a re-created village, aims to whisk visitors away to seaside life in the mid-19th century.

A 1 1/2-mile trail will take visitors past more than 60 lifelike dinosaur models at Dinosaur Place, and other activities such as a maze and water play area also await.