visitor

They came for the soccer.

We gave them Americana.

Their tickets entitled them to World Cup games.

We threw in an education in United States history, geography, and the economics of the $20 baseball cap.

They expected an athletic tournament.

We staged a county fair, featuring nine exhibits stretched across 3,000 miles, with people and surroundings as varied as our twangs.

Visitors to the Boston venue will remember the success of the Soccer Train, a commuter rail and site of opposing pep rallies on the 50-minute trip to Foxboro Stadium.

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Imagine that, longtime Bostonians said. A culture clash where nobody gets hurt.

Visitors to the Dallas venue will remember our failures: the blight around the aging Cotton Bowl, the empty seats inside, the construction-hampered traffic flow that turned game days into nightmares.

For nearly a month, in nine locations, the world has applauded our wonders, cringed at our bruises, and, in some places, even felt our embrace.

So how did we do?

Sometimes, we shined. Other times, we stumbled.

Sometimes we yelled too much, pushed too much. When the rest of the world was rushing joyfully out of a subway or dancing through an alley, often we put up our dukes and played the frightened bullies.

But we also smiled a lot, and listened a lot, and sometimes accepted that which we did not understand.

Like those hourlong postgame fan celebrations that forced stadium police to work overtime. We eventually realized something could not be so bad if it made so many people so happy.

We hollered and hugged, we were impatient and helpful. In other words, we were ourselves.

Sometimes we thrilled. But other times, we disappointed.

Visitors to the New York venue will remember what Dublin sales representative Gerry Taylor remembers.

Nothing.

Taylor learned on the first weekend that despite slick World Cup advertisements, New York was not New York.

Just as Boston was not Boston, but Foxboro. And Detroit was not Detroit, but Pontiac. And Los Angeles was Pasadena.

And New York was actually a smelly, industrial area in northern New Jersey.

Taylor left his Manhattan room early one Saturday morning, four hours before the opener between Italy and Ireland.

He wrapped himself in an Irish flag and planned on a making a pregame stop in a pub next door to Giants Stadium.

“Do this all the time in Dublin,” he said. “Pop a few Guinness at the pub, talk to other fans, get ready for the game.”

But upon arriving in East Rutherford, N.J., he realized the only thing he could drink next door to the stadium was toxic waste.

There wasn’t a pub in sight. Or a store. Or a house. Or even a street that wasn’t an expressway.

He spent the next three hours sitting with two friends on a curb, cursing his introduction to sports in America.

“Are all stadiums like this, away from cities, in the middle of nothing?” he asked. “Seems to me it must be hard to have good sports in places like this, isn’t it? We are let down.”

The only thing we can assure him, and others as disillusioned as Taylor, is it wasn’t because we didn’t try.

Rating the 1994 World Cup venues, best and worst of show:

Chicago

BEST: We knew this would be a great spot from the moment we first bit into something called “the Belly Buster,” sold at a hot dog stand near Soldier Field.

Ingredients: Polish beef dog, relish, ketchup, mustard, onions and jalapeno peppers. It lived up to its billing. Trust us.

And so did everything else.

Soldier Field is the perfect location for an international event, being just a short cab ride from one of America’s great downtowns.

Michigan Avenue has been buzzing for a month, what with German tourists in Bermuda shorts buying black patent leather shoes to accompany their white socks. At night, horse-drawn carriages fought with taxis for street space in some of the best action since Ben Hur.

Bolivian Marco Etcheverry tackles German captain Lothar Matthaeus from behind in Chicago, Ill. (AP Photo/Santiago Lyon)

(Santiago Lyon / Ap)

WORST: The only people who didn’t enjoy themselves here were the Greeks, both the national soccer players and the large Chicago-area community that gathered to watch them one Sunday morning against Bulgaria.

Greece lost that game, 4-0. In the process, the teams drove Greek fans so crazy they started seeing things.

At one point during the game, a Greek tossed a smoke bomb on the field, later claiming it was tradition to do so after his team scored.

His team is back in Athens, and it still hasn’t scored.

IMPRESSIONS: The World Cup’s kind of town, Chicago is. Not only were the streets brimming with international flavor, the shuttle system to Soldier Field was so efficient that cabbies complained about not getting enough chances to rip people off.

Now that’s a venue.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: During a bachelor party held on the 36th floor of a prominent local hotel, somebody poured beer down the elevator shaft. By morning, the ale had dripped to ground floor and short-circuited the electrical system.

Many hotel guests–some checking out with reams of World Cup-related luggage–were forced to carry everything down 20 flights of stairs.

Once at the bottom, they had to tip valet-parking drivers for walking 10 steps to pick up their cars.

Boston

BEST: We marveled not at a city’s effect upon a World Cup, but vice versa.

“What has happened to a town divided along ethnic lines has been remarkable,” said E.J. Kahn of the Boston Host Committee.

By order of Mayor Tom Menino, the historic City Hall area was turned over to foreigners of every imaginable color and tongue.

Old-timers who never thought they would see an African soccer team playing at the home of the New England Patriots also never thought they would see people dancing on their cobblestone streets in tribal costumes.

Police were particularly worried the night after Argentina had defeated Greece in a first-round game. While the Greeks partied in front of City Hall, the Argentines celebrated eight blocks away in Copley Square.

The fiestas drew closer and closer until five Argentine fans wearing blue-and-white uniform shorts stood directly behind a dozen Greeks dancing in a circle.

Just as security guards prepared to move in, the circle slowly opened, and the Greeks motioned for the Argentines to join them. The Argentines did.

The hardened city sighed.

WORST: Many fans apparently didn’t realize that the game would be played about 45 minutes south of Boston in the desolate suburb of Foxboro.

And nobody knew that once they arrived at the stadium, in a forested area where parking availability seemed unlimited, parking spaces would cost $20 each.

Visitors got even with the World Cup Organizing Committee, though, by leaving their hotels in Boston and staying closer to the stadium in places such as Providence, R.I.

Our smallest state as a World Cup host? Not quite what organizers had in mind.

IMPRESSIONS: The Northeast may have tried harder than any other area, and it showed.

The normally reserved Bostonians, ranked 28th out of 36 U.S. city residents in a recent survey rating kindness to strangers, discovered warmth and tolerance.

When dozens of Irish tourists were swindled out of tickets, Bostonians found them more. When foreigners didn’t understand those distinct accents, Bostonians spoke more slowly.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: For an hour after Argentina’s victory over Greece, more than a hundred Argentine fans remained at Foxboro Stadium, dancing and singing.

Police politely asked them to leave their seats, but the group only moved as far as the lower concourse. Thirty minutes later, police finally escorted them down the concourse and out the front gates, where they continued to party.

Was the game that exciting? Well, yes and no. With this stadium being 20 miles from the nearest decent-sized city, they had nowhere else to go.

Dallas

BEST: From the World Cup volunteers to city cab drivers, we appreciated the people. Amid bleak surroundings and uncomfortable temperatures, they provided the venue with some badly needed touches of humanity.

One hero was Laura Addington, a schoolteacher from Louisiana. She served as an interpreter for everyone. Well, at least everyone who spoke English, French, Spanish, Italian, German or Arabic.

Other stars were the African taxi drivers. They knew the roads, and they knew soccer, which is the only reason we were able to find Maradona during rush hour.

WORST: Some nights were almost cool enough to hold a sporting event. Yet most of the games were held in the blazing afternoon or early evening sun to accommodate European television.

Those brave enough to attend games suffered through stifling heat. Don’t buy those happy expressions you saw on ESPN. It was torture.

IMPRESSIONS: Dallas is a Cowboy town. And not the Germans, Argentines or any of the soccer fanatics who came through here changed that.

With poor attendance and a distinct lack of any electricity other than that generated by the Cowboys’ new set of uniforms, this proves there are about a thousand better places in this country to hold an international event.

Not that Dallas is a bad place–it’s merely the wrong place.

We have learned that events such as the World Cup require diversity of thought and appreciation of differences. Dallas is just too danged American for any of that.

What Dallas’ failure here portends for the 1996 Olympics in another southern town called Atlanta, well, that’s for another story.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: By some estimates, the World Cup games here were outdrawn even by the demolition of the Cotton Exchange building downtown one Saturday morning. But at least at the soccer games, nobody was treated for smoke inhalation.

New York-New Jersey

BEST: With the melting pot of New York City nearby, this was the only truly international venue.

The stadium rocked with the sounds, colors and even smells of those countries competing.

Except for its location in New Jersey, Giants Stadium was also the perfect World Cup facility, with a beautiful field and gleaming facilities that had foreigners gawking.

WORST: The only Cup fever to hit New York City involved the Stanley Cup.

Maybe it was because of the Rangers. Or Knicks. Or Gay Games. It certainly wasn’t the Yankees, whose attendance was routinely tripled by the World Cup games.

Maybe it was because every day in New York City feels like an international festival. Or maybe it was because New York City simply didn’t have the time.

Whatever, the city that doesn’t sleep also didn’t care. It was interesting to drive to the stadium listening to New York City sports-talk radio hosts rip soccer, then arrive to discover mile-long lines at the front gates.

New Jersey license plates, all of them.

IMPRESSIONS: Organizers could save tourists and taxi fare by dropping all pretenses that the game is being played in New York City.

The success of this venue proves it is time to start celebrating the ethnic charms and splendid facilities of northern New Jersey . . . and leave New York to worry about the Mets.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: The location for the World Cup host committee in this country’s largest city? New Brunswick, N.J., 90 minutes from Manhattan.

The location of these New Jersey-played games as listed on commemorative postal stamps? New York.

Detroit

BEST: Do not underestimate the accomplishment of organizers who ran the Detroit venue by avoiding all traces of Detroit.

Games were staged an hour’s drive north in the suburb of Pontiac, a bedroom community dominated by large front lawns and strip malls. If Detroit street gangs possess missiles that can fly that far, we didn’t see them.

The venue MVP (Most Valuable Professor) was Trey Rogers, the god of sod. The assistant prof of turf-grass science at Michigan State actually made grass grow inside the Silverdome.

After three years of experiments, at a cost of $2.4 million, the indoor stuff held up admirably and was hailed by all but the most serious allergy sufferers.

The crowd cheers at the Pontiac, Mich., Silverdome as the United States and Switzerland play. (AP Photo/Bill Waugh)

(Bill Waugh/AP)

WORST: Much like East Rutherford and Foxboro, there was no there there. The venue lacked big-city energy and a pulse.

The streets emptied at 10 p.m. After night games, if you hadn’t paid someone to hold a spot in line at Herschel’s Deli, the happening spot was a Taco Bell drive-through.

Of course, after a game in the non-air-conditioned Silverdome, all anybody wanted to do was lie down in a nice comfortable meat locker.

IMPRESSIONS: Smiling faces, helpful people, but mostly sweat. Three-alarm, two-shirt sweat.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: After the June 24 game between Brazil and Sweden, a thunderstorm passed directly over the media tent as hundreds of journalists were filing their stories. The thunder was deafening and the tent shook as if it were going to break.

Lightning threatened to knock out the power. The lights flickered, World Cup officials implored reporters to save their files or risk losing them.

This scene was repeated at media and hospitality tents in most of the venues. But aside from the Mexican team, nothing in the tournament has collapsed.

Washington

BEST: We never thought we’d say this, but we liked the subways.

The blue line, which stopped three blocks from RFK stadium, was a shoulder-to-shoulder mass of international passion.

The Dutch fans made their mark by pounding on the ceilings. The Swiss, by chanting through the underground terminals.

The Mexicans demonstrated their presence with songs, singing loud even though they could barely breathe while crushed in overloaded cars during the final 10 minutes of the trip.

It was all underground, but it was true democracy, rare even for our nation’s capital.

WORST: Everything was wonderful until you actually walked inside RFK.

The stadium is falling apart. The Mexican fans literally caused it to rock with their constant bouncing during Mexico’s emotional tie with Italy.

The stadium security officials were surly and overbearing. Maybe it was those horrible purple berets that made them so mad.

The stadium media-tent volunteers, mostly of college age, were the worst. This would be of no interest to the public, except many worldwide impressions of this country are created by foreign journalists.

And those foreign journalists were treated horribly. Little attempt was made to understand or deal with them.

Tickets were refused with no explanation given. Attempts to talk with media coordinators were denied. Questions about the facility were greeted with shrugs.

Translators working player interviews refused to even offer translated quotes until they had been typed and apparently approved by supervisors, which often took two or three hours.

When one Middle Eastern journalist complained about discrimination, one college girl working as a volunteer laughed in his face and replied, “I don’t think so.”

IMPRESSIONS: Sports organizers beware. Any further events staged here should not involve any local volunteers or officials from this World Cup.

This is a wonderful city, and as our capital, it should be the one of the first places promoters go for big events. But now we wonder if haughty attitudes and low-rent facilities haven’t kept the big games away.

The pre-game show at RFK Stadium prior to the Norway v Mexico group stage match of 1994 FIFA World Cup. (Photo by David Caban/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

(David Caban/David Caban)

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: A local activist hung a “Save Bosnia” sign in the stands during the opening game here between Mexico and Norway. It was taken down by local officials. He sued for the right to display it. He won.

Not that the guy wanted to rub it in, but visible the next game were two “Save Bosnia” signs.

San Fransisco-Palo Alto

BEST: We love Los Gatos. This mountain town of 28,000 near San Jose has adopted–and been adopted by–the Brazilians.

After Brazil’s games at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, Los Gatos became Little Rio, complete with samba music, incessant drumbeats and conga lines through Town Plaza Park.

“This is very exciting,” local resident Judy VanKampen said. “It is totally different than what you normally see in Los Gatos, which is people walking down the street with dogs and strollers.”

Even though crowds were lively, they were orderly. Some of the women might have strained the city’s public decency codes with their skimpy bikinis, but city officials, to their credit, looked the other way.

Sure they did.

Brazilian forward Romario beats United States defender Alexi Lalas at Stanford Stadium, July 4, 1994 in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)

(Thomas Kienzle / Associated Press)

WORST: The whining of Palo Alto politicians because World Cup organizers identified the venue as San Francisco.

But unless we are missing something, nobody has written a song called, “I Left My Heart in Palo Alto.”

IMPRESSIONS: Of all the venues, Stanford University was the worst in creating obstacles for World Cup organizers.

University officials were in position to drive a hard bargain because FIFA, soccer’s organizing body, wanted a presence in San Francisco but did not want to use Candlestick Park because of its smaller size.

Thus, Stanford Stadium is by far the least modern of the venues. Even though some improvements were made, World Cup organizers did not get all of their demands met.

Yet those academics learned that the World Cup is just the type of event that educational institutions should be encouraging.

The excellent soccer is the least of its legacies. Teams from four continents played here, and the visitors who followed those teams to Palo Alto left something of themselves behind.

Unfortunately for the merchants, it was not money. They were disappointed in their take.

But the visitors contributed something more valuable, their cultures. Los Gatos, one feels, will never be the same.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: A Brazilian woman walked into an ice cream store in Los Gatos one hot day and ordered a beer.

Los Angeles-Pasadena

BEST: My, but the old lady still can sing. Our Rose Bowl looked wonderful with its face lift and colorful frills.

When the air is clear and the heat isn’t oppressive, there is no better view in this World Cup than that of the San Gabriel mountains looming behind the Rose Bowl scoreboard.

Well, OK, the view of that scoreboard after the United States played Columbia was pretty nice too.

Soccer fans inside the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, Calif., prior to World Cup Final match between Brazil and Italy, Sunday July 17, 1994. (AP Photo/Lois Bernstein)

(Lois Bernstein / Associated Press)

WORST: That World Cup chief Alan Rothenberg would allow his hometown facility to rip off hungry and thirsty soccer fans–many of them his neighbors–with inflated prices is inexcusable. Two dollars and fifty cents for a Sno-cone? Fish and chips for $7.50?

IMPRESSIONS: The scene reminds us of the 1984 Olympics, causing emotions we never thought we would feel again. Traffic flowing smoothly, the city clean and pressed, citizens talking about something fun.

Surveys say that many people here couldn’t care less about the event, but the ones who do have made it memorable.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: With so many men ignoring the “Women” signs on the portable toilets outside the Rose Bowl, officials placed “Out of Order” signs on several working potties and secretly passed around the word that women should use those.

Orlando

BEST: Quick, somebody get this town an NFL team. There was no better stadium-area atmosphere than here, where fans congregated less than a mile from the Florida Citrus Bowl at a trendy shopping and dining area called Church Street Station.

One night the Dutch fans were having so much fun, they started stealing baseball caps from policemen. Another night, the Mexicans were having so much fun they lay down on the railroad tracks upon hearing an oncoming train.

OK, so maybe we don’t all have the same kinds of fun.

Expensive restaurants became rollicking pubs. Thousands of foreigners became wailing, wandering messes.

Did we mention that the Irish were also in town?

WORST: This was soccer in a sauna. Every team that played under the unforgiving midday sun recorded a triumph of spirit.

For fans, merely getting to the games was a similar triumph. Ten dollars to ride a parking lot shuttle? Fifteen dollars to park at a local school, with the money being handed to a member of the PTA?

This was central Florida hucksterism at its worst. But then, they learned from the experts down the street, those guys wearing the ears.

IMPRESSIONS: With the Dutch and Belgians in town, this was supposed to be the site of hooliganism. Police from around the state were summoned for 12-hour shifts. But nothing happened. The most serious crime involved people refusing to leave bars at closing time.

Already our vacation capital, Orlando proved that it deserves to become a sports capital as well. It knows how to turn a game into an event without anybody getting hurt.

After existing for so long in the shadow of fantasyland, it acts as if it loves this real stuff.

YOU HAD TO BE HERE: In the downtown area on July 4, fans from everywhere joined to sing “Happy Birthday.”

To whom? To the United States, of course. Considering how we came of age in yet another international sporting scene this summer, it was a happy birthday indeed.

Times staff writers Elliott Almond, Julie Cart, Lisa Dillman, Chris Dufresne, Helene Elliott, Randy Harvey, Mike Penner and Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre contributed to this story.

WASHINGTON — As America’s 250th birthday arrives this weekend, President Trump’s mark is clearly visible on Washington.

Visitors to the nation’s capital are being met with cranes hanging over the White House and construction at the site of the demolished East Wing. Fences crisscrossing the National Mall to hem in the Great American State Fair have blocked the famed sightline from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.

Some fountains newly sparkle as a result of Trump’s renovations. National Guardsmen patrol the sidewalks. The partisan flavor of the Trump-aligned Freedom 250 organization’s events is on display, and the fireworks show Saturday will feature a rally-style speech from Trump, with fireworks reportedly pushed back to 11 p.m.

President Trump examines the maintenance work Wednesday on the exterior of the White House.

(Alex Wong / Getty Images)

The memorial’s Reflecting Pool, where fireworks will be set off Saturday, was barricaded from the public earlier than usual after onlookers flocked last week to see the algae and peeling paint that followed Trump’s renovation, and Trump accused vandals of tampering with it.

“You don’t have a sense of ‘land of the free’ here,” said Melissa McFarlane, 61, standing along the fencing on the Mall. She said she was born in Silver Spring, Md., and she grew up watching July 4 fireworks on the Mall with her parents.

She recalled the nation’s 200th anniversary celebrations as “open and inviting” but said this year’s “heavy-duty fencing” and the presence of National Guardsmen made it feel different.

“It’s majorly disorganized, which is weird for our country,” McFarlane added.

A sign outside Lafayette Park near the White House.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)

Trump has fixated on making changes to the nation’s capital in his second term, declaring in an early executive order that his administration would make the district “safe and beautiful.” Some of the renovations have been successful; fountains are running anew, including the long-dormant cascading water feature at the city’s popular Meridian Hill Park.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Sunday on “Fox & Friends” that more than 50 parks and circles have been restored and 22 fountains, along with repairs to lights on the National Mall.

“President Trump should be thanked for all he is doing to leave things better than he found them for the good of our great nation,” an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement. “D.C. residents and visitors are experiencing working fountains, clean parks and safe streets across the district for the first time in decades, all thanks to President Donald J. Trump.”

But Trump’s growing slate of projects has drawn legal challenges from preservationist groups and raised questions about the cost to taxpayers. The $14.7-million repainting of the Reflecting Pool became particularly controversial last month after algae overtook the renovated pool and the new paint appeared to peel off.

On Sunday, the president took a tour of some of his construction sites, walking through Lafayette Park with Burgum before traveling to the East Potomac golf club he plans to renovate, which sits on federal land. Trump walked part of the property and inspected blueprints in view of reporters; he was then driven by the site where he wants to erect a marble arch.

Over the weekend, he posted on Truth Social about his improvements to the city in a post about D.C. mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George, casting it as a “Safe and Prestigious Community” that is now at risk of being “destroyed” by Lewis George.

“I have worked too hard to make Washington, D.C., the Envy of the World, with almost No Crime, and a Beautification process that has been second to none,” Trump wrote.

Construction crews build scaffolding outside the Kennedy Center on June 13 before removing President Trump’s name from the venue’s exterior.

(Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)

Involvement by presidents in the city’s plan goes back to George Washington, said Matthew J. Bell, an architecture professor at the University of Maryland. That is not unusual, nor is it strange for cities, including Washington, to change over time, he said.

“It’s probably more a matter of timing in terms of inconvenience for people coming for the Fourth,” Bell said of the ongoing construction. “If there had been a more coordinated plan for some of these things … it probably could’ve been managed better.”

At the National Mall, the fencing design for the state fair drew head shakes and confusion from some tourists. Visitors are corralled into a walkway by the Freedom 250-branded fencing on one side and low metal barriers on the other.

It’s normal for fencing to be used to control foot traffic for events on the mall, said Charles A. Birnbaum, chief executive of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, but he perceived the problem as slapdash placement, including of the Ferris wheel, which was put on the mall’s axis.

“Things are being plopped down,” said Birnbaum, whose organization sued the administration over the repainting of the Reflecting Pool. “It speaks to what Trump is doing at the ballroom, what he’s proposed [with] the arch — he’s just plopping these things down in major view sheds that have major historical and cultural significance.”

People walk past the Ferris wheel at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.

(Jen Golbeck / Associated Press)

The fountains in Lafayette Park are running again near the White House on June 23.

(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)

The state fair itself has drawn relatively few crowds, though some attendees have been enthusiastic.

On Monday, McFarlane and two friends were outside the fencing, leaning against the metal barriers in front of the Department of Agriculture, which faces the National Mall.

“It’s a little too secure,” said one of them, John, 60, who was visiting from Burbank and declined to give his last name.

He gestured over the barrier to a manicured plot with shady benches. “Here’s the People’s Garden,” he said, reading its sign, “and we can’t go in.”

A construction crane works on the White House ballroom on Monday.

(Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press)

Visitors take photos Tuesday of a model of President Trump’s proposed marble arch at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

Early-morning joggers observer the refilling of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 5.

(John McDonnell / Associated Press)

The anniversary celebrations also come on the heels of the reflecting pool controversy. Last week, after chunks of paint were spotted in the water, Trump blamed vandals for tampering with the pool and said people had been arrested at the site. Two dead ducks were found in a pond about 250 feet away from the pool.

The area last week was surrounded by surveillance cameras and patrolled by National Guardsmen as lifelong resident John Cates strolled the area.

“It’s kind of creepy,” Cates said about the security cameras mounted around the pool. “It is unnecessary that we have to have this pond deemed a high security risk. That is weird.”

The area was fenced off at the end of last week. Fencing normally occurs in preparation for the July 4 fireworks show, but it went up “a couple days early to protect the pool,” Burgum said in the Fox News interview. He said seven people had been arrested in connection with the pool.

Tom Ayers, 34, was disappointed to find the fences already up on Monday. He traveled with his father from Wisconsin for the 250th, but they were finding it difficult to get around the Mall and they were upset to see the East Wing gone.

When they reached Lafayette Park, where the fencing had yet to be removed, they were again disappointed by the obscured view of the White House. Ayers’ father recalled a different scene in 1976, when he visited as a child for the nation’s bicentennial.

“I was kind of hoping for a summer similar to that,” Ayers said, “but overall, it seems nowhere close.”

Times staff writer Ana Ceballos in Washington contributed to this report.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is approaching its final mission. But this time, it won’t be blasting into a different atmosphere.

The California Science Center on Wednesday announced its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will open to the public on Nov. 13. The $450-million, 200,000-square-foot addition will permanently house the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery. But its centerpiece will be the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, where the Space Shuttle Endeavour will be on permanent display in its vertical “ready-to-launch” position.

When it debuts, the gallery will be the only place in the world with a complete shuttle stack, including orbiter, solid rocket boosters and an external tank.

“I’ve been here a long time. We’ve done a lot of great stuff, but this just keeps getting better. Everybody on our team was so proud of it,” said Jeffrey Rudolph, the Science Center’s president and chief executive. “We are incredibly excited, and we actually think people are gonna come from all over the world to see this thing.”

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will open to the public on Nov. 13. The $450-million, 200,000-square-foot space includes the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, where the Space Shuttle Endeavour will be on permanent display in launch position.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The Air and Space Center opening will mark the completion of the master plan adapted by the Science Center in 1993. One of three surviving space shuttles, the Endeavour made 25 successful missions into space between 1992 and 2011. In 2012, the shuttle arrived at LAX atop a modified Boeing 747 before being taken on a procession through the streets of Los Angeles to reach Exposition Park. Construction on the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a sleek, 20-story building designed by ZGF Architects, finished in April.

“This shuttle really represents everything that my husband loved,” said Lynda Oschin, the widow of Samuel Oschin. “He was very involved in relativity, exploration, inspiration, children, math, science.”

Dennis R. Jenkins, project director at the California Science Center, estimated that at the height of construction, the team averaged about 400 construction workers a day. For Jenkins, who spent 30 years of his career as a NASA contractor working on space shuttles, seeing the Endeavour in its vertical position is “particularly special.”

“I walk in there 50 times a day, and 50 times a day it takes my breath away,” Jenkins said. “Especially when we have the theatrical lights on instead of the work lights, it is just so stunning to me. I’ve been around space shuttles for exactly 50 years now, and it still takes my breath away.”

Retired astronaut Barbara Morgan, who flew aboard Endeavour in 2007, said the shuttle will inspire space enthusiasts.

“This takes me back! I am right there again, strapped in, excited to launch,” Morgan said in a statement. “But this is even better, because here now is Endeavour for our future generations. She will launch big dreams.”

Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, gets a close-up view of the aft section and main engines of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, displayed in a vertical, launch-ready configuration at the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The gallery will open with a video of the shuttle’s history, produced by J.J. Abrams’ company, Bad Robot. The video ends with a simulated launch of the shuttle — complete with fog machines — before the walls retract, letting visitors take in the Endeavour in all its massive glory.

The Endeavour is visible from several angles. Visitors walking around the bend of the center’s second-floor gallery can peek inside the payload bay, which was used to transport cargo like satellites into space. Step downstairs, and viewers can walk underneath the shuttle’s massive engines. To catch a bird’s-eye perspective of the Endeavour, guests can take a glass elevator to the 20th story to look at the shuttle through a glass floor.

“You go up slowly, [the elevator] stops at different levels. You see inside where the payload is, and at every stop you see something else, and when you get to the top and you look down,” Oschin said, the view is just unbelievable. It’s breathtaking. I don’t know what other word I could use.”

Despite the grandeur of the Endeavour, the Science Center didn’t want to glorify it either. Rudolph explained that the tiles on the shuttle’s wings, which were part of its thermal protection system, show the damage on each launch. The shuttle reflects the physical toll space took on the vessel.

“This thing went 25 missions into space, and you can see,” Rudolph said. “When we first got [the Endeavour] at LAX and had it in the United hangar a couple of weeks before we moved it through the street, the United guy said, ‘Do you want us to paint it?’ and we said ‘No! We wouldn’t think of it.’”

Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, walks through a doorway toward the Space Shuttle Endeavour during a tour and preview of the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The center’s goal is to present the shuttle as close to mission-ready as possible. Rudolph explained that the exhibit’s hardware, including its bolts and nuts, are unique and extremely specialized. Since the space shuttle program concluded in 2011, many of Endeavour’s missing pieces are no longer produced. Jenkins spent years sourcing pieces of equipment.

However, the largest artifact of the exhibit was the most challenging to source. ET-94 — the exhibit’s ginormous, bright orange external fuel tank— was particularly difficult to get a hold of because it shouldn’t still exist.

“External tanks were only used once. … We jettisoned them on the way to orbit, and it burned up in the atmosphere before it hit Earth,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins explained that the ET-94 was built for a future Columbia Space Shuttle mission, but after the Columbia was destroyed, the fuel tank was used for research. To complete the Endeavour’s full shuttle stack, Jenkins persuaded NASA to donate the $65 million to the Science Center.

The Endeavour will not be alone in the gallery. Plans are in the works for a variety of unique, ancillary creations including a 15-second slide that mimics the path of reentry as a space shuttle descends back into Earth’s atmosphere. Visitors will start inside a dark slide that gives way to an orange glow followed by a double sonic boom. The slide finishes with an S turn, which the Endeavour executed to burn energy.

For Rudolph, the effort represents a giant leap toward the Science Center’s goal of making space exciting for “the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.”

“I just can’t wait to stand there and watch people come in, and kids especially. There are going to be a lot of tears looking at this, that I can tell you, happy tears,” Oschin said. “It’s something for children. Children are our future and our hopes for the future. This is going to be very inspiring for them and extremely exciting for them to see.”

I sat down recently and counted — surprising myself — that I’ve notched visits to 24 of Mexico’s 32 states, for leisure or while reporting. Querétaro is a highland charmer. Nuevo León is the country’s muscular northern colossus. Campeche, a verdant beauty. Everywhere I go in this country, I find new wonders. Then I visited Colima, and it hit me that Mexico is an endless cornucopia that will never vanquish a traveler’s curiosity.

Never heard of button-sized Colima? Don’t fret. A lover of Mexico may be vaguely aware of its important port at Manzanillo, or the state’s spectacular volcano complex. Otherwise, Colima is not commonly on visitors’ radar. The tourism industry is consistently ranked among Mexico’s smallest.

Yet it is a refreshingly contained and relaxed culture, with foods that are only found here. The depth of its riches are laid out in an ambitious recent series of culinary guidebooks by a group called Colima Sabe.

Use these handy dining guides for all of your summer travel, near and far.

The state has international airports in Manzanillo and Colima, which you might call Burbank-sized, largely serviced by connecting flights from Mexico City. Weekend travelers also come in by road from Guadalajara. There is a smattering of mid-tier or boutique hotels in central Colima or the nearby village of Comala, and a few resort hotels in Manzanillo. If you go, here are a handful of to-do’s for a sure-to-be-surprising Colima journey.

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Taste the tuba

Glass of tuba compuesta, a fermented drink made from the sap of the coconut palm.

(Daniel Hernandez/Los Angeles Times)

Colima’s traditional devotion to tuba, the coconut palm ferment imported from the Philippines hundreds of years ago, comes into focus as you traverse the region and notice vendors congregating on busy street corners or central plazas with gourds or jugs of a milky liquid. It is tart, crisp and infinitely cooling for tropical temperatures. Embrace the “compuesta” style: tuba poured over ice and adorned with crumbled nuts and ruddy red fruit chunks, turning the liquid pink. El Camellón de la Tuba, a well-known stand near central Colima, made the best that I tasted on my visit. Avoid tuba that looks too brown or tastes too vinegary. * El Camellon de la Tuba, Avenida Constitución 2008, Centro, 28017 Colima, @camellondelatubaoficial

Savor Nico Mejía’s restaurants in Manzanillo

Ceviche colimense by chef Nico Mejía.

(Daniel Hernandez/Los Angeles Times)

La Sal, breezy and surprising in a former carport at his mother’s home in Manzanillo, launched the fame of chef Nico Mejía as a destination cook in 2020. Earlier this year, he moved La Sal (Colima’s coastal lagoons produce excellent salt) to a plot directly on a beach facing the Pacific. The restaurant makes refined regional favorites like ceviche colimense and his tostada de pozole seco, and mixes cocktails with tuba. The white-walled Casa Rangel is Mejía’s power-meeting magnet for internationally inspired local fare. Not too far away, Mejía’s partner Melissa Santamaria Mora runs an excellent bakery called Santamaria. These are restaurants on par with any you’d see in Guadalajara or Mexico City. * La Sal Playa, Avenida Lázaro Cárdenas 797, Playa Azul las Brisas, 28217 Manzanillo, @lasalplaya_

Sip the prizewinning beers of Cervecería de Colima

Cervecería de Colima is one of Mexico’s most acclaimed breweries.

(Daniel Hernandez/Los Angeles Times)

Winner of the Copa Cerveza México 2025 for best large brewery, Cervecería de Colima has been my go-to for quality, consistency and innovation since I first tasted its pale ale, the Páramo. I’d hold it against any other in this style. Over the years, I’ve found that just about everything Cervecería de Colima brews is satisfying. I’ve enjoyed the session IPA called Piedra Lisa, the bright pilsner Colimita, and the brewery’s recent entrant in the nonalcoholic market, Colima Cero. The headquarters just outside Colima city offer tastings, and in February, co-founder Esteban Silva and his team opened a taproom in the city called Estación Colimita. When a restaurant anywhere in Mexico offers these beers, I know they know what they’re doing. * Estación Colimita, Avenida Constitución 1401-local 1, Jardines Vista Hermosa IV, 28017 Colima, @cerveceriadecolima

Take in coffee and casual dining in Comala and Colima

A cucumber and mezcal cocktail at a rooftop bar overlooking Colima’s central square.

(Daniel Hernandez/Los Angeles Times)

Comala is a postcard-ready pueblo a few miles north of Colima. Those familiar with Mexican literature will recognize the name matching the fictional town in Juan Rulfo’s 1955 novel “Pedro Páramo,” the groundbreaking book that Gabriel García Márquez said inspired his magical realism masterpieces. The connection is coincidental, yet a certain air of enchantment hangs over Comala’s cobbled streets and tiled rooftops. According to Silva, who lives near Comala, the restaurants worth noting here are Cuaxiote, De La Suerte, and Hacienda Pascual Nogueras with chef Alan Ramos. In Colima city for coffee and a nice meal, visitors should bookmark Puerto Café and Cumbre, a restaurant and bakery that stands out in a scene of growing maturity and ambition. * Cuaxiote, Degollado 81, Centro, 28450 Comala, @cuaxiote

Bite into Colima’s iconic pozole seco

Pozole seco is Colima’s signature regional dish.

(Daniel Hernandez/Los Angeles Times)

It is Colima’s most famous regional specialty: all the ingredients and most of the preparation of a traditional white pozole, only without the liquid that makes it a stew. Its origins are uncertain, with one tale suggesting that a cook at Manzanillo’s mercado left a pot of pozole over fire and forgot it. When she returned to find the broth dried out, the lore is the cook slathered the remaining mass of meat and hominy on a tostada, and pozole seco was born. Find it at the local markets, cenadurías, comedores, and the sit-down restaurants that ring Colima city’s central plaza, such as Ramos’ new ¡Aquí Es Colima! * Aquí Es Colima! Portal Morelos 1, Centro, 28000 Colima, @aquiescolimaporgloriadedios

Explore Colima’s ancient history

A ceramic figurine of the extinct Mexican dog breed tlalchichi, which was native to Colima.

(Daniel Hernandez/Los Angeles Times)

Colima’s major pre-Hispanic site is La Campana, a grid of streets and structural bases that is believed to have been settled as early as 1870 B.C. in Mexico’s Pre-Classic period. The archaeological zone sits right beside urbanized Colima. At the former hacienda community Nogueras near Comala, an impressive museum features historical and archaeological artifacts, and the restaurant Pascual mentioned above. The museum holds ceramics of a dog from ancient times that is native to Colima, similar to Mexico’s more well-known native hairless dog the xoloitzcuintle. Colima’s tlalchichi breed is similar, with shorter legs. Though now sadly it is extinct, the tlalchichi is the state’s unofficial mascot, incorporated in signage, marketing and touristy knickknacks. * Museo Universitario Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo Nogueras, Nogueras s/n, 28450 Nogueras, Comala, @alejandrorangel_udec

From now through July 6, residents and tourists alike can download the California State Parks Historian Passport for free, allowing them access to more than 30 state historic parks across the state through the end of 2026.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the initiative Wednesday in honor of both Juneteenth and the the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“California’s state historic parks preserve some of our nation’s most powerful and meaningful stories, and I’m proud to live in a state that celebrates diversity to connect more people with those stories through this limited-time free pass,” California State Parks director Armando Quintero said in a statement. “I hope the free Historian Passport introduces more Californians to the state’s historic gems and sparks a curiosity and thirst for knowledge that leads to many return visits.”

The pass typically costs $50 and allows unlimited entry for up to four people to state historic parks and museums that charge a per-person admission fee or a vehicle day-use fee.

Historic parks in and around L.A. County that accept the Historian Passport include:

Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park

(Courtesy of California State Parks, 2026)

Other parks that accept the pass are:

A full list is available at parks.ca.gov.

To download a free pass, visit ReserveCalifornia.com and click “Passes” in the upper main menu. From here, you’ll be prompted to either create a new account or log into your existing account. Once logged in, you can use the dropdown menu on the page to select “Special Edition Historian Passport 2026 – $0.00.” You can then check out with your pass and will quickly have it added to your list of passes within your account.

Leaders with the California State Parks Foundation and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation, which helped finance the initiative, said they hope the free Historian pass opens up access to more people to see our public lands.

“California state parks help us understand the history of California, the United States, and the ongoing work of building a more inclusive democracy,” said Rachel Norton, executive director of California State Parks Foundation. “The special edition Historian Passport is a great opportunity to explore state parks for free. We hope access to the Historian Passport encourages more Californians to visit a historic state park and learn about, and reflect on, our shared history.”

VISIT England has announced this year’s Awards For Excellence, highlighting the best accommodation and attractions.

The honours have been handed out annually for 35 years now, celebrating quality, innovation and customer service, so those choosing staycations can ensure they pick a great place for a great time.

Sophie Swietochowski has the lowdown on ten category winners.

ACCOMMODATION

B&B/Guest House Of The Year

Taking home gold in the B&B category, MonkBridge House is slap bang in the centre of York, within walking distance of top attractions including the glorious York Minster cathedral.

The home was built in 1864 and is bursting with character, although all eight of its bedrooms have been given a sophisticated makeover since then.

The award-winning breakfasts are whipped up with locally sourced goods and home-made jams, marmalades and granola are among the morning spread.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

Two nights’ B&B costs from £205.

See monkbridgehouseyork.com.

Camping, Glamping And Holiday Park Of The Year

Immersed in 98 acres of glorious, wildlife-rich landscape, Clawford Lakes is glamping done properly.

The campsite is set within a rugged valley close to the Cornish holiday spot of Bude and features stylish floating lodges and lakeside pods, both overlooking the water, as well as luxury apartments, lodges and cocoons with a safari-tent look to them.

The lake is ideal for keen anglers and the site is pet-friendly, too.

Three-night weekend breaks cost from £299 for a family of four.

See clawfordlakes.co.uk.

Large Hotel Of The Year

If countryside charm and rugged hillsides sound like your cup of tea, you may want to swing by this year’s large hotel winner.

The 5* Bovey Castle in Devon is an elegant space filled with plump cushions, grand headboards and dangling chandeliers.

There is a large on-site spa offering massages from £80, as well as an 18-hole golf course, plus activities including archery, tennis, rifle shooting, pottery throwing and deer walks.

Stays cost from £192 per night.

See boveycastle.com.

Self-Catering Accommodation Of The Year

Kids will love the pony rides and the chance to feed the animals at Bosinver, buried deep in rural Cornwall.

With a whole host of cosy cottages on its roster, varying in size from two to six bedrooms and with dog-friendly options, it’s no surprise this spot came out on top for self-catering accommodation.

These are more than just holiday homes — there’s a play barn, sauna, tennis, swimming pool, Gruffalo trail and games room, all on site.

A three-night stay for four people costs from £569.

See bosinver.co.uk.

Small Hotel Of The Year

With 48 stunning and completely unique bedrooms, The Tempus in Northumberland is simply oozing character.

Expect elegant roll-top baths, four-poster beds, terraces and bubbling hot tubs.

There’s also a set of ultra-chic lakeside yurts and cabins.

One night’s B&B costs from £121.50.

See thetempus.co.uk.

OUT AND ABOUT

Experience Of The Year

Ever wanted to venture back to the Iron Age?

This Blacksmith experience at Oldfield Forge in Herefordshire will help you do just that.

Available for anyone aged seven-plus, the attraction teaches punters the tricks of the trade and how to forge practical items and decorative goods such as knives, garden tools and even swords.

The events last anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days and cost from £62.

See oldfieldforge.co.uk.

Large Visitor Attraction Of The Year

Forget day trips to the zoo.

Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife Park in Suffolk gives guests the chance to get properly up close and personal with animals.

Little ones will be keen on the Farmyard Friends Experience, where they’ll get to feed sheep, goats, pigs or cattle, while polar bear fans will be desperate to get stuck in to The Lost Lands of the Tundra, the polar bear enclosure.

Day tickets cost from £25 per adult and £20 per child. Under twos go free.

See jimmysfarm.com.

Pub Of The Year

We love a proper British boozer and VisitEngland has just crowned The Kirkstyle Inn and Sportsman’s Rest the best of the bunch.

The Northumberland inn has a knockout menu that sources meat from nearby farms, with star dishes of pigeon pie and Softley Farm lamb loin on the menu.

Visitors can curl up in a cosy corner next to a roaring fire with a wine or local ale.

You can spend the night in one of the upstairs rooms, too.

See theksi.co.uk.

Small Visitor Attraction Of The Year

Fans of fancy, old-fashioned motors won’t want to miss the Morgan Experience in Worcestershire.

There are guided factory tours where visitors can get a good look at Morgan Motor Company vehicles, plus driving experiences that let you get behind the wheel of a heritage car.

Those that don’t feel confident steering themselves can opt to be a passenger while being driven by a trusty professional.

See experience.morgan-motor.com.

Taste Of England Award

Crowned top dog for fine dining, Carriages in Herefordshire will knock your socks off.

Save this for a special occasion, as it’s fancy — think classic British grub that relies on seasonal and local ingredients.

The tasting menu costs a reasonable £80pp and features classy dishes such as asparagus salad with white crab, wild garlic emulsion and chervil vinaigrette, as well as honey-glazed duck breast.

See carriageshereford.co.uk.

CHICAGO — Former President Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the location on Chicago’s South Side to textured stone adorning its dramatic tower to striped reading chairs that resemble ones in his own home.

The Obama Presidential Center opens to the general public on Juneteenth after a celebratory dedication in Chicago with dignitaries. But tens of thousands of people — friends and family of museum staff, students and journalists — have already been offered a sneak peek of the nearly 20-acre campus as crews finish final art installations and landscaping.

The roughly $850 million project covers the political and personal realms of the nation’s first Black president. Campaign memorabilia and presidential artifacts are displayed in the admission-based museum tower while public spaces of the sprawling campus feature other things important to Obama: a new library, basketball court and picnic area with grills.

“This is a safe space for people to come and, yes, reflect on the historic moments of this presidency and the campaigns, but also to come together as a community to think about what change you can bring to your own neighborhood,” Josh Harris, the Obama Foundation’s vice president of public engagement, said during a recent tour with The Associated Press.

Here’s a closer look at the top attractions of the campus that is expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually.

President for a day

Obama’s presidential museum will be the first fully digital museum of its kind. There will be no official papers on display. Instead, visitors will experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and life at the White House.

One of the largest attractions is a life-sized replica of the Oval Office.

On a recent day, a stream of visitors, including schoolchildren, walked through the circular room, stopping to sit behind the desk and pose for pictures. The top drawer holds a copy of a handwritten letter from his predecessor, President George W. Bush, and Obama’s beloved BlackBerry phone.

“We want to make sure that people from all walks of life have the opportunity sit behind the Resolute Desk,” said Harris. “You think about the possibilities that if a young organizer from the South Side of Chicago can be president, you can be president too.”

Other sections of the museum detail the Affordable Care Act, immigration policies, and smaller moments such as when Obama unexpectedly sang during a 2015 eulogy for those killed in a South Carolina church shooting. A large television screen plays a clip of Obama singing “Amazing Grace.”

Peppered throughout are areas for personal reflection, which museum organizers say is key.

“We’re passing that baton and inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large,” said Louise Bernard, the museum’s director.

Touching iconic ballgowns

When Obama touted the museum’s contents at its groundbreaking in 2021, he predicted one of the top draws.

“We want this center to be more than a static museum or a source of archival research,” Obama joked at the site. “It won’t just be a collection of campaign memorabilia or Michelle’s ballgowns, although I know everybody will come see those.”

Roughly a dozen outfits on mannequins are behind glass, including a black and red dress designed by Narciso Rodriguez that the former first lady wore on Election Night in 2008 in Chicago.

Visitors will also get a chance to touch swatches of the fabrics, including the rose gold chain mail Atelier Versace evening gown she wore at her final state dinner in 2016.

Obama’s personal touches

The museum’s location is near where Barack Obama started his political career, taught law at the University of Chicago and where the family lived. Michelle Obama also grew up on the South Side.

A lifelong basketball lover, Obama requested a glass-paneled, professional grade basketball court to be used for community programs.

The former first lady designed a garden, where lettuce and strawberry plants are sprouting. There are also charcoal grills available for public use — an element that Obama envisioned when he pitched the plan in community meetings nearly a decade ago.

“President Obama always talked about his feelings of being in Chicago and one of his memorable moments was grilling in the park,” Harris said.

The Obamas’ design tastes and love of history are also evident.

The museum campus features dozens of commissioned works of art while different parts of the campus are named after prominent figures. The central “John Lewis Plaza,” named for the late congressman and Civil Rights leader, is designed as a public gathering spot.

Inside a new Chicago Public Library branch, a 70-foot mural depicts literary figures, including Walt Whitman and James Baldwin. At the center, Toni Morrison reads to a boy wearing orange shirt, representing a young Obama.

The presidential reading room features thousands of books chosen by the Obamas, ranging from presidential biographies to best-selling fiction. One of Obama’s favorite parts are two high-backed chairs with blue, yellow and black stripes. They were selected by the former president as top-notch reading chairs similar to ones he has at home.

Pricey admission with free options

Tickets are $30, the highest of any U.S. presidential museum or library. Next on the list is the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in California, where tickets are $29.

Obama Foundation leaders say the prices are justified for the state-of-the-art facility.

Tickets at the adjacent Griffin Museum of Science and Industry are $25.95. In downstate Illinois, tickets to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield cost $15.

Along with free days and discounts for Illinois residents, Obama Foundation officials also argue that most of the campus is free, with only four floors of the museum tower requiring tickets.

Anyone can walk the campus, use the playground, library, sledding hill or grilling area. The tower’s top floor, which feature panoramic views of the nation’s third-largest city, is also free.

“The idea behind this institution, this campus, was to make it accessible to as many people as possible,” Harris said.

Tareen writes for the Associated Press.

A visitor has filed a $5-million lawsuit against Disneyland for allegedly failing to properly disclose the use of facial-recognition technology at park and collecting sensitive data on guests.

Summer Christine Duffield of Riverside County filed the lawsuit after a May 10 visit to Disneyland and sister park California Adventure, alleging that the resort violates privacy and consumer protection laws collecting biometric data of visitors, without adequate consent.

“Disney does not adequately disclose the use of their biometric collection, so consumers — which almost always include children — have no idea that Disney is collecting this highly sensitive data,” the plaintiff noted in the lawsuit. “Guests should be able to expressly opt in to this type of sensitive facial recognition technology with written consent — the onus of privacy rights should not be on the victim.”

The suit was filed on May 15 in U.S. District Court in New York. The lawsuit cites an article from The Times on consumer reaction to Disney’s use of facial recognition.

The Walt Disney Company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“People are getting fed up with being force-fed new tech, new AI, new tracking tools,” said Ari Waldman, Professor of Law at the UC Irvine.

Walt Disney Co. rolled out its facial recognition technology in late April across Disneyland Resort to verify tickets. The way it works is guests’ faces are scanned, converted into a numerical identifier and matched with ticket data.

Disney’s privacy policy notes that the identifiers created for identification are deleted within 30 days unless they need to be kept for legal or fraud prevention purposes.

Guests who don’t want to use the technology can enter through a separate entrance marked with a silhouette of a head and shoulders with a slash through it. However, of the dozens of lines to enter Disneyland and California Adventure, there were only four that didn’t use facial recognition, during an April visit.

The sign saying “Use of this technology is optional,” adorn the security checkpoint entrances.

“This technology facilitates ease of reentry into our parks and helps prevent fraud,” the company noted in its website.

Use of facial recognition technology for crowd management and ticketing has become increasingly commonplace.

Dodger Stadium deploys facial recognition for guests using the “Go Ahead Entry” at certain gates without producing a physical or digital ticket to enter the stadium. At Intuit Dome in Inglewood, visitors can use “GameFaceID” to quickly move through a separate lane with their face as their ID.

The lawsuit comes at a time when there is increasing concern of surveillance in public places, and privacy advocates have rallied against the normalization of surveillance. More recently, concerns of the potentially abusive use of artificial intelligence by government to analyze large quantities of data — from texts to facial scans — to surveil U.S citizens resulted in a high-profile showdown between the Pentagon and Anthropic.

From California Rock, 1,100 feet above Yosemite Valley, the crown jewel of America’s beloved national parks spreads out beneath you.

The jaw-dropping north face of 8,800-foot Half Dome towers to the east. The silky green ribbon of the Merced River meanders through the valley floor below, astonishingly lush during the spring snow melt. Even cars in the parking lots look fabulous, their roofs and windshields sparkling in the golden sunshine like so many tiny gems.

And then you realize those gems are everywhere — as far as the eye can see — because every single parking space in the valley is full.

On the way down from that vantage point, Upper Yosemite Falls Trail, which was practically empty at 9 a.m., had turned into a human conveyor belt by 11 a.m. Hundreds of people trudged up the steep switchbacks in single file.

People hike the Upper Yosemite Falls trail in Yosemite National Park on Saturday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

That’s what’s giving parks enthusiasts heartburn this spring.

Even before the summer rush, which begins in earnest in a few days with Memorial Day weekend, California’s most visited national park is seeing enormous crowds. There have been more than 836,000 visits so far in 2026, according to National Park System data — about 100,000 more than this time last year.

The reason, according to parks advocates, is the Trump administration’s decision to abandon a reservation system implemented in 2020 to limit crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic. The system has been used on and off since then to help control the number of visitors and preserve a sense of natural tranquility.

On Saturday, there seemed to be an uneasy balance: The crowds were large but well-managed, with some visitors worried about the months ahead.

On the valley floor, as hundreds of people pressed together to gaze in awe at Lower Yosemite Falls, Jeff Wilson of Folsom said he was having flashbacks to 2023, the last time the park allowed entry without permits.

“It was just absolute bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way around the loop. Zero places to park, cars just circling all day, and people pulling off into just random spots,” Wilson said. “It was an absolute mess.”

People walk to the bottom of Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park on Saturday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

There were echoes of that everywhere on Saturday. Parking lots filled up fast — the lot at Curry Village was full by 8 a.m. — and cars were stashed in every unmarked flat spot their owners thought they could get away with.

Once people found somewhere to leave their cars, they didn’t dare move them. Most relied on the free shuttle that circles the valley floor. The big white buses were jammed to capacity by midday, as were the bus stops, where people often had to wait for several shuttles to pass before one arrived with room.

Still, the lines were reasonable to enter the park and pay the fee — $35 per car for U.S. residents and President Trump’s new $100 per person extra charge for foreigners. That means a family of four from abroad would have to pay $435.

People who arrived very early breezed through the toll booths, and even those who showed up after 9 a.m. said they waited only about 15 to 30 minutes. That was a dramatic improvement over recent weekends, when social media lit up with complaints of hour-and-a-half ordeals.

Traffic flowed slowly but smoothly on the main paved roads around the valley floor. There was the occasional outburst as angry drivers leaned heavily on their horns, filling the peaceful meadow with a sudden blast of urban agita, but in general, things remained calm.

“We thought it would be more crowded,” said Laura Yuen, from the Bay Area. “But it’s actually manageable. We’re on bikes, and people are making room and are courteous.”

Arriving early and stashing the car was key for Yuen and her companion.

“A couple of sights have been crowded — those were the really touristy spots. But other than that, it has been beautiful,” she said. “This is a great time of year to come.”

Whether the good times will last once the high season begins is the question.

People board a shuttle in Yosemite National Park on Saturday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Since Trump returned to office in 2025 and unleashed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency on the federal work force, the National Park System has lost nearly a quarter of its employees to layoffs and buyouts, according to the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Assn.

And the Trump administration has proposed about 3,000 more job cuts — roughly another 25% — in the coming year. Trump has also proposed slashing nearly $800 million from the park system’s roughly $3-billion operating budget.

All of which risks tipping the delicate balance into chaos and gridlock, critics warn.

By 2 p.m., a flashing sign at the entrance to Curry Village advised that the parking lot was full and directed people to try their luck elsewhere.

Still, dozens of drivers crept around the lot, hoping to pounce if someone pulled out. It looked like an especially depressing way to spend an afternoon surrounded by some of the most celebrated natural wonders on Earth.

Kunal Khandwala of San José was among those searching for a spot until he gave up and pulled over, blocking a few cars but ready to move if their owners returned and needed to leave.

His friends had hopped out and joined the line at the Curry Village Pizza Deck, waiting to grab some food and go find a quiet spot for a picnic — far from the village.

The situation was “testing,” Khandwala said, but not intolerable if you relaxed and remained patient.

And anything was better than subjecting yourself to the shuttle, he joked.

People raft down the Merced River with Yosemite Falls in the background in Yosemite National Park on Saturday.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

“The waits are insane,” he said, pitying people who had only a day in the park and were hoping to hit all of the highlights by bus. “There’s no way. You’re not going to see everything you want if you rely on the shuttle.”

Parks officials were unable to provide the number of visitors who arrived on Saturday, or compare that to the crowds on recent weekends.

But with Memorial Day looming, this weekend felt like the calm before the storm.

Which is why Wilson, the frequent visitor from Folsom, said he is “very, very much pro-reservation. It is a hassle — you have to plan ahead — but it just makes it a better experience for everybody.”

He had also brought his bike, which seemed to be the best way to elude the masses.

“This is my favorite place in the world, no matter what the crowds are like,” he said before pedaling off. “As long as you can get in, come, have a good time, you’ll love it.”

The Wende Museum of the Cold War announced on Saturday that it plans to build a $16-million expansion in Hawthorne.

The Culver City museum has purchased a historically significant midcentury modern building in Hawthorne, which it plans to transform into a research institute and interactive storage facility for its collections — a “living archive,” as it’s calling the facility.

The Wende plans to debut the space in spring 2028.

“In the museum world, there’s typically public space and storage space — meaning dead storage,” Wende founder and Executive Director Justin Jampol said in an interview. “And this living archive is a hybrid that combines both. It houses the collections and makes them accessible for discovery.”

The 24,000-square-foot building was erected in 1965 by shopping mall pioneer and developer Ernest Hahn to serve as his corporate headquarters. It was designed by movie theater architect George Nowak, who also designed the Writers Guild Theater.

The Wende plans to renovate the building, adding a 7,000-square-foot extension, with flexibility to further expand in the future. The facility will include state-of-the-art, climate-controlled storage for the museum’s more than 250,000-object collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs, tapestries and Cold War-era ephemera from the Soviet Union, East Bloc, China and other countries.

Interactivity, however, is the goal: so there will be spaces for “respite and inspiration,” Jampol said, such as a “scholar’s garden,” reading rooms and a library with a community learning lab and free coffee for visitors.

“The idea is to make it as engaging and comfortable as possible,” Jampol said. “Most archives are places that are very uncomfortable and uninspiring — think fluorescent lights blinking in a basement. The idea here is to open this up in a way that makes people want to be here. And focus on the content and not the space itself. We’re trying to create an experience that makes visitors want to go on an adventure.”

The Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum debuted this past fall.

(Stella Kalinina / For The Times)

The Wende’s Collections Department will be headquartered in the new building. The facility will also house a conservation center for endangered objects and paper archives, and will feature a digitization and imaging lab that will make the collections available online, free of charge.

It will also include reading rooms and research offices for up to 100 visiting scholars or artist fellows annually.

“The collections, instead of being hidden in a box, will be on full view,” Jampol said. “When you walk through, you won’t see boxes. You’ll see vases, tapestries, ceramics and more.”

Construction on the building, at 2311 W. El Segundo Blvd., starts May 15. Funds for the project came from the Arcadia Fund, the Kaufman Foundation and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, among other capital supporters.

The Wende Museum in Culver City opened its doors in 2017 inside a former 1949 atomic bomb shelter. It now draws about 25,000 visitors annually, who come to take in four exhibitions and more than 60 public programs. Admission is free.

Rapid expansion has been a hallmark of the Wende of late.

In September, it debuted a $17-million culture and wellness center offering free yoga, meditation, sound baths and therapy. The 7,500-square-foot facility was made possible with funding from the late philanthropist Glorya Kaufman who died a month before the building opened to the public. It’s called the Glorya Kaufman Community Center.

The Wende’s Glorya Kaufman Community Center includes a century old A-frame theater, an old MGM prop house, for free culture and wellness events.

(Stella Kalinina / For The Times)

In February, the Wende bought a three-bedroom house built in the 1940s adjacent to the museum’s campus that will be used as a live-work space for photographers in residence. It will include a community space for photography workshops and a post-production studio. The Nikita Foundation and the Victor Family Foundation provided funding.

It debuted a tiny home on its campus last fall, nicknamed “The Stevie” after donor Steve Markoff. It’s used for cross-disciplinary artist residencies.

A facility for interactive museum storage and research is not a new concept in Los Angeles.

The Autry Museum of the American West — after merging with the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in 2003 and since stewarding its collection of Indigenous art and artifacts — debuted a $32-million, 100,000-square-foot facility in Burbank in October 2022.

The so-called “Resources Center” was built to house, conserve and care for both museums’ collections in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled and fire-safe environment. It also serves as a research destination for scholars, artists, tribal representatives and others to study the collections.

Jampol said that the project will enable the Wende to serve a wider swath of visitors, from specialists to the general public, and to venture outside of Culver City to engage other communities.

“It’s about making the collections both safe and accessible,” he said. “We looked to the Autry for inspiration alongside the V&A East in London — they both invite people in from the community, alongside scholars, to explore the collections. It’s the democratization of art — I love the ethos and spirit of that.”

People heading to Yosemite to escape urban congestion fumed this weekend as they waited in a seemingly endless line of cars at the park entrance.

Inside, they circled aimlessly around full parking lots, scanning for empty spots instead of majestic views.

Near the summit of Half Dome, on the infamous steel cables hikers use to ascend the final stretch of bare granite, another traffic jam formed, trapping people hundreds of feet in the air, according to social media posts.

Even before the summer rush, California’s most visited national park is seeing big crowds — the most people in a decade, according to National Park System data.

Critics of the free-for-all are blaming the influx on the Trump administration for abandoning a reservation requirement that, for the last few years, has helped control the number of visitors and preserve a sense of natural tranquility.

California’s nine national parks drew a record 12 million visitors in 2025, up more than 800,000 from the previous record set in 2019. Yosemite accounted for more than a quarter of those visits.

This year, the pace continues, with more than half a million visits to Yosemite so far. In March, the park recorded 236,000 visits, up more than 45% from the same month a year earlier.

Yosemite National Park is enormous, covering more than 1,100 square miles on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Even at the height of summer, an adventurous soul willing to hike a bit can spend weeks in the park and rarely see another person.

But Yosemite’s most famous and Instagrammable vistas — the towering, 3,000-foot granite wall of El Capitan, the thundering spectacles of Yosemite and Bridalveil falls — can be enjoyed from parking lots and picnic benches in the relatively cramped confines of Yosemite Valley.

Visitors don’t even have to get out of their cars to gaze in wide-eyed wonder at sights they will probably remember for the rest of their lives.

And that’s the problem.

Traffic in the valley, especially on summer weekends, had become legendary by the end of the 2010s, inspiring think pieces with headlines such as “Inside Yosemite’s Traffic Meltdown” and “The Siege of Yosemite Valley.”

In June 2020, to limit crowds in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the park introduced a controversial system requiring a reservation before entering.

That left a lot of would-be visitors frustrated, but those lucky enough to snag a reservation were treated to the most peaceful, serene Yosemite Valley experience in years.

Since then, the reservation system has been tweaked repeatedly as administrators searched for a sweet spot between welcoming more visitors and retaining the peace of the great outdoors.

In February, the Trump administration, which had already slashed the national park system’s staff by about 25%, scrapped the reservation system and replaced it with “targeted management” of crowds.

“We are committed to visitor access, safety, and resource protection, and will continue active traffic management strategies to ensure a great visitor experience,” Yosemite Supt. Ray McPadden said at the time. “While reservation systems are one valuable management tool, our data demonstrates that a season-wide reservation requirement is not the most effective approach for the coming season.”

A crowd of tourists gather to take pictures of the Yosemite Valley on March 23, 2025, in Yosemite National Park.

(George Rose / Getty Images)

But the new approach is already getting harsh reviews, and the busy season hasn’t even begun.

During “Firefall” in February — an annual phenomenon when sunlight lands on the water cascading from Horsetail Fall, making it glow orange and red, like molten lava — the crowds were reportedly nightmarish.

“I spent over an hour stuck in traffic leaving the park, and exiting felt more like leaving a major sporting event than it did visiting a national park,” Mark Rose, a senior program manager for the National Parks Conservation Assn., a nonprofit devoted to protecting the park system, wrote in a blog post.

“I saw an ambulance stuck in standstill traffic announcing over a megaphone for pedestrians and vehicles to move out of the way,” Rose wrote. “The views were incredible, but I don’t think I’d ever go back without a reservation system in place.”

It left Rose worried about a return to the bad old days of Yosemite traffic, when visitors would wait forever just to get to the gate, pay the $35 entrance fee and then run into road blocks, with signs turning them away because the valley was too crowded.

“That was not an unusual situation,” Rose said. “To wait in line for close to two hours to get into the park and then just be stuck driving around for hours trying to find any parking at any location within the park.”

Over the weekend, the wait in traffic to simply get through the park entrance was an hour and a half, according to Lorena Calvillo from Fresno, who posted pictures and video of the traffic on Yosemite National Park’s official Facebook page.

And once she got in?

“Gridlock. Cars everywhere. People everywhere. No parking. No space,” Calvillo wrote.

“This all comes right after the reservation system was lifted … and honestly, it showed,” she added. “Officials were literally telling people to avoid the Valley.”

Another visitor, Richard Smekal, posted about the conga line of climbers who packed onto the cables leading to the Half Dome summit. He shared a photo of the cables empty when he arrived at 9 a.m., and another taken two hours later.

“After I got down, I turned around and took the second photo,” he wrote. “The line was a continuous stream of people, barely moving — basically at a standstill.”

The cables can be deadly, especially in thunderstorms, when they become a slippery lightning rod. Being stuck there in a human traffic jam is a nightmare many experienced hikers and climbers would do anything to avoid.

A spokesperson for Yosemite did not respond to requests for comment.

Traffic is at a standstill on the Yosemite Valley floor in the summer of 2017 while a bus lane is empty and off-limits to visitors at Yosemite National Park.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sometimes, beauty is a burden.

Such is the case with Burney Falls, a Northern California waterfall whose loveliness became such a siren song to costume-wearing Instagram mermaids, selfie-taking TikTok tour guides and off-the-beaten-track road trippers that crowds grew and grew, until the natural wonder just couldn’t handle it any more.

Crowds in recent years have damaged trails, trampled plants and clogged rural roads.

Now, as part of a pilot program to reduce overcrowding, the California Department of Parks and Recreation will require advance reservations to visit the Shasta County waterfall on many days this summer.

“Burney Falls is a crown jewel of the California State Park System, and we want all visitors to have an enjoyable and memorable experience when visiting this one-of-a-kind destination,” State Parks Director Armando Quintero said in a statement. “By allowing visitors to make a reservation in advance, we can help keep crowds manageable and not push the park’s resources past the breaking point.”

The reservations, which can be purchased online, will be required to visit the falls Fridays through Sundays and on holidays during peak visitation season, from May 15 through Sept. 27.

On those days, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park will offer 103 parking passes for 8 a.m. to noon, an additional 103 passes for 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 35 passes for the entire day.

The day use passes will cost $11 per vehicle, according to State Parks, with discounts for seniors and people with disabilities.

California State Parks annual pass holders will pay no additional charge but must make reservations. Visitors with overnight campground or cabin reservations will not need additional passes for day use.

The 129-foot waterfall — a wide curtain of white water cascading from a basalt cliff face — generates its own rainbow and once was dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Visitors often endure long lines to get a selfie at Burney Falls. Here, Rachel Brussbau poses with her 1-year-old daughter, Sage, and Crysten Michol in July 2023.

(Paul Kuroda / For The Times)

But for much of its history, it “experienced limited visitation due to its rural location … and lack of publicity,” the State Parks department said in a statement.

“For generations of visitors, it had the reputation of a small, family-oriented park and one of California’s best-kept secrets,” the department said. “However, over the past decade, and especially with the growth of social media, that secret is now world-famous.”

Crowds swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, when indoor public spaces closed.

A State Parks spokesperson told The Times in an email Monday that in 2015, Burney Falls had 121,495 visitors. Numbers “have steadily risen since that time, peaking at 322,192 visitors in 2020 during the pandemic,” the spokesperson said.

Since then, about 220,000 people have visited the park each year.

The spokesperson said the numbers account only for people who come in through the official entrance and not those who park illegally on the side of the road and enter off-trail.

Because so many people have veered off established trails, the park in recent years has experienced increased erosion and damage to sensitive vegetation and sacred tribal land, according to the State Parks department. Heavy traffic and illegal parking also have created unsafe conditions along State Highway 89, one of the heavily forested county’s main thoroughfares and a critical fire evacuation route.

“Campers with reservations are hesitant to leave the park, knowing that it may take up to two hours to re-enter on busy days,” the department statement read.

Because of limited parking, the gates often close for several hours each day.

“If lucky enough to gain entry, visitors inside the park are met with extreme overcrowding, long restroom lines, and overflowing trash cans instead of a peaceful, rejuvenating experience at one of the nation’s most awe-inspiring natural landmarks,” State Parks said.

In the summer of 2024, State Parks closed all access to the waterfall for the season to repair trails and slopes damaged by heavy crowds and storm erosion.

The department said it will evaluate the day use reservation system at the end of the summer and make adjustments if necessary for future peak visitation periods.

State Sen. Megan Dahle (R-Bieber), whose district includes Shasta County, said the pilot program “is likely to disrupt some trips” until word spreads.

“Unfortunately, for several years it has been clear something needs to change at Burney Falls,” Dahle said. “I hope this is an interim measure on the way to longer-term fixes to accommodate visitors.”