See America

In the heart of the rolling Great Plains, thousands of one of the largest flying birds on earth rest and feed in the light of the setting sun. They jump into the air, flap their wings, and dance after filling their bellies with corn and insects. Their calls echo across the river plains like bones rattling in the wind. Incredible as this scene is, it's just one stop along an awe-inspiring journey.

This week, the great sandhill crane migration and Nebraska's Sandhill Crane Festival.

Durham, North Carolina. Home to possibly the most famous Minor League team in all of sports - the Durham Bulls. Durham has witnessed a massive revitalization in recent years, as it turned the scars of an industry in free-fall into new life and prosperity. This week, the American Tobacco Campus.

In the western suburbs of Denver colorado, lies a unique music venue that many consider the finest in the world. With Mother Nature as the architect, this acoustically perfect amphitheater has hosted some of the greatest performers in the world for over a century and is the location of some of the most famous live albums ever recorded.

This week, Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheater.

There's one room on this earth that I have walked into that left me more humbled than any other. More proud and inspired. More happy and afraid and joyful. In one, oval-shaped room, the full weight of our nation and the American experience takes hold of you and doesn't let go. No. Not that oval room.

This week, the hallowed Rotunda at the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Chicago, Illinois. The Windy City. The City of Big Shoulders. The City in a Garden. The City That Works. This week, three sculptures that define three different stages of Chicago, and indeed America.

In the desert of the southwest sits a looming, concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was a massive effort involving thousands of workers, many who lost their lives. Originally known as Boulder Dam, today it provides power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California, and is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year.

This week, the Hoover Dam.

Along the eastern edge of San Francisco’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area sits a jetty, constructed from an assortment of granite and marbel pieces taken from the demolition of the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Upon it, an art installation like no other. This week, the wave-activated acoustic sculpture known as The Wave Organ, one of many pieces created on-site at San Francisco’s Exploratorium.

Hollywood,1928. One of the biggest movie stars of the silent era sets out to build herself a gorgeous dream home, sparing no expense and employing a talented legion of industry colleagues to design and build it. But this house wasn't destined for the Hollywood Hills, nor would any human ever live in it. This was the original tiny house, long before tiny houses were cool. This week, Colleen Moore's Fairy Castle, which now resides in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois.

The U.S. isn't really known for its vast estates, but a few were built by some of the most prominent families of the industrial revolution. One of those families seemed to be on a quest to outdo each other, building some of America's most famous homes, culminating in the country's largest, in Ashville, North Carolina.

This week on See America, the Biltmore Estate.

Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington sits one of the oldest continuously operating farmers' markets in the united states - the 112-year-old Pike Place Market, where small farmers, craftspeople and merchants hawk their wares. Pike Place boasts more than 10 million visitors annually. It's the 33rd most visited tourist attraction in the world, and for good reason. Here, you'll find fishmongers at the Pike Place Fish Market, the first Starbucks, a bronze cast piggy bank named Rachel that weighs 550 pounds, buskers of all sorts, and at the Market Theater, Seattle's longest-running improv, Unexpected Productions. It's here, on the walls outside the theater, where you'll find one of the weirder attractions in the world.

Welcome to season two of the See America Podcast. This week: the famed Market Theater Gum Wall.