Want to bask in Oscar buzz? Consider a stay at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, site of the first Academy Awards and just steps from Kodak Theatre.

On a weekend when Hollywood comes together to celebrate the 84th Academy Awards, some fans go on location to celebrate the festivities.

Call it Oscar tourism.

Guests book rooms at posh Hollywood hotels with the hopes of rubbing shoulders with the stars in hotel elevators, halls or lobbies. Most probably won’t get past security at the private after-Oscar parties, but who knows?

Sometimes it's enough just to be in a star's orbit, something many fans from around the world enjoy.

“As soon as the dates for the Academy Awards are announced, we start getting calls from long-time guests who love nothing more than to be here on Oscar night,” says Bob Gregson, sales and marketing director for the Hollywood Roosevelt. 

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the hotel’s Blossom Ballroom on May 16, 1929. 

“There were 200 people there and the whole ceremony was over in 15 minutes,” Gregson says. “I don’t think anyone then ever imagined how big it was destined to become.”

In 1942, growing attendance prompted a move to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, directly across Hollywood Boulevard from the 300-room, 84-year-old landmark hotel. Since 2001, the Academy Awards ceremony has been held at the Hollywood & Highland Center's Kodak Theatre, just steps from the Hollywood Roosevelt.

Those same ballrooms used on the first Oscar night this year will serve purposes more utilitarian than celebratory: The Roosevelt is headquarters for E! Entertainment Television, and the network uses the ballroom to stage its coverage.

Slideshow: City of Angels

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Visitors to La-La Land will find beaches, culture, history and much more.

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Guests over the years — during Oscar week and year-round — have included Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Baldwin and Marilyn Monroe.

When Clark Gable and Carole Lombard stayed at the penthouse suite, it cost $5 a night. Today, it’s $5,000. Basic rooms there this weekend start at $366.

A newer cluster of stars are shining in the two-year-old Redbury Hotel at the iconic address of Hollywood and Vine. Recent guests at chef Daniel Elmaleh’s Cleo restaurant include Jeremy Piven, Elizabeth Banks and Joe Jonas.

“Any night of the week at the Redbury, you’re likely to see the stars,” says hotel general manager David Lang. “But on Oscar night, you might find yourself walking down the hall where A-list stars are hosting their private Oscar parties.

“We’re getting guests from around the world who are eager to immerse themselves in the buzz that comes from staying at a luxury hotel right in the center of all Hollywood has to offer. They’re booking rooms as much as a year in advance.”

Those rooms this weekend start at $339 a night.

Other Hollywood hotspots:

• The W Hollywood boasts that it allows guests to "watch the stars under the stars." Another Hollywood and Vine address, this one includes a massive outdoor movie screen. Rooms this weekend start at $459, with a minimum 2-night stay.

• Looking to make a splash during your Oscar week stay? Check out the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa. Its proximity to Kodak Theatre make it the headquarters for the world media due to descend on Hollywood for the Oscars. Renaissance rooms start at $419.

“The logistics of the Oscars tend to surprise guests as much as the glamor,” said Gregson. “There’s security, staff and media, and they’re all crowded around this one little neighborhood.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., freelance writer who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.

"From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen" will be on display Feb. 17-Sept. 3 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

A museum devoted to the bedrock of American democracy will from Feb. 17 through Sept. 3 celebrate a more visceral sort of rock: The music of Bruce Springsteen.

The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is presenting, “From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.”

Originating at the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, where the exhibition was featured next to the likes of Elvis and Elton, The Boss will now be rubbing monumental shoulders with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

“No other artist is as steeped in Americana or has better told the story of the American dream than Bruce Springsteen,” said David Eisner, the center’s CEO. “He’s the perfect artist for a center devoted to the robust discussion of American values to feature.”

America has one national anthem, but Americans have dozens, many of them — “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Promised Land,” “Born to Run,” and “The Rising” — composed and performed by Springsteen and the E Street Band. Over the past 40 years, Springsteen has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide and helped define American character as surely as Uncle Sam.

“The only other artists so connected to America are Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but even compared to them he’s fairly unique,” said Jim Henke, curator of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. “His songs deal with the struggles as much as the dreams.”

National Constitution Center

The jeans Bruce Springsteen wore on the cover of "Born in the U.S.A."

Springsteen also differs from other artists, Henke said,  in that he had an innate recognition that he was doing something that was transcending the music.

“He saved everything,” Henke said. “So we have the Fender guitar featured on the cover of ‘Born to Run.’ We have the jeans he wore on the cover of ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ The exhibit is a very comprehensive look at his life and his career going clear back to his childhood.”

Eisner, whose favorite album is the stark “Nebraska” from 1982, said he’s been particularly pleased to thumb through the lyric notebooks.

“His penmanship on things like set lists is very hurried, but with the lyrics you can tell he was almost reverential with the words he was composing to songs like ‘Jungleland,’ ” Eisner said.  “It’s also fun to see some of the changes he made from before recording the songs."

With Springsteen playing shows in Philadelphia on March 28 and 29, Eisner is besieged by friends who are begging for any hint that The Boss will come to the exhibit.

Henke said it happened in Cleveland.

“I called up his assistant and said the show was closing and we’d be happy to give him a private tour,” he said. “He said that wasn’t necessary. So on the very last day of the Springsteen exhibit, on a packed weekend, many fans were treated to seeing the Bruce Springsteen exhibit with Bruce Springsteen himself. And he couldn’t have been nicer.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., freelance writer who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com. Read his 2009 Springsteen album-by-album blog retrospective here.

The 650-square-foot VIP Spa Suite at Mandarin Oriental in New York City serves up views, a fireplace, deep soaking tub and dual massage beds.

A visit to a lavish spa suite can be an ideal gift for a holiday that celebrates love — especially if you bring along your significant other.

“Spa services are a very intimate and private experience,” says Lori Shubert, spa director at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pa. “When a couple comes in and shares these intimate moments together in a treatment, it brings them closer together and allows them to share a unique experience with each other that they cannot find elsewhere.  Afterwards, they have a fun and romantic memory to cherish.”

A trio of Nemacolin couples spa rooms feature an elegant waiting area with a copper-topped fireplace. Basic spa day packages start at $320 and go up to $540 for specialized services.

Today, high-end spas like Nemacolin consider it a must to offer a couple’s suite to accommodate lovers who enjoy an atmosphere that’s conducive to romance.

As high-end spas go, few are higher than the 35th floor of the Mandarin-Oriental in Manhattan. The VIP Spa Suite includes a private steam room, hot tub, fireplace and side-by-side massage beds. From  Feb. 11-14, the hotel is offering a $1,750 “Valentine’s Day Midnight Magic Over Manhattan” package from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Packages include lobster, champagne and caviar.

Spa director Heather Hannig says the elements combine to make the luxurious spa the place of frequent proposals.

“It’s very sweet,” she said. “We’re all in on it and do everything we can from sprinkling rose petals to preparing special dishes and surprises to make sure everything goes perfectly.”

A typical three-hour booking of the 650-square-foot VIP Spa Suite -- without the dining extras -- costs $1,500; a four-hour stay, $2,000.

“Some couples will book it for up to eight hours,” Hannig says. “We have lots of anniversaries with guest couples who just want to spend the whole time luxuriating in the romantic privacy.”

In Kohler, Wis., a luxurious couples spa at The American Club Resort is sure to make a splash. The spa features the Riverbath treatment followed by its signature 80-minute massage for two; $225 per person.

The Venetian’s Canyon Ranch Spa in Las Vegas gives guests more than romance. In a town famous for quickie weddings, the spa lets couples get hitched, Rasul-style. Rasul refers to an ancient Oriental pre-wedding night cleansing/purification ceremony complete with candles and rose-petal spreads.

Couples fingerpaint each another with purifying mud before ascending heated spa thrones to bask in the mud’s therapeutic effervescence. The Rasul treatment is $200 per couple.

Oh, and don't forget the chocolates.

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PUBLIC Chicago opened for business in October. Hotelier Ian Schrager is hoping its $35 million renovation and focus on "cheap chic" will make the hotel a hit.

Ian Schrager wants PUBLIC, his "new" Chicago hotel, to entice locals to check out the place travelers check in.

"About 150 years ago, the grand hotel lobbies were manifestations of these great cities," Schrager told msnbc.com. "It’s something hotels have gotten away from. We intend to bring it back. We want the lobby at PUBLIC Chicago to be a 24-hour beehive of city activity."

That means mingle nooks, poetry readings, a library, video installations, performances and ambitions to be the in-demand home to Chicago’s best restaurant and liveliest bar.

PUBLIC Chicago is a 285-room, history-drenched hotel located in the Gold Coast neighborhood — about one mile north of the Loop central business district. It reopened to the public in October, though it originally started as the Ambassador East Hotel in 1926.

Sound familiar? It was to an eclectic mix of celebrities ranging from a sex symbol to a Sex Pistol: both Elizabeth Taylor and Sid Vicious were fond of the old hotel. Other famous guests included David Bowie, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Redford, Robert Plant and Frank Sinatra.

And now it's popular with a new crowd.

"The hotel has opened to great fanfare during what traditionally is a slow time of year," said Peter Walterspiel, the hotel's general manager. "Ian's recent hotels have served more niche-type clientele. The name here says it all. It's public."

Moreover, Schrager intends to turn his private venture into a brand. He has plans to open PUBLIC hotels in New York and Miami, and wants to seize on a consumer thirst for what he’s called "cheap chic" with rooms starting at $135 and coffee, an in-room staple that can cost $15 in some luxury hotels, for $5 a pot.

He wants everyone in the city, both the rowdy and the rich, to feel they have a stake in the hotel's success.

"We want the lobby to have a feel of a 1950s coffee house or, really, a Starbucks," he said. "There needs to be an electricity in the air. A great hotel today has to be about more than just a place to get good night’s sleep. The best restaurant and the best bar needs to be right under your roof."

Famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is overseeing what was and by local edict will remain the Pump Room restaurant.

Chicago Tribune food critic Phil Vettel wrote: "The Pump Room ... has recaptured its mojo as a celebrity-spotting, see-and-be-seen destination. The dining room and its attendant lounges are packed every night, and 8 p.m. reservations are the stuff of legend, in the sense that they may not really exist." Vettel went on to say that the food was "solid," and that "Pump Room is a very good restaurant with the potential to be a great one."

Nilou Motamed, features editor for Travel + Leisure, recently cited Pump Room as a must-stop spot for travelers visiting Chicago.

Schrager says he was urged to change the name of the fabled restaurant so he put it to a vote. "We had more than 28,000 votes and keeping it the Pump Room won in a landslide."

So far, PUBLIC is getting public approval.

"For me, the best part is to see couples 60 to 70 years old sitting right next to 20-something couples and both of them enjoying themselves," said GM Walterspiel. "The neighborhood seems to really have embraced the hotel. It's becoming a gathering place."

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at EightDaysToAmish.com

If your city were a song, you’d want it to be upbeat, symbolic, historical, enjoy a catchy melody and, yeah, sure, have it be one of Elton John’s hits.

Philadelphia hit the jackpot in 1975 when, as a favor to a friend, the popular singer-songwriter and his lyricist wrote “Philadelphia Freedom,” a song that 36 years later remains a musical love letter to the City of Brotherly Love.

TOM MIHALEK/AFP/Getty Images

Visitors tour the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, a city linked to the 1975 hit song, "Philadelphia Freedom."

“The reason it will always work so well for Philadelphia is because people hear it and they think it’s about Philadelphia’s role in so many historic struggles for freedom,” said Cara Schneider, a spokesperson for visitphilly.com. In fact, the song was written for tennis star Billie Jean King, co-founder and owner of the Philadelphia Freedoms, a tennis team that continues to play today. The song’s enduring popularity makes it as much a part of Philadelphia as Ben Franklin and Rocky Balboa.

Other cities have gotten similarly lucky. Here are a few more memorable melodies:

• “Cleveland Rocks,” Ian Hunter, 1979: “They said Cleveland was uncool and L.A. and New York City were cool,” Hunter once told reporters. “I didn’t see it that way. Cleveland had a lot of heart.” Hunter, an Englishman, helped change the perception. So did Drew Carey, the star of the Cleveland-based “Drew Carey Show,” which set the show’s opening credits to Hunter’s song. The show's cast lip synched the lyrics as they danced across parts of the city. It also doesn’t hurt that Cleveland has been home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum since 1995.

• “Viva Las Vegas,” Elvis Presley, 1964: “This song will always be the best song about Las Vegas because it touches all the reasons why people love coming to Las Vegas,” says Dr. Michael Green, professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada. “Viva Las Vegas” is the title song from the movie of the same name, the one that features the sizzling on- (and off-) screen chemistry between Presley and co-star Ann-Margret. Peaking at a lackluster -- for Presley -- no. 29 on the charts, the song and the city have become inseparable. The song has been covered numerous times, including by Ann-Margret in the 2000 film “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.”

• “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” Tony Bennett, 1962: As much a vivid cityscape as a song, Bennett said the tune “helped make me a world citizen.” With its wistful vignettes about little cable cars climbing halfway to the stars and foggy air chilling the city by the bay, it’s a melodic parade of postcards, a song about not being there that somehow makes everyone feel like we’ve never left.

• “Do You Know The Way to San Jose,” Dionne Warwick, 1968: Rand McNally couldn’t have done a better job of putting a single city on the map. It’s the song that helped launch a million Nor-Cal-bound conventioneers. “It’s amazing how a song can still resonate from all those years ago,” says Meghan Horrigan, spokesperson for local visitor’s bureau, Team San Jose. “It has a way of making what is the 10th largest city in America seem like a friendly small town where everyone feels like they belong.”

• “New York, New York,” Frank Sinatra, 1979: This indelible song about one distinctive East Coast city has the audacious feel of a pop culture anthem. Originally written for Liza Minnelli in the 1977 Martin Scorsese film of the same name, it was left to Sinatra to give it its signature swagger. As brash and robust as the city it describes, the song conveys all the excitement and electricity Manhattan means to the world.

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.

Commonwealth Media Services

Visitors to Benezette, Pa., are often rewarded with views of the area's elk.

A funny thing happened nearly 100 years after people brought magnificent bugling elk back to central Pennsylvania: Today, the elk are bringing people to central Pennsylvania.

Unregulated hunting, among other factors, wiped out the once-vibrant Keystone elk herd. From 1913 until 1926 the state transported by train elk from the Rockies to north central Pennsylvania; today the herd measures close to 800.

“They’re coming from all over,” said Janet Colwell, a local guide who with her husband Jeff run Hicks Run Outfitters . “We take them on tours and they see bear, deer, turkey, coyote, but the highlight is always seeing a big bull elk and hearing it bugle.”

They should think about spending an afternoon in Rawley Cogan’s office.

“I’m looking out my window and there are about 100 elk out there right now,” said Cogan, president of the Keystone Elk Country Alliance.

His office is located in the year-old $11 million Elk Country Visitor’s Center near Benezette in the heart of an 835-square-mile, Yellowstone-sized region the Keystone State is promoting as the Pennsylvania Wilds.

He said the public-private partnership that built the center projected 40,000 people would make the trip to learn about and experience the elk.

“Instead we had 105,000 people come the first year -- 5,200 on one day.”

The center features a state-of-the-art 4-D (sight, sound, smell and touch) theater, interactive displays, and dioramas depicting bull and cow elk that can in the wild weigh as much as 900 pounds and 500 pounds, respectively.

Wagon rides over the trails afford visitors the opportunity to observe the elk in the same social situations that make human reality TV so compelling.

They frolic, they fight and become involved in truly natural couplings that eventually lead to the spring births of 40-pound calfs.

According to Colwell, the Pennsylvania Wilds has always had the creatures. Now, it’s getting the comforts.

“In the last five years, we’ve seen a lot of new lodges and restaurants spring up,” she said. “Now there are places to eat and places to stay. It’s attracting lots of people.”

The Nature Inn at Bald Eagle State Park, like the visitor center 75-minutes away, is another example of the public and private partnership working to increase tourism. The $9.6 million, 16-room inn is several elegant steps above the rustic nature of many state park lodges and is earning raves for its sophisticated application of green technologies.

Elk Hunters vie for roughly 50 lottery licenses each fall. The number fluctuates depending on the health of the herd.

“A well-maintained herd is a tremendous resource to Pennsylvania,” Cogan said. “I like to think we’ve figured out how man and elk can share the landscape to the benefit of both.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com. 

Andrew Little

One of Andrew Little's specialties, Schnitz und Knepp (ham, apple and dumpling), is transformed when dumpling is exchanged for whole-grain mustard gnocchi.

Chef Andrew Little shares a job description with an unlikely occupation: Hollywood plastic surgeon. Both use their creativities to make plain things sexy.

Courtesy Andrew Little

Andrew Little is the executive chef at Sheppard Mansion in Hanover, Pa.

With the doctors, it’s budding starlets. With Little, it’s things like scrapple, pickled watermelon rind and root vegetables — dinner-table staples of the famously stoic Pennsylvania Dutch.

“I’m determined that people begin to take a fresh look at this wonderful regional cuisine and begin to consider it sexy,” says Little,  executive chef at Sheppard Mansion in Hanover, Pa.

Little wants to be to Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine what Paul Prudhomme is to Cajun cuisine. On Nov. 13, he is hosting a cooking class intent on sharing his passion for offbeat twists on common dishes such as pork and sauerkraut or chicken and dumplings that many foodies have written off as pedestrian. Cost is $45.

“The challenge is to take dishes and interpret them in ways that make them feel at home in a fine dining restaurant,” Little says. “It’s familiar food done in a refined way.”

Food critics are noticing. The Washington Post says Sheppard Mansion “struck gold” when owners and sisters Kathryn Sheppard Hoar and Heather Sheppard Lunn in 2006 hired Little and asked him to transform an already charming B&B into a destination dining experience.

Little says his aim is to take something truly familiar and reintroduce it. He and his staff cull family recipes, some dating back more than 100 years, and break them down the way skilled mechanics do vintage automobiles before they can really rev up the engine.

“We need to understand the rules of the original dish before we can break them,” he says. “Some of these recipes come with measurements that say, ‘half egg shell of vinegar.’”

So shoo-fly pie, a popular Pennsylvania Dutch dish of barely set molasses base, not unlike a custard and crumb topping, is re-imagined as an ice cream float.

A dish called Schnitz un Knepp (ham, apple and dumpling) is transformed when dumpling is exchanged for whole grain mustard gnocchi, and rabbit does a tasty tango with pieces of minced country ham.

“He’ll call me about one of our old family recipes and then take it and put his own creative spin on it,” says his mother, Sue Steigerwalt Little, who says her son gets his creative bent from her husband, Jim.

“Growing up, I hated the beef tongue my father loved,” she says. “Andrew served me some on a brioche with caramelized onions and truffle jus without telling me what it was. It was delicious!”

Rob Mayer, spokesperson for the York County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau says Sheppard Mansion gives tourists a truly fresh reason to visit.

“People from all over enjoy going to our area farm markets to get authentic Pennsylvania Dutch foods,” he says. “Now they’re realizing that some of the best meals are cooked and served right here, too.”

Andrew Little

Chef Andrew Little puts his own twist on Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine. Pictured are sauerkraut balls.

Andrew Little

Creamed chicken and waffles is a dish at Sheppard Mansion.

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com. 

iStock

National Geographic Traveler in its current issue lists Pittsburgh as one of the world's 20 must-see places to visit.

Pittsburgh promoters still like to point to an heirloom accolade by distinguished New Yorker essayist Brendan Gill who came to observe the transformation of the city once disparaged as “Hell with the Lid Off.”

“If Pittsburgh were situated somewhere in the heart of Europe, tourists would eagerly journey hundreds of miles out of their way to visit it,” Gill wrote in 1989.

Since then, the whole world has begun coming to Steel City — it hosted the G20 Summit in 2009. In fact,  the people at VisitPittsburgh.com are having trouble tracking all the fresh accolades that seem to flow daily into their offices.

“Hearing praise for this great city never gets old,” said Craig Davis, VisitPittsburgh’s vice president of sales and marketing. “But this was a wonderful surprise.”

National Geographic Traveler in its current issue lists Pittsburgh as one of the world’s 20 must-see places to visit. It is the only U.S. city listed and just one of four cities on the entire planet (along with London; Belfast, Northern Ireland; and Dresden, Germany). Other must-sees are either regions or nations; Sonoma, Calif., joins Pittsburgh as the only other American destination.

The article touting Pittsburgh’s attributes reads: “Its mourning for its industrial past long concluded, this Western Pennsylvania city changed jobs and reclaimed natural assets: a natural setting that rivals Lisbon and San Francisco, a wealth of fine art and architecture and a quirky sense of humor.”

The flattering notice qualifies as a whopper — even by the standards of a city that in the past five years has become accustomed to hearing top news organizations and travel magazines declare it among the most livable, most affordable, safest, most secure, most literate, greenest, friendliest and prettiest, to name just a few.

It’s like this once ugly industrial duckling has emerged to become America’s Homecoming Queen.

Pittsburgh is renown for its championship sports teams and their spiffy new venues (ESPN named PNC Park as baseball’s best), its Andy Warhol and Carnegie museums, National Aviary, and for a geographic setting that is truly captivating. The city’s three rivers confine its center, known as the Golden Triangle; the only direction downtown can sprawl is straight up.

Davis says the city sells itself when he takes visitors and prospective conventioneers up one of its landmark inclines to enjoy the view from one of the fine dining establishments atop Mount Washington, named in 2003 by USA Today travel writers as the second most lovely vista in all America.

Award-winning travel writer Christine O’Toole nominated the city she calls home and authored the article after years of hearing Pittsburgh’s reputation rise around the world.

“Travelers wherever I go are always looking for authentic cities with real personalities,” she said. “That’s Pittsburgh. European visitors in particular are always impressed by this city. The smaller scale and historic riverfront reminds them of the charming inland cities there.”

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Jeff Chiu / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pet's Rest employee Teresa Hernandez, right, walks her dog, Lord, as she shows a customer around Pet's Rest cemetery in Colma, Calif., in 2006.

The Colma, Calif., town motto — “It’s great to be alive in Colma!” — has a cryptic meaning to those familiar with grave undertakings. In Colma, the dead outnumber the living nearly 1,000 to one.

“We have 17 cemeteries — one exclusively for beloved pets,” said Mayor Helen Fisicaro. “The cemeteries are like our parks. They are absolutely beautiful, and people come from all over to enjoy them.”

Colma, with a population of about 1,600, is the final resting place for more than 1.5 million deceased. She said the dead provide a living for numerous florists, landscapers, monument erectors and other funeral-related businesses. 

Death became a Colma growth industry nearly 100 years ago when neighboring San Francisco deemed its real estate too precious to squander on the dearly departed, according to Pat Hatfield, president of the Colma Historical Association since 1993. Suddenly, final resting places became transitory.

“All the cemeteries were evicted,” she said. “The graves needed to be moved outside of city limits.”

City leaders settled on Colma, less than 10 miles south of downtown San Francisco, in San Mateo County.

“It was convenient,” Hatfield said. “Colma was as close as funeral homes could get and still be able to get back in one day.”

The hectic and trying relocation process resulted in what today is a community of uncommon peacefulness.

“The cemeteries are each so beautiful and all have their own personalities,” Hatfield said, adding that the cemeteries share characteristics as diverse as San Francisco.

Many are like ethnic neighborhoods without the restaurants. There are Serbian, Japanese, Italian, Greek, Chinese and Jewish cemeteries.

Most popular is Pets Rest Cemetery, home to the graves and lovingly rendered monuments to more than 13,000 dogs, cats, ocelots, goldfish, monkeys, turtles and even cheetahs, said owner Philip C’de Baca.

“People are really moved by what they see here,” Baca said. “They realize there are certain things everyone has to do when any human dies. But the love people show a pet is really above and beyond.”

Many famous Californians born elsewhere live in perpetuity in Colma. Baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, jazz musician/"Peanuts" theme composer Vince Guaraldi and Manson murder victim and coffee heiress Abigail Folger are among the eternal residents at Holy Cross Cemetery; William Randolph Hearst is at Cypress Lawn; Wyatt Earp, a man who became famous in Tombstone, Ariz., has his own tombstone in Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, as does blue jeans icon Levi Strauss.

Mark Fontana is a Colma chiseler in the best sense of the word. His grandfather, Valero Fontana, in 1921 founded the family mason business now going four generations strong.

He’s built mausoleums worth $500,000 and said the average amount spent on a monument is “between $2,000 and $5,000.” He hastens to add that the numbers diminish the personal investment unseen in the work contracts.

“We don’t advertise, and in Colma, we’re always busy,” he said. “This is one of those businesses where people pay us and then they send us thank you notes. It’s very gratifying.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com 

The 20-hand massage at Grand Wailea's spa will cost you $2,000. Luckily, all those hands won't be outstretched for a tip.

The effect must be similar to 10 maestros all sitting down on the same piano bench. But instead of bestowing their virtuosity upon 85 ivory keys, they’re simultaneously striking your aching muscles.

It’s the 20-Hands Duo Massage at Spa Grande at the Grand Wailea Resort, the posh Waldorf Astoria property on Maui.

Launched in September, it’s all part of celebrating the resort’s 20th anniversary.

“We were just throwing ideas around and were trying to come up with something fun and over-the-top,” said Stephenie Handley, assistant spa director at Grand Wailea. “We came up with the idea of having two people getting massaged head-to-toe by 20 different hands. We think our guests will find it an unforgettable relaxation experience.”

The price?

Twenty bucks per digit — or $2,000 per couple.

Handley said the Hawaiian massage involves five therapists per person who deploy a carefully choreographed “hula wave” that has 100 fingers dancing across each guest’s body as the masseurs circle each table for 50 blissful minutes. The entire treatment lasts 2 1/2 hours.

The therapists practice on one another about once a week so that no one steps on another’s toes while they’re applying the treatment.

“With any traditional massage, the brain is bound to focus on where the hands are working,” said Handley, who has been a recipient of the massage. “But the synchronicity of all these fingers working at once tricks the brain into totally relaxing.”

Industry experts interested in spa trends credit the Grand Wailea for an innovation bound to inspire imitators.

“It’s important for spas in this competitive hospitality environment to find ways to differentiate themselves from one another,” said Katie Davin, director of hospitality education at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. “This one really captures the imagination. This is the kind of creativity all the spas aim for. For them, this will be like the chocolate massage at Hershey. Others may try and copy them, but everyone’s going to want the original.”

The promotion will run through December 2012, but no one has booked the pricey splurge just yet. The price will remain at $2,000 for the duration, Handley said.

“We’ve had a lot of people ask about it and a few people even book reservations, but so far the only people who’ve been able to enjoy the massage are staff,” she said.

The price includes taxes and gratuities.

Good thing, too. Who knows what sort of tipping quagmire might ensue with all those busy hands out?

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa. based contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.

Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Adam Schiffner displays gold he collected while prospecting near Coloma, Calif., in 2009.

Tourists are taking advantage of some shovel-ready stimulus packages anyone seeking instant riches will really dig.

It’s treasure tourism, and it has taken off over the past few years as the economy has stagnated and the value of gold has climbed.

But it's not only gold that people are after. Beth Gilbertson ditched her job as a Salida, Colo., office manager two years ago to spend her days digging in the dirt at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Ark., home of the world’s only public diamond mine.

“A lot of people think it’s not possible or they just aren’t lucky,” says Gilbertson. “Well, luck has nothing to do with it. All it takes is hard work.”

That hard work pays off when you find a whopping 8.66-carat, knuckle-sized diamond, as Gilbertson did on April 26, 2011. It’s the third-largest diamond discovered on the site since it became a state park in 1972 and the largest in almost 30 years.

“It’s so historically significant, I won’t take less than $120,000 for it,” she says. “But right now I just get such a kick out of holding it. It’s been in the ground millions of years, is totally unique and it’s all mine!”

Her diamond is of historic value, but park superintendent Justin Dorsey says euphoric finds in the 37 1/2 acre state park in southwest Arkansas are nothing unusual.

“It’s absolutely possible to get rich quick here,” he says. “Park tourists have mined more than 29,000 diamonds here since 1972. We have more than 100,000 people from all over the world coming to visit, and it’s not uncommon for a lucky few of them to walk away with diamonds worth anywhere between $3,000 and $25,000.”

Arkansas isn’t the only place where tourists are seeking natural wonders more tangible than a pretty sunset. Here’s a few others:

• Coloma, Calif. — There’s still gold in them thar hills along the banks of the South Fork of the American River, where James W. Marshall exalted, “I have found it!,” leading to the great American gold rush of 1849. Margie Erhardt of Gold Rush Mercantile says weekends see about 50 to 70 amateur prospectors panning in the river. Most nuggets are worth between $30 and $200, but a fourth grader recently found an $800 chunk, according to Jody Franklin, tourism director for the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce.

• Franklin, N.C. — The self-proclaimed “Gem Capital of the World” features The Franklin Gem & Mineral Museum and nine mines where tourists can toil with buckets and shovels for rubies and other gems sometimes worth up to $100.

• Grand Junction, Colo. — The biggest prize obtained here through the Museum of Western Colorado isn’t a pile of cash, but rather a big pile of bones. Really big bones. “It’s like fantasy baseball camp for dinosaur buffs,” says museum curator of history Dave Bailey. “And if they find a dinosaur, their name is forever attached to the discovery.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.

Toby Talbot / AP

A visitor looks over antique tractors Sept. 23 with the backdrop of fall foliage at the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in East Montpelier, Vt.

Vermont is ready for you.

That’s what the Vermont Foliage Force, a recently launched coalition of business groups and state tourism officials, wants visitors to know one month after Tropical Storm Irene swept through the Green Mountain State.

“People are already beginning to discover all the roads are open, that hundreds of our lovely covered bridges are intact and we in Vermont are expecting brilliant fall foliage,” says Megan Smith, the state's commissioner of tourism and marketing. “We’re hopeful people are hearing the message that the majority of Vermont was unaffected by Hurricane Irene.”

The storm hit the state on Aug. 28, washing out roads and flooding homes and businesses. In its aftermath, many tourism-dependent businesses in Vermont reported widespread cancellations.

“We were booked solid for Labor Day and we lost all 70 bookings,” says Kelly Pawlak, general manager for Mount Snow resort in West Dover. “It was the weekend of our popular Brewer’s Festival. But we’ve taken steps to adapt and recover those losses.”

The resort canceled the festival but will be hosting OktoBrewFest on Oct. 8-9 with all the microbrewers returning, and she is hopeful word is getting out that Vermont is on the mend.

“Really, right now it’s a matter of perception,” Pawlak says. “Our general infrastructure is restored and the foliage is coming. There’s still some visible damage in pockets around the state, but it’s still the Vermont people have always loved.”

The stakes are high.

Twenty-three percent of the state’s annual visitors come during peak fall foliage season, roughly mid-September through late October, and spend about $330 million during the six slim weeks while the leaves are at their peak colors.

They come to bike in Stowe, hike along Mount Mansfield, and dine and shop in postcard pretty hamlets like Woodstock, Brattleboro, Dorset and Waterbury, home of Ben & Jerry’s.

“We’ve had four weeks to clean up and lots of places were untouched,” says Steve Cook, the state’s deputy commissioner of tourism and marketing. “We’re hearing from a lot of people who are surprised to find the how the majority of the state was untouched by storm damage.”

Cook said he expects popular fall events like this weekend’s Killington Brew Festival will continue to thrive.

“We took a hit with the storm, but Vermont’s still so beautiful and has all the things that have kept people coming back for years,” Cook says. “We hope they’ll let us re-introduce them to all they’ve always loved about Vermont.”

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Chris Rodell is a Latrobe, Pa., contributor who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com.