Carhenge, Alliance, Nebraska

Carhenge is a replica of England's Stonehenge located near the city of Alliance, Nebraska on the High Plains. Instead of being built with large standing stones, as is the case with the original Stonehenge, Carhenge is formed from vintage American automobiles, all covered with gray spray paint. Built by Jim Reinders, it was dedicated at the June 1987 summer solstice. In 2006, a visitor center was constructed to serve the site.

Carhenge was conceived in 1987 by Jim Reinders as a memorial to his father. While living in England, he studied the structure of Stonehenge, which helped him to copy the structure's shape, proportions, and size. Other automobile sculptures were subsequently added to the location of Carhenge, which is now known as the Car Art Reserve.Carhenge was listed for sale in 2011 for $300,000

A dinosuar made from various car parts...

A bit of graffiti on a few of the cars...

The Carhenge visitor center...

Benches also made from car parts.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is the sculpted faces of 4 United States Presidents: George Washington (1732-1799), Thomas Jefferson (1742-1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), and last but not least Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). "The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt." ~ Gutzon Borglum, sculptor. George Washington represents the founding of the United States. Thomas Jefferson represents the expansion of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. Theodore Roosevelt represents the preservation of United States because of his push to form National Parks. Abraham Lincoln represents the unification of United States because of his role in the American Civil War. [Ref: Wikipedia, National Park Service]

A walkway with all the states' flags leading to the amphitheater...

The Mount Rushmore amphitheater.

A silhouette of Mount Rushmore.

A ceremony of recognition for veterans and armed forces service personnel.

Mount Rushmore at night.

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

The Corn Palace at Mitchel, South Dakota, claims to be The World's Only Corn Palace. It is a multipurpose building decorated with crop art.

A corny welcome to the world's only corn palace.

 The murals are all made of corn.



The building has a sports arena inside.

Sculpture explaining numerous uses of corn in American life.

Another view for The Corn Palace.

This is how the murals are made.

Street Artists at Zocalo, Mexico City

In the central historic district between Zocalo and Palacio de Bellas Artes, on the Francisco I Madero street, there is a very interesting shopping area. This street is off limits for driving, so a lot of people are walking up and down this street. During Christmas and New Year holiday season there were a number of interesting street artists performing on the road for tips.

People were posing with them for photographs.

 Santa Claus.

The mask guy...

Street performing can be hard work, you need some downtime....

And some native artists performing Mayan music

They had very interesting instruments.

And some exotic costumes.

 
and performed some really nice music. A bit of similarity with some background music used in Western movies.

House of Tiles : Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City

The Casa de los Azulejos or "House of Tiles" is an 18th century palace in Mexico City, built by the Count del Valle de Orizaba family. What makes this palace, in the City of Palaces, distinctive is that its facade on three sides is completely covered in the expensive blue and white tile of Puebla state. The house today serves as flagship restaurant of Sanborns.

The external wall made of beautiful blue and white tiles.

Sanborns serves some delicious traditional Mexican cuisine and choices are available for Vegetarians.

Main hall of the restaurant. Still has the original palace look and feel.

The decorative ceiling.

Beautiful decorative chandelier.

Christmas preparations.

Christmas tree in the place of the fountain.

Decorative mrrors.

A wall mural.

Full view of the mural.

Staircase decorated with lights.

The walls with tiles.

Ref: Wikipedia