Travel notes

Sloan photos on display

WASHINGTON -- Photographer Mark Sloan is known for his work documenting circus and sideshow history, and in "The Rarest of the Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History," at the National Academy of Sciences, 2100 C St. NW, Washington, on view through Jan. 7, it shows.

Sloan, who lives in Charleston, S.C., went behind the scenes at the Harvard museum, which houses 21 million specimens including ants, tusks, meteorites, bird eggs, mollusk shells and gorgeous jaguar, cheetah and zebra hides.

He photographed the world's biggest egg (the size of 180 chicken eggs) and the morpho butterfly, male on the left side and female on the right side due to a genetic abnormality.

Bring a photo ID to get into the exhibition, which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

-- The Washington Post

CW highlights blacks in Revolution

WILLIAMSBURG -- Colonial Williamsburg's yearlong celebration of 30 years of African-American programming takes center stage again with a special weekend Nov. 14-15 highlighting African-Americans during the American Revolution.

"Shaping Our Destiny: The African American Pursuit of Liberty" presentations require a Colonial Williamsburg admission ticket or Good Neighbor Card. For a complete schedule, go to

New ride at Disney World

MIAMI -- Kids tired of experiencing the same old roller coasters have a new ride to tackle.

Walt Disney World has a new attraction that lets them design their own ride, then experience it on a giant robotic arm simulator.

"Sum of All Thrills" is the first ride in Epcot's Innoventions pavilion, where businesses sponsor educational attractions and hawk their brands.

The ride begins, after a tutorial, in a design room. On a touch-screen computer, visitors pick a vehicle shape and determine how fast the ride should go based on ascent, inversions or corkscrews. The information is saved on a magnetized card strip and fed into the simulator, where visitors experience the track they just designed.