According to a recent USA Today “10 Best” ranking, the Wawa Welcome America Festival is a can’t-miss summer event, and a stop at Camden’s Adventure Aquarium should be high on your summer destination list.
Each week, USA Today invites a panel of industry experts to nominate their favorite sights and attractions across a wide range of categories, after which USA Today’s 10Best editors publish the results on the “10Best” website.
Wawa’s “Welcome America Festival” makes USA Today’s “10Best” list
Wawa’s Welcome America Festival, a celebratory concert and fireworks spectacle held each Fourth of July on Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin Parkway, was ranked No. 5 on USA Today’s list of “10 Best Places to See Fireworks.”
USA Today’s “10 Best” fireworks list:The Wawa Welcome America Festival is one of the best places to watch the fireworks
Want to take a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
This year, R&B superstars Ne-Yo and Kesha will perform at the free-entry Wawa Welcome America Celebration. The concert begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by fireworks.
The Wawa Welcome America Festival fireworks display was ranked No. 5 on USA Today’s list of “10 Best Places to See Fireworks.”
- navy pier, chicago
- Concert in the Sky at the Amelia Earhart Festival in Atchison, Kansas
- Minneapolis Aquarium, Minneapolis
- Addison Kaboom Town! (Addison, Texas)
- Wawa Welcome to America
- Freedom Sing! (Nashville)
- Big Butt Boom, San Diego
- Fair St. Louis, St. Louis
- America’s Freedom Festival in Provo, Utah
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Ride the East Broad Top Railroad to visit Pennsylvania’s rustic drive-in movie theater, one of USA Today’s “Top 10” summer activities
Lazy summer days are the perfect time to enjoy rides, guided tours, and excursions through scenic central Pennsylvania aboard the East Broad Top Railroad.
The East Broad Top Railroad was ranked third in USA Today’s list of “Top 10 Scenic Train Trips.”
“Construction began in 1872 and the railroad is the only surviving three-foot gauge ordinary haul railroad east of the Rocky Mountains,” reads in part on the railroad’s website, “and its shops, some of which date back to the 1880s, are one of the best-preserved examples in the United States of a late 19th- and early 20th-century industrial complex, powered, in this case by an overhead belt system, by a stationary steam engine.”
“The railroad was completed in 1874 to serve the steel furnaces and coal mines along a 33-mile corridor in Huntingdon County,” the website description continues. “The railroad was sold in 1956 to the Kowalczyk family, who reopened the railroad in the 1960s.”
A destination on this list in the Delaware Valley was the East Broad Top Railroad.
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Fans of drive-in movie theaters will want to stop by two Pennsylvania drive-ins: Evergreen Drive-In Theatre and Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre, both of which are ranked in the top 10 of USA Today’s “10 Best Drive-In Theatres” list.
Shankweiler Drive-In Theatre ranked fifth on the “10 Best” list, while Evergreen Drive-In Theatre ranked sixth.
“10 Best” PA Drive-In Theaters:Two PA drive-in theaters named to USA Today’s “Top 10” list.
Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre in Orefield, Lehigh County, is showing a mix of new releases and classic movies. For example, Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre is currently showing the recently released “Garfield Movie” and the original 1995 version of “Jumanji,” starring the late Robin Williams.
The Evergreen Drive-In Theater is a three-screen complex located in Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County that shows new releases and recent releases.
Evergreen Drive-In Theatre is currently showing The Fall Guy, Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga, The Garfield Movie, Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire and Tarot.
Adventure Aquarium, Ocean City and Somers Point Beach also made USA Today’s “10 Best” list
USA Today’s “10Best” panelists recommended several summer destinations in New Jersey.
Adventure Aquarium was ranked No. 4 on USA Today’s “10 Best Aquariums” list, ahead of industry giants such as the Florida Aquarium and the Texas State Aquarium.
Adventure Aquarium ranked in the “Best 10”Camden’s Adventure Aquarium has been named one of USA Today’s 10 Best Aquariums.
The Camden-based Adventure Aquarium opened in 1993 and is home to more than 15,000 aquatic animals, according to the aquarium’s website.
“Adventure Aquarium has plenty of surprises waiting for visitors. The aquarium is home to more than 15,000 aquatic creatures in its 2 million gallons of water, including hippos, the world’s smallest penguin species and the world’s largest hammerhead shark species,” reads USA Today’s “10 Best” review of Adventure Aquarium. “You can reach out and touch sharks, stingrays, starfish and horseshoe crabs. Live presentations and keeper interactions with penguins and hippos further enhance visitors’ experience.”
Go to Jersey to see the aquarium. But don’t forget to visit the summer concerts.
The Somers Point Beach Concert Series was ranked No. 2 on USA Today’s “10 Best Outdoor Concert Series” list, behind Colorado’s “Hot Summer Nights” music festival.
USA Today’s “Top 10” Outdoor Concerts:Somers Point Beach Concert Series named one of USA Today’s “10 Best” Concerts.
Overall, USA Today’s “10Best” panel said Ocean City, New Jersey, is the best place to be this summer.
Ocean City was ranked No. 2 on USA Today’s list of “Top 10 Summer Travel Destinations.”
Ocean City, New Jersey is a popular summer destination:USA Today’s “10 Best” panel ranks Ocean City as a top summer destination
Laurel Highlands, Pennsylvania was ranked #5 on USA Today’s list of 10 Best Summer Destinations.
- Mackinac Island, Michigan
- Ocean City, New Jersey
- Catalina Island, California
- Cody, Wyoming
- Laurel Highlands
- Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama
- Door County, Wisconsin
- San Juan Islands, Washington
- Ocean City, Maryland
- space coast florida
Damon C. Williams covers trends and local happenings for PhillyBurbs.com. Support our journalism by subscribing.
