New '1,000 Places' guide to United States and Canada

NEW YORK -- Patricia Schulz, author of the best-selling guide "1,000 Places To See Before You Die," is hoping readers are as interested in learning about great places to visit in North America as they have been in learning about landmarks and experiences around the globe.

Schulz is out with a new book called "1,000 Places To See in the USA and Canada Before You Die."

In an introduction, Schulz said she found many sites close to home just as wondrous as the places she visited for her earlier book, which has sold more than 2 million copies.

"Having skied the Alps of Europe, I found our Rockies every bit as majestic," she wrote. "After time spent absorbing the joys of small villages and cities from France to Scotland, I experienced the historic quarter of Montreal and the old fishing towns of Nova Scotia with a newfound appreciation." She even found "kinship between chaotic and vibrant Hong Kong and Manhattan."

Her research for the new edition introduced her to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Lewistown, Mont.; the beauty of the Oregon coast; the wild horses of Georgia's Cumberland Island, and the "unabashed fun" of the Dallas State Fair, including her first taste of deep-fried Oreos. She found the fall colors in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley just as lovely as autumn in New England, and she got to see the Northern Lights in Fairbanks, Ala.

The book is divided into nine regions for the U.S. -- New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Mississippi Valley, Midwest, Great Plains, Four Corners and Southwest, West Coast, and Alaska and Hawaii -- and two for Canada -- Eastern and Western. A series of special indexes identifies listings by type of activity rather than location, with sections on golf, beaches, scenic drives, museums, adventure travel, culinary experiences, hotels, cultural tourism, nature, sports, traveling with children, and history.