Glass Beach, California, USA

Glass Beach is a beach in Mac Kerricher State Park near Fort Bragg, California that is abundant in sea glass created from years of dumping garbage into an area of coastline near the northern part of the town.

The beach is now visited by tens of thousands of tourists yearly. Collecting is discouraged on the section of "Glass Beach" within and adjacent to the state park, although most of the sea glass is now found on the other two glass beaches outside the state park area.

About 1,000 to 1,200 tourists visit Fort Bragg's glass beaches each day in the summer. Most collect some glass. Because of this and also because of natural factors (wave action is constantly grinding down the glass), the glass is slowly diminishing. There is currently a movement by Captain J. H. (Cass) Forrington to replenish the beaches with discarded glass. On December 10, 2012, the City Council of the City of Fort Bragg, discussed the beach glass depletion and declined to move forward with replenishment efforts due to the cost and perceived likelihood that required permits would not be approved.

Similar beaches are found at Benicia, California and Hanapepe, Hawaii.

Niagara Falls, Canada!

Amazing Northen lights... Alaska

Alaska is one of the best places on earth to see the northern lights – colorful bands of light that dance in the dark night sky. Travelers from all over the world come to Alaska each winter to see this stunning display and take advantage of other winter experiences like snowmobiling, dog mushing, skiing, festivals and sporting events.

So what are the northern lights, exactly? The northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, occur about 60 or 70 miles above the earth’s surface —about 10 times higher than a jet aircraft flies — and can extend hundreds of miles into space. The most common color displayed is a brilliant yellow-green, but the aurora borealis can also produce red, blue and purple patterns.

Aurora activity increases with sun spot activity, which generally occurs in 11-year cycles. Aurora activity approached a maximum in the year 2012. This will last about four to five years, which means there will be more auroras visible from locations south of the main aurora occurrence zone than during the solar minimum years. 

The mysterious dome houses in southwest Florida

Built in 1980 at Cape Romano, these dome constructions was a DIY project of retired oil producer Bob Lee. His family spent much of the 80's nside the self-sustaining and solar-powered homes but started visiting less after 1992 whenhurricane Andrew caused damage in the area but not the dome houses themselves.

In 2005 the abandoned houses were purchased by John Tosto just before hurricane Wilma caused serious damage to the domes and washed away some of the coastline. Two years later the local authorities asked Tosto to remove the houses but his inaction resulted in hefty fines. 

Today the dome houses remain abandoned and completely reclaimed by the sea and only accessible by boat for locals and tourists to explore.