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Lexington, Ky.
`All the Queen's Horses'
April 26-Aug. 24The Kentucky Horse Park is the only venue for "All the Queen's Horses: The Role of the Horse in British History." With 60 paintings and more than 450 artifacts drawn from 70 public and private collections, the exhibit is the crown jewel in the park's yearlong 25th anniversary celebration. Spanning 12,000 years of the island nation's history, the exhibit begins with Iron Age settlers' first encounter with horses and ends with the Royal Family's connections to riding and racing traditions. Among the more unusual elements is the reconstruction of a complete sixth-century gravesite of an Anglo-Saxon warrior and his horse that was discovered in 1997. The 1,200-acre park, a working horse farm with 50 breeds represented, has a range of activities, among them a twice-a-day Parade of Breeds Show; horse-drawn tours; exhibits at the International Museum of the Horse; and ferrier demonstrations. Kentucky Horse Park, 4089 Iron Works Parkway. 800-678-8813; 859-233-4303.www.kyhorsepark.com.
Deerfield
`The Woodworkers of Windsor'
April 25-Aug. 18"They're old pieces with a great history," said Joshua Lane, assistant curator of furniture at Historic Deerfield. He's referring to the special objects he selected for "The Woodworkers of Windsor: A Connecticut Community of Craftsmen and Their World, 1635-1715." For the exhibit, Lane tries to unravel the mystery of how 27 English immigrants who came from different areas and spoke different dialects settled in the town of Windsor yet ended up fashioning a signature style of joinery and carving. Through four generations of craftsmen, their influence spread throughout the Connecticut River Valley. "Their work appears to come out of nowhere," he said, "since there's not anything like it in England." Lane spent 18 months tracing the roots of the Windsor story before he began soliciting loans of key examples of the woodworkers' creations from museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Wadsworth Atheneum. He said eight distinct carving traditions are represented in the 27 objects, among them document boxes, joined chests, a cradle, and a table with a drawer. Flynt Center of Early New England Life, Historic Deerfield. www.historic-deerfield.org.413-775-7214.
Blanchardville, Wis.
`Barnstorm Wisconsin'
Through Nov. 1The Wisconsin Humanities Council cultivates appreciation for the rural life through an endangered species, the barn. Centered on the Smithsonian Institution's "Barn Again: Celebrating an American Icon," the council chose seven towns around the Dairy State as hosts for the touring exhibit. Through models, photographs, and artifacts, the display documents the barn's role as a symbol of American life. The third stop is in Blanchardville, where the community's Historical Society plans to set up the exhibit in a timber-frame, limestone-foundation barn (April 26-June 1). As part of the celebration, the Historical Society presents related programs, among them planting of a 4-acre field by horse-drawn equipment (May 10), a parade (May 10), and a barn dance (May 17). At the next stop, in Kewaunee (June 6-July 27), Agriculture Heritage and Resources Inc., a not-for-profit association, places the touring show at Heritage Farm, a restored 19th-century Czech farmstead. Among related activities is a country fair and old-fashioned school picnic (June 7-8). Various locations.www.danenet.danenet.org/whc.608-262-0706.
Sandusky, Ohio
Thrill Dragster
May 4Cedar Point, the king of roller-coaster parks, adds the 16th jewel to its crown -- the world's fastest and tallest coaster, which pushes the extreme envelope. "Top Thrill Dragster" rockets to 120 miles per hour in five seconds on a level track before shooting up the 400-foot tower where it rotates 90 degrees at the 230-foot height, then crests the summit before plunging down the other side and spiraling 270 degrees in a free fall beginning at 330 feet. Credit for the $25 million thriller goes to Intamin of Wolleraum, Switzerland, the company that designed and built the park's 14th and 15th gems: Wicked Twister and 310-foot Millennium Force. Before Dragster opens, the park runs all kinds of tests, among them one with Fred the Crash Dummy, a bionic "man" hooked up to a laptop computer that documents the experience. Cedar Point Amusement Park-Resort, Cedar Point Drive. www.cedarpoint.com.419-627-2350.
New London, Conn.
Storytelling Festival
April 25-27Without a set or a special effect, a masterful storyteller can hold the audience's attention through the magic of the spoken word. For 22 years, the Connecticut Storytelling Festival has been showcasing the best of regional and national talent at its weekend of workshops and performances on the campus of Connecticut College. This year the national headliner is Donald Davis, a retired minister who has traveled the globe sharing his funny and touching stories about family and neighbors from his childhood days in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. He is scheduled to present "Stories for Remembering Our Way" on April 26 (evening) and "I Grew Up With Jack . . . But We Moved" on April 27 (morning). The festival opens with "Once & Twice Upon a Time," a variety of tellers and musicians for a family program (for ages 6 and older). Among the workshops is "The Gathering of Tellers," a smorgasbord of talent, and "Storytelling is Storytriggering," a program for reflection and spontaneous tales from the audience. Connecticut College campus. www.connstorycenter.org.860-439-2764.
Denver
Cinco de Mayo
May 3-4Los Angeles has one. So does San Diego. And Houston and San Antonio. Yet it's Colorado's capital city that claims the title of the largest Mexican-American fiesta marking Mexico's overthrow of French rule at the battle of Puebla on Cinco de Mayo (May 5) in 1862. Cinco de Mayo usually features music, traditional Mexican foods, and general frivolity. Denver's event features all kinds of music -- salsa, nortena, Latin jazz, bandas, Tex-Mex, and R & B oldies -- by national and international bands performing continuously day and evening on four stages. The rest of the fiesta revolves around a huge carnival, 150 exhibitors, and more than 30 food vendors. Sponsored by the Newsed Community Development Corp. and the Santa Fe Redevelopment Corp., the fiesta attracted almost 500,000 people to Civic Center Park last year. Civic Center Park, off Broadway. 305-534-8342, ext. 106. www.newsed.org.
Destinations is a weekly feature on events and places around the country and the world. Write us at Destinations, Sunday Travel, Boston Globe, PO Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378, or e-mail to travel@globe.com.
