If the United States has one defining quality, it's variety. This vast area of some 3.6 million square miles -- it's 2,500 miles from New York to Los Angeles, and that again to Hawaii -- has something for everyone.
Although TV, suburban sprawl, strip malls, and chain restaurants have a homogenizing effect, America hasn't yet become a monolithic place. Each region still speaks with its own accent, enjoys its own favorite foods, and has its own political and social attitudes. Indeed, you sometimes wonder if we aren't one nation but an amalgam of 50 little countries. We've seen New Yorkers floored by the laid-back pace of the West Coast, but ultimately thrilled by the "enforced" relaxation, and Southerners slightly frazzled by the Big Apple's breakneck pace but totally enthused by the vast number of shopping and dining opportunities in the space of a few square miles. Whatever you want to see, do, or eat, you're likely to find it within the vast and diverse confines of the United States of America.

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