travel briefs 11/21

Pittsburgh opens new sports museum

PITTSBURGH -- Professional football was born here when the Allegheny Athletic Association paid William Heffelfinger $500 to play against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in 1892.

The first modern World Series was played here in 1903, when the Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Boston Americans.

Now Pittsburgh has its own sports museum to document these historic moments and many others.

The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum opened Nov. 13 at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

The museum collection includes the cleats Franco Harris wore when he caught the "Immaculate Reception," an unlikely catch that changed the outcome of the first-ever playoff game at Three Rivers Stadium, enabling the Pittsburgh Steelers to win.The museum is open daily except for Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Easter Sunday.

Four Corners monument to get renovations

CORTEZ, Colo. -- A multimillion-dollar effort to upgrade the Four Corners monument is under way with plans for new facilities for visitors and vendors at the only place where four states meet at a single point.

The original monument was a concrete pad set in place in 1912, the year New Mexico and Arizona became states. Today's monument is a much larger slab of concrete with steps up to the spot where the corners of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah touch. It's a popular place for tourists to have their photos taken so they can say they've been to all four states.

The hope is that the center will lead to more tourism, Cortez City Manager Hal Shepherd said. The project is slated for completion by Dec. 31.

Healther airport food gets easier to find

WASHINGTON -- Looking for a veggie sandwich at the airport? It's getting easier to find, according to an annual survey by a group that promotes vegan diets, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Vegans are strict vegetarians who avoid not just meat but also fish, poultry, dairy and eggs. Nutritionists from the nonprofit organization surveyed restaurants in 12 of the busiest U.S. airports and found that three-fourths of them offered more vegan entrees than a year ago.

The Physicians Committee speculates that restaurants may be offering a wider variety of food in response to the cutbacks in meals on flights, which has forced more travelers to buy food before boarding.

The survey found that a lowfat, high-fiber, cholesterol-free vegetarian entree was offered in at least half the restaurants at 10 of the 12 airports visited.

Miami's airport was at the top of the list, with 85 percent of its restaurants offering vegan choices. Detroit came in a close second with a score of 83 percent. New York's Kennedy Airport was fifth on the list.

-- From wire reports