[jyl]

Cool stuff to see, for a kid:
- New York! New York!
- San Francisco Bay Area, Monterey Bay, central California coast
- Puget Sound rainforest and islands, on a kayak camping trip
- Yosemite Valley
- Grand Canyon
- Washington DC museums and the Mall
- New England little towns during autumn leaf turning

That should be barely doable in a, say, three week trip.

No need to bother with the middle of the country, there's a reason they're called the fly-over states.