Represented, from left to right: San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge, trolley car), South Dakota (Mount Rushmore), Texas (Alamo), Washington DC (White House, Washington Monument) and New York (Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Skyline).
I have lived in 4 out of the 5 places represented (Texas, DC, San Francisco, NY) so that's probably why I felt these landmarks best represented America. It's kind of like my life journey in a way as well. I'm a native Texan (Houstonian) so I had to use the state's most famous monument somewhere.
This is one of the quickest menu jobs I've done to date. The rough idea was sketched out months ago and I worked hard on it, but it did take just an evening. I took a shot at doing something slightly different for this one - using a few atypical characters in the mix (Matt, scouts, Waldo, Bear - and a tiny little Tutter). My goal here was to create a feeling of America without a bunch of flag waving. There's enough red white and blue to cover that. Especially in current times, I found it important to represent the beauty of America.
My faves are the last minute decisions to put the stars and stripes on Grover's cape and to stick the sparkler in Sam's hand. It so looks like he lost some kind of bet.
I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. We began the holiday menus with Halloween last year so there aren't many uncovered holidays left in 2003. This is kind of like going out with a bang, so to speak. There will be more next year and a few more surprises sprinkled in the mix this year, but the gist of my work is done. I have a feeling we'll be celebrating some obscure holidays next year. LOL! As for now, I'm taking a bit of a breather. We’re covered for a while.