Vermont's Killington Resort — www.killington.com — hosts Spring Loaded, April 5 and 6 (entertainment and snowrider competitions); Sunshine Daydream Festival, April 12 (a tribute to the Grateful Dead — wear your tie-dyed T-shirt); and pond-skimming, April 13 (where competitors try to slide across freezing water).

World Pond-Skimming Championships take place in Vail, Colo., during the annual Spring Back to Vail end-of-the-season party, April 7-13; www.springbacktovail.com.

BIRDING: A half-million sandhill cranes gather on the Platte River from March through the first week of April. The Rowe Sanctuary, a National Audubon Society facility, sponsors the Rivers and Wildlife Celebration in Kearney, Neb., about three hours by car from Omaha, March 14-16; www.rowesanctuary.org.

The Galveston Island Featherfest, April 3-6, in Texas, promises a chance to see as many as 300 species of birds; www.galvestonfeatherfest.com.

At Alabama's Fort Morgan State Historical Park, about 45 miles from Mobile on the Gulf Coast, visitors can watch as thousands of birds are captured in a fine net, banded and set free, March 29-April 11, dawn to noon. Conservationists use the semiannual bird-banding to monitor migration patterns at the first landfall for many birds flying north from Latin America; www.hummingbirdsplus.org.

Delmarva Birding Weekend, April 23-27, offers guided hikes, canoe and kayak trips and other opportunities to see the shore birds returning to the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia); www.delmarvalite.org.

MUSEUMS: Plan a sophisticated city getaway with shopping, restaurants and art. Some notable museum shows this spring include:

• Art Institute of Chicago, "Edward Hopper," Feb. 16-May 10.

• Dallas Museum of Art, "J.M.W. Turner," Feb. 10-May 18.

• Denver Art Museum, "Inspiring Impressionism," Feb. 23-May 25.

• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005," March 1-May 25.

• High Museum, Atlanta, "The Louvre and the Ancient World," through Sept. 7, "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle," Feb. 9-May 4.

• Milwaukee Art Museum, "Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945," Feb. 9- May 4.

• Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Frida Kahlo," Feb. 20-May 18.

• Seattle Art Museum, "The Gates of Paradise: Lorenzo Ghiberti's Renaissance Masterpiece" (gilded bronze panels), through April 6.

THEME PARKS AND FAMILY FUN: Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., reopens an expanded Splash Zone March 17, described as a children's museum inside an aquarium with live animals, interactive exhibits and games. In Los Angeles, Universal CityWalk, the shopping and entertainment area just outside the entrance to Universal's theme park, has a new indoor skydiving wind tunnel called iFly Hollywood. It's fun to watch even if you don't dare to try it. Near Orlando, Fla., Disney's Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival runs March 19-June 1.

EUROPE: The Open Skies Agreement takes effect March 28, allowing a half-dozen carriers to add direct flights to London-Heathrow from Atlanta, JFK, Houston, Newark, Philadelphia, Dallas and Los Angeles. Airfares could decrease from the added competition, and there may be introductory prices when new routes start, but "it may take a while before the full effect becomes apparent, perhaps starting small and snowballing with the opening of new routes," said Nora Brossard, spokeswoman for the European Travel Commission. Low-cost carriers with new service include Zoom, which will add routes from London to Florida and San Diego this year.