A coastal community ravaged by Hurricane Ike rebuilds one of its fire stations with an eye toward the next storm. Don't let the miles of seaside kitsch fool you: Galveston, Texas, is no ordinary beach town.

For the general public, the Kimbell Art Museum’s exalted reputation rests on the extraordinarily high quality of its small collection, with hundreds of firstrate pieces by Western painters and sculptors, and a growing cache of Asian and pre-Columbian work.

Though it isn't quite all tumbleweed and Longhorns on the 20-minute drive from downtown Austin to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA)—the only facility in the United States specifically built to host the Formula 1 Grand Prix auto race—the barren landscape looks and feels like rural Texas.

As in many American cities, large highways slice through downtown Dallas. Sidewalks seem intermittent, parking lots abundant, and locals respond with strange looks when asked the best way to walk to a nearby bar or restaurant. But Dallas is pouring millions of dollars into changing all that.