Sunday, December 27, 2009

Roadboy in 2010


Spain Spain Spain 


2010 is shaping up to be a great year to travel. In February we will take off for Spain. After  just a little bit of research I have come to realize there are actually about four "Spain" trips you can make. There is a trip to all of the sunny Mediterranean resorts. A trip that explores castles (more than any other country in Europe). A tour that might include a side trip to Morocco. And a tour that features the many regional cuisines of Spain. 


Our tour will focus on architecture (duh!) 


We will travel to Barcelona (pronounced "barth-a-lona"), Madrid, and Granada. That allows me to thoroughly enjoy the work of Antoni Gaudi, explore modern, as well as, historic Barcelona architecture, tour the Alhambra of Granada, and explore the museums of Madrid. 


I am opting out for the trip north to Bilbao. I kind of think once you've see one of Frank Gehry's distinctive smashed metal buildings........  


And Who Knows???


I also anticipate some surprises in 2010 as well. Just not sure where yet. 


I realize that this is totally contrary to Roadboy's typical plan-it-to-death travel mode, but I am stunned at the deals I am seeing each week. Some will likely prove to be just too good to pass up. 


For example: this week Travelzoo had an Ireland package with airfare, car, and a weeks hotel (in a Ritz Carlton no less) just outside of Dublin for $799. They even had reasonable upgrades to business class available.  There was also a 6 Night Costa Rica special with Car, air, and hotels for $499. These are prices that are less than what one should expect to pay just for airfare! 


Of course friends know I am smitten with a trip to Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Mendoza (wine country), and on to Chile. So maybe that will transpire.


Since it is the most googled thing I have ever posted, I plan to update my "Roadboy's Travel in Style on a Budget" posting. Beyond that there will be the usual impromptu rants about any knuckleheads I may come in contact with and I'll probably volley up a few dope-slaps for my favorite MBA travel industry execs that seem to be completely bent on fiscal suicide.


Of course there will be lots of postings highlighting food, any hidden gems I find in the places I travel to every week, and maybe another car auction. There will probably be a piece or two identifying new things in my wonderful hometown - Phoenix! 


You know the usual fare.


Roadboy's Rules for the new year! 
1. Pray for peace and the safe return of those we love - no matter the reason they travel.
2. Don't sit around waiting to do the things you always said you'd do! 
3. Don't be stingy with hugs!  




Roadboy's Travels © 2009




Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas in New York City



Magic on Every Corner


Anyone I have ever known that has been to New York at Christmas seems to get glassy-eyed when they recall it.

Over the years I've experienced Rome, London, Chicago, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, even Honolulu (Mele Kalikimaka!) over the holidays, but, until this year, I had never experienced the Big Apple draped in tinsel.

OK WOW! Now I get it. New York City, although special any time of the year, is indeed something even more special at Christmas. People move with the same haste, taxi's still honk, but there is a tangible feeling of the holidays everywhere.

Its like we all know that we are sharing something wonderful.

Subway riders all carry a bag from Macy's and everyone dresses a bit more colorfully than usual.

I was in town on business, but was able to have Miss "M" join me mid week. Evenings were free, so we went to three shows, and we ate wonderfully.

When Saturday came we just walked. We walked a lot. Walking is probably my favorite thing to do in a city like New York. There is something on every corner and down every alley that draws the attention of an architect (much to the consternation of those we love).

Anyway, here are some images to help tell the story why I think New York is indeed such a special place over the holidays. Conspicuously missing are shots from the famous Christmas tree and ice rink at Rockefeller Center. The day we tried to see them, the place was so overrun with people that the NYPD had to close the sidewalks and streets for a block around it. We got close, but then gave up.

First Up: Store Windows!
It is pretty clear that the department stores keep artists working all year preparing the decorations of their stores and windows. Macy's theme was "Believe" and they featured scenes from The Miracle on 34th Street.

Bergdorf Goodman's windows were totally over-the-top with a theme somewhere between Alice in Wonderland and psychotropic medication.

All the photo's are embedded at high resolution, go ahead and click them to see detail!

Macy's Herald Square - A Classic Window

The Shimmer of Bergdorf Goodman 
(Sorry about the Glare!)

Bergdorf Goodman

Homage to Wonderland

Dreamlike Images

Painstaking Detail in Each Window

Next Up: The Shows!
We saw three shows. The first was a seasonal Cirque Du Soleil production called WIn Tuk. I believe it is performed only in New York and only for the holidays. As always the performers effortlessly displayed astonishing feats of balance and beauty on beams (without safety nets), inside giant brass wheels, on bicycles, and on skateboards while we sat in awe. The whole show finished up with a blast of a bazillion paper snowflakes.

The second show was The Phantom at the Majestic Theater. Miss "M" and I must be the last two people on planet earth who had not yet seen it somewhere. What the show delivered in beautiful music and breathtaking spectacle, it lacked in heart or soul. No enthusiastic curtain calls here.

The third show was Dreamgirls performed at the Apollo in Harlem. For me it was everything a Broadway show should be. The music was crisp. The vocals were surreal. The staging was first rate. The story line was compelling.

While the ushers at the Majestic could (and I'm being kind here) only be described as surly, the staff at the Apollo understood that they were helping guests experience a national treasure.

Dreamgirls was a great show. And a great show coupled with the smiles and warmth from the Apollo staff (right down to the doorman who bade us all a "Good Night Everyone" as we ventured back into a freezing New York City night), made the experience special. Sadly it was closing the next night!

This show deserved its standing ovations and curtain calls.

 
Harlem's Treasure

The Stage From the Nosebleed Section

The Food!
We ate wonderful sandwiches at a variety of deli's. I had sushi one day and roast lamb the next at the Amish Market's noontime buffet.

We enjoyed a pile of tasty soy garlic chicken and an amazing Philadelphia Roll at Mad For Chicken. This bizarrely named, and almost hidden, restaurant features a "Korean meets Colonel Sanders with a little Tokyo thrown in for good measure" fusion cuisine. To find it you have to be on your toes as it is located on the second floor of an obscure office building on 5th Ave.

We finished up the week with tasty little soup dumplings (Tiny Buns) at the Shanghai Cafe on Mott Street in Chinatown. When you bite into these little steamed gems your reward is the soup and meat  filling that is neatly contained in each dumpling!

Of course between the above was the usual gyros and pizza.

The Park
After walking through about 25% of Central Park, we can confirm it is truly New York City's crown jewel. We strolled down The Mall (I stopped to adore the angel fountain - the one from Angels in America). We climbed the towers of the Belvedere Castle, jumped over ice, and found Balto's little sculpture (every present and former Alaskan looks for Balto).


The Bethesda Fountain
The Blessing of The Waters 

Miss "M" in New York's Best Place - Central Park


Balto

The Surprise
The Irish Hunger Memorial in lower Manhattan was a complete surprise. I had seen it from my hotel and wondered what the upended bit of earth was. The memorial is accessed by a discrete passage in the back. As you enter you walk through an almost eery tunnel filled with the voices of famine survivors. You then exit the tunnel and enter a crumbling Irish farmhouse (moved from Ireland stone by stone). When you exit the farmhouse you walk through barren fields and eventually wind up at an elevated platform. From the platform you see the view that arriving Irish immigrants first experienced of America's shores - Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Irish Hunger Memorial - The Patch of Green Below

To finish up this posting I include an image of The Atlas at Rockefeller Center. After many years working with a cherished business partner he confided that The Atlas (along with too many other sculptural treasures to list) was the work of his grandfather. An interesting note about the sculpture. Mr. Rockefeller told Lee Lawrie (the sculptor) that whatever sculpture he created needed to be designed in a way that it would not impede the view from his office to the street / sidewalk below. Hence the open globe of the world balanced on those massive shoulders.

Atlas is a perfect and timeless creation set solidly into the spine of this vibrant City.

The Atlas

Christmas in New York?

It is simply amazing!


Roadboy's Travels © 2009

Monday, November 30, 2009

Thanksgiving in San Francisco



A True One of A Kind

San Francisco has always been both worldly yet somehow oblivious to the rest of the world. It ticks along to its own clock. It is incredibly dense (probably why public transit works so well there). It is wonderfully diverse, so it teases us with amazing food. Although its population is under a million, it boasts cultural amenities of a City three to four times its size.

While it is visibly suffering from the same real estate bubble as the rest of California, in many visible respects it seems healthier than ever. A few years ago, when it was booming, I was stunned at the amount of filth I saw in SF doorways. Back then there seemed to be an endless stream of litter in the streets and aggressive panhandling made any visit a lot less enjoyable than it could have been.

During this trip pubic transportation all ran on time (although it seemed like the elevator in every other Muni or Bart station was broken), all of the major streets were pretty much immaculate, and the restaurants were as wonderful as always. Even the bums, while still everywhere, were noticeably mellower almost all wishing a "Happy Thanksgiving" after we rebuffed their shaken cups.

The major museums and the Academy of Sciences have all been upgraded. The plays have always featured major stars and are "Broadway" quality. Lots of San Francisco hotels are posh. And the department stores and boutiques are lovely and very well turned out for the holidays. All in all it was a great place to spend a few days.

Here's a few of Roadboy's tips for visiting the City-By-The-Bay.

1. Don't even think about renting a car. Take Bart from SFO or Oakland Airport. From SFO it was $8.10 and just whisked right past all the choked freeways. It dropped us an easy two block walk from our hotel.

2. Once you are unpacked, buy a Muni Passport. They come in 1 day, 3 day, and 7 day versions. It is good for all buses, the Muni railway, and for the famed cable cars (which alone cost $5 each way!). The MUNI Passport is not good for Bart. Here's another little noticed benefit. If you show your muni passport, the admission price to some key attractions (including the new California Academy of Sciences - Stienhart Aquarium) is discounted $3!

SF's Ancient Cable Cars Still 
Own the Steepest Hills

The Cable Car View at SF's Crooked Old Lombard Street
(Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower is Beyond)

3. Select your hotel carefully. Check to make sure the location works for you. We chose a hotel in the booming South of Market (SOMA), Yerba Buena Gardens area. It was walking distance to both the Moscone Convention Center and the shops and restaurants of Union Square. Read reviews in TripAdvisor.com and consider rolling the dice with Hotwire. We used Hotwire to secure a 4 Star "Union Square Hotel" (i.e. we didn't know what the hotel we were buying was until the transaction was complete). The payoff was the Westin Market Street! So we got a perfect location and "Heavenly" beds for $89 a night! The web rate for the Westin the same nights was $269/night. If you make sure your hotel is close to a Bart and Muni stop you can't lose.

4. Plan some events ahead and leave some time to just bum around. For this trip we planned ahead for a 3 hour segway tour (which was a lot of fun). I also reserved tickets for Beach Blanket Babylon (BBB). I bought the Segway tour via Goldstar Events (www.goldstar.com). Goldstar offers surplus tickets to major shows and events at 1/2 price. Everyone else on the segway tour paid $70 each. We paid $35. Goldstar does require you join it (which is free). For BBB we bought our tickets on line at their own website. BBB does show up on Goldstar once in awhile for midweek shows, but I have missed seeing the show on two previous trips by not buying in advance and wanted to see it this time for sure. It is a uniquely San Francisco evening of entertainment, both schlocky and a lot of fun.


Segways - A Perfect Way to Tour San Francisco

5. Leave time to explore its fine museums. This is a City where architecture and design are revered. It has examples of the work of renowned international architects, american masters, and its own superb homegrown talent. This is the home of such luminaries as Bernard Maybeck and his protoge Julia Morgan. It is where Timothy Pflueger perfected his brand of Deco. It is where Lawrence Halprin defined modern landscape architecture and Anshen and Allen worked their magic. It later gave us Joseph Esherick (Monterey Bay Aquarium), and William Wurster. Today's San Francisco based architects are still world class.

When I think of it's historic place in international design, I often wonder why San Francisco now seems too timid to support its own super stars and (like seemingly every insecure major metropolitan area) now routinely shops the world to hire whichever Euro-celebrity designer is in vogue. While that has netted the City some interesting, if not out of place, new buildings, such as the new SF MOMA, and the nice, if not stellar, California Academy of Sciences, it has also produced the somewhat less than wonderful renovation to the (formerly elegant) De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. 


Not sure why, but the new De Young somehow reminds me of Mike Myer's old Saturday Night Live "Sprockets" routine.

Old Merges Into New At
The Revamped California Academy Of Sciences / Steinhart Aquarium



Lights to Grow Coral in The Aquarium Below


Penguins Still Frolic

The Foucault Pendulum Still Proves the Laws of Gravity

The Displays Are More Glorious Than Ever
(The Big Sea Creatures - Whales, Dolphins, Otters Are Gone)

A New Rainforest Display is Filled With Birds and Butterflies
                            
One of the Butterflies

A Green Roof Tops Off The LEED Platinum Building

Photovoltaic Solar Cells Provide An Elegant Arcade Over the Entry
(The Sadly Damaged DeYoung Seen Across the Way)

6. Go Exploring and Shop! This is a City where men and women take their clothes VERY seriously. Take time to look at its amazing stores and boutiques. Some of the stores are especially lovely at the holidays.

The Neiman Marcus Christmas Tree 
(Under the Old City of Paris Department Store Dome)

7. Explore public spaces in its historic hotels and office buildings. Two of my favorite public spaces are in the Palace Hotel. The bar has Maxfield Parrish's gloriously huge pied piper painting and who could concentrate on their food when eating in the sumptuous Garden Court Restaurant?

Serving Luminaries Since The Days of The Pony Express
The Palace Hotel's Garden Court

8. Visit San Francisco's gardens and parks, especially its treasure: Golden Gate Park. Taking the time to visit the former Presidio of San Francisco (now part of the Golden Gate National Park) will net rich rewards in views of the Golden Gate. Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, and Chinatown all offer a feast to the senses. If you are a golfer schedule a round of golf in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge at a public course such as Lincoln or the Presidio.

The Yerba Buena Gardens
Over the Convention Center
SF MOMA is Beyond

9. Eat! Plan your restaurant strategy carefully. You don't want to waste a single calorie on a chain restaurant here. We ate at Sear's Fine Foods for breakfast, enjoyed dungeness crab cakes at the Tadich Grill (a SF favorite  since 1849 - go early - plan to stand in line), and stopped for pizza at the superb Golden Boy Pizza in North Beach (the clam pizza was unbelievable). Consider some dim sum, gelato, sushi, or maybe a Greek dinner at Kokkari.

Expect Lines Everyday at Tadich Grill

While San Francisco's free spirited nature might not be a perfect match for some. If you travel with an open mind and heart, this beautiful City will not fail to reward you with a truly wonderful holiday.


Roadboy's Travels © 2009


PS On a sad note, the Podesta Baldocchi shop on Grant Street (that my Grandma took me to every Christmas) was gone. In its place was a Lucky Clothes store (all thats left is its tell-tale black and white hex shaped floor tiles in the doorway).

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Los Hobos Invade San Francisco


Thanksgiving in the City by The Bay

Once or twice a year some fun seekers we know all try to get together and go somewhere special together. We jokingly refer to ourselves as the "Los Hobos".  This is never an easy event to arrange as all of the folks involved have active careers with demanding clients, kids in college, and "to do" lists from hell. 


But somehow it all works out.

Next week we are heading to San Francisco to spend a few days at Thanksgiving. We have some pretty good stuff planned. Segway tours, good food, the new academy of sciences (Steinhart Aquarium - feeding the penguins!), Thanksgiving dinner at McCormick and Kuleto's in Ghirardelli Square, tree lighting at Union Square, the Tadich Grill, rides on the Cable Cars, really good Chinese food, and of course, an evening at Beach Blanket Babylon at the Club Fugazi.

For me this will be kind of like a sweet visit to my past as my Grandmother always made sure we made the trip across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco every year just before the holidays. To us San Francisco was always simply referred to as "The City". And it was. Back then women in SF always wore white gloves and hats. People shopped at I Magnins and The Emporium. 


We would go see the department store windows, take a walk down Maiden Lane, and, of course, stop in to see the beautiful decorations and smell the Christmas trees at the Podesta Baldocchi florist shop on Grant Street (it is the florist where Kim Novak shopped in Hitchcock's Vertigo).


We'd finish each trip with a visit to The City of Paris department store (now absorbed oddly - blame the late Phillip Johnson - into a very peculiar Neiman Marcus store) to see the amazing four story Christmas tree they installed every year under the store's incredible stained glass dome.

This week we will fly into SFO and take BART, but somehow, I know "The City" will conjure up its magic for us!


Roadboy's Travels © 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

A Walk in Battery Park



A Short Walk On A Cool Fall Day


Last week I had a project that brought me to New York City. While my work kept me busy most of the time, I was able to get about a two hour walk in Friday morning near my hotel before heading to the airport. 


It was the day after a huge storm hit Long Island. There was still a lot of wind, and to a Phoenician it felt pretty chilly. It sputtered a bit of rain and the clouds were grey. But it still felt like a fine time to walk and a chance to glimpse the very last of fall's golden leaves on the trees. 



The Face of Fall


As always in New York City there was something cool to see every where I turned. As I walked I could see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island out in the Harbor.  But there was also the beautiful NYPD officers memorial which, sadly, has too many names on it.



The NYPD Memorial



The NYPD Wall of Honor


I also found myself pretty choked up at the sight of the beat up sculpture from the plaza of the World Trade Center.


WTC Sculpture


It wasn't all somber and introspective. I also found this playful Jim Dine sculpture of a romantic interlude between a cat in a skirt and an ape dancing in the park.



Waltzing in the Park


At the foot of the Battery is the beautiful US Customs House. It is precisely set where immigrants were brought after passing through Ellis Island. Now it is the Museum of the American Indian. Seems strangely ironic. The juxtoposition between our main portal of immigration and a tribute to the original Americans. 



The Larger Than Life Sculptures at the US Customs House


The Merchant Marine Memorial is dramatic as well as it depicts hands outstretched to save a comrade.



Hands Reaching To Safety


As I rounded the foot of Broadway on my way back there was the wonderful Bull looking for Wall Street.



The Bull


All in all two great hours of architectural  battery charging.




Roadboy's Travels © 2009



Sunday, November 8, 2009

Obscure Los Angeles


Roadboy's Mini LA Tour


In any city I visit I like to take in more than just your typical tourist traps. Not to say that I don't love some big old tourist traps too, but hitting some obscure places along the way suits me just fine.

Last week my daughter and I spent four great days in southern California.  We enjoyed some  excellent food and spent some time in "behind the scenes" LA.

We made our first stop Indio California. We stopped there to eat. Not just eat anything. No we stopped to eat tamales. And not just any tamales, but the sweet corn tamales found at Indio's Pueblo Viejo Grill. Oh they are wonderful! Word of warning their full meals are huge. For every two people we order one combo and a bit of A la Carte. Another must stop in Indio is for a medjool date shake at Shield's Date Garden (Shield's has been a pesticide-free date growing institution in Indio since 1924).

The Place to Stop For Tamale's in Indio

I had a business appointment which resulted in an overnight stay in Fontana. This provided an excuse to eat lunch at Walter's in Claremont. Claremont is lovely and Walter's has that "only in California" feel to it. Great food, beautiful indoor or outdoor seating, and creative salads and entree's. I had a very tasty lamb pita. Two days, two great meals. 

Lamb Pita at Walter's Claremont

We then traveled on into LA with a much anticipated stop at the Galco Market in Eagle Rock. This little Mom and Pop grocery store features lots and lots and lots of soda pop. They sell soft drinks I have not seen since I was a kid (Nesbitts!) as well as flavors from around the US and around the world. Soft drinks and beer from South America, Europe, and Asia all represented in little old Galco. We stocked up on six packs of real Dr. Pepper in bottles from the plant in Dublin Texas (Texan's out there know what that means). Update 2012: Dr. Pepper's corporate owners have officially closed the Dublin Dr. Pepper plant, so the last plant making the soda so many of us cherished is now history. Shame on you Dr. Pepper!  We also got our Cheerwine from N.C. We got Shandy from Scotland, mint julep soda from KY, and birch beer from Maryland. Frankly, you could sample something everyday for a couple of months from Galco and not duplicate any two favors. They also have all the old time candy. Yep, I bought a big old sugar daddy. It was 45 minutes of pure bliss on a stick. I remembered my childhood and years of dental work squirmed.  


Galco's Market Eagle Rock
(Click to Enlarge)

Day three was spent visiting friends and taking the Sony Pictures backlot tour. While everybody knows about the "get in the tram" tour of Universal's backlot, not many know that NBC, Sony, Paramount, and Warner Brothers also offer intimate, small group walking tours by reservation only. They vary from $8 for NBC to $45 depending on the studio.

Sony Picture's 46 Acre Studio in Culver City
(Click to Enlarge)

For this trip we chose the Sony tour in Culver City. Yes kids many of "Hollywood's" biggest movies were not made in Hollywood. They were made in Culver City! 


The tour was great. It is a walking tour and takes about two hours. It starts with a film highlighting the history of this amazing movie factory. This lot was formerly MGM and is where Louie B. Mayer once boasted he had "more stars than there are in the heavens". One of the gate's still has MGM's trademark lions. The lot was also home to David O. Selznick (Gone With The Wind). It was where The Wizard of Oz was filmed, and in the 50's it ushered in television by housing I Love Lucy's DesiLu Studios. Later the studio became Lorimar and almost lost its soul. It is now officially Sony Entertainment and home to Columbia Pictures. 

Maybe 5 minutes into our tour Will Smith stepped up from behind us and grinned said a big "Hello" and disappeared into the Thalberg Building. He is taller than I had thought and before I could swing my camera up, he was gone.

The studio is immaculate, very safety conscious, and very, very, busy. The current depressed value of the dollar is clearly making it viable to shoot pictures in LA. This lot is 46 acres, so wear comfortable shoes.

For lunch a friend took us to Addi's Tandoor on Torrance Avenue in Redondo Beach. Don't let the strip mall location fool you. I have eaten Indian food in some wonderful restaurants before, but this was a simply exceptional lunch. We started with very hot and very perfect onion kulcha and garlic naan. From there on lunch just kept getting better and better. I had halibut masala and Ms. M had scallops malabar. The portions were way big and again we could have easily shared.

We had dinner at Izaka-ya sushi near Beverly Center on West 3rd St. in LA. This is the hole-in-the-wall casual second cousin to the pricey Katsu-Ya restaurant chain. While not cheap, it is not stratospheric like Katsu-Ya. Service is fast. It is noisy and crowded. But the creamy rock shrimp on spicy salmon roll was just eye-rolling good. Go early!

The next day was spent visiting a college friend of Miss M's at Kazu Kibuishi's Bolt City Studio in Alhambra. Bolt City is the dream factory where the Flight, Daisy Kutter, Copper, and Amulet graphic novels are created. The talent in Kazu's studio is awe inspiring. Bolt City is not open to tours. But you can go to their website www.boltcity.com to see what they are all about. 

Visiting Bolt City had a nice by-product for us; Alhambra. Alhambra is becoming a very cool city. You can eat just about anything on Main Street or visit Gallery Nucleus (www.gallerynucleus.com). Hint: a great place for some off-beat web based Christmas shopping. At the far end of West Main Street is another treasure Fosselman's Ice Cream. One taste and you can see why they have all those "Best of LA" awards on the wall.

Our last day this trip was spent doing arguably our one big touristy thing; Universal Studios. On a weekday, in the off season, Universal is such a nice theme park. Meticulously clean, uncrowded, filled with friendly staff, decent food, and then there is also CityWalk Universal's shopping and entertainment district just outside its gates.


Sky Diving in CityWalk
(click to Enlarge)

Next Trip Roadboy is Doing This!

Set from King Kong - Ship Sailing into Skull Island
(Actually a Miniature - Click to Enlarge)

The Life Sized Set From War of The Worlds
(Yep That Is A Real 747)

A Miniature From The Stop Motion Feature Coraline
(Incredibly Detailed Tiny Models - Click to Enlarge)

That evening after Universal closed we were off to Pasadena for a taping of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! radio show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. They taped two shows. One on Thursday that was the "live" show broadcast on Saturday. The Friday night show we saw was what they call an "Evergreen". It uses a timeless theme and is meant to be broadcast sometime in the future (when the cast is taking a holiday). They taped for well over two hours straight. The guest was George Takai from the original Star Trek and it was a lot of fun to participate in the taping. If you are a resident of (or plan a visit to) Chicago, consider catching a taping of the show in their native habitat.

After all that fun we slept like puppies. Next morning we drive home with a stop at the Premium Outlet Malls in Palm Springs.

There were about four other restaurants I had planned to try, but they, along with a trip to Hollywood's Magic Castle, and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, will just have to wait for future trips to Obscure LA.

Roadboy's Travels © 2009


Sunday, November 1, 2009

Next Week LA

Team Roadboy is off to LA


Next week we hit the highway for a quickie trip to LA. 


While I go to LA a lot, usually we do the typical tourist stuff; Disneyland, the beach etc. This time, however, we are going to try some new stuff.


Meredith and I are reserved for the MGM (now Sony Pictures) "by appointment only" backlot walking tour in Culver City. 


We are going to try some new restaurants and go back to a couple of old favorites. 


Meredith will visit the studio where a friend from college works and we are all going to Galco sodas where you can get just about any soda pop made in the world! 


Friday night we have tickets to the west coast taping of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me in Pasadena.


An architect with his two favorite artists on the road, never boring!


Roadboy's Travels © 2009



Sunday, October 25, 2009

Doing What We Love - Loving What We Do


Hey Flight Attendants! Thank You! 

(Addenda italicized - ADDED 10-28-09)
Tonight's newspaper announced that US Airways must lay off 1000 employees. Last year it was over 2000. So, when taken together, these numbers represent about 10% of their 32,000 employees.


In my book, any story about people losing their jobs is heartbreaking.


But as I scrolled to the bottom of the article and trolled though the reader comments, my heart hurt.


Their comments were nothing short of vicious. Many were actually gloating over the economic woes of one of our biggest local employers.


The bloggers repeatedly called the airline "clueless" asserting it is a business that deserves to fold. This is a company where corporate executives have routinely considered the sentiments of their shareholders over their passengers. The mean spirited comments comparing them unfavorably to their biggest rival is their reward for their MBA operating philosophy.


Now, I own my own business. I know how hard it is to compete in today's marketplace. Our firm's success hinges on having staff that genuinely cares about our clients.


So, here's what I hope. 


I hope US Airways executives embrace a new corporate culture. One that appreciates and respects their passengers as much as their passenger's money. 


I hope it then survives and thrives. I hope it can eventually hire all of their staff back and add more. I hope they eventually expand their route structure and fly to China.


I also hope to see a day when those self-righteous, hate filled, blog posters fly to Oz and get a heart from the Wizard. 


This airline has joined its rivals and has brought us more choices in economy fares (with assigned seats). It has helped me make my own business stronger by allowing me to cultivate new  clients in new states. Its demise would only hurt the economic recovery of our region.


For goodness sakes, try out some empathy, US Airway's employees are our neighbors.






Herewith My Original Posting


With limited time given to us by our creator we can't afford to waste it working in jobs we hate.


I have always loved my chosen field; architecture. Before kindergarten, I knew I wanted to spend my life creating the built world. I didn't chose it for money. There's lots of ways to make more money with a lot less effort.


In fact when I look around, I realize my family is filled with artists, teachers, and people who do what they do, simply because they love doing it.


Perhaps I'm off base, but after talking to a whole lot of flight crews over the years, I have come to realize most do it because it is what they love to do. 


It can't be for the money. And it hasn't been for the glamour for a couple of decades now.

And the airlines seem to find new ways every year to make it harder and harder for them to enjoy their one big perk - free travel.

They are not there for our comfort, they are there for our safety. It is a job with unpredictable hours, requires a lot of training, and the patience of a saint. 


One minute they may be settling seating disputes, serving drinks, or performing first aid. The next minute they are serving as human shields protecting pilots that need a break.

With the new baggage rules they are blowing out their backs helping people lift baggage into overheads. And lets face it many of them qualify for the seniors menu at Denny's.

Yet, I love that. I have a warm feeling every time I see some grey hair in the flight deck. I feel the same way when I see knowing, experienced eyes twinkle as they greet passengers boarding an aircraft.

The airwaves go nuts when the rare mistake is made (whoops, we flew past the airport....).  And everyone seems to love to regale us with a "flying nightmare" story.

But flying is still the safest way to get from here to there fast.

And that is, in a large part, thanks to well trained flight crews that love what they do.

So next time you get on the plane, shut off your flippin cell phone in the jetway.  Smile and make eye contact with the crew. Offer them a genuine "Hello".

And on your way out, give them a warm "Thank You!"

I do, and I mean it!

Roadboy's Travels © 2009