Just When I Thought I Was Getting Old

The Magic of Disneyland

When I was a kid, nothing in this world topped a trip to Disneyland. It was simply the end all, be all. We waited impatiently each year when Disney's Sunday night television show would take an entire episode to describe all the new attractions that were under development and would soon be open. 

Direct from the New York World's fair we got a moving and speaking President Lincoln, dinosaurs and It's a Small World. Later we got the amazing Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. The place just outdid itself and raised the bar higher and higher. There were just never enough "E" tickets in my ticket book. Funny how everyone of a certain age nods in complete understanding when you say something is an "E" ticket. We know that it has to be awesome. 

Disneyland was always expensive and it was picky. If your hair was long, you didn't get in. If you were Kruschev, you didn't get in. If you took off your shoes or shirt, you were quickly hustled out. 

I only got to go there twice from the time I was little till I reached high school. Then in high school I got to go with the youth group from church and again for Disney's Grad Night.

Since then I've delighted in taking friends, loved ones, and finally my own kids to Disneyland over and over.

Perhaps I over did it. A few years ago I realized I was totally burned out on the place. It seemed like nothing much was changing, yet Eisner kept the prices climbing. 

And a little piece of me died.

This week I went back to Knotts Berry Farm, Disneyland, and California Adventure and something wonderful happened. I'm not sure how to put my finger on it, but the magic was back.

First off Knotts still has the most amazing breakfast and chicken dinner in So Cal. All served by spunky 60+ year old waitresses that probably knew the Knotts personally. If you say "may I have this or that?", they are likely to put a hand on their hip and ask rhetorically "I don't know can you?"

I love that. 

And the hot biscuits. Well I just have to stop there or I'll cry.

Then we went to California Adventure and there was real palpable change in the air. Most of the good stuff like Soarin over California was spiffy as ever, but at night the Hollywood District was transformed into a dazzling and laser pulsing land called ElecTRONica (to tie into the upcoming update of the Tron movie.) Kids were tossing glow in the dark frisbees and adults were walking around sipping drinks with glowing ice cubes.

ElecTRONica! 

The new "Cars" area is well underway and the Tower of Terror has been reworked with more ups (and downs) than ever.

But the over-the-top best thing was the "World of Color" water show. Damn! It was amazing. It was the Bellagio fountain on steroids with a little added fire, and color, and high def music thrown in. Don't miss it.

World of Color

The Fountain In Action

In Disneyland itself things were all gussied up for Halloween. Just amazing. 

I'm convinced the food has really improved. Even the shops had better products in them. Clearly, the recession has made the Disney folks go back and recommit themselves to delivering quality again.

Even the little stuff was fun. Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln is thankfully out of mothballs (we need his wisdom more than ever). And as a tribute to Michael Jackson, now 25 years later, Captain EO is back shaking the theater that was built for it.

The Phantasm Show was great, but the fireworks show is now simply one of the best in the world. Computer driven pyrotechnics sequenced perfectly with music and good old Tinkerbell flying as she's never flown before.

If you have avoided Disneyland for awhile. Go again. Plan at least two days (never in summer!!!) and make sure you can see the World of Color one night and the fireworks and Phantasm the other.

The kid in me came back a little. 

Felt good.

Roadboys Travel's © 2010

In Praise of Little Mid-Century Ranch Houses

The Joys of Remodeling....

While most of my business week involves travel, I love to return home for the weekend. It is my time to recuperate and recharge.

My zen is skimming leaves from the pool in long swirling motions and washing my cars. I love driving clean, properly operating, old cars.

The home I recharge in, is one of those ubiquitous ranchers from the 1950's located in Phoenix's "North Central" neighborhood.

North Central was part of Phoenix' 1940-1960's wave of urban expansion. My neighborhood was built in a former citrus orchard. To this day many orange, tangerine and grapefruit trees remain. So our lots are flood irrigated. Yep, many of us still annually grow too many oranges and grapefruits to count on trees that are 100 years old. Every spring the air is filled with jasmine scented citrus blossoms. Flood irrigation for the uninitiated means my house is slightly raised and a little earth berm surrounds the property. When the water comes (usually in the middle of the night) our house becomes an island in its own little lake. We wake up to ducks swimming on the front lawn. 

There are no sidewalks in our neighborhood and many of us diehards have our original carports instead of garages. There is an alley behind my house where our dumpsters reside, where burglars prowl, and where our power lines run.

The House

(Piestawa Peak in the Background)

My house is about 1,800 square feet. Seems tiny and quaint in an era when new subdivisions all seem to feature houses twice that size.

The houses were all built with simple floor plans and are single story. I love them.  After living in a variety of multi-story houses on tiny sites, I will always defer to a single story home on a decent sized lot. I wonder how many people in Boston die each week taking laundry down a steep set of stairs to a washer in an ancient basement?

Our house has a big porch both front and back. And while a few two-story infill houses have popped up here and there, we welcome them as we would a turd in the pool.

When we relocated to Phoenix 16 years ago, many of the owners on my street were original. Today, after those owners pass to the next world, a big dumpster shows up. The houses are gutted and modernized to standards prescribed by IKEA and then a family moves in with two smallish kids, a dog, and one Infiniti and a Tahoe, Yukon or Armada (love that name!)

The lovely old carports are then morphed into garages to protect their precious urban assault vehicles and somewhere in Saudi Arabia a heart goes pitty pat.

Most newcomers leave the character of the houses intact. Some try to make them into bizarre metal trimmed fantasies. They always look stupid.

The families are frequently people who grew up in the area and want to raise their own kids in the same neighborhood.

Works for me.

Well anyway I decided to start remodeling my own little abode. Not adding any rooms, just changing out windows and doors to be more energy efficient and making what is there more open and functional. Moved the front door. It was a hoot to watch the dogs run and stare at the wall where the front door used to be when the doorbell rang. 

In the meantime we live in a minefield of temporary stuff, sheetrock dust, and delicate power.

When it is done it will still be a modest mid-century rancher.

It will still have a simple plan.

It will still all be on a single floor.

It will still have porches.

It will still be the home I look forward to returning to every weekend.



Roadboy's Travels © 2010

Upside Down Fall

Adoring the Fall - The Start of Arizona Time!

I took a quick trip to Denver last Friday. It was a lovely day. Temps in the high seventies and blue skies. But as I met with a client the reality of fall was registering in the trees. They never lie.

In Colorado The Aspen's Have Started to Glow

It made me think about how reversed everything is for us in Arizona.

People in Arizona take pride in being contrary. And I'm not even talking about our goofy politics.....

The rest of the nation changes their clocks twice a year for daylight savings time, not us here in AZ. Here we say "the heck with that! Why would we want to stay up an extra hour to experience searing heat?" 

For us it is just better to crank up the old AC and call it a day. 

When fall comes you (the rest of America) eagerly anticipate the "foliage". You know that you'll be raking soon. And right on the tail end of the falling leaves comes the snow.  You feel a little extra bite in the air each evening, AZ gets temperatures that are finally coming down to reality.

Here with perfect days come perfect nights complete with the fragrance of piñon burning in fireplaces.

You put the bicycles away, we pull 'em out and oil up the chains.

Your dogs have been running around with you all summer and are fit as a fiddle, ours have gotten fat as they have been hiding out with the rest of us indoors (believe it or not we have to be careful when we walk dogs here as the asphalt gets so hot it actually burns their feet - PetSmart sells walking booties!).  So when fall arrives we all pile in the van to take the dogs to Dreamy Draw and they can start to lose summer blubber.

As the rest of North America starts to look for covers to their lawn furniture, Phoenicians venture out to the back porch to clean off the furniture.

I always find it funny to see Target clearing out the outdoor stuff right when we need it. They have to make room for halloween stuff. Target's garden center starts folding up right when we start thinking about planting bulbs.

Everyone loves the fall - but I think we have plenty of justification to love it more. So for the rest of you folks - enjoy your next few months of "indoor time". As for us in AZ, well we are gonna be a bit hard to find for a few months. It is our time again. Time to ride bikes, hike, and just get the heck out of the house!

Roadboys Travel's © 2010 

Losing The Vision One Day At A TIme

Southwest Gobbles Up AirTran

I am one of this nations legion of road warriors. I travel every week. I fly commercially almost every week. I spend most nights of the year sleeping in a hotel bed.

So this weeks announcement of the "merger" of Southwest and AirTran was a bit of a shock. 

I fully comprehend mergers between legacy carriers. The United / Continental merger doesn't seem odd. Delta absorbing Northwest - probably makes sense. 

But somehow the Southwest and AirTran merger, well it just doesn't seem to  add up.

Southwest has always concentrated on a mostly point-to-point travel model. Nearly every flight on AirTran goes through Atlanta or Orlando.

Southwest ONLY flies 737's. AirTran's fleet is filled with MD85's (now called Boeing 717).

Southwest has a sterling safety record. AirTran was born by changing its name from ValuJet to avoid the bad press associated from a horrible crash in Florida.

Southwest has amazing Customer Service. AirTran, well lets just say it falls short of Southwest.

Southwest flies 100% domestic routes. AirTran flies various international routes.

While I hope the merger goes well for both parties, as an outsider looking in I have to say it seems like this is the event we will all point to someday and say "that is where Southwest lost its vision".

Herb, where are you?

Roadboy's Travels © 2010

A Walk at Mill's

One of Oakland's Many Treasures

I grew up in probably the most misunderstood city in California - Oakland.

And while no less than Gertrude Stein and The Simpson's have delighted in making it the butt of their jokes,  I will always love Oakland and the entire East Bay.

Last week I went back and took a quiet walk with Miss "M" among the lush 135 acre campus of Mill's College in Oakland. Mill's is a women's college founded in 1852. And according to the 2011 US News Best Colleges it ranks number 4 among Tier 1 regional universities in the West. Pretty heady for a private college with less than a thousand undergraduates.

As a child a friend's father was a professor at Mill's - so we'd visit his lab and explore the campus. I loved its groves of fragrant eucalyptus trees and beautiful assemblage of architecture by Julia Morgan. There is no question the latter helped confirm me in my desire to become an architect.

When a friend graduated from Mill's years later I witnessed the bestowing of an honorary degree on the pioneering photographer Imogen Cunnigham and listened to a commencement speech delivered by Maya Angelou. There are few times in my life when, in the space of a single day, I have been in the presence of two of America's living treasures.

Now almost 40 years later, I wanted to see how Mill's looked.

Well, it has lost a lot of its eucalyptus trees*, but it has never looked better.

Julia Morgan's Masterpiece - The 1904 El Campenil 

(The First Reinforced Concrete Structure West of the Mississippi

Still Chimes Faithfully)

It still echoes with the bells from El Campenil. Its main entry Richards Road is still tree lined. Mill's Hall, its magnificent Victorian, has been carefully seismically stabilized, and it offers some wonderful new buildings like the Lokey Graduate School of Business.

Richards Road

Mill's Hall From the Oval

Our walk included a stop at the bright little Tea Room for some wonderful coffee and a great turkey and ricotta sandwich. We also ventured back to the Aron Arts Center. This was the area that borders the MacArthur Freeway which was just being built when I was a kid. Back then they weren't sure how the freeway would impact the campus and this area was in disrepair. Today it is lovely.

The Aron Arts Center

The Art Museum

Building Detail

Lobby of Littlefield Hall

The New Uber Green Lokey Building

Mill's is still a special place for a very lucky few.

It is an Oakland treasure. 

It is a California treasure. 

Roadboy's Travels © 2010

*I know they burn like SOB's, are dirty, are not native, and have shallow roots - but I still miss these big old Australian transplants. 

What We've Been Doing

A Peek Into the New Maryland Medical Examiner's Facility

Fair warning - if you are squeamish about subjects related to death and dying, then this post may not be the best one for you to read.

As many of you know this blog highlights my ongoing travels. Much of this travel is the direct result of being a founder of the architectural firm that plans most of the worlds most sophisticated buildings for law enforcement and the forensic sciences.

Occasionally I prepare a post that showcases one of our recent buildings. These one-of-a-kind buildings are usually built with tax dollars. Yet because of the sensitive work they do, and the routine handling of evidence within, once in operation, they are frequently restricted in their availability for tours. Despite that, please believe me, you can be very proud of the work performed in them. They are a tool in the search for truth, and routinely they protect life while preventing further criminal activity by some of societies worst predators.

In the past two weeks we have dedicated two new buildings; police facility (in suburban Chicago) and Maryland's new Forensic Medical Center in Baltimore. 

Here is a mini tour of the Medical Examiner Facility. Or what many of you would simply call "the morgue".

The new $54,000,000 Medical Examiner Facility was built as part of the University of Maryland's BioPark. It will serve as the new home for the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland (the nations oldest statewide Medical Examiner system). The new facility with its two main autopsy suites, spaces for special autopsy (w/special BSL3 bio-safety precautions), will serve not only Maryland's needs, but will undoubtedly be in demand throughout the east (since it houses specialized spaces and equipment found almost nowhere else in North America). 

Designed specifically as a research and teaching facility it will also offer unique training opportunities for forensic pathologists throughout the world.

A Compact Site Resulted in a Space Efficient Vertical Design

 

Dr. David Fowler Conducts a Tour For Congressman Elijah Cummings

The unique features of the facility include two 3-story autopsy suites flooded with natural light and outfitted with the latest digital camera systems. Each is fitted with full observation decks for the use by students and field investigators. 

The View From the Observation Area

A Full Body CAT Scanner is Located Between Autopsy Suites

The neuro-pathology training lab is positioned to allow for wonderful views of surrounding Baltimore as well as overhead views into each of the two main autopsy suites.

The Neuro-Pathology Lab

If a case arrives that is suspected to pose bioloigcal risk, special facilities are available. The case will be transported in a specially isolated elevator, stored in an isolated cooler, and autopsied in suites designed to meet stringent bio-safety level 3 standards.

 

Biosafety Level 3 Protection

There are labs for Histology, Toxicology, and Odentology. Each of these labs are surrounded by "clean" office areas for staff to return calls and prepare for court.

Overhead "Snorkels" Will Draw off Heat and Odors From

Scientific Instrumentation in the New Toxicology Lab

Another feature of the facility is its viewing room for the meticulously crafted death scene miniatures referred to as the "Nutshells". The Nutshells were created in the 1940's by Frances Glessner Lee for Harvard's Forensic Pathology program. Everything needed to solve the crime is in each "nutshell" (i..e. "thats it in a nutshell"). According to Bruce Goldfarb (see: http://brucegoldfarb.com/the-nutshell-studies-of-unexplained-death) Ms. Lee may have been the inspiration for the character Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. 

After Lee's death in 1962, Maryland's chief medical examiner Dr. Russell Fisher, a former instructor at Harvard, secured a permanent loan of the Nutshells from the Lee family. The Nutshells are still used in homicide investigation seminars, and after a complete restoration last year, now have a wonderful new home.

                                                                                                                         

One of The "Nutshells" Death Scene Miniatures

One feature you won't see is the carefully planned and somewhat incredible mechanical plant that is needed to scrub water and air for the facility which is located in a rooftop penthouses above the facility.

Upblast Exhauster's That "Blast" Air From the Facility

I am so proud of our Virginia staff. They outdid themselves planning this amazing facility!

So next time you curl up with a "Kay Scarpetta" murder mystery or watch CSI, NCIS, or an episode of "Bones", remember Team Roadboy is working hard for you!

Roadboy's Travels © 2010

The "Best Rate Guarantee" Sham

It Is A Hoax

Rant Warning!

A few weeks back I was surfing for a good room rate for a business meeting in Los Angeles. I came across an amazing rate at the downtown Sheraton hotel using Kayak. The rate was much better than the rate Starwood was quoting on their website, so I clicked the best rate guarantee and made a claim.

All the major hotel chains say that they protect anyone booking on their websites from missing out on a better rate somewhere else. They all say if you book on their websites and then within so many hours find a better rate, they will will verify the rate and honor the lower rate plus give you something in the way of a gift certificate or something to reward you for your loyalty. To have a valid claim the rate you find must be transparent (i.e. it cannot be a through Hotwire or Priceline - where the name of the hotel is disclosed only after your purchase is made), and it must be available to anyone (i.e. it can't require a special membership at AAA or Costco for example).

The guarantee sounds good.

It isn't.

The catch is two-fold, first you must book your room at the chains site (at the higher rate). This allows you to initiate your claim. Second, the chain must verify that they can "match" the rate when they (finally) get around to checking. Of course if the lower rate has evaporated - you are stuck with the higher room rate.

So even though I copied proof of the lower rate as a pdf and forwarded it with my claim, 48 hours later when Starwood "verified" the rate, it was (of course) gone.

Claim Denied! I'm stuck with the higher rate.

So I cancelled my Starwood reservation and booked a new reservation using Hotwire. Actually, Hotwire came through again netting me an even better rate at a better hotel (the Westin.)

Today it happened again, but this time it was with Hilton. The Anaheim Hilton advertised its lowest pre-paid rate at $89 per nght (which is in itself a good rate), but the same room was $73.84 using easyclicktravel.com.

Hilton requires that a claim be filed either on-line or by phone with a representative. I thought well since last time I did it online and got burned, this time I'd try a real live human being. 

I then spent 25 minutes on the phone with a very nice reservationist at Hilton's call center in Dallas. He was baffled how to process the claim, but with the help of his supervisor we muddled through.

Again I had to make a reservation with Hilton (which I did - at a higher refundable rate), then the call taker verified the lower rate on-line and commented "Wow! That is good rate!". I figured since the Hilton staffer saw the proof, it would be readily verified. 

No so!

I was organizing the trip for a large group, so in the meantime I notified the other travelers to book rooms at easyclick while I waited for Hilton to verify my claim. Luckily they all went ahead and booked at the bargain rate.

About midnight I got an e-mail from one LaTeasa Brumfeld telling me that (despite me having someone at Hilton verify my "great rate"), now 10 hours later, since she could not match the rate with easyclicktravel.com, my claim was being rejected. So once again my efforts were rewarded with the chain offering me nothing but the higher room rate.

Of course when I went back, the rate at easyclicktravel.com had indeed jumped to the $89.

So I am two for two. And what exactly has Roadboy learned?

When you see a good rate, pounce! Don't bother telling the hotel chains anything! The "Best Rate Guarantee" is merely the sham (tool) the hotel chains use to have us road warrier's rat out deep discounters and police the net for them.

Roadboy's Travels © 2010