Some Mesa Highlights

It’s hard to imagine how I could have done a worse job keeping up with my fancy “Place Blog” idea, but I would still like to share some of the highlights of my time in the Phoenix area. I’ve been in Mesa (just east of Phoenix) since January 5th and I will be leaving on the morning of March 27th. For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed this trip.

• I was able to find a furnished, one-bedroom apartment less than a block away from where I work. (I have a perfect view of the shuffleboard court.) It has been a much more comforting experience, having my own place as opposed to living out of an Extended Stay America. It feels nice to “come home” and not have to walk through the lobby.

• The weather here has been amazing. Nearly every day has been perfectly sunny with a high in the 70s and a low in the 50s. The clear sky lends itself to spectacular sunsets and an intense display of stars.

• Mesa, while not a small town in terms of population, has an unmistakably small-town feel. The people here are very friendly and the culture is very relaxed. Dressing up, for a lot of these folks, means putting on your black cowboy boots and tucking in your shirt.

• I’ve been adopted by the owners of a small downtown restaurant. The family-run Jersey Girl Café is my favorite, all-time lunch spot ever. Every single menu item is delicious (Yes, I’ve tried them all). But the food is not what keeps me coming back three or four times a week. I’ve become friends with the whole family, parents, grandparents and newborns alike. Some of my favorite memories of this trip will be of the late nights, long after the restaurant has closed, that I have been invited to stick around and eat and drink and tell stories and laugh with the whole family. I’ve even found myself helping around the restaurant a couple times. It’s been comforting.

• On my very short drive (or walk) to work every morning, I see Superstition Mountain looming large at the edge of town. Beyond it is the Tonto National Forest, which is nearly 3 million acres of total wilderness. Not only is it beautiful to see mountains every day (not something I am used to in Florida), but I am reminded constantly of all the hiking and exploring there is to do before I leave. There is a part of me that would love to ditch everything I know and spend years hiking through the wild alone. That part of me has been very excited here.
  

My biggest disappointment/ regret is not having shipped my motorcycle from Tampa to Mesa. It would have been pretty costly, but the perfect weather combined with the beautiful scenic roads winding through the desert mountains has attracted a large biker crowd to the area. You can’t step outside without seeing (and hearing) a group of bikers headed for the mountains to take advantage of the perfect weather and routes. Arizona has been great. Arizona on a motorcycle would have been even better.

Coping With Your Topophilia (Travel Tips Part 3)

MAPS
The absolute best way to begin understanding where you are is to understand the map of where you are. Understanding the layout of a location allows you to start making meaningful connections between meaningful locations. True understanding (of anything) requires a grasp of context, and, in terms of traveling, what happens between destinations is the context. It is one thing to visit a particular point of interest. It is an entirely different and more fulfilling thing to understand why this point of interest is where it is and why, if it were somewhere else, it would be an entirely different thing.

There are two easy ways to familiarize yourself with the map of a new place.

• Every time you get back from visiting something, trace out your route on the map. Seeing where you actually went will give you a sense of distance and direction.
• Just stare at the map for a while. Look for anything that stands out as abnormal and figure out what it is. So much information can be gathered this way If the city is laid out on a grid, figure out the logic of that grid. What are the individual neighborhoods within the city (historic, academic, ethnic)?
  

Let’s use Manhattan as an example.
(Refer to this map while reading the rest of the article)

New York City is laid out on a grid of 800 ft. x 200 ft. blocks. But, as you can see, there are breaks in the system. Many of these exceptions to the system mark the most famous sights in NYC.

• The long diagonal street running across the island is Broadway. Aside from being the location for the most famous stage performances in the world, Broadway is also one of the streets that runs through Times Square. You’ll notice also that Broadway creates these strange triangle shaped blocks by cutting through the normal grid. These triangular lots are the locations for many interesting buildings including the very famous Flatiron Building.
• The massive rectangle of space with winding roads towards the top of the map is Central Park.
• Towards the bottom of the island, the grid goes haywire. Appropriately, this where you will find Wall Street. There are a lot of other interesting districts in that area as well, like The Meat Packing District, home of the puzzling High-Line Rail Road as well as trendy art studios and night life.
• East of Central Park, there is column of blocks, running north & south, that are half-sized. Those blocks are the location of the world’s most famous buildings: The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center, Tiffany’s and the Waldorf Astoria, just to name a few. Those roads running north & south through that area are the equally famous 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, and Lexington Avenue.

So you see, if you were to visit Manhattan by only studying the map, and visiting places where the grid was broken, you would see the most famous parts of the city, just like everyone else. But you would have discovered them, and you would have done so with an understanding of context and direction. Your heightened sense of place will heighten your experience.

Coping With Your Topophilia (Travel Tips Part 2)

TRAVEL BOOKS
Buy a travel book. I have a very conflicted relationship with travel books, but I usually end up with at least one on the area I’m visiting. They can be interesting and useful, but they have so many downsides:

1.They start going out-of-date almost immediately after being printed.
2. They are generally expensive.
3. You usually only want about 1/4 of the information in them.

Nevertheless, things like self-guided walking tours, suggested day trips, museum listings, and restaurant price range listings can be be very helpful. In Houston, I actually bought lots of books that each had a section or two of information that I actually wanted. I made photocopies of those sections, and then returned the books for a full refund. It’s not a super classy thing to do, but it’s also not my fault that these books are only 1/4 appealing. Another option is buying these books on discount websites like half.com and amazon.com. I’ve found some $20+ travel books for less than a dollar on these sites.

In the midst of the overwhelming abundance of mediocre travel books, I have found one absolutely perfect travel guide. Unfortunately it has a very limited number of titles, but they have more in production. They are called PLACENOTES. Here is an excerpt from their website:

PLACENOTES is dedicated to the simple proposition that good places, whether they be ones we make, or ones that surround us naturally, are central to the quality of our lives, and the well-being of our communities. Everything that we do, in fact, is somehow connected to a place. Life Takes Place.

PLACENOTES is an attempt to lead people to and teach them about the qualities of good and enduring places - places that makes us feel rooted and connected, and places that we wish to preserve and care about.

It is a very intriguingly packaged set of cards, each dedicated to a location within the city that both contributes to and communicates that city’s Spirit of Place. The decision to print each “page” on an individual card allows you to take a few cards with you (and maybe slide them into your Moleskine journal pocket, if you are feeling trendy) as opposed to having to carry around a cumbersome travel book. The front of each card has photograph of the location. The back has pertinent information (descriptions, quotes from the architect, hours, address, phone numbers, websites, maps etc.) I really encourage you to check out the website. It’s very interesting. I found PLACENOTES while looking for a travel book for Houston. Fortunately, Houston is one of their nine titles in publication. Hopefully there will be many more in the future.

placenotes.com

Coping With Your Topophilia (Travel Tips Part 1)

I’m now on my second extended business trip. This time I’m in Mesa, Arizona. So far, I have learned a lot about living out of a hotel, and making the most of working alone in an unfamiliar city. If you have read my previous post, you know how poorly I handled the situation in Houston, on my first trip. I’m finally getting my act together, and I have begun to develop an all-around strategy for my first few days in a new place. Remember, my goal when traveling, (and when writing this blog) is to discover the spirit of a place, the Genius Loci. Spirit of place affects all of us, wherever we are, whether or not we are aware. It’s happening to you right now, where you are sitting. Your sense of place is evolving. My thought though, is that we should actively search for the Genius Loci, as opposed to being content letting it happen to us. Find it; don’t wait for it to find you. Life will be so much more fun and comfortable once you honestly start to figure out where you are.

Do some research.

There is so much information available that will give you a jump start on discovering your new city (or your familiar city that you never bothered to explore). Unfortunately, when it comes to this kind of information, the good stuff is generally found surrounded by a whole lot of useless crap. If you are willing to put forth just a little time to poke around through the crap, here are some good ideas.

• Search Wikipeida for the city where you will be staying. It’s a good place to get an overall description of where you will be. Some of the information will prove useful, and some of the trivia, interesting.

• Use Google to search for “events” and “things to do in (whatever city you are visiting).” Yes, the results that pop up will usually be on the cheesy, corporate travel websites, and many of us prefer the idea of finding “locals only” type businesses and “off the beaten path” activities. But nonetheless, these websites offer some good suggestions – enjoyable ways to ease yourself into the local culture of leisure. My current favorite is 10best.com. No doubt, some of it is crap, but if you read the descriptions, you can get a pretty good feel for the places you will actually enjoy. You’ll find those lesser-known destinations mostly by asking people, and, of course, by accident.

• Find the city’s official website. You will usually find a calendar of events and links to things like museums and performing arts venues. This is also where you will find out about local festivals and fairs. On the Mesa website, I found out that the Chicago Cubs have spring training in Mesa, and that I can get a ticket for less that $10 and that there is a huge beer tasting festival coming to town in the near future.

• Buy the local paper. There are usually a couple weekdays that include special sections announcing local events, concerts, and other entertainment. Look out for other independent, local publications too. Most of them are free and will clue you in on things you would probably never find out about otherwise.