travel

Maps Of City Skylines

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New York City Skyline Map
Map courtesy of Andy Woodruff

A few weeks ago, Eric Fischer put together a set of maps that attempted to compare the areas of a city that were most often photographed by locals versus the areas most often photographed by tourists. A look through the maps of 60 different cities shows concentrations of web-posted tourist pictures in museums, parks, historic sites, architectural marvels, etc. Other (more) interesting areas of the city are filled in by photographs from the locals.

Another cartography tool to add to your travel-photography-belt are Andy Woodruff’s maps depicting the best areas to photograph a city’s skyline (as defined by photos tagged “skyline” on Flickr). They were put together in a sort of heat map style where brighter red and yellow marks indicate a higher density of photos (and presumably a superior view of the skyline). His blog has maps of several cities, including Boston, Seattle, Vancouver, and Chicago, among others.

Unfortunately, neither Eric’s tourists maps nor Andy’s skyline maps contain locations in Denver.

2009: My Year In Cities & Towns

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Below is a list of cities and towns I’ve visited in 2009. I spent one or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Travel for me this year was about average. None of my traveling was for work last year, it was all for leisure and fun.

Frisco, CO
Vail, CO
Edwards, CO
Winter Park, CO
Avon, CO*
Saint-Berain-sur-Dheune, France
Paris, France
Brekenridge, CO
Niwot, CO*
Leadville, CO
Jacksonville, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Littleton, CO
Denver, CO*

2008: The Year In Cities & Towns

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Taking a cue from Jason Kottke, this is a list of cities and towns I’ve visited in 2008. One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Travel for me this year was probably slightly above average for my life. None of my traveling was for work last year, it was all for leisure and fun.

Vail, CO
Edwards, CO*
Denver, CO*
Niwot, CO*
Frisco, CO
Breckenridge, CO
Henryetta, OK
Tulsa, OK
Salt Lake City, UT
Philadelphia, PA
Napa Valley, CA
Santa Cruz, CA
Big Sur, Ca
San Luis Obispo, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Laguna, CA
La Jolia, CA
Jacksonville, FL

Brotherly Love

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I was really impressed with Philadelphia as a city. I only spent a long weekend there but I felt like I got to see most of the sights and get a real flavor of the city (though that flavor was slightly greasy [in a good way]). As soon as I stepped of the plane it was straight to Johnny Manana’s for their giant griddle of melted cheese. The queso was excellent, the margs were horrible. I then got settled into my friend’s house who were hosting me for the week, at a yummy home cooked meal and washed it all down with a few beers at the Dark Horse in the city. The Dark Horse is a Philadelphia style Irish pub with strong roots, located in a 2 story colonial rowhouse complete with dark wood, exposed brick, and one of the oldest working fireplaces in the city.

We kicked off our first full day in the City Of Brotherly Love with Philly cheese steaks of course.

One of the people I was staying with was a highschool history teacher, and a native Philly who’s in love with his city. He was the perfect tour for all of the historical sights we visited on Saturday. We spent the entire afternoon seeing all the historical sights. The liberty bell, Independence hall, First national bank, The oldest residential street in the US, the National Constitution Center, and a bunch more. I think I might have been a little bored if it weren’t for the interesting anecdotes and facts provided by our good friend/tour guide.

Over There

For dinner we went to the tasty but slightly overpriced White Dog Cafe. A restaurant known for there social activism as much as their food. The atmosphere was cool and a little fancy. It made for a great “nice night out”.

Sunday I slept in and had a leisurely breakfast then went to the Mütter Museum. This has to be one of the most interesting museums I’ve ever been to. It was filled with biological/anatomical oddities – conjoined twins, casts of heads suffering from acute, a 30 foot colon, the soap woman, the Chevalier Jackson collection of over 2,000 objects swallowed and removed from the trachea, celebrity body parts, encased longitudinal slices of the head showing the brain. It’s all enough to make you gasp and then get a little queasy. Muffled shouts of “My God, look at that BABY MONSTER!” are often heard and quite appropriate.

Then it was off to the impressive Philadelphia Museum Of Art. I must have spent nearly four hours exploring this place.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

On Monday we spent the morning hiking around the Wissahickon Creek. It’s so great that Philly has a such a large, heavily wooded park right next to the city.
Thomas Mill Road Covered Bridge
In fact, Philly was filled with parks and was one of the many things I found attractive about it. Anyway, our trip ended shortly after with a flight back to Denver that seemed to take forever.

SLC

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Alabaster

I recently returned from a little weekend vacation in Salt Lake City and have a few recommendations should you ever decide to visit.

  • Meet old friends. These old friends will be incredibly gracious to there guests and are generally just a ton of fun to be around. Spend the entire time with them.
  • Relax for the full length of your time there. Remember, you are on vacation.
  • Go get mole from the Red Iguana. Get many different types of mole. Eat until it hurts. Then drink margaritas.
  • Briefly tour downtown.
  • Go to the Japanese festival to feel like you are in some warped scene from SLC Punk.
  • Take your dog for a walk down in Parley’s Hollow/Tanner Park
  • Get a pitcher of bud light and a garlic Burger at Busy Bee Bar & Grill
  • Check out Cocker’s in the Sugerhouse district (I’m pretty sure it’s the only place in Salt Lake City you can buy a butt plug without having to purchase club membership).
  • Spend the afternoon, and evening, drinking away in The Bayou. Sample all sorts of framboise, ipa, tripel, and maker’s shots.
  • Visit the Tabernacle, preferably with an ex-mormon so you can get the secret about the LDS and tips to avoid the onslaught of missionaries.
  • Spend an entire afternoon watching kids play in the park.
  • Come home refreshed.

    • 2007: The Year In Cities & Towns

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    Taking a cue from Jason Kottke, this is a list of cities and towns I’ve visited in 2007. One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Travel for me this year was about average for my life. Most of it was for fun but there were a few work trips stuck in there too.

    Vail, CO
    Edwards, CO*
    Denver, CO*
    Boulder, CO*
    Ft. Worth, TX
    Snow Bird, UT
    Poipu, HI
    Honolulu, HI
    Manhattan, NY*
    Saucacus, NJ
    Jacksonville, FL
    Atlanta, GA

    Thanking New York: Days Three & Four

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    Day three was spent in apathy, on the couch, working (poor word choice) off the over indugances from the day before.

    We did manage to hit up the wonderful Borough. This restaurant is aiming its services at those interested the new locavore trend. All of the ingredients are locally grown and produced in New York City and used to create dishes inspired by the five boroughs. Green and delish.

    On Sunday we went and a homemade brunch and pleasant morning visiting friends and relatives we headed down to Columbus Park to play Soccer.

    We started that evening off at the Cub Room (which is nice but pretty unmentionable) for cocktails and then headed down the street for sushi at Blue Ribbon Sushi. From the time you walk up to the non descript restaurant front, to walking down into the little cubby hole entrance, to the impressive line of sushi chefs, you know you have stumbled upon something special. The sushi was outrageous in the best way possible. Lilly Allen eats there seven times a week. I had the pleasure of trying box style sushi (mackerel) and jellyfish sushi – two things that you can’t find in Denver (if you know otherwise, I’d love to find out about it). We finished the night off at with a couple of drinks at a bar I can’t remember the name of (too many Karin Ichiban) where we were entertaining enough for the bartender to buy us a round.

    The next day I flew back to Denver thankful to have experienced a culinary New York, but also just as thankful to be home.

    Thanking New York: Day Two

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    I had a slow leisurely morning on my second day in NYC. Taking time to enjoy my coffee, finish my book, and have a nice breakfast. Then I jumped headfirst into the chaos that is Times Square on Black Friday.

    P1030740

    I relieved my crowd-induced-anxiety by heading over to Madison Square Park where I enjoyed the, well-disputed-best-burger-in-New-York-City, at the Shake Shack. I was a little surprised they were actually open this late in the season.

    After that it was off to have a look at two of my favorite buildings in the city. The Flat Iron building
    And the American Radiator building.

    Afterwards I headed over to the Freemans. I wanted to check out this little secret gem hidden away in an ally of the LES. It was cool, but veering on too cool. I stayed for a couple of beers before heading to Lorely for a tall glass of German suds and the meeting of friends and family.

    Then it was off to our big dinner. For reasons I won’t get into we had a “break the bank” expense budget that had to be spent and it was my girlfriend’s parents 40th anniversary. We also had reservations at Perry St. This was a Jean-Georges Vongerichten (his blog) joint. He’s is probably one of the most famous chefs in NYC. And this was probably the best meal I ate all year (and probably in the top ten meals I’ve eaten ever). We went haywire in this place ordering several appetizers, all kinds of special cocktails, desserts, wines and entrees (grilled tenderloin of beef with herbal spinach and liquid gruyere for me). It was wonderful for everyone. The restrooms were out of toilet paper though. Not the type of thing you’d expect from a place like this.

    Afterwards we to Turks & Frogs which I believe was having a sewage problem. I have no idea why we stayed there so long but the experience was disappointingly if not for the company. We quickly scuttled over to The Otheroom. This place was great. The music was perfect all night, the atmosphere was fun, dim and cozy, the people were really cool, the women were hot and the men were gay (mostly). We stayed here till about three am.

    Our adventure home included three taxi rides, a car accident, the new jersey transit system, some tears, getting list in Secaucus, and a $60 cab fair. Ouch.

    Jacksonville, Funida

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    It has been nearly three weeks and I never wrote about my trip to Florida. Well, about three weeks ago I went to Florida. For a short week. To celebrate my mothers 60th birthday. This is the first time I had been out there since my mother moved there about a-year-and-a-half ago. It was a great trip that mostly involved tons and tons of beach time. Mostly large wave beach time that was perfect for body surfing and boogie boarding in. We had a great sushi dinner for my mom’s birthday. There was tons of drinking going on all weekend, and plenty of fun was had by all. More fun than I am aloud to talk about on this blog. Which also made things very interesting. Downers included the loss of my wallet and an unexpected overnight stay in a very dumpy hotel in Atlanta. But this is how I roll.

    BIG Candle

    Old Man And The Sea

    Beach

    Surfs Up

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