Starling Travel

Re-Imagineering is a weblog written by Pixar employees about what is wrong with the current Disneyland and how to fix it. Most of the time they are right on the mark, but this entry is completely WRONG in all capital letters this time.

• Re-Imagineering: Elemental Losses: Earth

Their entry argues that because the parking lot of old Disney was so drab and boring it was a stark contrast to the magical world of Disneyland. That might have been true. Maybe even back when they built California Adventure, the parking lot WAS better than the new addition, but now, they are WRONG.

We visited Disneyland this year and I was truly impressed with the parking situation. The moment our car got on Disney property, I felt like we were already in the Magic Kingdom. Friendly employees directed our car to the structure and then within the structure, they even directed us to a parking spot. It went so easily and we weren’t driving around and around looking for a place to park our car like we did at Universal Studios.

It was so easy to remember where our car was because we were on the Goofy floor. Even the kids remembered where our car was parked, “Goofy!” Each of the floors were assigned a Disney character, which is so much easier to remember than Floor 5.

When we went down to the trams, we could take an elevator or the bank of escalators. All the escalators went down, so it was very easy to get out of the parking garage and to the tram that quickly came to take us to the park.

When we returned, all the escalators were going up instead of down. I had no idea that they even made reversible escalators, but the Disney Imagineers planned long and hard on this parking structure to make it an easy experience for people who are tired and just want to go home.

I think the writers for Imagineering need to look at the current incarnation of Disneyland with new eyes. Look at it as if you never saw the Disneyland of 1958. Look at it as a parent of today and imagine trying to get three tired kids back to the car and out of the park. The parking structure is one of the things at Disneyland that WORKS. It works so well and so efficiently that people probably never even notice it.

Pictures Via Flicker:

• disneyland parking lot: about 1958 on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

• Parking structure on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Jeff Voris has a Flickr Slideshow of the pictures he took while he was at the county fair in Orange County, California. You can see it here:

• Orange County Fair 2006 Slideshow – by Jeff Voris

These are my two favorite photos:

Summer is the time for county and state fairs. If you need a break for the weekend, plan a trip to your county or state fair and enjoy all the weirdness that your local area has to offer.

Via: Boing Boing: Unusual photos taken at OC fair

It seems like the Sundance Film Festival just ended, but now you have a chance to book next year’s festival and save some money while you do it. You have until August 15th to get this deal so don’t delay.

• Sundance Resort –Utah Romantic Getaway Mountain Biking Art Workshops Author Series

If you are planning your trip to the Sundance Film Festival, check out Starling Travel’s entries on Park City and inexpensive places to enjoy yourself while you’re here:

• Starling Travel » Park City: Washington School Inn

• Starling Travel » Park City: Tanger Outlet Mall

• Starling Travel » Park City: Sundance Film Venues

• Starling Travel » Park City: Just Walking Is Fun

• Starling Travel » Good Karma Curries in Park City

• Starling Travel » The Slamdance Film Festival

• Starling Travel » Park City: Butcher’s Chop House

• Starling Travel » Sundance Film Festival: Stay in Sugarhouse

• Starling Travel » Park City: Jans Mountain Outfitters

• Starling Travel » Sundance Parties

Via: About.com – Sundance Film Festival 2007 is coming

A grand opening for a restaurant is usually a quiet affair. A few friends of the restaurant owners show up and they give tours of the kitchen. When Pawit opened his new restaurant, however, it was filled with people, eager to once again eat his delicious food. It was a raging success!

Pawit had been a partner at Thai Garden, but when the business arrangement went sour, he searched for a restaurant to call his own. When he left Thai Garden, the food quality dimished rapidly, so all his loyal customers have been waiting for months for his new restaurant to open up.

Pawit is a perfectionist in the best sense of the word. Not only does the kitchen need to be immaculately clean (take a tour and you’ll feel as if a doctor could perform surgery in his kitchen), but the rest of the restaurant needs to be beautiful. The grand opening of Pawit’s Royal Cuisine was nothing short of artwork.

He had a small staff the opening night and the restaurant was full, so our meal took a couple of hours to complete. We were happy to wait because it was the first time in months that we were able to eat his delicious Massaman Curry and Num Tok Salad. We sipped our Thai Iced Teas and enjoyed the appetizers.

When the food came, we weren’t disappointed. The curry was spicy and creamy. The Num Tok was a refreshing salad of beef and mint. The sticky rice was perfect. The mango and sweet sticky rice was moist and delicious. Once we asked Pawit how he found the best mangoes and he said, “I go all over the city looking for the best. I found these ones at Costco.” He was so proud of his find. Mike and I can never find fresh mangoes in the city, but Pawit keeps searching until he does.

When you come to Salt Lake City, Utah, you cannot leave until you’ve tried Pawit’s Royal Thai Cuisine. It’s the kind of restaurant that is a testament to Salt Lake City’s diversity.

Pawit’s Royal Thai Cuisine
1968 East Murray- Holladay Road, Salt Lake City, Utah 84117 Google Map
Phone: 801-277-39658

Hours:

Lunch: 11:30 am – 3:00 pm
Dinner: 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Friday and Saturday close at 10:00 pm
Closed Sunday

This quick little article from About.com gives a pretty good list for the best hamburgers in Salt Lake City.

• Best Places for Hamburgers in Salt Lake City

My personal favorite is Crown Burger. They have the best pastrami burgers in the area piled high with pastrami on top of ground beef patty. Add their onion rings with fry sauce and you have the greasiest meal in the city.

Enjoy!

Whenever I write an entry about an obscure place in Salt Lake City, I get email from people who are homesick for Utah. I can understand how they feel. Sometimes it feels like even the sunshine here is different than the places I’ve visited.

Whether you’re homesick for Utah or curious about what makes it so interesting, this new walking video is for you. You will enjoy a relaxing walk through the Sugarhouse shopping district, in Salt Lake City.

I created this video for Starling Fitness so you could watch it while walking on a treadmill or riding an exercise bike, but it is also a relaxing vacation in a DVD that you can pop into your player whenever you’re feeling trapped at home.

This video is a little less than three minutes, but it gives you an idea of what you will see.

You can see the route I walked here:

Total Mileage: 2.18 miles
Average Speed: 2.8 mph
Time: 47:00 Minutes

The DVD is shipped via U.S. mail.

To buy the Sugarhouse Walk video for $5.00 (including shipping and handling) click here:

Order Starling Fitness Walking Videos Here

I spent all of last week reminiscing about Lagoon, a Utah amusement park. The old photographs reminded me of how excited I was to go to Lagoon as a child. You can see the series here:

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 1 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 2 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 3 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 4 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 5 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 6 of 7)

• Pick Me! » Lagoon 1973 (Part 7 of 7)

It’s strange for me to go to Lagoon as an adult and not see the Lagoon of my past. In most respects, the park is far better than it was when I was a child, but my eyes still see the ghosts of the past. I think to myself, “The slides used to be here. The fun house used to be there.” I can’t walk along the pathways without remembering the Lagoon of my youth.

Today is Utah’s Pioneer Day. It’s also called Days of ’47. Really, us locals just call it July 24th. For me, it’s just an excuse to fly a Utah flag and set off some fireworks. Here are some resources if you would like to know more:

• About.com – Utah’s Pioneer Day

• Days of 47 Rodeo

• Events – 2006 — Days of 47

I spent so many summers in Billings, Montana instead of Salt Lake that Pioneer Day feels like a gratuitious holiday. I remember working at K-Mart and listening to the other checkers complaining that they had to work on July 24th. It seemed perfectly logical to me because K-Mart isn’t a Utah-based company. The idea that we would get paid for a local holiday never even crossed my 16-year old mind, yet all those checkers were eager to complain at the injustice.

Next time you’re planning a trip in July, you might want to consider bringing your family to Salt Lake City, Utah for July 24th. There are parades, fireworks, and women dressed up like Laura Ingalls. Afterward, you can take the kids to Lagoon, which is almost as good as Busch Gardens. Okay, the more I talk about this idea the worse it sounds to me. Let’s try again…

If you like setting things on fire, you should move to Salt Lake City, because we allow fireworks TWICE during the month of July. Of course, there’s always Wyoming…

Jonny Goldstein is from New York, but he traveled to Brunswick, Ohio and got his first taste of The Midwest Jello Pretzel Salad. He shared his experience with us.

Bonnie Nelson was nice enough to explain the details to him:

“It’s just your basic midwest doncha know yeah sure cookin’.”

“What makes this thing a hit is the salty with the sweet thing goin’ on.”

Jello is a popular dish here in Utah, but I have never seen this pretzel salad. I guess it hasn’t gotten over to the Mormons yet. It sure looks delicious, though.

Wil Wheaton played in the World Series of Poker and documented his trip to Vegas from Los Angeles.

• WWdN: In Exile: like a skillet full of oil spits rattling on the burner.

I love what he says about a drive to Las Vegas:

“As my friend Ryan observed last week, the drive from Los Angeles to Vegas is ‘the perfect length for a mini-roadtrip, long enough to feel you’re actually getting somewhere, short enough that nobody gets restless in the car.'”

A drive to Vegas from SLC is the same. It’s the perfect roadtrip distance.

If you have a craving for a roadtrip, read this story from Wil Wheaton. You’ll almost feel like you took the trip yourself.