Empty Voices

When visiting Phoenix, you may be asking yourself where you can take the kids to play and play and not be bored; especially if you’re visiting during the extremely hot summer months. The Arizona Science Center is a perfect solution. Located in downtown Phoenix at 600 E. Washington Street, the Science Center is an air-conditioned fun-filled environment.

Parents will have just as much fun as their children, and there’s always something new along with the old favorites if you’ve been to the center before. The Arizona Science Center museum features futuristic architecture by Antoine Predock that to turns learning into fun. Exhibits like ‘All About Me’ and ‘Fab Lab’ are interactive and are cleverly designed to not only entertain, but educate. The Dorrance Planetarium will let the entire family experience the night sky. The Irene P. Flinn Theater will let you experience a film on a 5-story high screen.

There’s enough to do to keep the children entertained for a whole afternoon such as the latest exhibit ‘ Goose Bumps! The Science of Fear’, which will make you face a tarantula, experience free fall, and then learn about the science behind the fear in this fun and educational exhibition. The ‘Forces of Nature’ exhibit is all about learning everything from the movement of the tectonic plates to the power of wind and sand erosion. If you’re children have high energy, they’ll really love the ‘Rock Wall’ where they can get a grip on science as they climb a 15 foot wall.

You’ll especially like the fact that the Science Center is located within walking distance to the best Phoenix hotels in the downtown area; that’s if you’re little ones have any energy left to walk.

For all of the reasons to come to Seattle, the fresh meat is usually low on the list. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of carnivores in town, and the restaurants are as world-class as a dining establishment can get. But the salt of the earth reputation of the Seattle population, which sometimes leads into a bit of a granola stereotype, is usually the inspiration behind young people looking at Seattle hotel rates for a great vacation in a pretty hip city.

However, out of the ashes of the mountain that is so rarely seen, there comes a new idea called Burning Beast . It happens at Smoke Farm , where 360 acres of farmland seem like the perfect place to do something interesting.

Inspired by Burning Man, the event is a gathering where people come together to meet each other, and share food. They share a lot of food, too, because the center of the event are challenges to cook a variety of animals. The chefs, some of them at the top of their restaurant careers, have to cook using simple materials, and simple ovens of wood, metal, and stone. It could be a meat-eaters delight, but it also has the Seattle stamp of approval, because the thrust of the event is to educate people about sustainable cooking and eating practices.

Anyone who’s spent a little time in Boston, taking in the rich cultural scene that characterizes the city today, may have seen some rather fetching masks in some of the live performance work. There are many local and national theater companies who pick up works from a company called Behind the Mask . It’s been featured in Opera and Dance works, as well as at the Cambridge River Fest. Some of the more detailed works have been displayed in places as illustrious as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Children’s Museum , and the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum .

These are works by a local mask maker named Eric Bornstein . He’s well-studied, having earned a master’s from Harvard in art history, and has been making masks since 1982. His innovative work is one of the things that inspires travelers to look into the hotel rates Boston offers, because it’s artists like this that make it such an interesting town.

His work is exceptionally illustrative of a local aesthetic, if there can be said to be such a thing, by tying the very personal to the international. Drawing on his own experience, and coupling that with training from mask centers of the world in Bali and Italy, the work becomes a reflection of many worlds, and all of them live simultaneously in this one city.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Taliesin West’ home is in Scottsdale, Arizona, located at 12621 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd. ‘Taliesin West’ was built in the late 1930s and consists of a cluster of buildings, which are now a National Historic Landmark.

Taliesin was patterned after the feeling and flow of the desert surroundings and became Frank Lloyd Wright’s favorite building and his winter home. He used the building of Taliesin as a school for his architecture students; they learned by doing, which was FLW’s teaching style . Wright’s former office, including a Cabaret Theater and the Pavilion Theater are the highlights of the tour.

The tours are offered every day and last about an hour for the Panorama version. Taliesin is easy to get to from any of the five star hotels Scottsdale offers. There are longer tours that are jammed packed with great information and can last up to 90 minutes. You’ll learn how FLW bought the land with a down-payment from his ‘Falling Water’ house and how he had his students build it, and pay him for the experience! All the students received new experiences at Taliesin, learned new building techniques, new lighting and new acoustics. You’ll also learn how the students suffered in the harsh climate of the desert and how that affected some parts of the complex.

The tour of Taliesin will show you what materials were replaced and show you renovation plans that will be extremely costly. You’ll see an original lay-out and get to know how to connect the different buildings and their functionality. You’ll leave very inspired and in awe of just how innovative Frank Lloyd Wright was and how his techniques still influence many structures today.

Laredo Texas is a booming border town where the main industry is trading and shipping goods between Mexico and the United States. The first town of Laredo was founded in 1755 by Don Tomas Sanchez when it was still a colony of New Spain. In the first hundred years that area with stood many wars for its control. It was the capitol of the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840. Then it became a host town for the Texas Rangers during the Mexican-American War in 1846. The U.S. military set up Fort McIntosh to help manage the area in 1847. This town is one of the largest border crossing areas between the U.S.A. and Mexico.  

There are a few historical sites to see that are markers of these historical events. The old Diocese of Laredo called San Agustin Plaza and Church and the old Republic of Rio Grande building which is now a museum where visitors can learn more details, see photos and artifacts about the development of the town. This is also the place to catch some tours of the city. They have some walking tours and trolley tours that will take people around town and talk about the notable events and places this old historical town has.  

The city has created a wonderful historical neighborhood call the Villa Antigua where the locals and visitors can be educated on the local history and entertained with a hub of shops and restaurants. This is were one can catch a show at the Plaza Theatre . Speaking of theatre’s, you may like a more live entertainment experience and you can see what the local talent is up to at the Laredo Little Theatre.  

Get out and enjoy the local history of this old border town. You can find out more information from any of the hotels laredo has through out the city. There are plenty of places to hang out with the locals and enjoy a cocktail. Lots of wonderful restaurants to have a great meal.