Slideshow: Seattle's Space Needle

Museum of History & Industry

Originally built for the 1962 World's Fair, the now iconic Space Needle marks its 50th anniversary on April 21, 2012.

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A popular way for visitors to get an overview of a city is from the observation deck of an iconic structure such as New York’s Empire State Building, Chicago’s Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) or Seattle’s Space Needle, which joins the Seattle World’s Fair in celebrating its 50^th anniversary on April 21.

Created as the centerpiece of the 1962 space-themed exposition, the 605-foot-tall Space Needle has been described as looking like “a UFO on stilts” and was for many years the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Today, the still futuristic-looking Needle is an iconic landmark in the Emerald City, its most visited attraction and home to one of the few remaining rotating restaurants in the world.

To learn more about the Space Needle – and some of its secrets – we spoke with Seattle writer Knute Berger, who attended the World’s Fair when he was 8 years old and is the author of a new book titled "Space Needle: The Spirit of Seattle."

Q: Landmark buildings in many cities are straight-ahead tall towers. How did Seattle’s most famous structure end up looking as if a UFO just landed?

A: Architect John Graham Jr. wanted a top that looked like a flying saucer and exhorted his staff designers to make the top "more disc-y." It made sense because it was a Space Age form; the flying saucer phenomenon got its start with a sighting at [Washington State’s] Mt. Rainier in 1947, and that mountain is the biggest landmark you can see from the Needle. Plus, a saucer-shaped restaurant made sense for one that rotates.

Q: We understand you wrote your book about the Space Needle during a six-month stint working at the Needle. Why did you do that?   

A: The Space Needle commissioned me to write their history for the 50th anniversary. They named me writer-in-residence at the Space Needle and gave me a desk on the Observation Deck. I would conduct interviews over lunch in SkyCity [the Needle’s rotating restaurant], then go upstairs and write, blog and talk with visitors. I met people from all over the world and sometimes ran into people with great stories, like police officer Roy Skagen who was on Elvis' security detail during the filming of "It Happened at the World's Fair" [filmed on-site during the Seattle World’s Fair]. He used to toss a football with Elvis during breaks in the filming.

Q: What are some secrets and cool facts you learned about the Space Needle?

A:  The Needle was essentially built in a year. U.S. Steel called it the "400-day wonder."

The motor that turns the restaurant is only one horsepower. It runs clockwise, but it can also run in reverse.

A group of UFO buffs, called The Skywatchers, used to meet on the Needle every night looking for flying saucers.

Related video: Hot spot destinations in the Pacific Northwest

Q: We’ve learned that 1.3 million people visit the Space Needle’s observation deck each year. Do you have some insider tips on getting the most out of a trip up there?   

A: If you want to join the crowds, go in the summer when the cruise ships are in town. It feels like a fair up there. If you want the place to yourself, maybe go first thing on a weekday morning when the weather is a bit gray.

Courtesy of Space Needle LLC

The motor that turns the SkyCity restaurant atop the Space Needle is only one horsepower. It runs clockwise, but it can also run in reverse.

Make sure to get out on the deck and walk all the way around; it's a spectacular view in all directions. You can see three national parks from up there [Olympic, Rainier and North Cascades]. On a few super, super clear days a year, you can see the cone of Mt. St. Helens. But contrary to some reports, you cannot see Canada.

Q: That glass elevator – and the elevator ride up the legs of the Space Needle – seems a bit scary. Any insider tips on that ride?

A: If you're scared of heights, move to the back of the elevator. There are no windows and the crowd will block the view. If you love a fun ride, turn immediately right or left when you enter and stand by the windows. You'll get a great view of the rapid rise and parts of the structure zooming by. [During the fair] N.Y. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller described the trip down as like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. But it's tamer than that.

Q: In addition to the Observation Deck, there’s that rotating restaurant on top of the Space Needle. Any menu tips you can share?

A: I ate up there once or twice a week during my residency, and my favorite was the huge Shrimp and Crab Louie. And I always recommend the local soup of the day. I had a nettle soup that was out of this world. The special dessert is the Lunar Obiter: basically a sundae served with dry ice that is a huge crowd-pleaser with kids.

Q: Anything else visitors should know about the Space Needle as it celebrates its 50th anniversary?

A: The Needle has lived most of its life since the fair and is a local totem, a place of great meaning to people, a site of weddings, anniversaries, deaths, births, world firsts and celebrity visits. It has symbolized everything from yuppie Seattle [on TV’s "Frasier"] to a super-villain's headquarters [Dr. Evil's pad in "Austin Powers"]. It's been a magnet for magic moments and you feel some of that energy and buzz when you visit. I was surprised that, as someone who was Seattle born and raised, I always saw something new up there every time. The scenery, the weather and light, the dynamic city -- it's never the same view.

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© Merlin D. Tuttle / Bat Conservation International

Bats emerge from the Bracken Bat Cave in New Braunfels, Texas.

The public will finally get to see a natural, nightly show that’s totally batty.

Bracken Cave, the Texas home of the world’s largest bat colony, is open for public tours for the very first time.

From April through October, millions of Mexican free-tailed bats move into the cave, which sits on 697 acres of protected land near New Braunfels, Texas. The summer gathering creates one of the largest concentrations of mammals on earth.

“We haven’t actually counted them all, but estimates are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million bats,” said Fran Hutchins, Bracken Bat Cave coordinator for Bat Conservation International (BCI), which owns the property.

Since 1992, only BCI members have been allowed to witness the nightly tornado of hungry bats emerging from a sinkhole at the mouth of the cave. But this summer BCI has joined up with a neighboring attraction, Natural Bridge Caverns, to offer public tours to the cave.

“It’s a spectacular sight. The bats form a vortex dense enough to show up on airport radar,” said Hutchins. “They fly in a 60-mile radius in search of food and in one night will eat hundreds of tons of insects, which makes the farmers around here very happy.”

Tours, which last three to four hours, begin with an orientation at Natural Bridge Caverns. Visitors then form a convoy and drive down a gravel road on BCI property to the cave.

“It’s a remote site that has been kept purposefully natural,” said Travis Wuest, whose family has owned Natural Bridge Caverns for three generations. “We tell people to bring binoculars because there’s a whole ecosystem of other animals, including falcons, hawks, raptors and owls, that come out to try and eat the bats.”

The Bracken Bat Flight tours are scheduled several times a week, through October. Reservations are required, as tours are limited to 60 people per night. Cost: $24.99 (adult or child), with a portion of the proceeds supporting conservation of the Bracken site. (Combination tickets with Natural Bridge Caverns are also available.)

Hutchins said bat fans should also be sure to visit Austin, about an hour away. “Bracken Cave is home to the largest bat colony in the world, but Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in the world.”

Austin’s 1.5 million bats make their summer home underneath a downtown bridge. Each night hundreds of bat-watchers gather by the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, along the river banks of Lady Bird Lake, to watch the city bats head out for their evening meal of moths, mosquitoes and pests.

Austin celebrates its bats with a free annual Bat Fest, which this year will take place on Saturday, Aug. 25.

Find more by Harriet Baskas on Stuck at The Airport.com and follow her on Twitter.  

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Courtesy SpaWeek

During Spa Week, held April 16 to 22, many spas in the U.S. and Canada will offer full-service treatments for $50.

Taxpayers have until Tuesday, April 17, to file their 2011 returns. But frazzled, budget-minded number-crunchers — and their clients — seeking a little ‘me’ time can begin taking advantage of money-saving spa treatments on Monday.

During Spa Week, held April 16 to 22, hundreds of spas, yoga and Pilates studios, fitness centers and other health and wellness locations in the U.S. and Canada will offer up to three full-service spa treatments for $50. Many spas located at hotel and resorts are also offering these specials. 

“April is a stressful time of year and Spa Week affords vacationing consumers the opportunity to experience some much needed relaxation in top ranked spas without shelling out hundreds of dollars,” said Spa Week spokesperson Dina Sanchez.

Of the 30 Red Door Spas participating in Spa Week, six are located at hotels and resorts, including Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City, the Westin LaPaloma Resort in Tucson and the Willard Intercontinental Washington D.C. The trio of $50 treatments is the same at each: a 50-minute stress-melter body treatment, a facial or a magnolia pedicure.

Seven of the 12 participating Exhale locations are in hotels or resorts, including the Hotel Palomar in Dallas, the Gansevoort Park Avenue in New York City and the Fairmont Miramar Hotel + Bungalows in Santa Monica, Calif. At most branches, guests can choose a facial peel, a five-pack of mind/body classes or a special manicure/pedicure package for their Spa Week $50 treatment.

At the Elle Spa at the Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach, the Spa Week treatment choices include a shampoo, cut and blow-dry or a 50-minute manicure/pedicure. And, at the Mokara Spa at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, Colo., the $50 Spa Week treatment options include a 50-minute massage, a 50-minute mango ginger sugar scrub or a 50-minute facial with a nutrient-rich mask.

“If you’re booking a stay at the hotel, you can often get discounts on spa services,” said Kelly Richert, Mokara Spa director, “but the $50 Spa Week treatments are definitely a great deal. The Swedish massage and the sugar scrub treatment we’re offering are usually $100 services and the facial is usually $115.”

And don’t get too stressed out if you miss Spa Week this time around. Spa Week has been a biannual event since 2005. So if your accountant says you can’t afford a $50 spa treatment this time around, save your pennies for fall.

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

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Carl Fowler / Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

A new Grateful Dead exhibit opening April 12 at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, features Jerry Garcia's Travis Bean TB5 guitar.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, has lined up a festival’s worth of special events in anticipation of the April 14 ceremony welcoming the 2012 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Carl Fowler / Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

"Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip" includes Mickey Hart's custom-painted drum kit.

Headlining the list is the April 12 opening of a major exhibit filled with treasures relating to the Grateful Dead, an iconic American rock band that formed in the 1960s and was known for its eclectic music, live performances and dedicated followers, known as “Deadheads.”

“In a 30-year career, this group wrote their own rules and created a community unlike any band before or since,” said Jim Henke, vice president of Exhibits and Curatorial Affairs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. “Their role in American history and culture is deep, complex, and seminal,” said Nicholas Meriwether, the Grateful Dead Archivist at UC Santa Cruz.

"Grateful Dead: The Long, Strange Trip" includes more than 100 Dead-related artifacts ranging from band instruments and original artwork to song manuscripts, clothing, fan art, rare newsletters and other objects collected by band members, associates and friends. Many of the items are on loan from the Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California-Santa Cruz and have never been seen before.

Among the highlights: the band’s hotline answering machine, five guitars that belonged to guitarist and band co-founder Jerry Garcia (including his Travis Bean TB5), Mickey Hart’s custom-painted drum kit, the original lyric manuscripts for “Truckin’,” “Box of Rain” and “Sugaree,” and the tie-dyed, marijuana-leaf adorned “Father Time” robe concert promoter Bill Graham wore at many of the band’s New Year’s Eve concerts. Several original Grateful Dead-related artworks are also on display. 

Some Grateful Dead artifacts in the exhibit are part of the museum’s permanent collection, but curatorial director Howard Kramer said a major exhibition about the band has been on the drawing boards since before the museum opened, in 1995. “Back then the band didn’t want to be the sole focus an exhibit,” Kramer told msnbc.com. “And when we opened, it was a month after Jerry Garcia died. So the timing wasn’t right. Now enough time has passed to allow this to happen.”

Unlike many other Rock Hall exhibits which follow a band’s timeline, the Grateful Dead exhibit is based on themes. “Our exhibit on The Clash was broken down by each album they put out, but The Dead cannot be defined by albums,” said Kramer. “That wasn’t their milieu. Concerts were. So we take a non-linear view and look at elements that were constants within the band history,” with sections on the Grateful Dead as a recording group and a touring band, their fans, tapers and fellow travelers.

"Grateful Dead: The Long Strange Trip," which runs through December 2012, includes many videos and listening stations. “Unlike the band, this exhibit will not travel. This is the only venue,” said Kramer. “So we hope Grateful Dead fans, notorious for their willingness to follow the band on the road, will make the trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland to experience the band in a different way.”

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatThe Airport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

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Courtesy Spa at Trump SoHo

The Spa at Trump SoHo features Turkish décor, spacious treatment rooms and in this instance, bubbles.

If you’ve been plugging away on your taxes and feeling stressed out and cash-strapped, Wellness Week 2012 may offer a getaway reward you can afford. 

From March 19-25, hundreds of spas, yoga studios, gyms and other wellness businesses around the country will be offering massages, facials, yoga and Pilates classes, and nutrition counseling, fitness assessment and other wellness services for half price or just $50.

Organized by SpaFinder.com, which has posted the week’s free events and deals (searchable by zip code) on its website, Wellness Week offers cost-conscious travelers a chance to add a discounted spa treatment to a weekend getaway or an excuse to turn an afternoon off into a blissed out — we have to say it — staycation. 

“It’s a great opportunity for travelers to experience the nation’s best destination spas and resorts at a deep discount, whether it’s a weekend getaway or an afternoon escape to a hotel spa in your city,” said Sallie Fraenkel, spokesperson for SpaFinder.com.

During Wellness Week, the Salish Lodge & Spa, which overlooks Snoqualmie Falls and is just a half-hour from Seattle, is offering its Honey & Oatmeal Body Scrub for half off the regular $115 price.

“With the economy the way it is, we know everyone is looking for extra value for their money,” said Melanie Silver, director of rooms and spa at Salish Lodge & Spa. The lodge recently added bees and beehives to the property, “so we decided to offer a discount on a new service that pampers people in an unusual way: with honey straight from our hives,” said Silver, who hopes the sweet deal nets some return customers. 

In New York City, the Wellness Week deals at the Spa at Trump Soho, include an organic spray tan for $47.50 and a 45-minute Moroccan mint tea-Vichy body polish treatment for $80, each 50 percent off.  Lapis, the Spa at Fontainebleau in Miami Beach is offering a facial, soak, express pedicure and a day spa pass for $99 (regular price: $198) and, for something a little different, Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. Health Center & Spa in Virginia Beach, Va., is discounting a colon hydrotherapy session to $50, down from $80. 

Some room packages are also on the Wellness Week menu. For example, Deerfield Spa, in East Stroudsburg, Pa., is offering a Stay Package for $137.50 (down from $275) that includes half-off a massage sampler.

While the more than 700 Wellness Week specials listed on the SpaFinder website are certainly good deals, keep in mind that many hotels and resorts with on-site spas will offer complimentary treatment and discounts on services as part of room packages year-round.

“Wellness Week is great for deals at many day spas, where facials and massages can be 50 percent off,” said Stephanie Durst, a spa specialist with Protravel International in Syosset, N.Y. “But keep in mind that, year-round, many destination resorts offer promotions that not only include many spa treatments, but free nights and discounts for your friends as well.”  

Find more by Harriet Baskas on Stuck at The Airport.com and follow her on Twitter. 

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Courtesy of the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum

Suffragists Alice Paul, Alva Belmont (seated) and members of the National Woman's Party gathered around Susan B. Anthony's desk, circa 1922.

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate women's economic, political and social achievements — and take stock of the work for women’s equality still to be done.

The celebration continues beyond today as March is Women’s History Month, and a great time to visit one of these sites marking important milestones in women’s history.

Slideshow: International Women's Day

Seneca Falls, N.Y.: Women’s Rights National Historic Park
Maintained by the National Park Service, the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y., commemorates the struggle to gain equal rights for women and pays tribute to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women who organized and held the first Women’s Rights Convention at the town’s small Wesleyan Chapel on July 19 and 20, 1848.

In addition to an exhibit-filled visitor center, park activities include a self-guided audio tour, ranger programs and guided tours of historical properties around town, including the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Home and the Wesleyan Chapel.

“It’s one of my favorite spots,” said Karen O'Connor, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and founder of the school’s Women & Politics Institute. “It’s the founding home of the modern American women’s movement and you are actually walking in the footsteps of the women who set out a system of demands for women’s equality.”

Rochester, N.Y.: The Susan B. Anthony House
Although she died in 1906, 14 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, Susan B. Anthony is best remembered as an American civil rights activist who campaigned tirelessly for women’s suffrage, giving speeches and inspiring followers with the still-much-quoted mantra: “Failure is Impossible.”

The Rochester, N.Y. house that once served as the campaign headquarters for the National Woman Suffrage Association and as Anthony’s home for 40 years is now a National Historic Landmark filled with items related to her life, including the doctor-bag-style alligator purse that became her trademark. 

Washington, D.C.: Sewall-Belmont House
Located on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum became the home of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) in 1929 and for more than 60 years served as the strategic base from which to lobby for women’s political, social and economic equality.

“Today many of the important artifacts that contributed to the success of women getting the right to vote are there,” said O’Connor. “Look for suffrage banners, a desk that once belonged to Susan B. Anthony and the information-filled 3x5 cards early activists took with them when they visited house members and senators to lobby for suffrage.”  

Richmond, Calif.: Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park
Established in 2000 and still somewhat of a work in progress (a visitor center will open late May 2012), the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park preserves and shares stories of the country’s home front response to World War II.

Eighteen million women worked in defense industries and in war-time support services and the many “Rosies” who toiled in the nation’s shipyards are honored at the Rosie the Riveter Memorial, a sculpture that is both inspired by and, at about 450 feet long, as long as one of the Victory ships the women built.

In addition to free ranger tours and a downloadable, self-guided auto tour (PDF), visitors to the park can tour the SS Red Oak Victory, a ship that was built in Richmond shipyards.

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Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen attend the "Portlandia" season 2 premiere screening at the American Museum of Natural History on Jan. 5, 2012, in New York City. The pair is planning a satirical Portland guidebook based on the television series.

In their IFC cult-comedy show, "Portlandia," Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen have been giving fans an unofficial tour of the ultra hip neighborhoods and cafes in Portland, Ore.

Now the team that inserted “Put a bird on it” into hipster lexicon is applying its quirky eye to a Portland travel guide. 

“It was a no brainer,” said Ben Greenberg, the executive editor of Grand Central Publishing, the Hachette imprint that will publish “PORTLANDIA: A Guide for Visitors” in November 2012.

Like "Portlandia" itself, the book will present an offbeat and fractured view of the city. But buyer beware: Although the book will look like a traditional travel guide, it will be a satirical account of The City of Roses.

“It will be written like a Fodor’s or Lonely Planet guidebook,” said Greenberg. “But full of fake, made-up, humorous stuff that could easily exist in a place like Portland, but doesn’t. Everything will be a bit off.”

The "Portlandia" guide will go beyond the show and include maps, band fliers, bulletin boards, pictures and other features. “Carrie and Fred have done such a good job of establishing the look and the ground rules of a fictional world that has its own internal logic and rules to the way it functions,” said Greenberg. “It will be easy to piggyback on that.”

Related: A unique friendship flourishes in 'Portlandia'

Even fans of the show admit the portrayal of Portland is hit and miss, but “there’s a germ of truth in each vignette,” said Laura Guimond, spokesperson for Travel Portland. “And when taken to the nth degree, our traits can tend toward the absurd. We laugh at ourselves, and go along for the ride."

For those interested in visiting the real areas of Portland that inspire the "Portlandia," Guimond recommends "The Zinester’s Guide to Portland," the Jupiter Hotel’s Keep Portland Weird package and the That’s So Portland PDX Pedicab tour.

And one blogger has compiled a list of all the filming locations for the show's first season.

Carye Bye, an artist and author of "Hidden Portland," a real guide to small museums in town, said she is looking forward to the "Portlandia" guidebook. “My boyfriend and I are still making jokes based on the show's ‘No You Go’ skit where no one will move at an intersection,” said Bye. “The guide should be fun. And why not take advantage of Portland's 15 minutes of fame?”

Slideshow: Great Northwest

Steve Terrill / Corbis

Rain forests, waterfalls, riverfronts and gardens are just a few elements that make Portland, Ore., a stunning place to visit.

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Courtesy LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau

The Bradbury Building, at 304 S. Broadway in Los Angeles, was showcased in "The Artist."

“The Artist,” a silent film about the silent-film era, has been nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture, best actor and best director, and tells the story of fading silent film star George Valentin (played by Jean Dujardin) and chorus girl Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), an unlikely pair whose paths cross repeatedly as their careers take very different turns. 

Set in the Los Angeles of the 1920s, the film was shot in the Los Angeles of today, using many familiar and iconic locations, including the former home of America’s silent movie sweetheart, Mary Pickford, as backdrops.

Fans of “The Artist” visiting Los Angeles may want to visit some locales seen in the film, but few of those spots are regular stops on the popular Hollywood bus tours.

That’s why LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau put together an annotated list of locations featured in the movie that visitors may use for a free, self-guided tour.  

“There are many places in Los Angeles that are filmed all the time for movies,” said LA INC. spokesperson Beth Brett. “This film gives us an opportunity to highlight some special LA locations that are little known.”

For one of the most visually striking and symbolic scenes in the movie, George and Peppy are shown passing each other on an ornate stairway in the fictional Kinograph Studios. The stairway is in the Bradbury Building at 304 S. Broadway, Los Angeles.

Two homes in the Hancock Park neighborhood have roles in “The Artist.” 104 Fremont Place is used as the heyday home of George Valentine, while 56 Fremont Place, the former home of America’s (real) silent movie sweetheart, Mary Pickford, stands in for the mansion Peppy Miller lives in.

An art deco haberdashery that is now the upscale Cicada Restaurant (617 S. Olive Street, Los Angeles) in the historic Oviatt Building plays the role of the restaurant where George and Peppy dine, separately, on the eve of their movie premieres. According to LA INC., this was also used for the restaurant where Julia Roberts dined with Richard Gere in the film “Pretty Woman.”

Other Los Angeles locations on the tour include:

• The Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S. Broadway: Built in 1931 in the baroque-style, this theater played host to the premiere of “City Lights” starring Charlie Chaplin.  In “The Artist,” the theater is where George premieres his last silent film “Tears of Love,” which he produced and financed with the last of his money. 
• American Film Institute, 2021 N. Western Avenue: The exterior of the AFI campus near Griffith Park is used as the hospital where George is taken after he purposely starts a fire inside his barren apartment. Peppy is seen racing to the front of the hospital to be by George’s side.
• Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4401 W. 8^th Street:  This classic 1927 building is used both as the interior of the hospital where George is treated after being rescued from a house fire and as the place where his belongings are auctioned off to the highest bidder.   
• Hancock Park, Oakwood Avenue between Beverly and Melrose avenues; Hudson Avenue from 3^rd Street to Beverly Avenue: Hancock Park is the setting for many of the film’s exterior shots. George’s Jack Russell terrier, played by Golden Collar winner Uggie, runs down Oakwood Avenue in an effort to alert a beat police officer that George’s apartment is on fire.  In another scene Peppy speeds down Hudson Avenue to see George. 

“With this self-guided tour,” said Brett, “visitors can look at some amazing locations in an iconic city through a film that has already become iconic in its own right.”

Slideshow: City of Angels

David Livingston / Getty Images

Visitors to La-La Land will find beaches, culture, history and much more.

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