Lee Foster (fostertravel.com)

Travel Goes Green in 2008

Increasingly, a travel consumer will need to react to the concept of “green” when traveling in 2008.

Many travel entities will stress that they are “going green,” so a consumer will need to react in some way to that comment.  Is the comment true?  What does it mean?

As a travel journalist I am getting numerous press releases on green.

Many entities will claim they have an inherent “green” subject in their travel.   Cruising to watch humpback whales in Alaska, wolf watching in Yellowstone, and polar bear viewing in Manitoba will claim a territory as green subjects.  I enjoy reporting on these kinds of activities, as anyone looking over my website at www.fostertravel.com knows.

But “green” will mostly be associated with the process of travel and with saving energy and resources.

Here are five examples of recent “green” press releases.

-24 Orlando Hotels Have Received “Green” Certification.  This communication itemizes all the actions these hotels are taking, such as water conservation, linen reuse, programmable thermostats, and recycling.  A consumer will be asking,“How green is this hotel?"

-A PR Company announces that all its staff will travel with a full “carbon offset” in 2008.   They are estimating the tons of carbon emissions generated in staff travel and pursuing a partnership with an entity such as carbonfund.org to invest in renewable energy sources, planting trees, etc.  A consumer will need to learn more about what “carbon offset” means and determine whether he or she wants to support it, either directly with a donation or in the price paid for the travel choice.

-West Hollywood Going Green.  When I saw this press release, I was skeptical.  What are they doing?  However, one of their good ideas is that all their travel press materials will now be distributed on flash drives, those little drives you can plug into your usb port.  Flash drives are getting quite cheap. 

West Hollywood will not need to print and mail heavy materials.  When going green also means saving money, you can be assured that all travel entities will do the right thing.

-A Mekong Delta Tourism Guide touts how it will feature only “responsible” tourism.  Green will have a major cultural and sustainable element.  The claim here is that the activities listed minimize negative tourism impacts, create income for local people, and conserve natural and cultural heritage.

-Xanterra Set To Install Large Solar Energy System at Death Valley.  One of my favorite press release generators is a woman named Mona Mesereau, who sends info on what’s happening in Xanterra, a company that manages several large national parks in the west, such as Yellowstone and Death Valley.  Xanterrra will be installing what it claims is “the largest solar system in the U.S. tourism industry” in Death Valley.  Xanterra is a progressive company involved in many aspects of green, which I have seen closeup in their operation in Yellowstone.

As a travel journalist, a lot of press releases claiming “green” now come my way.  As a consumer, you too will be hearing many “green” claims.  Your judgment, and mine, will be required to sort through these claims, assess their validity, and determine how this will impact our travel choices.

Seasonal Travel Pleasures in Washington DC

I am in Washington DC for awhile carrying on my travel journalism in a wintry environment.

I am reminded of how some of our favorite travel destinations are celebrated for their relatively changeless year-round pattern (Hawaii is the classic example) and how others (such as Washington DC) offer a major seasonal variation in travel experience.

Each season in Washington DC has its special pleasures.  I come here often and year around, and am working now on a book for travelers on how to photograph Washington DC year around.  The book will be released by Countryman Press in late 2009.  (I am doing a similar book on San Francisco, near my primary residence in Berkeley CA).

As I walk the Mall in this chilly time, I think of Washington and his troops surviving a winter at Valley Forge, to the north in Pennsylvania.  The trees around the White House are spare of leaves and the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House could indeed be in Minnesota if there were snow on the ground, as sometimes does occur. 

My next visit will probably be in the spring Cherry Blossom time, a totally different physical feel to this great imperial city.  You can peruse my past coverage of the Cherry Blossom Festival at your leisure.

In summer, the weather is warm, the trees are lush with foliage, and the perennial Washington seems to appear, rugged and full with seasonal growth.  This is a time to consider my past writeups/photos on Perennial Washington DC.

However, this past year, for the first time, I happened to be in Washington DC for the glorious fall color period, in October.  Even on the Mall, you can find maple trees ablaze with the Washington Monument in the background.

Certainly, there are some destinations, such as Hawaii, that we savor because year round the temperatures may vary by 5 or so degrees.  It takes some local expertise in Hawaii to know what the season is.

But in Washington DC there is a theater of the four seasons,  and every day the performance changes a little, which can have some improvisational pleasure for a traveler.

Cellar360 in San Francisco

The multiplicity of satisfying travel, food, and wine experiences available for a traveler in Northern California continues to expand exponentially.

I had an opportunity this week to sample in San Francisco one aspect of the evolving travel/food scene, Cellar360, focused on wine and food tasting.  You don't have to go up to Napa or Sonoma any more to have a quality wine tasting. 

You can have it right at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco at an entity called Cellar360.  These tastings are no longer free, but they are available, starting at $10. 

Cellar360 is an elaborate showcase for one family of wine companies, the Foster Wine Estates (no relation, but think Australian beer).  Cellar 360 has some top California companies in its family, such as Stags Leap, Beringer, Chateau St. Jean.  The portfolio of wines is global, but even among the California members of the group there is quite a spectrum, from mass to boutique producers.

The concept behind the name is that this one brand includes a cluster of wineries from around the world, good wine coming at you from all directions.

You can walk in off the street and do a quality tasting, perhaps with paired cheeses, for a moderate price.   The moderate price offsets the gas costs for a trip up to Napa, where quality tastings also now carry a charge.

When you taste at Cellar360, you may experience a new word for your culinary vocabulary, "wine flights."  You may need to choose a certain wine "flight."  Flight means the cluster of wines at different price levels or of different types that you might experience.  Some flights are more expensive than others.  I first experienced the word at a posh fine dining experience in Minneapolis this summer.  I have to choose my "wine flight" level for the meal.  Similarly, at Cellar360 there are levels of flights of wine.

Cellar360 hopes to sell a lot of bottles of all the wines in the store.  The hope is that a quality tasting experience, perhaps paired with "charcuterie" tasting plates, and some educational efforts, will put the traveler in a favorable mood to buy bottles of wine at $25/35.  There are about 200 premium wines for sale, from over 40 regions on four continents, with knowledgeable staff present.  Culinary events and courses occur at the Cellar360's tasting/cooking facility.   The "concierge" service at Cellar360 can also arrange visits to their wineries in Napa/Sonoma.  The website is www.cellar360.com.  Food and wine can be enjoyed outdoors at Cellar360, but the code word is "weather permitting."  Anyone who knows San Francisco will attest to glorious sunny days interspersed with fog, rain, and bone-chilling cold, some elements of which may be present year round.

The main people on site are manager Chris Langston and chef Kasey Passen. 

The amount of energy going into ever better food and wine experiences in the Northern California travel scene is simply amazing, spanning a spectrum of restaurants, wineries, celebrity chefs, and boutique food producer.  Cellar360 is a new element in the scene, worth checking out. 

"Plastination" in San Jose, CA

"Plastination" may be coming to a city near you, if you are fortunate.

Plastination is the art and science of preserving human bodies, halting decomposition and saving them in a plastic form for medical study and public wonderment when on display.  The technology was developed in Heidelberg, Germany by Dr. Gunther von Hagens.  However, von Hagens wanted to present the human body to an audience far larger than the world of medical students.   His displays have been seen by about 25 million laymen so far.

I recently saw his exhibit,  Body Worlds 2,  at The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA.  There are imitator exhibits, but the von Hagen exhibit is the gold standard.  For one thing, all his bodies are from voluntary donors.

To enjoy this exhibit, you must first accept the notion that it is appropriate to display bodies in this way.  Much of what we do with bodies comes from the metaphors we apply to the body.  I remember, as an undergraduate student, in my History of Science class at Notre Dame, reading the seminal paper in which Descartes portrayed the human heart as a machine, the first time this metaphor was used in Western thought.  Once the heart, and the human body, was seen as a machine, much could be done with it, including having its parts replaced etc.

The exhibit in San Jose is quite poetic.  In one display, the entire nervous system has been removed from the body and is presented as a marvelous web.

The presentation can also be sobering.  The black lung of a smoker is shown adjacent to a healthy lung.

Many of the bodies shown are presented as athletes in motion, so don't assume that this exhibit is a series of cadavers.  Parts of bodies are stripped away to show muscle, fat, bones, or whatever a specific display focuses on.

There are three Body Worlds exhibits now circulating, staying for 4-6 months in a location.

This exhibit is at the Tech Museum, a lively place in San Jose.  If you are journeying far to see it and need lodging, just across the street is the landmark Fairmont San Jose.  There are several good restaurants within walking distance, starting with the Fairmont's Grill.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed

I had an opportunity last week to have a conversation with the mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed, who seems to have an enlightened and progressive perspective on the future of this major city, both generally and as it relates to travel.

Our meeting took place at the landmark Fairmont Hotel, which kicked off the downtown renaissance when it opened 20 years ago.  I sampled  a delicious tasting menu from their Grill restaurant, featuring rabbit and lamb, a lively pairing with some California wines.  The walkable downtown, with its Tech Museum, theatres, and restaurants, continues to attract more visitors.

Reed sees San Jose and the Silicon Valley as the center of the creative current world technology scene, reaching for comparisons to Florence in the Renaissance or England in the Industrial Revolution.

He sees the world, after moving from the industrial age to the information age/knowledge age, now poised to jump to a new era.  He calls this the "clean technology" age.

Reed believes that San Jose will be the world center for sun-generated power technology development and manufacturing.  Already a San Jose company has the most efficient solar cells in the world.  Nanosolar devices are at the other end of the spectrum.

Why is the area so innovative?

"A lot of the drive comes from the diversity of our people," says Reed.  "There is no ethnic majority in San Jose.  It's not where you were born, but what can you do.  Can you do the job?  Here, no on cares who your parents were."

The Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, and Italian elements are strong.  New Years celebrations last from November to March. Talented people from all over like to live here.

Reed now sees billions in venture capital going into solar development in San Jose.  There will be new ranges of manufacturing jobs.

"Solar cells will help us deal with climate change," says Reed.  "And solar will help us cut dependence on foreign oil."

Reed is from Kansas.  He went through the Air Force Academy, then on to law school.  A lot of his legal work was in the technology sector before he got into politics.

"The openness of the society here allowed me, an outsider, to run for mayor successfully," said Reed.

When asked about what local travel he enjoys on the weekends, Reed pointed to the bike paths.  He likes to bike on the Coyote Creek Trail or the Alum Rock Trail on the weekend.  There are now about 40 miles of bike trails in San Jose.

Reed has his hands full managing the city.  San Jose is the 10th largest US city.  He laments that the US is turning out too few technology-educated people.  As in all cities, there is a constant battle against crime and homicides.  Budgets are slim, demands for services are unlimited.  Police are stretched thin.

"Despite our cost challenges," says Reed, "San Jose is one of the safest cities in the country."

High housingt costs are a major concern throughout Northern California.  In San Jose the median house costs about $700,000 per year.  San Jose is building about 1,000 subsidized housing units per year.  The city will probably continue to grow at about one percent a year.  The downtown will be "densified" with infill housing near the transportation core, turning open surface parking lots into housing.  The airport, which is seven minutes from downtown, has a "curfew" so that planes don't impinge with noise on the nearby residents at night.

As Travel Becomes Green

How the overall "green" movement will ultimately affect travel is something no one can fully predict today.

Perhaps the impulse to travel will in itself be curtailed, citing the virtue of not consuming and emitting.

Plenty of towels are destined to be re-used in many hotels.

A new tax will be levied, often voluntarily, as travelers buy their way out of the guilt of their emissions by purchasing "carbon offset" credits.  The ideal vacation trip will be "carbon neutral."

Some fairly advanced types of lodgings, such as the beach structures at the Lodge at Molokai Ranch, on Molokai, Hawaii, will become prevalent.  Every unit has its solar generator and composting toilet.  The units are "on the grid" for water alone.

Virtuous lodgings will probably eventually become mainstream, just as "organic" food is now a major growth sector in food production.   Not too long ago organic was exotic, now it is mainstream.

Probably, the evolving traveler will have a better awareness of how sustainable a travel option is, both in terms of the environment it functions in and in terms of the local people who participate in the operation.

Green travel is likely to become a more prominent buzzword as the worldwide environmental crisis intensifies, perhaps symbolized best by the retreating sea ice and its disastrous effect on polar bears.

The discussion of travel and green will preoccupy our thoughts for the foreseeable future.

Delta Queen Sails Final Voyages

It appears that a revered travel institution, the Delta Queen riverboat, has not mustered enough political support to keep her afloat.

The Delta Queen is an aging cruise paddle wheeler plying the Mississippi and tributary rivers.  I have been on the ship.  At a certain hour near sunset,  especially with a glass of wine in hand, I believe I have seen Mark Twain on this ship.  Of course, possibly I was just seeing a Mark Twain impersonator.

The problem with the Delta Queen is that she is getting old and she is made of wood.  There are some risks to passengers.  Since the 1960s she has been grand-mothered in, as powerful political forces have united to preserve this icon of American travel.

But her next exemption, now scheduled for decision, will probably not occur.  A congressman from Minnesota is the gatekeeper.  He is not sympathetic.  Certain unions who have been excluded from the operation by the current owners are no longer part of the support group, and possibly they have mentioned this to the congressman.

Keeping this living legacy afloat, actually and fiscally, is not easy in the best of times.  So maybe we just have to let go of the Delta Queen in our minds.  Fortunately, there are sister ships, much younger sisters, who have a steely gaze, and are still in the game.  They are the Mississippi Queen and the American Queen.  I have been aboard them also, and they are grand.

Possibly Mark Twain can be envisioned on their decks also, but maybe a second glass of wine would be required.

   

Kids With No Experience of Nature/Outdoors

A travel trend we are all experiencing continues to advance: many kids in the U.S. are now growing up with virtually no experience of nature and the outdoors. 

There is a growing burden on travel journalists and parents to address this reality.

Many modern kids have no joy in nature and have had very little experience of nature in any way.

The issue is addressed today in the San Francisco Chronicle in an article "Nature Deficit Disorder," which one could find on sfgate.com, but there are many such articles afloat.

One kid, interviewed at a mall, stated the position of many, "I'd rather be at the mall because you can enjoy yourself walking around looking at stuff as opposed to the woods."  When asked about Yosemite, he added, "The only things you look at is the trees, grass, and sky."

Today's child has a clear focus on electronic games and media rather than the outdoors.  The Kaiser Family Foundation has studied this and says an average kid 8-18 spends about 6.5 hours a day with electronic media.

Another aspect of this situation is that new immigrant populations don't have the outdoors as part of their family pleasure legacy.  This is particularly true of many Hispanic and Asian groups.  Getting out to enjoy nature has not been part of their family heritages.

When nature and the outdoors do figure into the electronic news, it is often a negative sensational threat and risk.  Stories about lost hikers, bear encounters, and mountain lion attacks spread fear rather than offer enticement. 

There will be consequences as today's kids grow up.  Will they vote to fund protection and support of the great outdoors?  If they've never had a good experience outdoors, they won't be part of the constituency of support.

There are clearly some opportunities here for all of us--parents, grandparents, and travel journalists--to address this issue, in our families, communities, and media.  The enhancement, alerting young people to the joy nature, needs to occur one kid at a time.

Richard Bangs' New Book

I have just begun reading Richard Bangs' engaging new book, ADVENTURES WITH PURPOSE (Menasha Ridge).

Bangs has been a major player in the adventure travel and conservation world for some time.  An expert river runner with many first descents, Bangs knows how to engage the reader and raise the adventure to a higher psychological level.

Many in the public may recall his celebrated Mungo Park dispatches in the mid 1990s.  With Microsoft backing and technology, Bangs was able to make reports over the new Internet medium from remote sites, suggesting the possibilities of the Internet. 

Bangs was one of the founders of the large adventure travel company, Mountain Travel Sobek, and has authored over a dozen books.  His RIDING THE DRAGON'S BACK won a Lowell Thomas Award in 1989.

Bangs has also been a critical political player in the conservation field by drawing attention to many remote areas, awakening the passion for preserving these areas, especially rivers.  This is part of the "purpose" theme of the current book.  Remote areas must be deeply felt to be saved.  Bangs engages the reader, raising awareness of threatened people, places, animals, and habitats.

The current book draws together Bangs' reports on 16 of his worldwide adventures.

I have finished the first chapter, "The Quest For the Lord of the Nile," set, of course, in Egypt.  It is a compelling read about Bangs' fascination with the crocodiles of the Nile.  Bangs has also produced a PBS documentary on this subject.

Bangs is far more than a thrill seeker.  If you want a thoughtful and literate, yet spirited report on adventures, Bangs' new book would be a good choice.

Assistance requested in writing my obituary

Dear Colleagues,

I realize you may consider this a ghoulish exercise, but I am writing to request your assistance in preparing my obituary. I wish to get my affairs in order.

Not one of us likes to think of our demise, but very few of us get out of this life alive. Those who have a successful strategy on this important point might wish to share this with us by hitting the Reply All.

Superior nutrition and good health habits (I work out each weekday night at the Berkeley Y) probably assure me a far longer life than was lived by my grandfather, Edwin Winfield Foster, who succumbed at age 96. But I am conservative in my projections, so I am assuming only 4 more years of life than he experienced.

So here is a start today at my obituary. I’m sure there are typos in it and errors of concept. Those of you with more vision than I have may well be able to project beyond the few short years that I see clearly ahead. There are omissions about my past also, but space is limited. I am now healthy at age 64, but, as I mentioned, I am not confident that I will live beyond 100.

Here is a first draft, your suggestions requested:

Associated Press, April 1, 2043:

Lee Foster, Travel Journalist, 1943-2043

Noted travel journalist Lee Foster passed away this week on April 1, 2043 in Berkeley, California.

“He died as he has lived now for decades,” said one observer. “He was looking at his computer screen with a smile in his eyes. He had a toasted baguette with melted brie in his left hand and a glass of Chardonnay in his right hand.”

Foster lived for the past 30 years in Berkeley at the Home For Marginalized Travel Journalists, a national franchise of retirement residences set up by generous grants from travel industry providers in 2010, saluting “Those who created the market for travel.” (Editor’s historic note: These residences were fully funded before the terrible Green Travel Panic and Crash of 2011, which bankrupted most of these travel companies in 2012.)

It is said that Foster published words or photos, at one time or another, in every major travel magazine and newspaper of his time, from Travel + Leisure to the New York Times. His travel books won major awards. Over all, his work won seven Lowell Thomas Awards. He had been the first travel journalist ever to earn a dollar in publishing travel in an online situation, back in 1983, when he did a deal with CompuServe to put his travel writing online in return for a 10 percent royalty. He had travel photos in 225 books of a persistent brand known as Lonely Planet, which did not go bankrupt until 2015.

Speculation was widespread about, “What happened to Foster?”

“Clearly, Foster peaked about 2005,” said one observer, as he dipped into the soft Opus I Merlot on the festive boat chartered to scatter Foster’s ashes in San Francisco Bay. “By 2006 the $0 crowdsourcing tendencies in the travel media had knocked out his writing markets. By 2007 the $1 microstock intrusions had crippled his photo markets. Foster’s problem was that he continued to fight the trend. He would have been OK if he had followed the wise path of most of his colleagues, succumbed to the pervasive depression, and given up the quest for profitability. He did not know how to go gently into that good night. That was his downfall.”

A spokesman for Google, a longterm Foster partner, felt these comments were not the total story, as he savored the Asiago aged cheese and western states pine nuts in pesto, both on crackers, which Foster had specified be available for guests in his final ash-scattering event on San Francisco Bay. The Google spokesman requested anonymity, as did all the commentators on Foster, due to the animosity towards Foster that peaked in the landmark 2022 Supreme Court Case Foster vs Reason (Case # 172GCW), which can be Googled.

“The $0 crowdsourcing and $1 microstock did not actually destroy Foster,” said the Google representative. “It was not until the Green Movement/Global Warming fully took over travel in 2008 on a worldwide basis that Foster weakened substantially. When all 192 nations in the UN endorsed the ‘Chill Out, Don’t Travel’ motto in 2009, and required that this be displayed in 16 point type on all travel product advertisements, Foster saw his last profitable web publishing opportunities diminish.”

The Google representative’s comments hushed conversation a bit, especially among the old timers aboard the farewell boat trip for Foster. Many of them recalled the terrible Green Travel Panic and Crash of 2011, which some students of history felt exceeded in scope the US Depression Crash of 1929. The worldwide travel industry was unable to respond quickly enough to growing antipathy towards all travel, which requires so much energy and emits so much carbon. Virtually all travel companies worldwide went bankrupt by March 2012, shunned by every virtuous human being on the planet.

“To his credit,” added the Google representative, “Foster did hang in there to the bitter end. We have in our archives that the last Adsense Ad related to a travel product was delivered on April 18, 2012, and it was to Foster Travel Publishing (www.fostertravel.com). Apparently, we had a little excess inventory from a small yacht cruise ship in the Galapagos, which was a few years behind the curve, and we delivered the ad to a consumer looking at Foster’s article about the Galapagos. The consumer was from Myanmar and wished to go the Galapagos, not knowing, of course, that airline travel had ceased to Ecuador. I can’t blame the consumer because Internet access in the country had been somewhat truncated at times.”

By 2012, observers report, Foster had pretty much given up the struggle and continued to persist in a vegetative state at the Home for Marginalized Travel Journalists in Berkeley.

Foster’s later appearance in the news occurred in 2022 as the long, slow legal case against Foster, mentioned above, made its way to the Supreme Court. The main argument of the plaintiffs in the aforementioned class action suit, Foster vs Reason (Case # 172GCW) was Lost Alternative Income Opportunity. This was best expressed on the final ash-scattering voyage by Plaintiff X, who mentioned also that she particularly enjoyed the Oberle San Luis Obispo County Cabernet paired with the Sonoma Goat Cheese in a radicchio salad.

“Our main argument with Foster was that he gave us hope, which was unconscionable,” said Plaintiff X. “When the system was gradually crashing, he held out the prospect of potential travel journalism profitability. This was sinful, illegal, and inappropriate behavior by Foster. In my case, he deprived me of ten potentially profitable years selling Real Estate. I could have made a bundle. But Foster sucked me in with the hope that I could survive economically as a travel journalist. It was all those professional development sessions on Travel and the Internet. It is for this that we hang him in effigy every year on his birthday, July 23.”