inspiration
Back in February, I devoted a Travelogue to my efforts to help a designer acquaintance of mine decide how to spend a watershape-related vacation with her family - and the result, she reports, was a great deal of fun.
This made me feel good, of course. If you'll recall, she had started planning a summer trip for her family and wanted to be able to "spend a day or two taking in some great fountains and waterfeatures" while her spouse ran around amusement parks and other active attractions with their two young sons.
She's based in the upper Midwest, so I wasn't surprised to learn that she'd organized a June trip to Missouri that included both St. Louis and Kansas City. Kansas City had been at the top of my list for her, and I was pleased to hear that Worlds of Fun is there, too - although I had not known that. Nor had I known about a Six Flags establishment outside St. Louis, so it seems the two-city, ten-day vacation came off to everyone's satisfaction.
The most heartening thing I heard, however, was that she'd shared some of her passion for fountains with her family, getting them to take brief breaks from thrill rides and join her as she sought out great and inspirational watershapes in both cities.
She noted, as I had warned her from my own experience, that as grand as Kansas City's Henry Wollman Bloch Fountain truly is, for instance, it's no match in excitement for a huge drop on a big roller coaster.
But she was more than happy to fire up the boys' curiosity and start them thinking about how, for example, moving water serves as nature's air conditioner. Especially on hot days, she observed, they were more than happy to sidle up to the water's edge and take advantage of what she'd taught them.
She also heeded my suggestion that these doses of enlightenment should be held to reasonable levels: She'd head off on her own again, she said, when it was clear their energy needed an outlet and it was time to let them step out with dad to enjoy their ten- and 12-year-old selves. I'd had the same sorts of vacation experiences with our three girls long ago: They weren't obsessed with roller coasters, but they did require more stimulation than was to be found in standing by a fountain with me as I figured out how certain effects had been achieved or, more often, as I wondered why certain decisions had been made.
The best part of all of this is a story that warmed my heart. In chatting with her earlier this year, I had told my midwestern friend that seeing great watershapes has always reminded me of why I love what I do - and of the elation I feel after umpteen years of having fountains make me grin from ear to ear.
So when she told me her older boy had asked her at one point if this was the sort of thing she did in her work and whether it was fun to do, I had a special sense of joy I hadn't had since Judy and I were on the road when our girls were that young.
As I'd discussed with my designer friend months ago, I knew all about the inspiration she herself would find on her family's road trip. But I also knew it was possible, just maybe, that seeing water at its dynamic best would make a strong, positive impression on her kids and even her husband - and how proud they'd be that she was part of something so magical.
I still look at watershapes through a child's eyes - at the Gateway Geyser, for example, or at the waterscapes in Forest Park or at the Botanical Garden in St. Louis - and know how cool it can be (in moderation) to let family members and close friends in on how things work and the technologies those who designed and built a given watershape used to achieve various effects.
I knew the Missouri tour had the makings of a great vacation for me; I'm so happy in this case that it all worked out for someone else and her family!
This story starts with a tree falling in the forest. It wasn't just any tree: It was a huge locust that had stood next to what is now my driveway for years beyond reckoning, and when it came down it did its best to take a tangle of utility lines with it. I wasn't there when all of this happened, but I returned soon thereafter and saw the lingering effects: The utility companies had done a wonderful job of cutting away portions of the tree that had fallen onto the wires and had effectively cleared the road, but
I chatted a couple weeks back with a designer acquaintance who wanted my advice on the best U.S. city to visit if her goal was seeing a bunch of great watershapes. She was starting to plan a summer trip for her family, she said, and wanted to spend a day or two taking in some great fountains and waterfeatures while her spouse ran around amusement parks and other active attractions with their two young sons.
It was a tougher question than I figured it would be - a process that led me to compose this unusual Travelogue on my advice to her.
Once I'd covered the obvious choices of Kansas City or St. Louis and my hometown of Los Angeles, my mind flooded with other possibilities coast to coast, from Boston, New York and Philadelphia in the northeast to Seattle and Portland in the northwest. Then I thought of San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and other contenders, including Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.
Of course, I never factored in nearby amusement parks - she was on her own there. But it occurred to me that she could select any of these cities and have more than enough to do while the rest of the family was off exhausting itself at some theme park or waterpark.
Once we hung up, I jotted down the city list for ready reference and expanded it a bit to include Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, Orlando, Pittsburgh and New Orleans.
Within a few minutes after hanging up, I started having odd misgivings and called her back: I felt awkward about participating in splitting up her family during its vacation trip, I said, and wanted to make the earnest suggestion that she should spend a day or two with her husband and kids visiting fine waterfeatures as a family.
True, the FDR Memorial in Washington is not as stimulating as a roller coaster, but it includes wonderful water treatments by Lawrence Halprin - and there's also plenty of additional aquatic spirit to be found on and around the Capitol Mall. I further suggested that spectacles such as the water show in the Main Fountain Garden at Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia or the eruption of the jets at the Bellagio in Las Vegas have more going for them than do typical theme-park rides.
She took all of this under advisement and I know I'll hear how it works out (or doesn't) after the fact. But I have to say that, when we spoke the second time, I was motivated by my own sense of pride and by what I saw as a valuable opportunity: From the waterfeatures at the Getty Center in Los Angeles to the 9/11 Memorial in New York, there's inspiration to be found in fountains and waterfeatures from coast to coast.
As a watershaper, there's also a cool sense of professional association in play. In every case, I said, watershapes in these places remind me of why I love what I do - and of the pride I feel after 20 years of wandering the fringes of projects that take my breath away.
In wrapping up the second exchange with my designer friend, I couldn't help talking about the inspiration I knew she'd find on her family's road trip, then left her with this closing thought: What she sees while alone might fuel her creative fires once she returns home, but think about the impression seeing water at its dynamic best will make on the kids and even her husband - and how proud they'll be that she is somehow a part of it.
More than that, think about looking at watershapes through a child's eyes - and of how cool it will be to let them in on how things work and how those who designed and built a given watershape used fascinating technologies to achieve these stirring effects. Heck, it might be enough to incline a kid or two to follow in your footsteps - and what could be nicer than that?
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