Philly's Best Cheesesteak

The word on the street is that Sonny's is better than Pat's or Geno's. I tried the traditional Cheese Whiz instead of Provolone. Amazing. Nice bathroom to boot!

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The City of Brotherly Love. Steep staircase to a quaint bathroom at Marra's Cucina Italiana. Down the street the corner with the most famous cheese steaks in the world. After the Pomodoro Positano we decided to come back another day for cheese steak

Manti, Utah

An ordinary urinal in an extraordinary place. The Manti Temple is a beauty. The stonework and grandeur is comparable to old-world European cathedrals.  It's pretty impressive work from some 19th century pioneers on the edge of America.

Manti Temple, dedicated May 17, 1888

a close-up of the limestone stonework

Emerald Bay - Lake Tahoe, CA

Pretty nice setup for an old-school 'outhouse'.  This has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

West Roxbury, Massachusetts

In medicine we learn medical procedures using the 'see one, do one, teach one' approach.  I guess this is the same process--just with potty training. It's definitely the cutest toilet picture I have.

What is amazing is that Robyn is just as sweet today as she was then. You are the best girl a Dad could hope for. 

Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria

Mauthausen Gusen Concentration Camp

In 2003 we took the kids to visit the Nazi Concentration Camp of Mauthausen Gusen outside of Vienna, Austria.

This urinal's brilliant plumbing was the only thing that could drum up a smile from Tate at Mauthausen. An old-world trough meets modern PVC plumbing before your eyes. You can literally see and hear the generations coming together about 2 inches above the tiles. SWEET!

  

The Czech Memorial

The urinals at Mauthausen were not the only thing that left a big impression. There are few places I've experienced with such a depressing air as this. To imagine the depths to which human depravity can sink (in a place that is otherwise so beautiful) is incredibly sad.

Stairs of Death

Parachutist's Wall  

The monument only begins to capture the shock  of what was done.  Mauthausen was used as one of the largest slave labor camps in Nazi controlled Europe.  Prisoners were literally worked to death. They were forced to race one another up the 186 'stairs of death' while carrying granite blocks. To fall was all but certain death. When they couldn't work they were lined up along the 'parachutist's cliff" and forced to push the man next to them off--or be shot.

About 85,000 inmates were freed by the US 3rd Army's Armored Division in 1945 when the camps were liberated. It is estimated that up to 320,000 met their death at the Mauthausen Gusen concentration camp complex.

Old Town San Diego, CA



Old Town San Diego, CA

Funny picture of Ty (2004) with a modern toilet and a clever 'hands-free' flusher.

Bondi Beach, NSW, Australia

Urinals of the World (UOTW but AKA Toilets of the World - TOTW) is a longstanding family tradition that first began when the boys were little. It usually started with them grinning in front of a squatter or standing in front of a toilet in some famous place. It was fun . . . until I became addicted. Now I can hardly walk into a bathroom without an overpowering compulsion to pull out a camera phone. I've become adept at acting busy while I wait for the bathroom to clear so I can take the picture. This one is a gem. A tiny little bathroom squeezed between two walls at the legendary Bondi Beach near Sidney.