"Trekking the National Parks" is a board game where players "trek" to Yosemite and other national parks. (Photo by John Binkele

People love to hike our national parks. People love to play games. How about a board game about our national parks that allows you to do both? There's actually a successful Kickstarter project called "Trekking the National Parks" that is an excellent way to entertain and inspire people to appreciate our natural wonders.

The concept is a simple one developed by a family of dedicated hikers - The Binkeles. There's the son Charlie, who serves as the creative artist and board game designer, mom Terry, the chief of finance and shipping department  and there's dad John who handles the marketing and photography -  all passionate outdoor enthusiasts.

"The idea behind developing the game was to create more awareness of the amazing resources we have in our backyard and to encourage people to take advantage of them," said John.

As for the game, here's how you play.

National park posters recreated in the classic style of the original 14 posters painted by WPA artists in the 1930s

You've seen those incredible, iconic posters of national parks. The ones with the cool retro lettering and pastel colors. But did you know there were actually only 14 of these posters created for our national parks?

Rob Decker, founder of National Park Posters, wants to change all that. His mission is to continue the legacy of documenting our beautiful national parks with the same motif started by artists working for the Works Progress Administration back in the 1930s.

First some background on the original, classic posters. As you may remember from your history classes, the WPA was created during the Great Depression when millions of people were out of work.

Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew he had to do something to jump start the economy but more importantly to put food in the mouths of families. There were reportedly 20 million people on relief of some sort. He

Custom bike rack donated by The Park Catalog to the Delray Beach Parks and Rec Dept. From left, Suzanne Davis, director, Danielle Pearson, site supervisor of the "505" Teen Center and Christopher George of The Park Catalo

Delray Beach Florida prides itself on being a unique village by the sea. And when it comes to the Delray Beach Parks and Rec Department, that philosophy certainly creates some unique challenges and opportunities.

Take their "505" Teen Recreation Center for example.

They have the usual Xbox video games, table tennis, popcorn machine, big screen TVs and couches. Outside there is the Hobbit Skate Park and some basketball courts.

But inside, there is something you won't find in too many parks and recreation centers - a music recording studio.

Yep, they have one. Complete with a sound mixer and soundproof walls. (Well, it's not exactly the type of sound studio that Jay Z or The Stones would record in, but it's got the basic concept down).

"It's not a typical item," said Suzanne

Rendering of proposed Lowline underground park. Source: www.thelowline.or

There's a major transformation taking place around the world and like any major change, there are rippling effects that go along with it.

That's why a project currently in development in New York City - the "Lowline underground park" could have major implications around the world. (Ironically, today is "Back to the Future Day" wherein the movie Marty McFly travels forward in time to save his children).

Because here's one major fact. The population in urban areas is going to double.

Millennials, those born between the 1980s to 2000, are moving to the cities. After living through the Great Recession, they realize that's where the jobs are. There are more opportunities and employment choices in metro areas.

Secondly, after growing up in the suburbs, this young generation also feel cities are where the action is - more nightlife, more attractions, and many more choices than offered by the local malls.

Third - millennials

One effective break idea is for workers to get out of the office and mingle on outdoor park benches for a few minutes

While many companies can't offer the nap pods, ping pong tables or gourmet chefs offered by Google, there are several inexpensive break room ideas you can use to improve employee morale and boost productivity.

According to experts, the goal behind a break room is not to regard it as a place where employees slack off, but a place where they can relax, recharge and interact with fellow employees.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Break Room Décor - while it is important (and required) that employment legal notices be posted, be sure to make your break room different than the rest of the office or workplace. Paint it a different color. Add plants. Include comfortable chairs. Hang pictures. This lets employees know this is a space that is removed from their work area. Create a sort of refuge where

Colorful water park slides and pool

While most US cities are not located near an ocean, many municipalities are now finding a sea of revenue by opening up their own water park to the delight of local residents and attract tourist dollars. Cities are breaking records every year with attendance. More and more town officials are finding a way to justify the cost to build a water park and transforming a pool into a wonderland of slides, "lazy rivers," wave simulators and fountains.

In fact Hotel & Leisure Advisors reports there are now a total of 858 water parks in the US. Those are parks owned by either a municipality or resort hotel.

If you live in the Midwest, you no longer have to travel all the way to Orlando to fly down a mammoth slide. There are more water parks there - 339 - than anywhere else.

The Southern US is next, followed by the West and then the Northeast.

When it comes to outdoor water parks, municipalities lead the way. There are 345 city-owned facilities located in the US

Copenhagen is a prime example of bike-friendly citie

What does it take to make more walkable and bike-friendly cities?

In a word - codes. Zoning codes.

Obviously there's more to transforming streets for use by all members of the public. But a change in zoning codes for citizens who walk or bike shows a fundamental mindset that a town is serious about moving away from cars and closer to alternative modes of transportation.

Why does a town need to do this? Because citizens all over America are demanding change.

For too long, America's infrastructure was built around the automobile and cheap gas. The country created massive suburban communities so more people could own a house, a lawn and a backyard.

The problem is that this caused communities to be spread out over large tracts of land. For a resident to buy food, they had to get in their car and drive across town to the grocery store. The construction of strips mall and mega-malls encouraged this practice.

Planners mainly focused on making

Volunteers sought for National Public Lands Da

If you are looking for something cheap for you and your family to do this weekend, Saturday, Sept. 26 is National Public Lands Day and all national parks and museums are FREE.

Wondering what to do when you get there? National Public Lands Day is also a day when park managers look for volunteers to help out with a variety of projects. What better way to spend a day outdoors than cleaning up or improving a park? It's a worthwhile cause AND it's great exercise.

Last year, NPLD organizers reported that 175,000 Americans turned out to help our parks. They worked at more than 2,000 sites in all 50 states including District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

This is what they accomplished:

- fixed up 1,500 miles of trails

- planted about 100,000 shrubs, trees and other native plants

- pulled up 23,000 pounds of invasive pants

- removed some 500 tons of trash

Now that's a successful volunteer effort. All in one day. Not only that, all this effort reportedly

Commercial recycling receptacles are prerequisite to earn LEED credit

Anybody in construction knows that LEED certification is a very complicated process. But when it comes to one requirement for recycling, it may be one of the easiest tasks to accomplish. All it takes is some space and some commercial recycling receptacles.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a coveted designation awarded by an organization called the U.S. Green Building Council. The group gives a building certification based on qualifying credits earned for practices that are eco-friendly and energy efficient. The premise behind the award is simple - to encourage the building of structures that have less of an impact on the environment than a standard construction project.

There are different certification levels depending on the requirements you meet in the application. Those levels are Certified (40-49 points), Silver (50-59), Gold (60-79) and Platinum (80-plus).

Achieving the certification

More bicyclists in cities will require more bicycle parking - bike bollards are one solutio

You've seen them a millions times but probably don't know what they are called. But now that we are seeing more and more people riding bicycles, these simple, knobby, century-old devices can be a major problem-solver for cities and towns.

What are they? Bollards. What can we use them for? Traffic control and bike parking - bike bollards.

Bike bollard

Bollards are those posts you see stuck in concrete all over the place. The posts that prevent motorists from driving up onto a sidewalk and into a plate glass window. The posts that let motorists know you can drive here but you can't drive there. The posts that protect pedestrians at corners and other critical areas.

Bollards have been around forever. In old England, they were first created by burying cannons upside down in the ground. Sailors would use them to tie up their boats. Bollards were used to designate wagon and buggy trails (getting run over

ParkExpress quickly ships site and outdoor park furnishings in only 1-3 day

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time." This quote by Leonard Bernstein nails it. For most plans with good intentions, sometimes there is just not enough time. When it comes to park or construction projects, The Park Catalog has a solution.

It's called ParkExpress. Park and recreation professionals who attend the National Recreation and Park Association Annual Conference Sept. 15-17 can learn about the program by visiting us at booth 1832.

ParkExpress is essentially the FedEx of site and outdoor park furnishings. We can ship out nearly 300 park-related or facility-related products in 1-3 days. That's right, 300 different products in just 1-3 days.

Imagine ordering commercial-grade park benches, picnic tables or trash receptacles and they ship out in one day ! Need a charcoal park grill fast? How about we put it on a truck in just two days or less. We can do it.

That

If you look at the speaking schedule for a guy named Gil Penalosa, you'll notice he is everywhere. Why? Because his message about doing something now to change cities in the future is resonating with quite a few people.

In fact, Penalosa will be the keynote speaker at the annual National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) conference in Las Vegas Sept. 15-17.

Essentially what he is saying is really a no-brainer. We ALL know this is going to happen. How we shape the way we manage what is going to happen is another story, another story that Penalosa urges us to act on NOW.

Here's the scenario. The population of people living in cities is going to double from 3.5 billion to more than 7 billion in just 35 years. Do you think it is hard to drive to a city now? As anyone can predict, with all those people flocking to urban areas it is not going to get any better.

More millennials are moving to cities. More people own

Dee Williams, manager of ReStore in Delray Beach stands by smoking urns donated by The Park Catalo

The Park and Facilities Catalog recently donated three smoking urns to Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County, a great cause that helps citizens achieve the American dream of owning a home or improving the one they're in.

Adding smoking urns to any location is a great cause as well because discarded cigarettes are the No. 1 source of litter in America.

First a little bit about Habitat for Humanity. The Habitat for Humanity of South Palm Beach County is a non-profit organization that assists families in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach. Since 1991 the group has "empowered" more than 120 families to finance and move into a home of their own.

Okay, most people have heard about how Habitat for Humanity helps to build homes for people.

But they do so much more.

For example, they also oversee a Neighborhood Revitalization Program with services such as "A Brush With Kindness" or

Smiling millennial shoots a selfie on a mountain pea

You sense that National Park Service officials might be a little worried. Maybe all state and local park officials should be worried as well.

Judging from several news reports, it appears the NPS is worried about "Millennials." You know, the generation born between 1980 and 2004, the one that came out of the womb with an iPhone attached to the hands.

There are 80 million of them and park officials are concerned this new world digital generation is not going to be interested in old world dirt, trees, rocks and rivers.

It might be paranoia. There doesn't seem to be any hard data indicating millennials are not interested in parks. Sure, right now, parks are actually experiencing record attendance. They had approximately 300 million visitors last year.

But the people who rangers see coming through the gates are not young people, but a lot of gray hairs from the Baby Boomer generation. Once that generation gets old, then will millennials take

Demand for shopping center space is on the rise and that's great news for the US economy

Like everything, shopping center demand is cyclical. Up times. Down times. If you look at the latest data that's coming out, it's starting to look like a positive upswing is about to hit the industry real hard.

That's great news for the economy. That means more investment, more construction and retail jobs, more ancillary effects such as an increase in outdoor commercial furniture, trucking and local taxes.

Retail research company CoStar recently issued a report indicating that shopping center vacancies continue to drop and space is at its tightest level in the past eight years.

So there's the demand. Where's the response to that demand? CoStar says only 60 million square feet of retail space is being built right now. That's 90 million square feet less than the shopping center construction underway at the last peak in 2007.

Something's gotta give. And you are probably going to see a boom in building