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Tour presidents' chopper at Nixon library-museum

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — The presidential helicopter has landed, and you can get on board.

A six-ton Sikorsky is on display at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The luxury chopper was a mobile Oval Office for Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford on hundreds of trips, including visits by Nixon to the Statue of Liberty in New York, the pyramids of Egypt and St. Peter's Square in Italy's Vatican City.

Heads of state who rode in the helicopter included President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, King Hussein of Jordan, Chancellor Willy Brandt of Germany, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and British Prime Ministers Edward Heath and Harold Wilson. The helicopter was transported around the country and around the world on large military cargo ships.

It has its own helipad at the Nixon museum, which is in Orange County, 20 minutes from Disneyland and 45 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. Nixon's father built a farmhouse there in 1912, and the future president was born there a year later.

Other attractions at the Nixon facility include a presidential limousine, tapes of the famous 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates, a display of gowns worn by First Lady Pat Nixon and daughters Tricia and Julie, an exhibit about Watergate, a replica of the White House East Room, and the graves of the president and his wife.

For details, visit www.nixonlibrary.org or call 1-714-993-5075.

In hotel of future, you download dream room

CHICAGO — What will the hotel of the future look like?

Think robotics, customized rooms and downloadable amenities.

That's according to a project called The Hotel of Tomorrow, organized by Gettys, a Chicago design firm, and the Hospitality Design Group. Companies participating in the project range from Starwood Hotels, Starbucks and Whirlpool to firms specializing in architecture, electronics, bedding, lighting and wallcoverings.

Demographic trends identified by the project found that hotel guests include leisure travelers who want a unique environment, wellness-seekers looking for stress relief, business travelers, tech-savvy teenagers, and environmentalists who may place a premium on facilities that are ecologically responsible and who may influence others to make similar choices.

Innovations expected to play a role in hotels in the next two decades, according to the project, will include intelligent robots that clean rooms, change beds and even act as valets to provide automated personal service.

The hotel of the future may also offer downloadable settings in which guests can choose personalized sounds, aromas and even colors or other visuals. There's even a prototype of a bathtub covered in memory fabric that conforms to your body, and the project predicts that new technologies might create products like regenerating rugs, which repair themselves after guests walk on them.