Exploring Central Colorado

                      Pikes Peak Cog Railway

It is amazing how many things you can see and do when you do not have to attend meetings! Our trip to Denver was just for unadulterated fun with no commitments to anyone or anything. Some cities are very difficult for arrival, but Denver is a breeze. The airport (http://flydenver.com/), if you have not been there, is a real wonder (one of the newest in the country). It is easy to get around, easy to get to the car rental areas, and easy to drive into downtown. You realize early on that Denver is built on the plain, not in the mountains and they thus have a very efficient and well built freeway system.

Our full three days in Colorado were sort of planned to explore a lot of territory. On Friday we headed to Boulder to check out the gorgeous University of Colorado (I just love visiting colleges) and all of the stone colors of the city.

 (http://www.bouldercoloradousa.com/).

We then headed west up Boulder Canyon enjoying the roaring creek and then cut north to Estes Park, the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Of course I had left my senior lifetime park pass (an old guy perk) at home, so now Mary Ann also has a pass. We can now enter the parks free with two cars and all the passengers! When traversing the park we realized we had never visited this park before and were enchanted with the mountains and views.

 (http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm).

Our route took us over Trail Ridge Road (US 34) through the arctic tundra, crossed the continental divide, and reached 12,183 feet. The park loop took us to the three lakes area, to Winter Park, and back to Denver on Interstate 70. A great day and the little Chevrolet Cobalt rental car just hopped over the mountains.

While driving through Winter Park, which looks like a great ski area, Mary Ann saw that the next day that they were going to have an outdoor art show. She also heard on the radio that a big show was also on Saturday in Greeley, and she suspected correctly that I would not retrace our trip to Winter Park. So on Saturday we drove north to Greeley (http://www.greeleychamber.com/), on the great plain of eastern Colorado. Yes, you thought right, it is named after, and was founded by Horace Greeley of “Go West Young Man” fame. Their summer art show called the Art Picnic was a great event with about 200 artists, food and music. I escaped with the world’s greatest shopper making only one modest purchase. I thought it was going to be page one of the great pay-back for that air flight scheduling fiasco! In the afternoon we returned to explore downtown Denver and then go to the Rockies baseball game. I had bought some very good tickets with good food areas, good view, and covered from a little bit of rain. Mary Ann did not complain at all, and I suspect she is now becoming a baseball lover. Probably because the Rockies won. Oh Right!

For Sunday I had made reservations for taking the cog railway trip up Pikes Peak just outside Colorado Springs. It is a beautiful drive to Colorado Springs and the railway trip (http://cograilway.com/) up the mountain was fascinating. The trip took about three hours round trip and saved the Cobalt from what would have been a real struggle driving up that mountain. Our timing was excellent as a real cloud buster hit right after our return. This made us miss the Garden of the Gods, but you always need something to bring you back.

                  Rocky Mountain National Park

The whole long weekend was a wonderful visit and well worth the potential payback! Ouch, that first class ticket for Mary Ann next time will hurt.

Does Denver count as a trip?

Is a Colorado Rockies game reason enough to go to Denver?

I know I should take a trip when I have started dreaming about travel. Obviously, I have been at home too long (hmmm, at least since April)! Now when you live in a summer resort it does not make a lot of sense to leave during the best part of the year. I guess I am just hooked on a change of scenery on a very regular basis. This spring we did get away for long weekends to Vernon, British Columbia and Hood Canal on Puget Sound, but that hardly counts as real travel. Thus wonder woman and I began discussing maybe a 4 or 5 day trip.

We did not want to preempt a real fall trip, so how about using up some frequent flyer miles, and go to a city that for some reason we had never spent time in? In all our American Bar Association trips and multiple crossings of the country we never spent any time in Denver. Summer would obviously be a great time to enjoy a long weekend. So the great travel planner goes to work. For some reason Mary Ann always has more travel miles than me. Huh, maybe she used her credit card more than me? So first I had to transfer miles from her account to mine. This cost $100. We decided to fly from Spokane as we never have used Spokane International. I booked my ticket on United, stupidly not booking both frequent flyer tickets at the same time. I immediately went back in to book Mary Ann’s ticket and uh, oh, the next available free ticket was at 11 p.m. and routed through San Francisco. I was flying at 2 p.m. For some reason Mary Ann just did not think much of this plan. I could buy a ticket on my flight for her, but I am cheap and found a nice ticket on Frontier Airlines for a $150 less than United. The only problem was that she left two hours before me on both the departure from Spokane, and returning from Denver.

I now knew I was in big trouble, especially when my next purchase was for tickets to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. So lets see now, with the cost of transferring miles, and the $90 for baseball tickets, my clever plan to save money seemed to be a bit suspect. In the long run, I was sure Mary Ann wouldn’t mind traveling separate from me, waiting for me for hours in airport terminals, and surely would come to love baseball, just as I do. I really fear a serious payback! To top it off, neither Mary Ann nor I had ever flown on Frontier, but fortunately she really liked her flights. The planes had more roomy seats, are clean, and gave you free refreshments. So even though they were in bankruptcy, everything went just fine. Whew!

To start rebuilding my credibility with my travel partner, I did book a very nice suite in a Residence Inn very near downtown Denver, with easy access to the freeway (thus avoiding getting lost and having travel direction arguments), and a very cute and colorful Chevrolet compact rental car. Am I out of the doghouse yet? I will fill you in on the details of our very nice visit to Denver in the next article.

Comment from Mary Ann: After spending 8 additional hours in airports and having to handle all the luggage by myself I feel I deserve a first class ticket on the next trip!

My Favorite U.S. Cities

Since my involvement with the American Bar Association starting in 1995 I have had the opportunity of visiting a lot of cities all over the United States and Canada. The ABA has two major meetings a year, and in addition, I enjoyed many more planning meetings and the chance to teach ABA judicial classes in several different states. When counting up all the trips I have visited 36 different cities on ABA business. The test is whether you would want to return to a city, just for fun, even though business is involved. In looking at this list of cities, the following are my top five:

Chicago, Illinois – It always seems that there is so much happening in Chicago and it is so easy to get around the downtown center. You can handle Chicago easier than the crowds and many of the neighborhoods of New York City. The proximity of Lake Michigan and the many parks and venues stretched out along the lake and rivers make this a beautiful city to explore. The wonderful restaurants, world class museums, and theatre options make it a great place to visit, whether in the winter or in the summer. I never tire of visiting Chicago and their fun loving attitude. www.choosechicago.com

San Diego, California – Maybe it is the water! It could also be the pleasant breezes from the Pacific and warm weather. Although I am not a beach person (I can last dormant on the sand for about 30 minutes before looking for something to do) visiting the San Diego waterfront and walking the beaches and parks is an enjoyable way to explore a city. The city also has an interesting cultural mix. I always appreciate Latino influences and the general laid back nature of lower Southern California. San Diego also has a great art scene that we enjoy and if you want a lot of kid stuff to do, this is a great place to visit. www.sandiego.org

Boston, Massachusetts – Boston is just a gem of a city. It is easy to walk around. Great history with not only the history walk, but you can visit all the colonial sites along the walk. Even with the many times I have been in Boston, it is always fun to take one of the hop on-hop off city tours. You always see something new. The city has a wonderful downtown library where you can enjoy architecture and history and a terrific art museum featuring many early U.S. masters. It has the first public library in the United States. The world’s greatest shopper also enjoys the great shopping. We both enjoy the Italian restaurants and some very nice downtown hotels which are not too expensive. And to top it off you can hopefully catch a Boston Red Sox game to make a perfect visit. www.starthereboston.com

Santa Fe, New Mexico – When we lived in El Paso, Texas we made weekend trips to Santa Fe, which was the delight of living in the Southwest. It claims (along with St. Augustine, Florida) to be the oldest city in America. You can’t help but enjoy the Spanish adobe architecture and western art that is to die for. Much of our love of art and a life long habit of art purchases was nurtured in those early visits. As the state capitol, there is a lot going on and the Spanish and Indian culture is fun to observe and enjoy. It is a bit hard to get to, as you can no longer fly into Santa Fe, so fly into Albuquerque and rent a car for a reasonable drive north to Santa Fe. www.santafe.org

San Antonio, Texas – The Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio is a real hidden gem. The city diverted the river so it wandered around the downtown, encouraged the building of restaurants and hotels along the river and ended up with a great city experience. It is a Spanish motif with a lot of Mexican restaurants and evening music. It is a very nice convention destination. Along the river they have open river boats cruising along enjoying the mild temperatures, trees drooping over the river and often free music from public amphitheaters along the river. And don’t forget, San Antonio is famous for the Alamo and the founding of the Texas Republic. The fort is just a short walk from the river.
http://www.visitsanantonio.com/

Home Sweet Home

After all of the travel articles I have written, you would think I do not like staying at home. Actually I live in one of the most beautiful recreation regions of the world (doesn’t everyone say that!) on one of the longest and deepest fresh water lakes in the United States. Maybe I travel a lot so I can better appreciate Chelan County when I get back home. To give you a geography lesson, I actually live in the lake community of Chelan, at the foot of Lake Chelan which is the gateway to the North Cascades National Park. My court is located about 35 miles south in Wenatchee which is on the Columbia River. If you draw a line from Seattle to Spokane on a map and put your finger at the midpoint, you will be in Wenatchee. The county is on the eastern slope of the Cascade mountain range so we are spared the rainy seasons of Seattle and the pacific coast.

Lake Chelan is crystal clear with abundant recreation alternatives. You can boat, fish, hike, sky dive, tour wineries, parasail, white water raft, golf, and eat world famous Chelan apples. As the chamber of commerce tells it, there are 101 things to do. For a complete look check out www.ComeToTheLake.com. By a click on their website they will be happy to send you the 101 Things To Do in the Lake Chelan Valley magazine or call 1-800-424-3536.

Access to the eastern entrance (Stehekin) of the North Cascades National Park is by going to the upper end of Lake Chelan. You can get there only by boat or float plane. Three different boats are available in the summer. You can check out the options at www.ladyofthelake.com. Upper Lake Chelan is compared to a Norwegian fjord and is a gorgeous day trip, or there are over night accommodations and great camping. You can enter the park from Western Washington on an easy drive from Seattle via Arlington or Mount Vernon. You would then cross the magnificent North Cascades Highway (SR 20) to the western theme town of Winthrop (www.winthropwashington.com) in the Methow Valley and then south to Chelan. http://www.north.cascades.national-park.com. The following website will provide some great photos and a tantalizing look at this unique mountain park: http://www.terragalleria.com/parks/np.north-cascades.html

An interesting two or three day road trip to visit the park and Lake Chelan, is to follow the Cascade Loop, which takes you from Seattle over the North Cascades Pass, then to Lake Chelan, on to Wenatchee and returning with a visit to the Bavarian theme city of Leavenworth, and finally to Seattle over Stevens Pass. Information on this alternative is available at www.cascadeloop.com.

The next time you are in the Pacific Northwest I hope you will spend a few extra days and enjoy some of most majestic scenery in the world. Now, why do I go traveling all the time?

(Published in the Winter 2008 issue of the ABA JD Record)

Stopping Off In Los Angeles

Mary Ann at the Getty

The start to some of our trips to American Bar Association mid-year meetings, has sometimes been very difficult, due to Washington weather in February. Normally, because of snow and ice you can’t always guarantee flying out of Pangborn airport in Wenatchee. This year you could not even guarantee driving the passes due to the extraordinary snow and avalanches. On our departure date both passes were closed, but since were flying from Wenatchee because of going on to Fiji, New Zealand, and Tahiti after the meeting it was not a problem.. Everything worked great on the flight to Seattle and on to LA.

For whatever strange reason we rented a car at LAX just so we could abuse ourselves driving on the Los Angeles freeways. The Hertz people must have known that we needed to be seen as we were given a small Chevrolet two door that was the same color as a lemon drop. We sure never lost our car in a parking lot! For this meeting we were staying at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City. This hotel was built in the 1960’s by Westin as one of the first buildings in the conversion of the 20th Century Fox Studios over to Century City. As the former Westin, and we as holders of a Westin Credit Card, we had a grand opening deal for $25.00 per night. (we took advantage of this as we were young and broke, to include sleeping on Pismo Beach the night before). Our splurge was a great dinner and our first purchase of a very expensive bottle of wine. We weaved back to our beautiful room.

The Hyatt has completely renovated the hotel into a convention facility and is still very elegant and very expensive. We did enjoy it however. The highlight of this trip to LA was our visit to the Getty Center and new museum (as compared to the original Getty Villa). You expect when visiting world class museums to get thoroughly gouged financially, but not at the Getty! You do pay $8 for parking, and then take a tram to the top of the mountain where the museum, institute, and Getty Foundation are located. When arriving I kept expecting to go to a ticket booth to pay. I finally asked and was told that Getty said no one should ever have to pay to see his collections. My kind of guy!

The art is fantastic, but equally amazing is the architecture by Richard Meirer. The buildings, views, gardens, fountains, and general ambience is wonderful and not to be missed. Keeping in line with their “do not gouge” policy, even the food in the café was reasonably priced. This is a sure stop when visiting Los Angeles. And…don’t miss the two incredible Renoir’s, both of which we had never seen before.

Our plan for the trip to New Zealand was that I could either put Mary Ann in Business Class (she is getting a little cranky about the 15+ plus hour flights), or I could come up with something else. The “something else” was a two day stopover in Fiji, thus making it only an 11 hour flight (not really two plus days because of the date line). It was a totally at night flight on Air New Zealand which for a slight extra fee permits these island layovers. We arrived about 6 a.m. Fiji time after amazingly getting a good nights sleep. Then the Fiji adventures began!

Home Safely!

After getting to Baker City, Oregon (which is a very historic and a nice place to visit on the Oregon Trail in Eastern Oregon) we realized that we were getting anxious to be home, as we drove 700 miles in one day, all the way from Moab, Utah. This put us in a position to be in Wenatchee by noon the next day, and reaquaint ourselves with the cats. Maybe they will forgive us some day.

So what is the next travel adventure for the Warren's? In September we have arranged to rent a 42 foot yacht with two compatible couples for a self drive on the Shannon River in Ireland. A few years ago we did a similar self drive cruise on the Rhine Canal in the Alsace region of France.

For those of you who have not had the benefit of my past travel writing, I will be posting my previous articles on the blog about once a week. That will just have to satisfy you until I do some new stories. Buen Viaje. Thanks to the 580 visitors that I hope have enjoyed the descriptions of our adventure to San Miguel.

The Four Corners National Parks

Mesa Verde, Arches, and Canyonlands National Parks: A couple of nights ago we spent the afternoon and evening in Durango, Colorado. I have to admit that although this was a wonderful town in the mountains and near the 4 corners national parks, I secretly wanted to visit so I could have passed through two Durango’s on the same trip, one in Mexico and one in the United States. Durango is a delightful town dating from the 1880’s, and has done a great job on preserving their historic downtown. I think it is a place to visit with more time. We did not, because of time, get to ride the narrow gauge train to Silverton. Maybe that is a good reason to return.

Most of the following day we were amazed at seeing the sites in Mesa Verde National Park. This is where you get to see all the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians dating from the 1200’s. Amazing! We then went on to Moab, Utah the jumping off place for Arches and Canyonlands Parks. Arches not only have the fascinating sandstone arches, but also the sandstone pillars and carved out mountains. Then onto Canyonlands where the overlooks view the canyons over 2000 feet below carved out by the Green and Colorado rivers. Words do not do these parks justice. The photos tell the story.


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