Colorado Review

I’m thrilled that this week’s Project Blog challenge is to expand on that puny post I put up last week.

Indeed, I do tend to write succinctly, but 50 words to describe how to kill time at Denver International Airport…. well, it just doesn’t do the airport justice.

DIA, which is today the country’s largest international airport (by land size) and voted the best airport in North America by Business Traveler readers, actually had an inauspicious start.

It was besieged by major problems with its automated baggage system and other construction delays. Originally set to replace the old Stapleton Airport in the fall of 1993, DIA actually officially debuted in February 1995.

Since, then, however, the kinks have certainly been worked out. I find it an incredibly easy airport to navigate, and I’ve never had baggage problems when flying in and out (or via) DIA. (And I’ve find myself in the airport at least twice a year for the past 10 years.)

When I drive to this international airport in the Mile-High City from my home in the mountains, I can’t help but grin when I get my first view of its white “circus tent” roof. The 34 peaks, reminiscent of the mountain range surrounding the airport, are actually made of fiberglass coated with Teflon, though they resemble fabric.

Photo courtesy Denver International Airport

And I really do have a routine that I carry out in the B concourse if I have an hour or more to spend at DIA before my flight. (Especially if I’m traveling alone, sans young kids, and can be indulgent with my time!)

I head immediately to A Massage on the Mezzanine level. This is a no-frills, “storefront” massage center (i.e. you’re on display to passersby if you choose a chair massage). Treatments range from a 10-minute, neck/shoulders/back chair massage ($15) to a 90-minute table massage ($117) — yes, table massages are behind a private curtain. I’ve never been disappointed with the rubdowns I’ve received here. I’m typically tense from carrying bags and this seems to put me in a good frame of mind before boarding a plane.

Then, if it’s mealtime (or even if it’s not — since you don’t get freebie meals on domestic flights anymore; better fuel up), I scoot over to Que Bueno! near gate 50 also in Concourse B. Here, for about $7 you can get a Grande Burrito–and it is indeed grande. I always opt for the grilled veggie, which comes with white rice, beans, lettuce, cheese and salsa (sour cream and guac are extra). It’s a tiny restaurant and often hard to find a seat. Get yours to go and eat it near your gate, where you have more elbow room. (Don’t forget a fork and extra napkins.)

Another nifty feature of the airport is its Public Art Program and Art Exhibition Program. There is permanent art displayed throughout the main (Jeppesen) terminal and the concourses, as well as the concourses. A main rotating exhibit gallery is on the connecting bridge between Jeppesen Terminal, Level 6 and the security checkpoints leading to Concourse A.

Basically, this art program consists of 26 site-specific and permanent works of art, ranging from whimsical installations (Kinetic Air Light Curtain, a.k.a. the cool propellers in the underground-train tunnels) to controversial murals (In Peace and Harmony with Nature, which shows children in caskets). One piece is “auditory art�: listen for the tribal chanting and Native American music and as you arrive at an international gate and make your way across the pedestrian bridge to Customs & Immigration.

Pick up a self-guided art tour brochure at the Ambassadors’ booth in the main terminal (ask any helpful Ambassador sporting a white cowboy hat).

If your travels do bring you to DIA, I highly recommend you check out www.flydenver.com to find out what other restaurants (many bars for sampling Colorado microbrews!), services and shops (think last-minute holiday gifts this time of year, or the omnipresent Crocs made here in Colorado) there are at DIA. Or you can always email me for advice!

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From my home in the Colorado Rockies, I’ve got a choice of airports.

Aspen (ASE) is only 30 minutes away, but usually prices to fly in and out of this chi-chi resort are steep, especially in the high season (summer and winter).

Grand Junction (GJT) is about 90 minutes from me, but it works if I’m flying to the West Coast (usually via Salt Lake City or Phoenix).

Denver (DEN) is a nearly-four-hour drive, but since it’s a United and Frontier hub, I get the best deals here. If I’m flying somewhere with the whole family (four of us; five if my mother-in-law comes along) we’ll make the drive to Denver and stay overnight in an airport-area hotel before our flights. We typically do this for long-haul trips to Mexico or the East Coast.

My preferred airport, however, is Eagle/Vail (EGE). Why? That’s easy: FREE PARKING!

How many regional airports these days offer totally free short-term and long-term parking? Not many, I don’t think. All the parking spots are within walking distance to the main terminal–no shuttle service needed. That’s a beautiful thing.

For me, the airport is an hour from my home. That means it’s about an hour and a half from Aspen. It’s also less than 30 minutes to Vail’s slopes, and not that much further to Breckenridge.

Basically, if you’re coming to the Rockies to ski, consider EGE if you don’t want to make the lengthy drive from Denver International Airport. Colorado Mountain Express vans make scheduled runs from EGE to the various Western Slope ski areas.

The Vail/Eagle County Regional Airport also offers free wireless internet service throughout the terminal. It’s spacious and always clean. A newly remodeled coffee shop and deli offers healthy food before your flight.

And the airport does accommodate jet service, which is great for me, since I hate flying on small propeller planes (yes, the irony of being a travel writer and dreading small-plane flying does not escape me). Boeing 757s regularly fly in and out of EGE.

For your next vacation in Western Colorado, I highly recommend checking out EGE. It’s truly the most convenient airport to most of the Rockies resort locations, and has many non-stop flights from major U.S. cities. Read more about EGE here.

Everyone in my neck of the woods—the Aspen area of Colorado—is fixated on the sky lately. We’re praying to the snow gods to bring the flakes to our mountains. The snow that was forecast for Wednesday, left just an inch or two in my front yard–and it promptly melted as soon as the sun came out on the day before Thanksgiving.

The “storm,” did, however, dump about 12 inches on Aspen Mountain and 9 inches on Snowmass Mountain. It wasn’t enough for the mountain managers to open Aspen Mountain for skiing on Thanksgiving (the gondolas were free to outdoor enthusiasts who wanted to snowshoe or hike). Snowmass was open—and the lifts were free to folks who wanted make some turns on the limited terrain. (I’m a fair weather/great conditions kind of skier, so my boards remain in my basement for now!)

I thought visitors would be complaining bitterly about the lack of snow, but it turns out, those who traveled from places like Florida and the Caribbean were thrilled to simply be able to play a bit in snow. Of course, the fact that skiing was totally free helped!

It is cloudy here today, and more snow is in the forecast for the coming week. (If my brother is reading, rest assured I’m *sure* there will be plenty of snow for your snowboarding visit over Christmas!)

In the meantime, if visitors want to forego the slopes and enjoy other activities while they’re visiting my fine state, there’s tons to do. Here’s a special I learned about recently:

Reasonable Rates at Hotel Monaco, Denver
Stay at the four-diamond Hotel Monaco, an upscale boutique hotel in downtown Denver, for as low as $104 a night through January 6. You’ll be close to shopping, nightlife, tons of restaurants, and did I mention awesome stores for holiday shopping? Plug in the promo code TZP at the hotel’s reseservations website.

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Don’t forget to vote for me in the second week of Project Blog! Here are the rest of the contestants:

1. Randi, Brad Pitt Watch: “A Blast from the Past for Project Blog”
2. Kate, Babylune: “Has Sex Really Left the City?”
3. Winnie, Watching The View: “Project Blog: Three Ways Rosie O’Donnell Changed The View”
4. Sally, Style Fix: “Because I Slacked on My Promise: A Total ANTM Recall”
5. Jodie, Gossip on Sports: “Project Blog Week Two Challenge”
6. Cynthia, TV of the Absurd: “Supernatural Origins: Take Two”
7. Mark, Get Incensed: “We’re Still Not Friends”

It’s coming! But it’s not here yet!

I’m sitting in my mountain home at 7,000 feet elevation — 30 minutes from Aspen’s slopes — and it’s 60 degrees outside. According to one of the local papers, the Aspen Times, Aspen Mountain and Snowmass will open on Thanksgiving Day with very limited terrain. Jeff Hanle, an Aspen Skiing Company spokesperson is suggesting that locals not even try to hit the slopes. He’s quoted in the paper as saying, “It’s not going to be the best conditions in the world, so we may want to leave it to our visiting guests.”

Other ski resorts in the state have opened, but conditions are reported marginal elsewhere, too.

That all said, according to the Weather Channel, a storm is moving in, at least in my neck of the woods, and we can expect some snow starting late tonight. In Aspen tomorrow, the high is expected to be in the 30s, with morning snow showers. Another storm is moving in later in the week, with some snow expected on Friday, as well. Denver’s high is forecast to be only 28 degrees, also with snow on its way tomorrow and Friday.

Even though the ski season is starting slowly around here, I’m not worried. If temperatures do drop this week as forecast, the snow-making machines will be running on overdrive to fill in those patchy spots on the slopes. And I’m sure Mother Nature will help out by the time visitors arrive in droves for the busy Christmas-to-New-Year’s Week, which can be hectic in Aspen, but oh-so-fun for celebrity spotting!

Photo by Hal Williams. Courtesy AspenSnowmass.com.

While the Colorado Rockies play their hearts out at Denver’s Coors Field this weekend, downtown Elitch Gardens theme park celebrates Halloween with some fun–and frightening–attractions.

First, children can safely trick or treat from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the inaugural ARC Thrift Stores’ BOO Gardens, sponsored in part by the radio station MIX 100. Pick up a ticket voucher for just $8 at various retail locations in Denver, ARC Thrift Stores, Chrysler Dealers, After Hours Urgent Care Centers and Renewal by Anderson Replacement Windows. Or check out this page on the MIX 100 website to find out how to get vouchers online or via text message.

Also this weekend at Elitch Gardens, some areas of the park have been transformed into haunted houses. They really break out the horror in the evening. An area called “Brutal Realm” has been overrun by zombies and creatures “from your worst nightmares,” according to the Elitch’s website. Since this scary spot features lots of blood and gore, it’s not recommended for children under eight years old.

“Screams” is a haunted house filled with mummies, ghosts, spiders and other favorite Halloween creatures. With minimal blood and gore, this attraction is for all ages. During the daylight hours, it won’t have any monsters inside, so even young children can get in on the fun.

In a “Fear Factor” type of activity, guests will test their mettle against snakes and bugs, and take on other physical and mental challenges, to win season passes to the park. Be sure to drop by “Test Your Fear, Live” to check out all the action. The “Test Your Fear” for kids is “Hip Hop-sicles,” where they’ll learn to play harmless Halloween pranks.

At dusk on Saturday and Sunday, a procession of zombies, mummies, ghosts, ghouls and more will make their way through the park.

Boo!

Colorado, Elitch Gardens, Halloween

Planning to be in Denver this weekend when the Colorado Rockies face the Boston Red Sox in Games 3 & 4 of the World Series? Chances are, even if you wanted to go to this exciting match-up, you won’t be able to get tickets. That is, unless you pay the big bucks from ticket brokers like TicketsNow.com. On this site, they range from about $750 to $1500!

Yesterday, Rockies management began selling tickets online for a much more reasonable $65 to $250. However, a whopping 8.5 million users jammed the server within 90 minutes of tickets going on sale. The server crashed and the site closed soon after.

Needless to say, Rockies baseball fans were a bit disappointed. Colorado newspapers today published many stories of folks who took off from work, or went to public libraries to use Internet-connected computers and came up empty.

Originally, the Rockies were going to sell tickets in person at Coors Field on Monday. But then came up with the online-only plan to make ticket buying more fair.

Ha!

Seems like ticket brokers with several servers and/or speedy Internet connections may have bought many tickets (or at least they were among the throngs of people logging on to buy them). Only a few hundred tickets were sold before the ticket-selling website had to be shut down.

Now, the Rockies will re-launch the ticket-selling website today, Tuesday, at noon. The company that runs the computers for the Rockies’ ticket sales promises that is has a back-up system in place, according to the Associated Press. The company also claims that the servers went down yesterday because of a “malicious attack” (but no further details are available).

Only about 19,000 tickets of more than 50,000 seats are for sale. The rest of the seats/tickets go to season ticket holders and members of the team and Major League Baseball.

Colorado Rockies, Major League Baseball

The second-annual Denver Marathon was held in the Mile-High City Sunday in the pouring rain. But that didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of participants and supporters who lined downtown Denver streets. More than 7,500 runners battled freezing temperatures (it barely reached 40 degrees) and constant drizzle and downpour over the course of the race.

While you’d think mid-October would mark the end of road-race season here in the Rockies, there are actually dozens more community running events happening in the coming few weeks. If you’re interested in participating in a local race, many of which often benefit charities, here’s a list to help you with your travel plans:

October 20
Golden
Compass Montessori Harvest Festival 10k run or 1k walk

Grand Junction
Holy Family Hallelujah 5k

October 21
Arvada
5k/1k Run with Rocky

October 26
Denver
Scream Scram
5k plus 100-meter Spooky Sneak (with treats at the finish line) for kids. Washington Park, 6 p.m.
Wear your costume! Benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

October 27
Alamosa
Monster Mash Dash 5k, inaugural event
Wear your costume!

Denver
Gorilla Run, 5.6k
Everyone who participates wears a head-to-toe gorilla costume! Benefits the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund.

Erie
Eerie Erie 5k

Manitou Springs
Mayor’s Cup 5k

October 31
Denver
Halloween Hustle 5k

November 3
Loveland
Heart Center of the Rockies Half Marathon, 10k, 5k

Grand Junction
Harbert Lumber Fall Festival 5k

November 4
Littleton
Littleton Stride 10k or 5k

November 10
Longmont
Turkey Trot
33rd annual 10k or 2 mile race

November 11
Boulder
Panicking Poultry 5k

November 17
Brighton
23rd Annual Turkey Trot
5k

Colorado, road races

It’s not often you’ll find recipes here at Colorado Review (I leave that to my friends at the Food, Cooking & Wine Channel, like Earthly Eating.) But this one sounded too good to refrain from sharing–a hearty Chicken Gumbo for cool fall evenings. It’s from the sous chef at the Garden Terrace at The Inverness, a recently renovated hotel with brand-new spa in suburban Denver.

New Orleans favorites are served at the Cajun Creole buffet Friday nights through November 30. Buffet pricing is $26.95 for adults and $13.95 for kids. The menu includes everything from poached catfish, peel & eat shrimp and blackened pork and cabbage salad to po’ boy sandwiches, red beans and rife and shrimp etoufee.

Cajun Creole Chicken Gumbo
Executive Sous Chef Anthony Sinese

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
2 tbsp flour, all-purpose
2 onions, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
5 cups warm chicken broth
8 tomatoes, peeled/chopped
1/2 lb okra, cut into 1/4″ pieces
1 1/2 tbsp filé gumbo (powdered sassafras leaves used as seasoning and thickener)
1/2 cup uncooked rice
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 broiler-fryer chicken, cooked

PREPARATION:
In large Dutch oven, melt shortening over low heat; add flour and cook, stirring, until brown, about 10 minutes (do not hurry; if flour burns, roux is ruined).

Add onions and bell pepper; cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

Slowly add warm broth; stir until broth reaches a boil.

Add tomatoes, okra, rice, celery, salt, filé gumbo, pepper, thyme and bay leaf; bring to a boil.

Add chicken; when mixture boils again, reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 20 minutes.

Stir and cook, covered, 20 minutes longer. Serves 6.

Denver, The Inverness

Full disclaimer: I recently started writing for 5280, Denver’s Mile-High Magazine. (Get it? Denver is at 5,280 feet above sea level.) But despite being paid to cover travel in my home state and beyond (my first piece is on a resort in Utah–shhhhh!), I can honestly say that this award-winning publication is chock full of great stuff.

Not only does it cover the political scene in the state, but there are some fun reads about interesting personalities, thorough Denver-area restaurant reviews, and my favorite, suggestions for state-wide weekend trips. The current issue covers fall getaways–the best scenic drives for viewing autumn foliage. I also like the annual “Top of the Town” issue, “best of” lists of everything from favorite city parks to where to find the tastiest martinis to opinions on the most overrated Denver sports professional.

If you’re in Denver, pick up a copy. If you visit the state often, consider subscribing. Or check out some of the articles that are posted online.

Colorado, city magazines, Denver, 5280

I love Whole Foods natural foods markets, and I’d shop often at the Cherry Creek location when I lived in Denver. The big news in my neck of the woods is that a store is scheduled to open in 2010 the hip, new Willits development in Basalt–just 5 minutes from my house. I’m looking forward to it — even though it’s 2 1/2 years away…

In the meantime, the news in the Lakewood area (metro Denver) is that a cooking studio is opening at the market September 15. During the annual Belmar Festival Italiano, the Cooking Studio will be open for free day-long Italian cooking demonstrations and tastings, including a mozzarella pulling class, led by Danielle Edmonds, Cooking Studio Facilitator.

The Belmar Cooking Studio will offer 20 to 30 educational and interactive classes per month. Designed for everyone from the experienced gourmand to the beginner chef, there’s a class for all interests and skill levels.

I love the sound of “Kids in the Kitchen,” “College Cooking 101,” “Baker’s Secrets: Pies and More Pies” and “French Wines & Cheeses.” Click here to read the September/October schedule.

Denver, Whole Foods