The above “Walk Score” is for the address of 1610 Little Raven Street, Denver Colorado 80202, the home of Zengo Restaurant and the heart of the plaza in Riverfront. The score (at least today when writing the post) is 83 or “Very Walkable”. How cool is this tool!!! 8-)

Walk Score calculates, on a scale to 100, how pedestrian friendly (walkable) your address is. If you are looking [Read more →]

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Last night I was fortunate enough to attend my first (yes, my first) concert at Red Rocks for the R.E.M. concert with Modest Mouse and The National. And yes, I cannot count on one hand how many people were shocked that it was my first concert. Don’t ask me how that happened, I guess my days in the mountains were just too booked. However I was still a slacker for putting this event off for so long. Red Rocks is an amazing place and it was an amazing show. And with the news about Obama winning the Democratic Presidential Nomination the show had a special energy for R.E.M. Michael Stipe began an earlier set announcing that Obama would be our next President and went through a number of songs [Read more →]

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So I haven’t been posting alot lately. There has been quite a bit going on… of which I’ll post more later.

But while I was updating a few other blogs for folks I finally made the jump to the newest version of wordpress for my own blog. Isn’t it funny how you always put yourself last in updates.

Anyway, a few things fell out of the mix in the upgrade. First, the old polls just didn’t transfer over very well and I decided to delete them. I know, the best pizza in Denver poll got a good amount of traffic. But the fact is, that poll was over a year old and every once in awhile you need to blow things out and start fresh or the info is dated. Maybe the best pizza in 2006 just isn’t the same best pizza in 2008. It’s good to ask the questions again.

And of course the theme had a few hiccups too. Now if I am going to roll out a new look I might as well get one that can handle all the fun plugins that are out today. So have patience with me and feel free to email me any that you like. I’ll be adjusting them a bit.

Cheers.

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Vail Resorts has decided to do a special gift for skiers this coming year with the rollout of a new Epic Pass. For $579. The new Epic pass offers unlimited skiing at all the Vail Resorts including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin. There are no Blackout dates, period. This is an amazing promotion considering that it undercuts even the merchant passes available for employees working in these resort towns.

Compare this to the current year pricing…

This year, the same unrestricted pass would have cost $1,849
For employees in the Vail Valley, who have always gotten the best deal, an unlimited pass WITH RESTRICTIONS would have cost $869

Why the sudden change of strategy in pricing? Who knows, maybe all the real estate development needs a boost, maybe skier numbers need a boost, maybe they are hedging the threat of decreasing skier numbers due the the big R forecasts. Is a Recession on the way, are we already in one, are we on our way out of one, or is it all a big scare? Let the economists wrangle with that one, I’m just happy to have a great deal thrown my way.

Of course not everyone is happy about this. The Vail Valley in particular is wrestling with some predictions on what the increased traffic will do the the roads throughout the valley. Citing “Epic Problems” on the way many worry this will be a disaster for travelers and those working in the Valley.

Guess that’s why you are supposed to buy some real estate and head up there on Friday night to stay under your own roof.

What do you think? What ski pass, if any, will you buy next year?

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Reading the New York Times this week I was not surprised to see mention of our horrible traffic issue on I-70 between here and the mountains. What amazes me is that the train solution isn’t being pushed harder. Short term fixes work, well, short term. A long term solution is needed.

That’s on my wish list anyway.

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Since I walk to work I usually miss out on all the drama of traffic, weather, and general human foolishness…. but my friend’s story I had to share.

Now I know we got some snow last night. Let’s face it, last night rocked. After taking my very happy Alaskan Malamute for a snow romp we went to grab dinner at the Avenue Grill and watch the snow fall through the big glass windows. Cab’s both ways saved us from driving, but the wait to get the return cab was a bit long.

But nevermind that, I’m off topic from my friend’s trip into the office today.

First let me set the stage for you. She works downtown and lives in Highlands Ranch. That’s a long enough hike on a normal day but with the weather today… ouch. Her husband sets out for his day much earlier and gave her a warning call just before she left “I’m still not to the office yet” he let her know. This means close to two hours on the road.

So she quickly changed her plans and decided to take the light rail. Her usual 7 minute trip to the light rail station took her 30 minutes. No telling what a trip all the way downtown would have been. She missed her first train because apparently it was High School trip day and the machines were clogged with fun loving teens experimenting with their freedom and trying to learn how to use the system for the first time (this I actually find funny) and she catches the next train with no major issues. She thought about jumping on the train that was just sitting there and that she eventually missed waiting for the high school students to wrap up their purchases but didn’t want to risk getting ticketed.

Then on the way across Colfax WHAMMO a car collided with her light rail train. I guess the hit was pretty hard (and loud) with passengers on the train screaming and jolted from their peaceful trip. And what does the idiot who hit the train do… they run away. Can you imagine someone thinking they can get away with a hit and run on the light rail. Apparently no less than 50 people got their license plate numbers. I am just fascinated with how people think, or don’t think, sometimes. I can’t even imagine what will happen to that fool. My guess is the person wasn’t on the way to their job as a rocket scientist or molecular genetic engineer, but I’ve been wrong before.

The train announcer was a bit confused. Ordinarily the train needs to sit and wait to swap information with the other car but since the driver did a hit and run there was no one to swap info with. Good news for those train passengers as the train went back on its path. After finally arriving to downtown she decided to make a pit stop at the bank at Lawrence with the intention of taking the 16th street shuttle the rest of the way. That, of course with Murphy’s law, turned out to be a big mistake as the shuttles were only running one way… for her the wrong way. And of course this means the last leg of her trip was on foot slipping and sliding every step of the way.

If anyone has a better trip into work story for today… bring it.

I didn’t really think our snow was that bad last night but it sure seems to have the ability to grind our streets to a halt. Good thing we all have a sense of humor (or at least most of us).

Photo credit from CBS website.

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So I finally got a chance to do the famous Winter Park Ski Train. With my ties to Vail it took me a little longer to give this a shot, but I am glad I did.

I’ll do a quick summary for those of you who are thinking about it. First of all, groups are the best. We had a group of 107 folks so we pretty much ruled a car and a half. At first I think everyone worried about seats and being right next to each other but the reality is that with train travel everyone is walking, talking, leaning, moving pretty much all the time. It’s a social scene on wheels.

The views are amazing, although again this became second place quickly to everyone being social. Yet far more scenic than a flood of taillights on I-70.

If you live downtown the Ski Train has a special appeal. We walked over the bridge in Riverfront Park right at 7:00 for our 7:15 departure. I personally set my alarm for 5:30 to take the pup for a long walk and to give me quite a bit of time cushion just in case, so it is not a good night to plan a big Friday out on the town.

Then on the train everyone greets each other, has fun, and kicks back and RELAXES all the way up. No white knuckle driving, no fighting traffic, and there is always a place to buy coffee or breakfast only a short walk away. Some slept, some read the paper, most chatted. Nice.

On the way back this gets magnified into a huge social gathering. Beverages flow throughout the car, there is laughter everywhere and no one is driving. What a great solution for downtown residents… instead of trying to balance doing apres with the drive home and fighting crowds on that sometimes painful return the ski train becomes the apres location. No risk, no worries. One person said it was just like staying in the mountains with no worries about the commute. Considering I carried my skis there and back in less than ten minutes I’d have to agree.

Some bits of advice for you…

Avoid car 2. It’s behind the engine so the front is sealed. Don’t worry, you don’t get any fumes but the lack of ventilation gets TOASTY. We had folks stripping down to the minimum so maybe chair two will be the naked car. Your choice.

There isn’t much you can do about this worry, but if you get behind a slower train your trip could take a bit longer. This happened on our way up but not on our way back. Not too bad, some folks slept longer and the train is comfy. But keep this in mind if you are making strict plans involving timing and make sure you have a puppy sitter on reserve in case your return is late.

Get your food or drink quick if you want it. They sold out of burritos pretty fast on the way up and while they had beer all the way through the trip back, the Stella was the first to go. Don’t forget they close the catering car when they think they are 30 minutes away from the station. This might be longer so if you want stock up before they close.

There is a great lounge car with scrabble and other games. Consider grabbing a spot there for awhile if you have a small group but be quick if you want a seat.

We will be doing the Ski Train again. Give it a shot for yourself. I forgot to mention that the train stopped on a cross track exactly where another train was heading at us. The folks in our car started getting a little bit nervous as it got closer.. and closer… and closer. Then we quickly moved, picture is one of others below.

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Ski Trip
Winter Park
Ski Train (no driving)
Apres Party

Do I really need to say any more… (well maybe)

I was at a little Holiday Party last night chatting about an upcoming Riverfront Park Ski Trip on January 26th. The bullet points are that a car has been rented with only 62 seats available, several sponsors have signed up to give some perks to this first time trip crew that will be taking the Ski Train up and back followed by an Apres Party and a very close and cool spot downtown (Another wonderful sponsor).

No fighting traffic and it will be fun and social!! Siri at East West Urban Management is managing the rapidly growing list of folks who are snagging the seats for this inaugural event. You can email her if you are interested in learning more or if you are a homeowner in Riverfront you can
sign right up.

Think snow!!!

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In a fun twist the blogging on the recent Colorado Rockies ticket snafu got noticed by some folks involved at Bernstein Crisis Management PR Firm.

These folks have taken an interesting angle on blogging with regards to the immediate availability of news through the blogging community over status quo news agencies. Basically if you want to find out what is happening you might be better off doing a google or technorati search instead of just hitting the standard news channels. The reasoning is simple, with cell phone cameras (both photo and video) and sites such as youtube or personal blogs regular joes like you and me can be giving the rest of the world news faster than organized news channels. Interesting and fun for this blog to have gotten a little press so I hope you don’t mind my sharing. [Read more →]

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Like all of you, I am sitting with two computers cranking away trying to get Rockies Tickets. No site is responding and everything is frozen. I started freaking out and thinking that there was no way any tickets would be left but then I noticed that everyone around me was also caught up with nothing responding… so I decided to do some research.

First I tried to call the Rockies office, but no one answered.

Then I tried to pull up evenue.net, but the site didn’t respond. evenue.net looks to be the folks who are handling the sale of tickets for the rockies.

Then I went to Network Solutions and did a whois on the domain owner of evenue.net…. and found them with a front desk number. So I of course called the company to see if I could find out the scoop. The very nice lady who was answering phones caught on to what I was up to right away as she asked “are you calling about Rockies tickets”. “Yes” I replied. So she gave me the scoop.

They are having issues, big issues, on the hosting side with their ISP. Whatever is going on, they can’t resolve traffic between their servers and the outside ISP’s. They have contacted their ISP and are hoping for some resolution soon. They don’t know if it is something really big or something really easy to fix, but either way they are dead in the water and the update they gave me is that fewer than 100 tickets have been sold so far. She said the IT guys just were not expecting this mass amount of response and they whole system is overwhelmed.

Well duh, what did they think would happen. Someone is going to get a little dose of reality about this whole thing.

I heard that Rockies.com did an interview where they said it was all going okay. Don’t believe it, they are still down. I hope you all get tickets, just not mine. :)

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