My 2019 post, Zion National Park (Angels Landing), is much more informative than this one, this being primarily personal because for the first time I wondered if I’d actually “make it,” respecting the psychological law of hiking that inclines increase several degrees in steepness each year after one turns ~60. Continue reading “Zion National Park (Angels Landing Again)”
Author: Louis B.
Four-day Colorado Road Trip
When my friend from Tulsa, a friend from antiquity (circa 1973), and I planned the road trip about four months ago, it probably involved rigorous backpacking. As it was, we did carry our tents and bags out of his car and set them up nearby in a mist of mosquitoes, and that’s roughing it for a few minutes. Continue reading “Four-day Colorado Road Trip”
Los Zacatitos, Fourth Visit
This post is about my fourth trip to Zacatitos. Third trip, second trip, first.
This trip inadvertently followed the death of a very good friend, and no better prescription could have been given for my soul! Continue reading “Los Zacatitos, Fourth Visit”
Photos of Gijón, Spain & Konstanz, Germany
itinerary:
- Oct. 5, fly Denver to Miami to Madrid to Gijón, Spain.
- Oct. 14, fly Gijón to Madrid to Zurich, train to Konstanz, Germany.
- Oct 18, Reverse that.
- Oct 29, fly Gijón to Madrid to Chicago. Lose your day-pack with your laptop, razor, rain jacket, headlamp, and favorite hair brush (or have it stolen…dunno—it will have been a very long day). Chicago to Denver. Discover Lyft wants about $125 to go to Lafayette, so bus to Boulder and take Lyft from there.
Madrid
In the Madrid-Barajas airport, you cannot find out certain gate numbers until you get to Terminal 4 (T4, boasting “70 million passengers per year”). There you find T4S is set aside for countries, such as the US, that lie outside of the Schengen Area, the 26 EU countries that abolished their passport requirements. At T4S, you find, you hope, the H-J-K concourses, and only then can you learn the gate. Continue reading “Photos of Gijón, Spain & Konstanz, Germany”
Guest Entry – Balcony at Cliffs Club Kauai
This guest post is by Linda Grounds, née Burkhardt. It arose from her observations while on vacation in Hawaii. – Louis
The view was breathtaking.
A code of silence, unwritten yet understood, quieted the tongues of the vacationing balcony dwellers. Stilled, in reverence to the ancient emerald cliffs crowned with rainbows. Hushed, so that bird songs floated above a soft ocean roar. Whispered, to preserve rare moments. A whale spouting, a pod of dolphin playing, a turtle shadow beneath the sparkling foam. Continue reading “Guest Entry – Balcony at Cliffs Club Kauai”
Los Zacatitos, Third Visit (!)
This post is about my third trip to Zacatitos; my second trip here and my first trip here.
That I am traveling at all is a testament to the decline of covid–19 in some parts of the world.
Yes, I must like this place…as well as el yerno, Don, y la hija, Sarah, who invited me—el suegro—down! (¡And that is the last of my Spanish through which you must suffer!)
Continue reading “Los Zacatitos, Third Visit (!)”
Zion National Park (Angels Landing)
Flying Frontier
I fly Frontier, proudly, knowing at any juncture a flight might be late or canceled. Once I drove back from Tulsa to Denver because (1) the flight was canceled and (2) the Frontier employee told us, “Oh, and we don’t fly out of Tulsa tomorrow, so you’ll have to find a different airline.” Continue reading “Zion National Park (Angels Landing)”
Southern England: Revisited
One year after my previous trip, I repeated the opportunity to visit Chris, a friend from my undergraduate days, and Adrienne, his wife.
This time I came prepared with one request: that we visit the yellow cliffs popularized in the television series Broadchurch. Sometime in the intervening year I had watched and, really, become attached to that scenery. As one of the characters says,
It is gorgeous, and, I confess, once again life imitates art. Continue reading “Southern England: Revisited”
Peru 2 – Sacred Valley (Cusco and Písac)
Preface
As with “Peru 1,” I’m using some annotated photos, this time from a 2011 trip, in order to put them to rest in a travel log. Laura was already there, as it was the end of a lengthy visit to Bolivia and Peru.
Continue reading “Peru 2 – Sacred Valley (Cusco and Písac)”
Peru 1 – Sacred Valley (Cusco, Machu Picchu & Inca Písac)
Brief and Tedious Preface
No, I have not recently returned from Peru, though I wish I had. Instead, I’m using some annotated photos from a 2008 trip and am converting them into an entry here. There are several unspeakable reasons for this.
Continue reading “Peru 1 – Sacred Valley (Cusco, Machu Picchu & Inca Písac)”
Los Zacatitos, Second Visit (and father East Cape)
This post is about my second trip to Zacatitos; my third trip here and my first trip here.
Baja Sur: Baja (Lower) California Sur (South). This current post is brief, following as it does on the heels of the lengthy post on Southern England, a short history and tour guide to key spots in that area.
Continue reading “Los Zacatitos, Second Visit (and father East Cape)”
Southern England: ‘Tis new to thee’
One would think that someone who had both taught Shakespeare and written a dissertation on the Globe playhouse would have made an early visit to England to know what he was talking about. Not I. Instead I waited about 25 years to visit, and not for a professional reason, but for the opportunity to visit Chris, a friend from my undergraduate days, and Adrienne, his wife.
Guest Entry – Washington D.C. (mostly)
This is adapted from an email Mindy sent (8/14/2017) while on a trip from Missouri to Washington D.C. Between her (un)timely visit to Charlottesville and breakfast in Trump’s hotel, the content may interest more than the original audience (and she’s given me permission to post it). – Louis
Here are the highlights from our (Mindy, Josh, and friends’) time in Washington D.C.
Preface: Charlottesville
Before we went to D.C. we were in Charlottesville—I don’t have any pictures from it, but it was a really nice town with more cars than I prefer. Josh and I had a great time at a running store where a guy named Turtle sold Josh a new pair of runners and I really enjoyed hanging out with Sarah and Kyle and walking around and looking at the campus and shops and things.
Los Zacatitos, MX, First Visit
This post is about my first trip to Zacatitos; my second trip here and my third trip here.
Baja (lower) California is a peninsula comprised of two Mexican states, Baja California and the southern half, Baja California Sur. I spent a week at the southern end, a bit to the east of the Southern Cape, the beginning of East Cape. The nearest city with an international airport is San José del Cabo (Saint Joseph of the Cape).
The Road to Veracruz
Why Taxis Were Invented
Flew to Mexico City for a week-long visit with only two goals: meet a friend and return home in one piece. Arriving in the evening, I discovered my cell phone failed to find a signal (guess I forgot to figure that out), but the airport internet service allowed me to email my friend, BR, who was waiting in a different terminal. For fifteen years I had known him, yet we never met in person. Over this time (over the Internet), he proved himself to be a thoughtful, honest man who worked hard, harder than I, translating a gigantic medical book. So it seemed fitting to meet him as a friend, now that I had ended the employment that brought us together.
BR is a medical doctor turned translator. He’s a smart man, often correcting problems in the English text, usually medical inaccuracies but also some grammar.
Newport Beach Dead of Winter
Getting There
Flight booked, no rental car, no real knowledge of where we were headed: Laura, Rodina, and I were going to fly to Santa Ana (John Wayne Airport) day after Christmas to retire briefly from the Colorado weather.
Newport Beach in the Dead of Winter Gallery
Newport Beach photos in the Dead of Winter 2014
Hovenweep (ancestral Pueblo community)
Recently, I was in Durango to drop someone off at the Colorado Trail and then drove on to Hovenweep (Utah), to admire the 800 year old stone and mud buildings that have survived.
The Colorado Trail as One Can Pick it up at Molas Pass
The Colorado Trail
Starting near Molas Pass (which is about 6 miles outside Silverton), I hiked from Little Molas Lake trailhead westward about 5 miles, to spend the (lightening filled) night on the Colorado Trail.
Continue reading “The Colorado Trail as One Can Pick it up at Molas Pass”
The Squirrel and the Hummingbird
During this week, I camped along one of my favorite trails near Boulder. The trail is so nice that it seemed for decades there was an unspoken rule among us hiker: don’t let the masses learn about this place. Now the place is much better known—now being among the places one is wiser to visit during a weekday.