Where to Watch Wild Weather

The Weather Channel stormwatcher picked 10 spots; I have an 11th

If you've ever seen a tornado, you've watched wild weather. Those who were in Miami for Hurricane Andrew, in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina or on Galveston Island for Hurricane Ike certainly witnessed devastatingly wild weather, as did those in the path of assorted tsunamis, typhoons and earthquakes. If you want to experience wild weather, check out The Weather Channel's stormtracker's Jim Cantore list of 10 vacation destinations for experiencing "wacky weather." He added suggestions of the best (therefore least wild and wacky) times to go there, but I'm not including those here. After all, if you're seeking wild weather, you don't want mild weather -- and I have one of my own to add (photo at right, and my suggestion below).

Cantore's Top 10 Wild Weather Destinations

• Death Valley, California - The hottest, driest and lowest-elevation spot in North America; 760-786-3200


• Breaux Bridge, Louisiana - Cantore was there during Hurricane Gustav and watched the storm roll in over the Delta; 888-565-5939


• Dangriga Town, Belize - Hurricanes and tropical storms can wallop the coast of this Central American town; 800-624-0686


• International Falls, Minnesota -Nicknamed "the icebox of America," this is the coldest town the continental United States; 800-325-5766. Just last year, Fraser, Colorado, was vying for the title, and everything in the lower 48 pales beside places inland in Alaska. think Fairbanks.


• Gulf Coast, Mississippi - Cantore cited Hurricane Katrina as an example of the coast's brutal wather phenomena; 888-467-4853


• Sydney, Australia - "Vast Australia experiences weather ranging from snowstorms to sandstorms, said Cantore, but singled out Sydney for its "phenomenal dust storms"; 310-695-3200


• Killington, Vermont -"Mountains on one side and the coastline on the other," said Cantore, described as a native Vermonter. I wonder why he picked Killington. How about Sugarloaf, Maine, of Mont Ste.-Anne, Quebec, like Killington, ski mountains that rise above the surrounding countryside; 802-773-4181


• Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii - Cantore cited thick clouds atop snow-capped Mauna Kea, but he didn't mention the fumes that blow from Kilauea, a volcano that has been erupting and producing lava flows since January 3, 1983; 800-464-2924


• Crater Lake, Oregon - Cantore mentions "snow [that] can cover the landscape from October through June in some areas," but that's no big deal for us Coloradans. He also mentiones that "the coastal region of Oregon can get more than 100 inches of rain annually, which in higher elevations translates to a lot of snow — as much as 16 feet at times." The Sierra Nevada range is similar; 541-594-3000


• Barrow, Alaska - Cantore says that temperatures in the country's northernmost city average temperature is 10 degrees plus 64 days without sun, 907-852-5211

No. 11 from Claire

How could a stormwatcher ignore the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where the storm-watching season stretches from November through Feburary. Hotels and resorts in and between the hamlets of Tofino and Ucluelet offer storm-watching packages for guests who really want to experience wild Pacific storms. The photo above comes for the Wickaninnish Inn; 250-725-3100.

Do You Have a 12th to Add?

Let me here from you. Leave a comment with your suggestions.

Denver Art Museum's iPods -- Plus

21st century museum adds 21st century audio -- and light meals now are served across the plaza


No museum in the nation made more of a recent splash than the Denver Art Museum did in 2006 with the opening of the radical Daniel Liebeskind-designed Hamilton Building, a dramatic angled structure clad in titanium. During a recent visit, I noticed the addition of iPod stations (with instructions on how to use the device and seats to plunk down on while you are doing so) to provide interpretation in as modern a mode as the building itself.

Several galleries are currently closed for the installation of new exhibits, but the gorgeous Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism continues through September 7, featuring 40 exquisite mid- and late-19th century French and American landscapes from the Brooklyn Museum’s collection.

The last time I wanted a bite to eat at the museum, there was a small snack bar in the North Tower, the older of the DAM's two connected buildings. The snack bar is no more. Kevin Taylor's Palette's Restaurant has now expanded into that space, and anyone who wants something lighter is directed across the plaza to Mad Greens, whose mid-day specialties are soups, salads and panini.

The museum is open daily except major holidays and Mondays -- except Monday, August 25, when it will not only be open but will be free to show off Denver's cultural side and artistic treasures in honor of the Democratic National Convention.

The Denver Art Museum is at 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver; 720-865-5000.

Promising a Report from Mexico

I have been in Mexico since Thursday, first at the 2009 Society of American Travel Writers convention in Guadalajara with a cast of hundres and now with a smaller group on a post-convention extention to Guanajuato. I saw virtually nothing of Guadalajara I the Hospicio Cabanas for an evening opening reception, the Corona brewery and various streets and neighborhood. I have seen a lot of Guanajuato and am staying at the quaint Hotel Mision, where the Internet access, electrical infrastructure and telephone are also quaint. I have conscientiously taken picturs and notes, and when I get somewhere with less qauint Internet access, I intend to share my travel experiences with you. Stay tuned.

Strolling the Real Tlaquepaque

I have been to Sedona's Tlaquepaque arts and crafts shopping and gallery center, and enjoyed browsing there immensely. But the real thing, the original, the old town about 10 miles from Guadalajara is even better. This community of more than half-a-million inhabitants inspired the Arizona shopping area.

Below are the tops of two landmark churches, El Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Solitude) and San Pedro (Saint Peter),

Many of Tlaquepaque's streets are for pedestrians only.

The old town is full of Talaquepaque history.

Beautiful carved door.

The center of Tlapequaque is clean and graffiti-free.

Small shops line narrow, car-free streets selling all manner of goods for residents and visitors.

Portals on some buildings along wider streets, like the main pedestrian street, protect people of sun and rain.

Open doors permit a peak of lovely center courtyards.

Food vendors are ubiquitous.

As are imaginative buisness, like this man who hacksaws any name onto a black key in just minutes.

And then, there's music, music everywhere.

And art and crafte as well, from very ancient...

...to very new.

Delta Doubles Second-Bag Fee

Airline raises fee from $25 to $50, beginning next month

Early last May -- less than three short months ago -- Delta Airlines joined US airlines' stampede to charge most passengers for checked bags and imposed a $25 fee for the second bag. Come August 5, Delta us upping the surcharge race by doubling that fee to $50.

Pity the passenger (or his/her company) who must check more pieces than that. The third bag will now cost $125 (up from $80) and a whopping $200 apiece for the fourth through 10th checked pieces, which is more than many flight legs cost on an advance-purchase ticket .

Extra weight and size count too. An overweight bag between 51 and 70 pounds on a domestic rises from $80 to $90, and an oversize bag 62 inches to 80 inches of the total of its length plus its width plus its height rises from $150 to $175.

As bone thrown to first-class and certain premium passengers, Delta will still let them check up to three bags for free. Business travelers often carry on everything they need -- unless, perhaps, they are attending a trade show and are taking presentation materials. However, other flyers who routinely check many pieces will be paying big-time. FWIW, Delta says that it accepts up to 10 checked bags per passenger on its own flights and four checked bags on Delta Connection carriers.

Think of broadcast media or film makers who will be charged $175 per item for camera, perhaps film or video tape inventory, lighting, or sound equipment, will be paying a lot of such surcharges. Athletes with heavy equipment (hockey bags come immediately to mind) are really getting socked for extra baggage fees, as are people heading for sports vacations with ski equipment, fishing gear or golf bags.


"Commercial airlines are the cheapest way to deliver bags in America," William Swelbar, an airline expert with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been quoted as saying, noting the obvious that it costs more to fly on a heavier aircraft than one with a lighter load Swelbar postulated Delta's position as, "If I'm going to be in the moving business, I'm going to be compensated like a moving business."


Tom Parsons of BestFares told reporters, "They'd rather put high-paying cargo on that plane rather than people's bags." The phrase, "eople's bags," of course, implies people, and Parsons didn't add that cargo doesn't need to be reminded to buckle its seatbelt, drink those costly soft drinks and eat those little baggies of snacks, complain when a flight is delayed, get drunk and disorderly, or try to cram extra stuff in the overhead.

Guadalajara's Hospicio Cabañas Fab Faberge Exhibition

Imperial Russian treasures displayed in magnificent Spanish Colonial landmark

The opening reception of the Society of American Travel Writers' 2009 convention took place in Gaudalajara's magnificent, monumental Hospicio Cabañas. Originally a hospital and refuge for the homeless and the helpless, and later an orphanage, it now houses the Cabañas Cultural Institute and its schools for arts and crafts, and it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Aficionados of Spanish Colonial architecture know it for its grandiose presence in the heart of Mexico' second-largest city. Art lovers revere the brooding, dramatic murals painted by Jose Clemente Orozco more than 120 years after the building was completed. Much of Orozco's work in his native country was destroyed, because it was considered to dark and too violent, but masterpiece remains.

That we would see Orozco's work in the Hospicio Cabañas was no surprise. What was a surprise is that at the end of the opening event, someone casually mentioned that the Faberge collection would be left open for us. If you read Spanish better than I do, click here for more information on the exhibit. I have no idea how long this magnificent exhibition of Romanoff treasures will be open, but I was thrilled to have seen it. Photography was permitted -- under the watchful eyes of armed guards --but I was too busy looking and trying to puzzle out the key parts of Spanish descriptions of each object to try to take lots of pictures, and some that I snapped through glass didn't come out all that well. There were, of course, jewel-encrusted compacts, cigarette cases and more; paintings and paper documents; swords and scepters; garments and opulent geegasws, and an intruiging explanation of the role the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis had in protecting (or something) Romanoff treasures when as an editor with Doubleday, she shepherded a book on the topic.

Nearby Mountains Cooler Than the Front Range

Higher elevations = cooler air = relief from daily temps above 90 degrees

Temperatures in the Denver -Boulder area have hit the mid-90s every day for what seems like weeks and weeks -- though unlike the Northeast, where I grew up, the humidity doesn't match the temperature. Even in the height of summer, pockets of snow remain at high elevations, and cool air makes hiking a joy when you start early to beat the high, searing sun on the ascent. Here are some recent getaways within a two-hour drive of Boulder to which we have escaped in the last few weeks:

Ypsilon Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, July 4, 2008

Blue Lake, Indian Peaks Wilderness, July 10, 2008


Lake Isabel, Indian Peaks Wildnerness, July 14, 2008

Wilder Gulch, Vail Pass, July 19, 2008

Lake Dillon, between Frisco and Silverthorne, July 20, 2008

Bear Lake-Lake Odessa-Fern Lake Loop, Rocky Mountain National Park,

July 22, 2008