Affordable Aspen

You can spend a lot or a little in Colorado's most glamorous resort town

I just returned from a couple of days in Aspen, the first time in several years during the non-snow season. As I wandered around town, which is pretty quiet until Food and Wine Classic in Aspen rolls in during the third weekend in June, I was struck by the contrast between how much luxury is available and how many options there are for a very affordable visit. Locals and visitors alike have more options than the stereotype would lead people to believe.

Getting Around

Some people drive around in the town's many Cadillac SUVs, Lincoln Navigators, Audis and BMWs.

Others use the exemplary RFTA public bus and van service with free or cheap transportation around town and down-valley.

Still others use two wheelers -- motorized and otherwise. Downtown Aspen has designated parking spaces for motorcycles and scooters.

Dining Out

Some of the most elegant and/or stylish restaurants, best chefs, most attentive waitstaffs and priciest menus can be found in Aspen.

But so can informal and reasonable bakeries, cafes and even a few remaining hole-in-the-wall restaurants, as well as the famous Popcorn Wagon, permamently parked at the corner of Hyman and Hunter.

Shopping

Dior and Gucci are right next door to each other on Galena Street.

Across the street is The Gap.

 

And  around the corner are fantastic consignment shops with designer and brand-name clothing for a song. It helps to be a size 6 or less.

Lodging

I don't even have to do a compare-and-contrast visual here. Off-season lodging prices are ridiculously low in the off-season to begin with, and through October 31, the Perfect Summer promotion gives you a third night free when you book two nights -- or a fourth night free when you book three. In addition, you'll get a Perfect Summer Pass for deals on arts and cultural events, outdoor adventures, dining and nightlife and spas for Aspen/Snowmass style pampering. A page on the website lists current specials in Aspen and nearby Snowmass. Book through Stay Aspen/Snowmass by calling 888-649-5982 or Emailing info@stayaspensnowmass.com.

Family Activities

I can't think of a much better family deal than an all-day $59 ticket for two adults and two youngsters to ride the Silver Queen gondola to the top of Aspen Mountain, an ideal place for a family hike on a high peak and a picnic. Some activities do carry an additional charge, but there are also free ones. The free mountaintop obstacle course course is full of natural and man-made obstacles like logs, rope swings, cargo netting and more that is fun and challenging for the whole family. Also free and a whole lot of fun is the silver mine sandbox where kids can go back in time to the turn of the century and Aspen's silver mining history. Dig in the silver mining sandbox to uncover silver nuggets of all shapes and sizes. They can take small silver nuggets as a souvenir. All of these free activities operate daily from June 18 to September 6.  You must buy family day tickets must in person at the Aspen Mountain ticket kiosk.

Additional free kids' activities on Aspen Mountain are offered on a weekly rotating schedule: the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies live animal program, Mondays, 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.; the Jammin' Jim show and juggling workshop, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.; and storytelling, Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. And for folks who love bluegrass, there are free concerts with various local and national groups on Saturdays and Sundays, 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m.

Have fun!

Look! Up in the Sky. It's a Canopy of Stars!

Summer stargazing in Utah national parks

The clear, dry desert air makes for great astronomical opportunities. Below are three programs you can take part in with National Park Service rangers and volunteers to help you identify and understand what you are seeing through the telescope.

Cedar Breaks National Monument. With some of the nation's darkest night skies, Cedar Breaks National Monument celebrates and shares the beauty of these "ebony skies." Monthly “star parties" (June 10, 12 and 14; July 8, 10 and 12; August 7, 9 and 11; September 6, 8 and 10) are conducted by park staff and astronomy volunteers with a special evening program in the campground amphitheater, followed by star viewing through several large telescopes at Point Supreme. Admission is free. For more information, call 435-586-0787 or 435-586-9451.

Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce Canyon National Park's Night Sky Team is a national program stationed at Bryce Canyon that has, in the park service's words, "an attitude toward the conservation of one of the last great sanctuaries of darkness." Each night 100 to 300 visitors gather around telescopes to look up at the universe. Viewing programs are offered three times a week and monthly full moon hikes end with stargazing through telescopes. The cost is $10 - $20. The 10th Annual Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival (July 7-10) is a four-day event packed with activities for all ages. They include the planet walk, model rocket building and launching, presentations by national park rangers, and of course, star-gazing and constellation tours. 435-834-5322.

Natural Bridges National Monument. The National Bridges National Monument spanning southern Utah and northern Arizona is known for three of the world’s largest natural stone bridges, originally formed by stream action in White Canyon. Of course, if the Colorado River had not been dammed to created Lake Powell, there might be more such bridges that are now submerged. In any case, the Monument was designated as the world’s first International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association. Each summer the Astronomy Ranger conducts Night Sky Programs at The Lees Ferry Campground in the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. For more information and a full schedule, call 435-692-1234.

Egypt: Parking and Pollution

The automotive age challenges the land of the pharohs , the pyramids and the Nile

Cairo and Alexandria weren't built for vehicles. There's no room for them on ancient city streets. The highways and arterials are chronically congested. And when drivers want to park, there's no place for them all. As in the fast-sprawling cities of all developing countries, vehicles have become a necessity. Cairo has a two-line subway system, but average people ride buses and vans that spider out to place beyond the subway's reach. I haven't seen one that wasn't jammed. Passengers cram in -- all but sitting on the drivers' laps. Those who can afford to do so take taxis. The one I took last night from the Khan al-Khalili market area to the hotel had no shocks and, how shall I put it?, a well-broken-in back seat. I don't want to think about what came out of the exhaust pipe. And people who can really afford it have private cars.

Add to the traffid the steady flow of pedestrians who dart among vehicles at whim making moves that would probably get them run over in most countries, and in the middle of the mix, in some neighborhoods, are donkey carts, market stalls set up in the street and the ubiquitous roadside tire changers and car repairs . Traffic jams are traffic jams, but I can't resist sharing a few images of creative parking as practiced in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt's two largest cities, that give eloquent testimony to the country's vehicular woes.

Parking Practices

Drivers park their cars bumper to bumper, up on the sidewalk, out in the street, wherever -- both a symptom of too many cars and a contributor to congestion.

Sharing the Road

As a bonus, I present the image below. Note that the cart is going against the traffic on a divided roadway:

Further Fall-Out: Bad Air

Wicked pollution (below), which harms health and damages buildings. This morning, the pollution layer is clearly visible from my 17th floor hotel room. I can enjoy the antiquities and ambiance of contemporary and traditional Egypt, and then leave. Millions of people must endure the air that is making my eyes sting and my throat hurt. A very sad byproduct of modern times.

Photo: Levitating an Airplane in Miami

(Very) low non-flying aircraft

Back in the '80s, I used to write a newsletter for an aircraft trade school then called the Academy of Aeronautics (now the Vaughn College of Aeronautics) that trained young men (and they were all  men in those days). The school was located across the Grand Central Parkway from LaGuardia Airport. When a small plane (I can't remember what kind) was donated to the school, it was flown into LGA and then was to be airlifted, dangling from a helicopter, across the highway. During those few minutes, the NYPD closed all eight lanes of traffic between the airport and the school. I tried desperately to interest the local television news and the three big New York daily newspapers to send a crew (TV) or photographer (print) to capture this remarkable sight in the middle of the day. No luck. It appeared in the AoA newsletter, and that was just about all.

Fast forward to 2010 and the Internet age. American Airlines donated an MD-80 to the George T. Baker Aviation School, similarly across a highway from Miami International Airport. A Florida construction and engineering company lifted the 39-ton plane across he highway using a 500-ton crane outfitted with a 400-foot telescoping boom. Photographer Joe Pries captured the procedure for airport authorities, and undoubtedly, everyone around with a cell phone got it too. I couldn't get a lone cameraman to LGA back then, and this photo is now all over the Internet.

Mega-Resorts on Egypt's North Coast. Who Knew?

Mansour Amer's AMER Group properties are huge -- and hugely popular

January and February are way low season on Egypt's North Coast, about a 110-mile-long strip between Alexandria on the east and El-Alamein on the west that is breaking out in resorts the way a kid with chicken pox develops spots. Even though people who live in snow country find days to be mild and sunny, this long resort strip is eerily empty right now. Not so, I am told, between June and August when the area's 100-degree heat and Mediterrranean breezes are a welcome relief for the truly heat-plagued citizens of Cairo (population 18+ million) and Alexandria (7 million in winter) come to cool off.

Of the dozens of resort developments, those in AMER Group's portfolio are the most impressive and aggressive. Mansour Abd El-Meguid Amer is CEO of the AMER Group, and when I look at the ambitious scale of his projects, I am persuaded that he is a direct descendant of Egypt's pyramid builders. AMER Group says that it specializes in "high-speed development." I'll say.

Golf Porto Marina

Under construction now is Golf Porto Marina (below). The first 6,000 of a projected 18,000 units are to be handed over to owners before the summer 2009 peak season kicks in. The 18-hole golf course designed by Raymond Hearn has been sodded and is a green space in the desert. Likewise, the swimming pools, Egypt's first dancing fountain and the gold course's water hazards water are wet spots in the desert. In addition to the condo units, a 300-room hotel should be open by next year, and additionally in the works are a huge aqua park, an "Olympic Sports Village" (does the IOC know about this?) and a California State University campus. What? Our Cal State?!?!?!?!


Porto Marina

If I just read this and weren't experiencing it at Porto Marina (upper photo below), the company's North Coast flagship, I wouldn't believe it. I'm staying in one of the 380 hotel rooms set among buildings with thousands of condo units, I might think this was an impossible Brobdinagian, Las Vegas without gambling, booze or broads fantasy. But it's no fantasy at all. It's a clean-cut, family-oriented resort development where swim-up bars serve nothing stronger than fruit smoothies, and women at "mixed" (i.e., co-ed) beaches and pools must covered in burkinis. There are separate, secluded, guarded ones for women who want to wear revealing swimwear.

In addition to the hotel, the property has hundreds (maybe thousands) of apartments and villas, a bunch of swimming pools (including a kiddie pool with several levels of water slides, middle photo) a 500-slip marina, conference facilities, shopping mall with name-brand retrailers and restaurants, and spa. It also has a Venetian-inspired "Grand Canal" (bottom photo). Because hardly anyone is here right now, the gondolas are beached. I kid you not.

BTW, these are just two of many AMER Group's projects.

Egypt: On the Road

Views along the coastal road linking Cairo and Alexandria

I have no delusions that a tour bus ride on the 130 or so miles between Egypt's two largest city provides great insights, but it does offer snippets of life along Egypt's north coast. Here are some random images:

Just getting out of Cairo (population about 18 million and growing fast) takes some time -- little wonder with crowded roads (below):

In a country fabled for antiquity, the capital is growing, growing and growing, as evidenced by the buildings under construction in the distant outskirts (below), some legally built and others illegally erected on designated agricultural land:

Surprisingly mixed in among the buildings are farm fields (below) that are still being worked by hand:

As our bus passed a moving open-bed truck, I was able to snap this picture of a barefoot man (below) squatting atop a load of bundled brochures. A guy doesn't need a seatbelt when he's not on a seat:

Fanciful Euro-Ottoman-inspired wedding cake building (below) on the outskirts of Cairo:

Large and small mosques dot the route. All are topped with a dome, and some (like the one below) have one minaret, others two, occasionally three:

Housing construction is making a sprawling city even 'sprawlinger" -- and Western-style real estate sales are taking hold (three images below):

The farther we rolled on from Cairo, the more pick-up trucks we saw (two images below) -- loaded with cargo, fruit, people, whatever. I saw one with washing machine, one with a cow and a calf, and one with a motorcycle. Chevrolet trucks are surprisingly common, even though Toyotas, Hyundais and Hondas seem to prevail in the car category:

The round-topped towers below are not Angkor Wat wannabes but pigeon houses:

At the Master rest stop (below)...

...there stilll is service, includng hand car wash (below):

There's a lot of roadside junk (below): crumbling buildings, broken-down cars, small businesses, stacks of tires and litter, lots of litter:

The eastern reaches of Alexandria display that city's first fanciful buildings, like the one below signal the approach into Egypt's second (and most European) city:

Images of My Last Trip to California -- but Not the Tour of California Route

For television viewers, long cycling races are a telecast travelogue that happens to follow the route pedaled by some of the best bike racers on the planet. The Tour de France is a favorite, and the Tour of California, which is now referred to as the Amgen Tour of California every single time  it is mentioned, is coming in a close second. Today, the penultimate day, was a time trial on the streets of Los Angeles. When I was in California last month, I visited several wonderful places in and around San Francisco that I had intended to post here. I'm finally doing it and posting a few of my favorite scenes from my brief time there. Living in Colorado, I'm not deprived of mountain scenery, so I especially treasure ocean views.

Below is just one of panoramas from the Fairmont San Francisco's tower with 360-degree views .

The fabled Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco on the south with Marin County on the north. This is a view from the north.

San Francisco's cable cars remain popular with visitors to the city, both to photograph and to ride.

The Marin Headlands, thankfully government land and therefore protected from California's penchant for development and sprawl, are across from San Francisco and offer beaches, cliffs, hills and valleys where wildlife habitat still exists.

More Marin Headlands views of waves rollling in toward bays notched into rugged coastal cliffs.

 

Pacifica Pier, south of San Francisco, on a gloriously sunny day -- not a given on this part of the Peninsula.

Pillar Point Harbor, where fishing boats still dock -- but so do pleasure craft.