Tag: Travel

Denver International Airport – It is still weird

Ever since Denver International Airport was created, there has been controversy surrounding it. The designers had some bizarre ideas of how to give the place its decor, and it ended up with some really weird pieces of artwork. There used to be the murals depicting children presiding over the death of an animal on a World War II kind of battle field. There was the strange Native American music constantly playing on the bridge to Concourse A. And there were the strange gargoyle that could be found in the baggage claim area. The strange design of the landing strips along with all of this art created an environment ripe for the emergence of conspiracy theories. It did not help much that in order for Denver to be considered a city worthy of the international scene, they erected an anatomically correct giant blue horse rearing up on its hind legs and staring at you with its devil red eyes as the first thing travelers see as they leave the airport and head into the city.

Denver became a strange place in the mind’s of the people living outside of it all of because of its airport. Considering the airport recently turned twenty-five years old, the fine people of the city decided that it needed a remodeling. I have been to the airport a few times since and have not had time to notice the strange artwork anymore because everywhere I turned I ran into the signs of construction in process. Most of the time I came, I was in a rush to get out of the airport or rush to a plane that was getting ready to leave, so I did not have time to look for signs of the things that made this airport unique.

I got stuck in the main building recently, and had an opportunity to walk around and look for the strange sights that I had come to know over the years of living in Denver. I did not think that they would keep the bizarre artwork in the hopes of becoming more respected internationally, but I was surprised to see this was not the case. Despite having to navigate through the construction, they have done an amazing job of modernizing the building, giving it a sleek and user friendly kind of design. And though a couple of the pieces of art could have been hidden behind construction walls, many of the strange pieces that made DIA weird were still there. I could find the gargoyles, the Native American music playing, the horse, and a couple of these murals even though the oddest ones were still hidden. It made me relieved that DIA would embrace this weird aspect of itself, and I hope that it never loses it.

So the next time you travel through Denver try to find these weird aspects of the airport, and embrace the odd nature of DIA. And if you know of any weird things that I should find in other places in the world, let me know, so I can hunt them down for myself.

Life on Hold

Summer Break is one of the greatest perks for teachers. It is a time for them to unwind from a busy school year, and recharge their batteries so they can be ready for their students in the fall. For some teachers, it is a time to take on some projects that they have forgotten about during the regular school year. For others, it is a time to travel around the world and create those memories that they can think back to when things get tough. For an international school teacher, it is a time to travel back to the places they left behind and catch up with loved ones, and friends.

This creates a strange dichotomy for those international teachers, and it gets weirder the longer that they stay abroad. There is a life that they return to for a couple of months every year, and though they will fall back into those routines that they used to live, they are still guests to a life they used to live. On the other hand, when they are back at their respective schools in various places around the world, they are leaving behind their home town and the identity that they built over the years of living there. It is almost like they are living two lives, and throughout the course of the year, they experience those two sides of themselves.

Some people would claim that this is true for anybody that moves away from their home town to a new location, and there is some truth to this. Those people have those moments where they head back to where they are from when they are trying to pick up what they left behind. But it is like holding on to the ocean as it laps against the shore. There is no way that they are going to be able to hold on to it because it keep drifting away from them. They can experience it for that short moment that they are back home, but as soon as they leave, it will be gone again.

Though international teachers have the same problem when they are back in their home towns, there is a little more permanence to their trips. A lot of that time is spent catching up with those people that are still there, but they have more time to settle in. It is not just a week or two of vacation, but a couple of months where they still have things they have to attend to in their other life. I have been back in the States on numerous occasions where I have had to work on professional development, or create plans for the upcoming school year. Any teacher will tell you that their work does not end during the summer vacation. They might not work as much, but they are still working. It takes away this notion of being on a two month vacation where you are visiting friends and family, and it turns into you living in that place where you came from for a period of time.

It is not like it is a bad voyage, returning to this life that you left behind, but it means that the life that you are living is the one that you left behind. I spent two months this summer living out of a suitcase, moving from place to place, trying to get little things done for the upcoming school year, and watching videos of my puppy that were sent by the boarding facility where she was staying. The life I have been living over the last nine years was placed on hold.

This is not to say that I did not enjoy my time in the United States. It is always a pleasure to go back and get to spend this time with my family. At the same time, there comes a moments where I want to get back to the place where I spend most of my life right now. I am looking forward to get home. When I feel this way, I know that the holiday has been a good one. It has gotten me to the place where I need to be, a place where I am excited to get back to work and refreshed after a long break with the ones I love. I also will not have to lead this duel existence again until the next trip out to the United States when I am ready to go back.

So, I would like to thank America for the great summer as I say great to see you again to Jordan. I can’t wait to get back to my original home, but it is also nice to be back home at the same time.

Fauntleroy Park, The Lower Half – Seattle, Washington

Seattle is a city with limited space. It cannot sprawl out like other cities in the United States. Because of this, the sky slowly disappears as house, and towers grow taller and taller. More and more people crowd on the streets, and it is only until you get to the coast that you are able to find space to maneuver about. Still, they have made sure to protect certain parts of the landscape so the people of Seattle can get away from it all and get a feel of what it was like to live on the Puget Sound before it became so overrun with people. One of these places is outside of West Seattle called Fauntleroy Park.

There are really two parts of this park. The upper half is a thick forest with paths that run through it. It has easy access because of a lot of parking lots by it, and if you wander through these forests, you will run into people walking their dogs. It also allows for access to picnic benches, and a public pool that is open during the summer months. But if you take the road down to the shore, you will find access to a path that will lead to a rocky beach that is not as crowded as the other paths are.

Many people use it as a launching point for their kayaks, and paddle boards. There are quite a few of them here, but it is quieter than other places where people usually put in such as Alki Beach or the University of Washington. It is far enough away from the city and rush of people that most people that come out here for these activities have enough space to make it feel like they have it to themselves.

Staying on the coast is just as rewarding. Even though it is pretty packed with people out walking their dogs after work hours, and others come to hang out on a beach that is not as crowded as some of the more sandy ones in town, but it is not enough where you can’t find your own private spot on the expanse of shoreline. A walk down the beach will reveal a lot of little surprises as well from shelters made from the driftwood to carvings that will remind you that you are in the Pacific Northwest.

It is one of those hidden little gems in a city that continues to grow bigger and bigger every year. It is a little bit of a hike from the hustle and bustle of the main parts of the city, but it is worth the trek because it will feel like what the city used to be in it infancy. I hope that they make sure to keep this so that feeling never leaves this part of the country. It is something that is important to hold on to in this busy age.

Ekkstacy – A Night Reliving My Youth

What do you do if your nephew invites you to go see a band you have never heard of in a small club in the downtown part of the city you find yourself in? Well, if you have been following this blog, you would know that the answer to that question is, go. I don’t know what I am about to see. It could be great, or it could be a disaster, but either way it will be an adventure.

So I went down to the Larimer Lounge in Downtown Denver with my brother and his son to see a Canadian singer named Ekkstacy. We actually listened to his music on the way down so I could see what I was getting myself into. It was mellow with a little bit of an emo vibe to it. The music wasn’t what I usually listen to, but I liked it enough that I thought it was worth the price of admission.

What I saw brought me back to my college days. The performance had a lot more energy to it than the tracks we listened to while driving down to the show. The show happened in a cinder block room with poor acoustics, and filled with a younger crowd that knew the words to the songs, and jumped around while loosing themselves to the music. There were pits that formed for these short songs that burst into the room and left before they overstayed their welcome. In other words, I found myself at a punk rock show.

It wasn’t something that I had been to in quite a long time, and I did not rush into the madness like I would have in my youth, but it was fun to be back at a show like this. I do not go to many shows anymore, partly because I live in a country where bands don’t come through as much, and partly because the bands I would love to see cost way too much anymore. So it was fun to go and see a show in the raw and be exposed to a new band that I probably would have never listened to if it wasn’t for my nephew. Oddly enough, the scene had not changed that much since my time as a college student when I would go see bands like this more often.

So the next time somebody suggests you go out and try something new that might take you to a place where you have not been for a long time, say yes. It might transport you back to a time you had forgotten about, and present you with a new experience that you will never forget about.

The Alki Art Fair – Seattle, Washington

There is a rule of thumb in Seattle – when the sun comes out, you go outside. It is strictly followed during the winter months when the sky is usually shrouded in a cloud, but things are a little different during the summer months. There might be some clouds in the early morning, but they usually burn off before the afternoon, and the day delivers the perfect weather to enjoy. This is why many people come to visit this city during the summer, and certain places crowd in with people.

The city knows this as well, and uses the opportunity to have their festivals and fairs. They find the most iconic places in the area and gather artists, food, and music to give the people something to do while the weather is so beautiful. One of these celebrations has been coming year after year in late July on Alki Beach near West Seattle.

The Alki Art Fair is a chance for artists from the Pacific Northwest to come together to show off their latest creations. It is a great place to find paintings, photographs, woodworking, clothing and jewelry directly from the artists who created it. Many people gather here to find that next perfect thing for their house while being able to talk to the artists at the same time. Most of the work has the feel from this part of the world, and helps to support the arts in just Seattle, but all of Washington and Oregon as well.

The best part of coming to this art fair as opposed to others across the country is that afterwards, I found myself still on Alki Beach. It is one of the hidden treasures of Seattle. Yes, it does bring out many tourists who want to have a great view of downtown Seattle and hand out on beach right on the sound, but it is not as many as are found in Queen Anne or Pike’s Place Market area. It is the place where you can find more of the local population, especially on a great summer day as they look for the perfect place where they can come out and enjoy it.

Alki Beach is far enough away from the Seattle’s city center that tourists rarely find it, but it is a great location to hang out on the beach all day, enjoy kayaking or paddle boarding, and there are plenty of shops and restaurants on the other side of the street from the beach to entertain you as well. The art fair is just a great excuse to make it out to this part of Seattle and adds more flavor to an already great spot. If you were unable to make you way to it this year, don’t worry, there will be another chance to make it there next year. It will help you to make it out to this spot of Seattle and see something that many people miss out on during their visits here. It won’t take you long to figure out why when you come.

The First Time I Can Call the Platte a River – Denver, Colorado

When you grow up in the Denver Metro area, the Platte River is the river that you base all other rivers off of. At first, I thought it was huge, and I could not imagine another river that could compete with it, but that was before I took a road trip back east. My family drove over a bridge that demonstrated the might of the Mississippi River, and for the first time in my life, I had seen a real river. I have since come across other powerful waterways in other parts of the world, and when I come back to Colorado and look at the Platte River, I am embarrassed to think that at one time I could consider this river as something worthy of note. At times, it is nothing more than a trickle that pushes water over a muddy terrain as it winds its way through Denver and beyond.

The weather, like in many places in the world, has been quite unusual in Colorado this year. They have experienced more rain than they ever have in their recorded history. It was the third rainiest May, and the rainiest June. There are have been a couple of hailstorms during this period, and even a tornado. After a really wet winter, there is a lot of water that is filtering its way to the rivers of Colorado.

Luckily, the rivers have not overrun their banks, and the upcoming weather looks like that this will be the height of the rivers. Denver should not experience the problems that are occurring because of the rain in the New England area of the country. On the other hand, it has turned Denver into a city bursting with green, and rivers that could be used as an escape from the heat. This is something that Denver cannot boast about on a regular basis, but they are taking advantage of it.

The paths that follow the rivers throughout the city have turned into a recreation place during this summer. I have walked these paths many times throughout my time living there, and they are great places to ride your bike or go for a walk, but they have been transformed even more since I have been on them. The businesses that back up to the path use it as another way to attract more customers to come and visit them. There are many coffee shops, and bars that offer a spot to stop for a drink while watching people enjoy the river. The river itself is being used for fishing, and tubing. It had never been deep enough to let people participate in these activities, especially tubing. If you had tried it in the past, you would have beached yourself on any of the many sandbars that jut out from the water. Now, you can see a steady stream of people renting tubes from the Breckenridge Brewery, and walking along Santa Fe as they make their way further up the river so they can spend some time riding down it. It had become a central part of the city, and I have found myself a part of the people who are their ways to the river to enjoy what it has to offer this summer.

It still does not feel right to say that about the Platte, but I am going to enjoy it while I can.

The New Way of Kayaking – An Oru Kayak

One of the things that I have found a love for over my years of travel is kayaking. It is fun being able to see certain places in the world from the perspective of these tiny boats as I go places where many people never see. Most of the time, I find a company that rents out their boats, show up, hop in a kayak, and spend the rest of the day floating on a lake or ocean. It might cost a little bit of money, but it is always worth the experience.

Though this experience is great, there is a certain amount of freedom to having access to your own kayak that changes what can happen while kayaking. When renting from a company, you are limited in the amount of time you can use the kayak, or you have a guide that will take you to the places where they want to go. There have been times when I have been to some amazing places, but steered away from places I wanted to see, and this can only happen if I have the freedom to go where I want to.

But there is a dark side to this that many people who own kayaks know about. These boats are not easy to get from one place to another. It always takes a considerable amount of time to load them on to a vehicle to take them to those far away places that would be fun to explore. There is also the stress of transporting them as well. Though I know I have always strapped them tightly to the car, I still worry about a gust of wind, or a lost strap, to see the kayak flopping about on the road causing an accident. It always forces me to keep one eye on the top of the car when I transport them.

This brings me to the Oru Kayak that I have been showing it being opened up to get ready for an afternoon of kayaking on Sparks Lake in Central Oregon. This is a new type of kayak that does not require all of the trouble that comes with the traditional types of kayaks. It is a kayak that folds up to a portable size roughly around the size of a large briefcase. It weighs less than 15 pounds, and can easily be thrown into the back of a car to be taken to your favorite spot to go kayaking. It only took me 15 minutes to put it together as well, and this was the first time that I did it while using the instructions to to get it seaworthy. I am sure that the more I put it together that I will get quicker at the process.

But here is the big question that I am sure many of you are asking right now: how well does it work? I will be honest that I was very skeptical of the capabilities of this kayak when I was putting it together. The material was sturdy enough, but I did not know how secure it would be when I put it out in the water. Surprisingly, it was a great boat. It worked just as well as any other kayak that I have used throughout the years I have been kayaking, and the lightweight of it made it even easier to get it in and out of the water. Now, I wouldn’t take it to any location where the water would be choppy like the ocean or a river, but for a nice relaxing row on a mountain lake, it worked perfectly. The only other complaint I would have would be the exposure my legs had to the sun, but this can be easily fixed with a towel over the bow.

Overall, it was a great experience, and I loved the fact that it took care of all of the grunt work that makes kayaking more of a chore than a fun experience. An Oru Kayak is a game changer in the world of kayaking, and I suspect to see more of them on the mountain lakes in the upcoming years.

Happy Independence Day in the Hood

It took me until later in life before I realized how lucky I was growing up. My family had a decent sized house that did well handling the seven of us: my parents, four siblings, and me. At times it felt cramped, and going back to it, it looks smaller than I remember it being. But what my childhood so great was the neighborhood that I grew up in. All up and down the block, there were families with other kids my age, and we would venture out of our homes all of the time to hang out and have fun. There were many events during the year where we would get together, and the neighborhood became an extension of an already large family.

As I grew up, and moved to my own places, the spirit of that neighborhood was something that I constantly would look for, but it eluded me. Of course, I had neighbor or two over the years who were great, and I have made some great friendships along the way, but the neighborhoods I found myself in had more closed doors and people keeping to themselves. They would not have the same atmosphere that could be found in my neighborhood as child.

I have found some things like this with becoming an international teacher. There was an instant group of people that had a common experience and they would form a quick community. But the international scene also has a revolving door of employees coming and going, looking for their next adventure. I do run into some of those people during the breaks I have, and in my travels, and I enjoy it. Still, it misses that history that is created by living in a neighborhood for a long time when I get to watch people grow up and this feeling of family that is created.

The other night, I got to experience that feeling from my childhood again. I went to an early Fourth of July celebration at my brother’s neighborhood. Families from all up and down the street came together to join in the festivities. There was a shared history among the people, and as they created new memories, they talked about old ones. They welcomed me in as one of the group, and I felt like I was in my childhood again. It made me excited to know that neighborhoods like this still exist in the world, and those who find themselves in such places need to recognize how lucky they are to be living in them. Not every neighborhood is like that, and if they do exist, it could be a short time before they fall apart as people come and go. I hope that they embrace the experience while it happens because they could spend the rest of their lives finding that same feeling again when they have realized what they have lost. I was lucky enough to embrace it for one more night this summer, and for that I am grateful.

Reverend’s Ridge Campground – Golden Gate State Park, Colorado

It has been a family tradition for the last fifteen years. My siblings and their families pick a campsite somewhere in the state of Colorado, and we go camping over the weekend. Sometimes we are all able to attend, and on other occasions, only a few of us are able to go. It has led to some memorable moments over the last fifteen years as we have endured violent rain storms, wandering moose, hot sunny days, and strange neighbors. No matter what stories are created during these trips, it is always worth going on.

I was able to go this year, and the place we went was one that I had been to a couple of times, Reverend’s Ridge Campgrounds. It is a popular campground because it is less than an hour away from the western part of the Denver Metro Area, and its quick location to both Black Hawk, and Central City, two small mountain towns which offer casinos for people to play in. The campground is also an attraction to this area.

Other than the regular setting up a tent, and cooking meals, Reverend’s Ridge Campgrounds offers campers many other things that they can do while they are there. The campground’s center schedules many different people to come in to talk about the wildlife, flora, and night skies that can be seen around the sites. A little ways away are a couple of ponds that are always well stocked with fish offering a chance for anybody with a license to catch one. Also, a series of trails wind themselves through the wilderness that offers many levels of hikes. The most common one, Panorama Point, offers beautiful views of the surrounding Rocky Mountains, and it is common to see both hikers and mountain bikers on the trail.

Another trail, the coyote trail, hooks up with the Panorama Point trail, but it is better to take a short drive to hook up with it a little further down the mountain. It is the one that I enjoyed the most, and I would describe it as a moderate trek. Despite the challenge, it boasts two locations that are worth seeing. The first is an old cabin where bootleggers used to make what they called skunk whiskey during Prohibition. The other place is not as preserved as well. It is a homestead that was developed by a man named John Frazer, but was left to fall apart when he passed away.

It is a great place to go camping, but like any sites in Colorado, the campsites fill up quickly. If you are interested in coming here or any campsite in the state, you need to reserve your spot early. The spots usually open up for the next year in December, and I have applied to reserve spots the day they opened on Reserve America. They are usually gone within that first week especially for the weekends or the holiday periods. I know that means that you have to be on top of things during a busy holiday season, but it is worth the five minutes to make the reservation. It just means that you will have a perfect spot waiting for you when the summer months roll around.

Thank you for reading, and keep getting out there to have those adventures. Until next time.

Mount Falcon Park – Morrison, Colorado

It has been a while since I have gotten to walk around the mountains of Colorado. It is not like I had forgotten about the, but I could say I had taken them for granted. All of the time I spent stuck in a foreign country during the pandemic, unable to return home, I had thought about them. When I was able to make it back to Colorado and enjoy them again, my priority went over to visiting with family and friends I had not seen for a long time, and visiting the mountains had taken a back seat. So when my sister suggested that we go on a hike one morning to a place in the mountains, and not far from her home, I was once again acquainted with the majesty that is the Rocky Mountains.

The trailhead she took me to was for Mount Falcon which is perched close enough to the world famous Red Rocks Amphitheater that there were many spots along the way where I was able to look over the Front Range. In fact to get to the trailhead, we had to drive through rural areas, dotted with numerous houses, barns, and fields of grazing horses. Still, it was far enough away that when we arrived and started hiking the trail, we put any semblance of society behind us. I was once agin out in the middle of nature, breathing in the fresh air and listening to the sounds of the forests outside of Denver.

There are two trailheads for the Mount Falcon trail. There is the east path and the west path. The east path is a more arduous hike as it takes people up the mountain; whereas, the west path is relatively flat and the easier choice. They both lead to the same spot, so it really depends on the hiker as to how much of a challenge they are up for. I elected to take the easier path, so we drove to the west trailhead.

The places where the paths take you are the real reason for finding these trailheads. John Brisben Walker owned much of the mountain in the early part of the twentieth century. He had two locations that any traveler can get to if they come out here. The first one is his homestead, a large sprawling estate where he used to live with his family and servants. Only the ruins to this building remain as it was struck by lightning in 1918 and burned to the ground. Because John Brisben Walker had endured the tragic death of his wife two years earlier, he abandoned the homestead and left the ruins for us to enjoy over a century later.

The other site is not as interesting to look at, but it has a more interesting story behind it. There is a stone wall that would have been the foundation to a majestic building out in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. On top of it, there is one marble brick that hints at the material that would have been used to eventually make this building. John Brisben Walker wanted to make a palace for the presidents of the United States that would have called the White House of the West. He was able to put in that one marble brick, and the rest of the project was abandoned. Though it is not as exciting as the ruins, it was still an interesting place to visit.

It was fun to be able to venture off into the mountains of Colorado again, even if it was just in the foothills. I hope it opens the floodgates for me to explore more of these mountains in the future, and not to take so long between visits. I was raised by going into these mountains, and I need to return to those moments of my youth to remember how much is offered by the Rocky Mountains.