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Published: October 6th 2007
WOW
Whata sunrise to farewell us from spectacular coloradoWe’ve been on three overnight train trips since we last sent you a blog and traveled from DC to the US west coast, just inland from Oceanside near San Diego. Our Amtrak experience was great. Each section of the trip differed in clientele, staff and scenery - but on each the service was good! On the DC to Chicago leg, we saw much of the Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania countryside that we already knew. From Chicago to Denver we crossed the Mississippi during daylight and saw lots and lots of flat plains, corn and wheat fields. The last leg from Colorado to LA was the most scenic as we moved through high plateau’s and gorges surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides.
The two days in Chicago gave us a chance to wander along the parks and waterfront and to do two architecture tours - one by boat along the canals and the other a twilight walking tour of the old skyscrapers that ended at a bar with beer, the deep pizzas that Chicago is famous for and convivial company. We spend almost a day in the Chicago Art Museum- they had some sections of the Baptistery Doors on
A moment later
we just had to stop to capture these images display and a fascinating Portuguese exhibition showing a melting pot of cultures and influences.
When we got off the train in Denver we suddenly understood the Mile High city name. We found the air quite thin and had trouble walking with our sea- legs (actually train-legs). Little did we realize that this was only the start of our high adventures. Our friend Doug met us in Colorado Springs and drove us to their new home in Canon City (at 5,500 ft). We could understand why they moved from DC. The house is perched on an escarpment overlooking the Arkansas River and is surrounded by peaks and sky. Each minute of each day is different with the light on the river and the mountains. I was for ever running out and taking photos of the vista. At night we sat outside with Doug’s new Chiminea (Mexican pottery stove) that both warmed us and kept away the mosquito’s as we ate Maryvonne’s beautiful French cooking and marveled at the sunsets and the night sky. What luxury!
Interesting features in Canon City were the Skyline Drive, along a narrow road on the top of a ridge, and the suspension bridge across
the Royal Gorge. We visited Bishop’s Castle, an amazing structure built from scrap materials and lots of cast iron, demonstrating one man’s belief in his right to defy the authorities and to a large extent gravity. Incredibly you could crawl all over this construction where there were no safety rails and OH&S hadn’t been heard of! We traveled on the highest cog railway in the world, to 14,200 feet on Pikes Peak and discovered at Cripple Creek the mining area that produced more gold than the Californian and Alaskan gold rushes together. We stood at the top of an old mining shaft (12,500 ft) that had extracted ore from 2200 ft below. We were able to look down at an open cut mine that is still extracting a billion dollars of gold each year and could see the tunnels from the old underground mines in the walls of the open cut. As we found on Mt Ermai in China and on the mountains in Switzerland, we plain dwellers had difficulty adjusting.
We traveled to the massive inland sand dunes next to the San Christos Mountain Range where there are four of the “fourteen” ie: mountains over 14,000 ft, brilliant
blue skys, clouds that looked like they were on fire and continuous ranges everywhere you looked.
It was hard to leave Doug and Maryvonne. We had an early start (before dawn) to pick up our bus in Colorado Springs but left enough time for a couple of stops to photograph the magnificent sunrise. Back on the train at Raton, just over the border in New Mexico, we had a relaxing day and night as we traveled back to sea level - and Lyn’s nose finally stopped bleeding!
Our last stay is in a beautiful home where we have everything we could possibly want at our fingertips plus a big Outlet Centre not far away. Our hostess lived in Arabia for the 25 years. We keep thinking how much Edmund Capon would like some of her collection.
Dragging ourselves from such luxury we drove 300 miles north to see the Hearst Castle. What an amazing place, built for a person who was as our guide said “an only child who could have what he wanted- and did!” As a media magnate he was able to censore what others knew about him and his private life (shades of Packer).
Lots of Hollywood stars (Gable, Chaplin, Disney etc) holidayed at his “ranch” where they could ride, swim, hike and explore the huge holdings, his private zoo and other beautiful things. The coast is craggy and similar to what we’d seen at Carmel and Monterey - we were actually only 90 miles south of that area. We could have spent hours just watching the sea lions at play.
Back to Santa Barbara where we stayed at Montecito Inn, build by Charlie Chaplin to host his Hollywood friends when they weren’t up at Hearst’s. The final stop on our drive was the Getty Museum in the hills near Bellevue. It’s an experience from the moment you drive into the $8 underground car park and catch the tram up to the free Museum. We did a garden tour that gave us a chance to see the architecture, water features, sculptures and gardens. We spent the first 2 hours there without setting foot inside one of the four main exhibition buildings. Not able to see the lot, we settled for an Edward Weston exhibition and a very impressive Luc Delahaye exhibition of very large dramatic prints of world events that show the influence
of his photojournalist background and yet made each photo very personal and challenging for the viewer. We both agreed he is a photographer to watch.
Like many of our friends who travel to the US, we have enjoyed the exciting finds in the outlet centers and when we go off to explore San Diego, we may need to look for another bag. San Diego will be our last big adventure before heading back to LAX and the flight home. Col will then have to prominently display a reminder in the Forester that says keep left and stick to the speed limits.
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