Blogs from Denver, Colorado, United States, North America

The drive up to Denver from Colorado Springs was not long. About halfway, we passed Castle Rock. The rock formation does resemble a hilltop Moorish stronghold in Spain. The vegetation of the region is similar, too, adding to the effect. Arrival in the Denver metropolitan area was indicated by sighting of RTD light rail trains at Sky Ridge. I was impressed that the light rail service extended so far south from downtown. A couple on the Pikes Peak train had told of visiting the Molly Brown House in Denver. As Susan and I enjoy historic houses, we had decided that would be our primary objective in Denver. The house is in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Margaret "Molly" (Tobin) Brown (1867-1932) is famous as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" a survivor of the Titanic. Her husband, James Brown, ... read more

After flying well over a million miles in my business and leisure travel, I have seen my share of unusual behavior on the plane. Here are some, and I hope it does not gross you out. Probably the worst behavior I have ever experienced first hand was an air marshal sitting in First Class with us. He proceeded to tell the flight attendant and pilot he was an air marshal, showed his ID, and told them he was armed. He started drinking hard liquor as soon as we got airborne. The lovely flight attendant finally had to cut him off after three drinks, since he was drunk, making passes toward her, and barely able to speak. Can you imagine if we really needed him to perform his job on that flight? I am certain he was ... read more

This is a very short entry the day was spent driving to Denver, in not great weather. We woke up to about 3 to 4 inches of snow outside of our window. We ate breakfast in the hotel. They were so short staffed, they couldn’t even clean the tables, just sat people in the bar. In reality, they could have cleaned the tables, just were organized enough to do so. After breakfast loaded up the car and headed out. The first part of the trip was not so bad. But by the time we got to Wagon Mound NM, it turned very ugly, snow, blowing snow, cars in the ditch, multiple care pile ups. The average speed was about 40. It stayed pretty bad until Colorado Springs, then cleared up a bit until about 45 miles ... read more

The recent United flight from Denver per CNN: The pilots issued a mayday call and, after turning back to the airport, landed the Boeing 777-200 plane safely. Remarkably, there were no reports of injuries either in the air or on the ground. Still, interviews with passengers show the incident provided a huge scare for everyone involved.This has never happened to me, fortunately. But I have experienced several "close" calls. But never have any of mine involved the engine.My first bad experience was on a flight with my kids to Spring Training in Arizona. We were on a Southworst flight from Oakland, and somewhere over the mountains, a Midwest style heat lightning storm came out of nowhere. We got hit, and it sounded and felt like the entire plane would fall ... read more

Sat: Y’s first flight, first baseball game! After passing Y’s 2 months mark, things got a little easier and we wanted to restart our travels. We picked Denver because neither of us has been there and it would be a short 2-hour flight. Baby steps :). Friday was all about getting ready. This was going to be a different trip and mindset for V and me as new parents. I think I have everything…except! I realized that the 4:30-am bus from Millbrae to SFO doesn’t run on weekends. Oh no! The only other option was 3:55-am bus to make our 6:30 am flight. Aaand, that’s the last one before BART starts running at 6 am. With a 4.5-month-old, Uber/Lyft are out. This led to 2:30 am alarm, ouch. Going through security with the baby in the ... read more