Colorado French Life Travel Writing & Books: Colorado French Life Travel Writing & Books
by maribeth
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Reflecting Upon Two Hundred Blog Posts
I happened to notice a few weeks ago that I was nearing two hundred blog posts. Jeez, I thought, I’d like to commemorate this momentous occasion! Two hundred stories in just over three years. I’d be kidding you if I said I never thought I’d have so much to write about. I was a chatty child and am an equally loquacious adult. This propensity for telling tales, recounting experiences and sharing information has hopefully translated well into my writing. It’s my wish that you find my stories fun, entertaining and informative.
It has been quite the journey. It seemed to take me forever to get Bonjour Colorado off the ground but once I did, I feel that as hard as it sometimes is to find time to “feed the blog,” I am hooked.
Initially, I felt a lot of inertia around the whole editing process—or lack thereof—with my blog. I authored four books with a major U.S. publisher where every word was viewed and reviewed by many sets of eyes. How could I publish something—albeit blog posts on the Internet—without it passing through a stringent editing process? Well, I do. And even though I go over every word I write countless times, it still takes a lot of letting go. I often remind myself that a friend once told me that the Navajos deliberately weave a flaw into their rugs, a concrete reminder that there’s no such thing as perfection, nor is it something we should strive for.
The whole tech aspect of creating a blog also held me back. Most of it I now manage pretty well; other aspects boggle me beyond belief. I’m an eighteenth century person living in the twenty-first century. Recently, however, I learned how to post podcasts of my Travel Fun radio show myself, so hooray for progress.
Being Green Colorado Food & Wine Podcasts The Rockies: Being Green Colorado Food & Wine Podcasts The Rockies
by maribeth
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Seasonal and Savory: A Delightful Blog Chockfull of Recipes for All Seasons
I began following Angela Cooks on Facebook a couple of months ago and found myself constantly clicking through her FB links to posts on her Seasonal and Savory blog. I haven’t made a single recipe but I have enjoyed many heartwarming culinary moments through her sharing.
I came to discover that Angela Cooks is actually Angela Buchanan, a professor at CU Boulder where she teaches rhetoric. I didn’t even know that was a course. “It’s a Communications Class,” Angela explains to me in the below Travel Fun interview. And yes, there is a connection with food, this enthusiastic cook’s passion both in and out of the classroom. In the first part of our chat, she talks about a Food & Culture class that she teaches in which students must do a food memoir. Tune in to hear what she says. Aren’t some of our best memories, especially travel-related ones, associated with the memory of certain foods?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Colorado Hotels & Lodging Restaurants The Rockies: Colorado Hotels & Lodging Restaurants The Rockies
by maribeth
Comments Off on Hotel Boulderado: A Beautiful Destination for the Holidays and All Year Long
Hotel Boulderado: A Beautiful Destination for the Holidays and All Year Long
Well, it’s here. Now that I have my turkey carcass boiling on the stove I feel comfortable embracing the holiday season. (I’m not one to rush things—I like each season to be experienced fully before approaching the next.) But now the countdown is on and it’s up to us not to let ourselves get all crazy with the cooking, decorating, celebrating and oh yes, the shopping.
I try to be like the French and adhere to quality, not quantity. I apply that to everything from what I consume to where I choose to spend my time. So let me suggest you buy less but do it in a more memorable manner. That applies to eating as well and even how and where you spend time away from home.
Relishing a moment—whether it’s a few hours or a few days—at Hotel Boulderado, one of Colorado’s most historic properties, will surely make your holidays special. Call it Christmas central. Festooned with holiday decorations from its stained glass ceiling to its tile floor and all around its hand-carved wooden railings, this more-than one-hundred year-old landmark becomes even more splendiferous at this time of year. This glittering Victorian gem draws people from all over and to me, I can think of no other Coloradan establishment that exudes as much charm as the Boulderado during this festive season.
Colorado Food & Wine Shopping: Colorado Food & Wine Shopping
by maribeth
Comments Off on Favorite Reasonably-Priced Wines for the Holidays
Favorite Reasonably-Priced Wines for the Holidays
‘Tis the season to be festive. And whether you’re buying for yourself or for someone else (a finely-crafted bottle of wine almost always makes a great gift), there’s no need to go overboard. Even bubbly is more delicious and moderately priced than ever these days.
Take Cupcake Vineyard’s Prosecco. This delightfully refreshing, effervescent nectar rings in at less than $15. I love any kind of bubbles for the aperitif, but you can just as easily pair this delicious Italian wine with gorgonzola or lemon pie.
Not surprisingly, I have a soft spot for Cupcake in general. (I’m such a girly-girl.) But to me, wine is like perfume, the name and packaging are almost as important as what’s inside. So how about the newly-released 2010 Cupcake Vineyards Red Velvet Wine? Yum. It’s the first blended red wine for Cupcake and as you can imagine, it envelopes your taste buds in aromas of chocolate, mocha and deep, rich, red fruits. How can you not pick up a bottle for your best girl friend, especially with a SRP of less than $15.?
Other Cupcake faves include their Dry Riesling from Colombia Valley and their Riesling from Mosel Valley. Both possess the luscious, full-bodied flavors of the renowned terroirs of Washington state and Germany, respectively. Reach for Cupcake’s Mosel Valley Riesling to kick off your special holiday meals or to accompany grilled fish; their Dry Riesling begs to be served with something more exotic such as a stir fry or a spicy chicken tagine.
Colorado Outdoor Adventures Skiing & Snowboarding The Rockies: Colorado Outdoor Adventures Skiing & Snowboarding The Rockies
by maribeth
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Vail Resorts: Fun of Epic Proportions
It’s that time of year again. Ski areas are opening up one after another here in Colorado and one of the first questions on people’s lips (right after what are the conditions) is what’s new?
It seems as though Vail Resorts might be out-doing the rest of our best-loved Colorado ski resorts this year, at least in terms of high-tech fun. Yeah, you no longer head to the mountains to get away from it all—especially in terms of communication—since smartphones and social media make staying in touch an inevitability.
And then comes the EpicMix, an application launched last season by Vail Resorts that features technology embedded into a card that does just about everything to enhance your on-mountain experience except carry your gear. The card—which is provided just as easily for season passes as for day lift tickets—allows the ski company to scan passes through jackets without the hassle of needing to make them visible. Add to this a ton of other special features that allow you to track vertical feet, number of days on the mountain, noteworthy feats and other achievements and you’ve got a whole lot of stats about your snowsports experience at the ready.
Colorado Denver Hotels & Lodging: Colorado Denver Hotels & Lodging
by maribeth
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Hotel Happiness in Denver
Looking for a fun, convenient and affordable place to stay in downtown Denver? Check out Marriot’s TownePlace Suites Denver Downtown, a chain hotel with charm. Of course I was drawn to this property since it occupies the legendary A.B. Hirshfeld Press Building, a handsome structure over a century-old located on Speer Boulevard. Historic photos, modish- colored furnishings and accent pieces dress up this property with style and panache. Everywhere you turn there’s something interesting, fun or joyful to look at or experience. (No dreary breakfast bars here!)
Colorado Hotels & Lodging Mountain Living Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride: Colorado Hotels & Lodging Mountain Living Shopping Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride
by maribeth
Comments Off on Filling in Nicely in Telluride: Snowstorm After Snowstorm
Filling in Nicely in Telluride: Snowstorm After Snowstorm
Yippee! What a month of November it has been so far—and it’s only the seventh! We’ve had seventeen inches of beautiful white fluff in the past four days and more snow is in the forecast for today and tonight. And then very cold temperatures—as low as single digits Tuesday night. We couldn’t ask for a better set up for a great ski season.
End of October was pretty sweet, too. As I reported in Fall in Colorado: October Snow Arrives with My Woolens and Ski Gear, our weather switched from glorious full-on Indian Summer to Winter and it looks like winter’s here to stay. That’s just the way it’s supposed to be in ski country.
Boy, do I love this place. When people ask me if I miss Paris, I sometimes reply “Have you ever been to Telluride?”
It’s going to be a great season. I’m off to my storage area to pick up my boots and boards.
Art & Culture Colorado Denver Hotels & Lodging Music & Dance Restaurants: Art & Culture Colorado Denver Hotels & Lodging Music & Dance Restaurants
by maribeth
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DCPA, The Lion King, Kevin Taylor and Other Roars About Denver’s Downtown and LoDo
With Halloween behind us, we can focus more on the real holiday season, the nearly two-month period that begins right about now. (You all must know that it has been moved up!) For me, one of the nicest things to do during this festive period is to go out on the town for dinner and a show, a not-too-easy feat from Telluride but certainly closer than New York.
The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) makes such a night out worth the effort since they consistently offer a tremendous lineup of shows and performances, all concentrated within a twelve-acre, four-block complex in the heart of downtown Denver. Did you know that DCPA is the second largest arts complex in the country? Their ten performance spaces beautifully accommodate Broadway touring productions, a major symphony and opera, dance and ballet, chorales and a variety of theater groups. They can seat 10,000 people within their theaters, splendid showplaces of varying sizes connected by an eighty-foot-tall glass roof.
And tonight “The Lion King” opens at The Buell Theatre for a five-week run! This dazzling production enjoyed sell-out shows during their 2002 and 2006 engagements in Denver. Tickets are still available for this stint but as expected, they’re going fast. I hope I can take it in since I love great stories, spectacular shows and cats of all kinds.