Colorado Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride: Colorado Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride
by maribeth
Comments Off on Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Santa Skis Telluride
The weather outside is not exactly frightful. At least not in Telluride today. In fact, temperatures here over the weekend rose to spring-like conditions, prompting people to peel off layers throughout Christmas Day. Although we didn’t get as much of the fluffy white stuff as was forecasted, Santa was still able to find some nice powder stashes on the mountain during his annual visit.
Colorado Mountain Living Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride The Rockies: Colorado Mountain Living Skiing & Snowboarding Telluride The Rockies
by maribeth
Comments Off on Fall in the Rockies: Pick the Day, Pick the Season
Fall in the Rockies: Pick the Day, Pick the Season
Gondyleaves at Snowmass
We were walloped with our first big snowstorm of the season earlier this week. It happened as usual––albeit a little behind schedule––and within twenty-four hours we were catapulted from glorious fall days into the depths of winter. Either way, it looks beautiful here in the Rockies and it seems as though we’ll be spared the bleak, grey days that sometimes occur between falling leaves and snowfall. Hopefully it was just enough to inspire folks around the country to think about booking their ski vacations in Colorado. (The best deals are offered now, so don’t wait.)
Art & Culture Being Green Colorado Springs Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Telluride: Art & Culture Being Green Colorado Four Corners Hotels & Lodging Photography Telluride Telluride Festivals
by maribeth
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Colorful Colorado
Telluride’s Valley Floor
Wow. Wow. Wow. What an extraordinary end of summer/fall it has been. We’ve had nearly three weeks of breathtakingly-beautiful weather here in the Rockies and the forecast promises more sun and warmth for the upcoming week. The colors have popped. It looks like the leaves in the San Juan Mountains, the range located in the southwestern corner of Colorado, will be peaking this weekend. Usually when that happens, a snowstorm blows in, but this year we’re to be blessed with more fine leaf-peeping days throughout a good part of October. Scenery like this makes me wonder why people battle the crowds and traffic jams of New England for their annual fall foliage tour. I recommend you sign up for the wide, open spaces and shimmering aspens of the Rockies next year!
Food & Wine Mountain Living Shopping Telluride: Food & Wine Mountain Living Shopping Telluride
by maribeth
Comments Off on Summer Sipping
Summer Sipping
Harvest Time at Sutcliffe Vineyards in Southwestern Colorado
I’m trying not to feel sad about summer’s end. As much as I love each season, it’s always hard to let them go—at least that’s the case for summer and winter here in Colorado. I’m already nostalgic about my summer. Yet I’m also determined to extend it, something that’s not so hard to do when the desert beckons just a short distance away. (I’m in the throes of planning a trip to Monument Valley, Grand Canyon and southern Utah for October, so I’m not putting my cotton T-shirts and flip flops away just yet.)
Almost more than anything else, I often identify my seasons with the food and wine I’ve savored during that time. (Indeed I am a gourmand.) And this summer more than before, I find myself associating certain wines with certain events. In some cases the wine was most memorable; in other cases it was the event. In all cases, both seemed to have a synergistic effect that has prompted me to remember both the event and the wine all the more intensely. My reminiscing of summer sipping goes as follows:
Sunset Concert Series
Encantado: A Mouthful of Summer All Year Long
Like many cities across America, almost every mountain town holds a weekly summer concert where locals and visitors alike can enjoy great music—from bluegrass to rock—against the backdrop of spectacular mountain scenery. In Telluride, our Sunset Concert Series takes place annually in Mountain Village all of July and August on Wednesday nights from six to eight p.m. People cart in their lawn chairs, spread out a picnic and enjoy the alpenglow, serenaded by all kinds of fun music. I wasn’t much on preparing a picnic this year and instead ordered up fine European pizzas from the nearby Italian restaurant. I did bring some delightful wines though including Concannon’s Righteously Rosé that I picked up at a local wine shop. What a way to kick off the first concert and what a find! Modestly priced at just over $10., this wine ranked as high as some of my most memorable rosés de Provence. This set me off on a Concannon spree which included most notably a creamy, buttery Chardonnay from Livermore Valley, just the sort of oaky California Chard that’s perfect year-round. At least for me anyway. Summer means rosé, so of course I celebrated the last Sunset Concert of the year with Encantado, a beautiful, salmon-colored nectar. This delicious rosé from California left me singing its praises while the sky also turned an exquisite peachy-pink as the sun set over the mountains.
Pine Ridge: A Sure Bet
The Tour de France
How I love to watch the Tour de France. And it’s sometimes more fun to take in the big mountain stages with friends. I brought a bottle of Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier over to a friend’s place for one of the Pyrenées stages. We all marveled at this delicious wine that combines the honeyed fruit of Chenin Blanc with the light floral aromas and fruit notes of Viognier. It served as both an impressive gift and the perfect accompaniment to a mid-summer’s repast of cheese, salad and assorted hors d’oeuvres. My friend smiled approvingly at my choice of wine, reminding me that Pine Ridge, a Napa Valley Winery, is a much-appreciated sponsor of the Telluride Film Festival, a crowd that consistently shows good taste. Upon hearing this, I picked up two more bottles of Pine Ridge whites to enjoy throughout the rest of the Tour: a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. What a Champs-Elysées finish!
Dinners at Home
I love enjoying a nice meal at home whether I’m sharing it with a friend (usually my hunny) or relishing one on my couch before I pull out my laptop to write. The French in me makes sure that I always serve up something tasty, a relatively easy feat in summer when fruits and vegetables delight the palate with full and luscious flavor. Monsoon season besieged us with a spate of chilly evenings, welcome relief nonetheless from some super hot days. And suddenly we had more good reasons to drink red wine! One remarkable dinner at home consisted of a plate of pasta buried beneath a thick mantle of homemade Bolognese sauce (made from ground buffalo). A Colorado wine, a superb Cabernet Sauvignon, from Sutcliffe Vineyards, accompanied it magnificently. Located in southwestern Colorado, this vineyard consistently produces memorable wines that embody all the sunshine and might of the Rocky Mountains. Good news: You can book a stay at the vineyard and make it your base for visiting renowned sites such as Mesa Verde in the region. Or, you can just kick back and gaze out over the vines.
A Picnic with Friends
Octavin Home Wine Bar
In Colorado, people are big on potlucks, a totally new concept to me up until I arrived here nearly nine years ago. In France, people take turns giving dinner parties. It’s rare that they join together to offer up the components of a meal—such a disorganized approach to assembling a feast is almost unthinkable to the French. When I don’t have time to cook, I’ll usually bring a couple of bottles of wine. I found a terrific “bottle” that ended up being the talk of the party. Have you ever heard of Octavin Home Wine Bar? Have you ever seen wine in a cardboard box? Well these eight-sided nifty cardboard packages stand out amongst the ranks of boxed wines. (I got thirsty, however, trying to pull out the spout. But then again, I never was very mechanical.) The Octavin I came across contained a crisp, Sauvignon Blanc from Silver Birch World Wines in Marlborough, New Zealand. Its attractive turquoise-blue box made an impression from the get-go. (Better yet, I learned afterward that Octavin’s innovative packaging prevents oxidation. This means that you can enjoy a glass, as fresh and flavorful as the first served, up to six weeks after opening it. Also, Octavin contains the equivalent of four bottles of wine yet you usually end up paying the price of just three. Wow!)
My Birthday
O.K., so now you know. I like my wine to have a little cache, especially when it comes to the packaging and label. It just makes it fun. I learned this summer—I think on a Today Show episode—that the oh-so fabulous Biltmore estate produces wine. With a facade of equal grandeur of the most renowned châteaux of the Loire, my curiosity piqued. Then I discovered that a Frenchman, a certain Bernard Delille, works at the Biltmore as winemaster. Mon dieu! Say no more. I procured a bottle of their bubbly (their Biltmore Estate Blanc de Blancs Méthode Champenoise – Brut, to be exact) and popped it on my b-day at the end of August. Délicieux, nice and dry and slightly floral with notes of lemon and apricot. Now I just have to find my way to this incomparable establishment in North Carolina sometime soon. Vive l’influence française en Amérique!
The Biltmore Winery
Summer Harvest
I had earmarked a bottle of Sutcliffe Chardonnay to accompany one of my best meals of the summer, composed of chanterelle fettucine, sweet Olathe corn, a tomato and mozzarella salad and a peach/raspberry combo. (We have some of the best mushrooms, corn and peaches in Colorado.) At the market I spotted a bunch of fresh clams in the fish case, a rarity in our remote mountain town. With a guarantee they were fresher than fresh, I snatched them up, steamed them and uncorked my bottle of Sutcliffe Chard the night before my summer harvest dinner. The rich, full-bodied taste of this wine perfectly accompanied my briny clams dipped in melted butter. I felt in heaven at more than 9,500 feet. Fortunately I’m not much of a lush, so there was enough left over to go with my last special meal of the summer. (Thankfully I shared it with just one other person and my leftover wine worked out since we served gin and tonics beforehand.) It’s hard not to finish off a good bottle of wine, but you always have to think about getting up in the morning.
So there’s my summer for you. I surely missed some special nectars and memories in the above account, but you get the gist of it. I certainly had fun. This weekend Telluride will be going off with the Blues & Brews Festival. I only plan to attend the last day and as the festival suggests, I’ll be happy with the hops at that event. It doesn’t look like I’ll be imbibing in any more memorable wines before the close of the summer.
Thank goodness I have fall and all those jammy reds, fruity Beaujolais and dry pinots to look forward to in my sipping program. One thing’s for sure though: I know I’ll carry on with some light and bright summer whites as well as some dry rosés because they’ll continue to go well with many of the foods I enjoy.
Plus I’m determined to keep that summer mode going, at least a good ways into autumn.
This just in: The 17th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival will be putting on a free Sunset Blues Concert, featuring Matt Schofield and Gold Kings, in Telluride Mountain Village tomorrow, Thursday, September 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. Dang! I better round up a nice bottle of wine.
New York Podcasts Telluride Writing & Books: New York Podcasts Telluride Writing & Books
by maribeth
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Dear Money: An Interview with Martha McPhee
Dear Money: A Great Story of Our Times
Oh dear, I need money. Such is the plight of all writers, unless you’re independently wealthy or you’re among the few to achieve John Grisham-like success. There isn’t a writer on this earth—published or nonpublished—that couldn’t identify with the struggles of India Palmer, the main character and narrator in Martha McPhee‘s recently-released novel, “Dear Money.” And I’m one of them!
In this beautifully crafted fourth novel, Martha reveals the travails of India from the angst over paying bills, to the challenges of “keeping up with the Jones,” to the long hours a dedicated writer must log at her desk (sunny days and all) and much more. Clearly Martha, a highly-acclaimed writer that happens to live in New York city like her protagonist, has drawn from personal experience to spin this exciting tale of a cash-strapped writer that’s tempted by the allure of a more high rolling life in the Big Apple. India ends up doing the unthinkable: She trades her artist’s life to become a bond trader. Funnily enough the idea behind the novel comes from a real-life offer. A legendary bond trader did claim that he could transform Martha into a booming Wall Street success in eighteen months; fortunately for us she declined and wrote “Dear Money” instead. It’s not surprising to learn from the intricately-detailed passages written about the highly competitive and adrenaline-charged life among New York’s financiers that Martha shadowed a bond trader to learn the ins and outs of mortgage-backed securities during the height of its rise. I found the contrasts between the writer’s life and the financier’s life to be one of the most compelling parts of this book.
Sweet Martha
You may be wondering why I’ve taken such an interest in Martha and her work. As usual, serendipity played a hand in our connecting with each other. I actually skied with her, her family and some friends of hers last March in Telluride. We both shared that we were writers but little else about our work was discussed. Since it was the height of the busy season, I didn’t find a moment to Google her. I feel as though I really came to know Martha after she sent me “Dear Money” later on in the spring, especially because it’s a book that has resonated so much with my writer’s life (sans the bond trader dimension, of course). Now perhaps the next time we ride the chairlift together we’ll shed our squirrel-y shyness about our work (seemingly a classic character trait of writers) and get down to some real exchanges about the creative process.
It looks as though that just might happen since plans are in the works for Martha to give a presentation at the Wilkinson Public Library in Telluride next March. I’m vying for that program to include a writer’s workshop, too!
If you’re a writer, you must listen to the Travel Fun interview I conducted with Martha earlier this summer. Avid readers will love it as well. And how’s that pile of summer reading doing at your bedside? I bet it has dwindled but if you’re like me, you feel like you’re just warming up. Keep adding to the stack and continue that summer reading mode all year long. I provide some great reading suggestions at the end of this interview that will steer you toward more excellent book picks, both fiction and nonfiction.
Click on the play button below to listen to my interview with Martha.
Beauty Hotels & Lodging Pot Pourri Restaurants Spas Telluride The Rockies Travel: Beauty Hotels & Lodging Pot Pourri Restaurants Spas Telluride The Rockies Travel
by maribeth
Comments Off on Great Deals for Public Radio: Summer 2010
Great Deals for Public Radio: Summer 2010
Capella's Mountain Elegance
There are lots of travel deals out there these days but you won’t find any as enticing as the ones I’m presenting to you below. And best of all, by making a pledge for them you’re supporting KOTO community radio in Telluride, one of the few entirely community-sponsored radio stations in the country. More and more people tune in on the Internet as well during T-ride’s famed Bluegrass Festival (when KOTO broadcasts live) or just any ‘ole day of the year. It’s a great way to get the flavor of a happening mountain town along with some fine music and talk.
If you don’t know about my Travel Fun radio show, please tune in live one of these Tuesdays. Or you may listen to some of my past interviews that I’ve posted as podcasts.
Now for the good stuff. Here’s what you can snatch up in exchange for a pledge, just e-mail me through my Contacts Page to lock in your travel premium. (You can also go there to sign up for my RSS feed and/or to receive bi-monthly Travel Fun announcements. Be sure to provide all your contact information including phone and address (e-mail as well as snail mail, please) and your desired prize. Know that I’m accepting pledges on a first come, first serve basis, so act fast!
TELLURIDE TEMPTATIONS
First-Rate Dinner and Lodging at Capella
$150. pledge: a two-night stay in a standard room (pictured above—wow!) in this stunning hotel, valued between $200. and $500.
$75. pledge: dinner for two at Onyx, Capella’s signature restaurant, valued at $100. not including tax and gratuity.
Feeling sophisticated? It sounds like you need to spend some time at Capella, the newest bright star of Telluride’s hospitality offerings.
The Himmel Spa Relaxation Room at The Klammer
Gorgeous Health and Beauty Treatments from the Fairmont Heritage Place, Franz Klammer Lodge
$75. pledge: One-hour facial, valued at $130.
$75. pledge: One-hour massage, valued at $120. Note that both include access to the pool, fitness center and spa facilities for the day. How delightful, how de-lovely! Read what I have to say about The Himmel Spa at The Klammer in my story, Telluride’s Ultra Luxe Mountain Spas.
OUTSIDE OF TELLURIDE
Almost Like Home: Box Canyon Lodge
Great Getaway to America’s Little Switzerland
$50. pledge: Enjoy an overnight, valued at $100., at Box Canyon Lodge & Hot Springs, in Ouray. Read my Ouray story as a primer.
Art & Culture Food & Wine Podcasts Telluride: Art & Culture Food & Wine Podcasts Telluride Telluride Festivals
by maribeth
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Kenny Gilbert: Always a Top Chef
Chef Kenny Gilbert
Wow, did you watch Bravo’s Top Chef last night? Our Telluride favorite, Chef Kenny Gilbert, was voted off the show in a flash in the pan, all due to some kind of flub with beet and goat cheese dishes. I think that was it—it all happened so fast, I couldn’t keep track. I hate this part of Top Chef—how one bad dish can blow your whole chance. I wish they’d find a way of scoring cumulatively, especially since Kenny certainly shined throughout every episode. The other cheftestants even referred to him as The Black Lightening. At least the judges commended him in his final episode for his leadership abilities. It comes as no surprise when you hear about some of his philosophies. Scroll down to his Book Pick at Top Chefs to gain more insight into his approach.
I interviewed Kenny just about a year ago when he was still Executive Chef of a leading hotel here in Telluride. Click on the play button below to hear him chat about how he became a chef and what’s most important to him in the kitchen.
I had chatted with Kenny on the occasion of the Telluride Festival of the Arts: A Visual & Culinary Arts Festival that takes place annually in our lovely mountain town. This year it happens August 13-15. Yes, that means it begins tomorrow, so try to take in at least one event over this fun weekend.
As for me, I’m headed on a rafting trip. But I’ll keep all my favorite top chefs in mind, particularly since Kelly Liken is still in the running and I think she’s looking mighty fine.
Art & Culture Being Green Music & Dance Telluride: Art & Culture Being Green Music & Dance Telluride Telluride Festivals
by maribeth
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Phish in Telluride: The Day After the Day After
Phish Phans Philing into Telluride Town Park
Well, we did it. Our little mountain town has survived—very well in fact—the invasion of some 10,000 Phish fans. Aside from a smattering of arrests (mostly drug-related), an excess of garbage (which has already been expediently cleaned up) and a few trampled flower beds, most appears pretty much back to normal.
Sure, here in T-ride we’re accustomed to putting on big festivals, big doings that see the population of our town nearly quadruple in less than forty-eight hours. But this was Phish, the widely popular jam band that enjoys a spectacular following everywhere they go. Even Phish fans have to obtain concert tickets through a carefully orchestrated lottery; their shows consistently sell out in record time and those that make it to the event are die-hards, devoted followers that think nothing about crisscrossing the country to take in a show. Especially if it’s in a venue as stunning as Telluride’s Town Park, a setting as celebrated as the numerous artists that have played there.
Psyched to See the Show
My first glimpse of dedicated Phish fans en masse occurred late Sunday afternoon, the last day of the Telluride Jazz Festival. The crowd more than doubled, shifting from mountain casual to urban hippie as Phish fans poured into this mellow gathering in Telluride Town Park. I knew already that despite an abundance of tie dye and weed, these folks came from every ilk, every socioeconomic background, every corner of the U.S. Already I suspected many of them to be closet hippies, the kind of people that wore suits and serious expressions most days to work yet their real drug of choice was attending a Phish concert, an enviable outlet that leaves even the most seasoned concert goer in awe.
That’s just how I felt Tuesday night, the second night of Phish’s two-day stint in T-ride. (I had skipped Monday’s show and, in fact, decided only Tuesday morning to attend the second when my boyfriend, Steve, threw a ticket my way. The whole town was buzzing about the event, so how could I stay home?)
It was a gorgeous evening, one of the prettiest of the summer, perfect for baring skin and parading about in all manner of costume-y outfits. And of those there were many. From sequins to tinsel, feathers to beads, face paintings to piercings and tattoos, the entire scene provided some of the best people watching of any concert I’ve attended.
And as the puffy clouds stretched across orangey-pink bands in the faded blue jean sky, the sun set out far beyond our cathedral canyon. My hunny and I remarked about the number of people turning to this gorgeous vision, gazing skyward in amazement, snapping pictures on cell phones and cameras, craning their necks to take in the full glory of this Kodachrome moment.
Our Cathedral Canyon
“I think they’re trying to figure out how much of what they see is real or a hallucination,” my hunny quipped.
Indeed I had never seen so many trip-y looking people. A thick cloud of smoke clung to the air and the smell of pot, tobacco and clove cigarettes permeated the entire park as people swayed and bobbed to the pulsating beat of the music. The crowd roared from the minute Phish took to the stage, mouthed almost every word of every song and communed with one and other as though they were at a massive neighborhood block party (albeit a pretty out-there one). And although the vibe felt relatively mellow, the enthusiasm exhibited among these hardcore fans reverberates through the mob as fast as a rumor spreads that this iconic jam band is coming to town.
“I can’t believe this is all legal,” I commented to my hunny.
“Most of it isn’t,” he replied.
Lighting Up
Really, in all the concerts I’ve ever attended—from my first biggies in Saratoga Springs (SPAC) which included Fleetwood Mac to Grateful Dead in Boston during my college years to the Rolling Stones and Police in Paris to the countless in Telluride including Dylan—never had I taken in such a scene. Still though, everyone seemed to be in possession of themselves. This must have been what Woodstock was like, I thought to myself. I didn’t know a single song but I had fun, I felt glad to take in such a display.
The mood became more uproarious after the set break when the band broke out with Party Time, a riotous song which prompted fans to toss massive quantities of glow sticks and rings into the audience. Although this jolly show of neon further enhanced the sensational lighting effects of the show, I couldn’t get past how awful it was to mindlessly throw all these toxic, plastic vials about. Clearly a lot of Phish fans lack some real environmental awareness. I had never seen this happen anywhere before, especially not in T-ride. (And if they ever come back here, I doubt they’ll repeat this offense again.)
I actually learned yesterday on the local news that cleaning up from these shows entailed the biggest effort ever. Fortunately we have crews that know how to restore our park to one of the most pristine public places in the country. They combed the last blades of grass for the pesky debris that remained including cherry pits, cigarette butts and bottle caps. Phish fans have a lot to learn from our festivarians, especially from the Telluride Bluegrass devotees, a crowd that’s well versed in protecting the environment. But hey, they’ve been coming to our beautiful mountain town for nearly four decades.
All things considered, you did good Phish. Just next time, tell your Phans to leave the glow sticks at home and to better pick up after themselves. Oh, and maybe you could turn the music down a little. That was the loudest concert I ever attended and it feels like my ears are still ringing. Liked the improv though. And, of course, the super-friendly, groovy, free-spirited people.
Phish Jamming on Telluride Town Park Stage
Thank you to Merrick Chase, from Telluride Photography, for the above images. To view the entire two days of Phish in Telluride (and more!), visit the Telluride Photography Web site and blog.
For more on Telluride festivals, read Summer in Telluride: A Sea of Festivals and More.
