Heading Home

Today our objective was simple:  Drive to a Denver airport hotel.  We left our Aspen hotel around 9am and headed to Independence Pass.  The drive was very pretty with a sunny day and a clear blue sky. 

For lunch, we stopped at our favorite place in Georgetown - The Happy Cooker.   The place is fairly small, even with some outdoor seating.  We arrived before 11:30 and were able to be seated right away. I recall having a 30-45 minute wait in the past.   We enjoyed  our brunch.

On the way to Denver we saw very few snow covered peaks due to the warm weather and the drought.  Here's one we spotted.

Supper was also at a traditional stop in Denver - the Moonlight Dinner which has been voted as the best diner in Colorado many times.

So now we are settled into our hotel so we will be ready for our 11:00 am flight to Detroit tomorrow morning.  It's been a great trip!

Last Day in Aspen

Chris asked about meeting at the Hickory House at 10:00 to which we promptly agreed.  We had a very nice conversation during brunch, then he had to head to Denver for his flight back to Nashville.  It was great to get to know him on a more personal basis.  

We were back at the Hickory House at 12:30 to meet a couple  from Denver that we only see at Mack Bailey events (our third time there in 25 hours).  It was quite the conversation about families and retirement issues.  Like us, they are still in heir house while being 10 years older than us. I'm sure we'll see them again in Denver for the next Mack and Chris concert in December. 

This afternoon was college football time as we watched Michigan lose (Boo!) and Ohio State win (Double BOO!)  After that we shared a huge slice of pizza for supper, then got ready for tonight's concert.

The Chris Collins concert was very good.  They are a professional troupe that tours all around he country.  They performed many different songs from last night's concert, but with a different dynamic.  

Tomorrow morning we head to Denver via Independence Pass to be ready for our Monday morning flight back to Detroit. 

Aspen Day 2

In my tiredness last night after a long day and a long concert, I neglected one significant detail.  As we got back to our motel and pulled into the parking lot we had a greeter - a sizable bear!   We waited a while  before parking and going to the front door, while the bear ambled to the back of the hotel.  When we went in, I told the attendant, and for some reason, she headed out with her flashlight to find it!  No picture due to it being at night 😁

Chris Nole had to cancel our breakfast due to altitude adjustment issues to be sure he got some good rest before the concert tonight.  Maybe tomorrow for breakfast.  

Our lunch with Mack Bailey fared much better. We enjoyed a lively conversation, hearing more about his son, their college related travel plans, and about Music Therapy Retreats.  We talked for about 1 1/2 hours. It was great to get caught up on how things are going.

Since we had time in the morning we headed to the Grotto's.  It was a very pleasant drive towards Independence Pass.  We took the short path to the cascades and there is a LOT less water flowing  over the rocks.

On our way back to the car we spotted a deer across the river, but it saw us and bolted before we could get a picture.  It' been a good trip for wildlife sightings!

We totally enjoyed the Mack Bailey and Chris Nole concert!  It was well designed, moved along nicely, and featured a lot of John Denver songs along with a couple of heir own songs. 

They were joined on stage by a bass player who also played a cello on a couple of numbers.  

Along with their songs, Chris told a story about going skiing with John Denver in Utah, and Mack  described how he appeared on stage with John, just 3 weeks before the plane crash.  

Mack called his family on stage for the Country Roads finale.  It was amazing to see how tall his son Heyden had grown!  

After the concert we talked with Mack's wife, Rachel, Heyden, Chris Nole and Mack.  

What a great ending to a wonderful day!

Tomorrow we just have the Chris Collins concert at night.  Chris Nole said how he is leaving town tomorrow so it's unclear if we'll catch up with him.   

Aspen Day 1

Our Best Western in Dillon proved to be a major flashback to an older time, before the major chain motels. Outside door and no elevator.  But it had a nice view of what is left of Dillon Lake, which is down about 20' from it's traditional depth due to the long term Colorado drought.

We had a smooth drive to Snowmass, driving though Glenwood Canyon as we do most years, and it was a spectacular as we remember. They had some construction, but traffic was light so we made good time.  We stopped at a rest area for a stretch break where I got this picture of the Colorado River.  It also shows how low the water level is.

What was really cool was seeing 5 big horn sheep walking by the side of the road as we passed by.  We'd heard of other people spotting them in the Canyon, but this was a first for us. 

We arrived in Snowmass at 11:45 just in time for the noon Singer-Songwriter concert, featuring Chris Collins, Brad Fitch, Chris Nole, Ed Stower, and Ron Matthews.  They each took three turns singing a song they wrote.  While all the songs were interesting, in my opinion Chris Nole stole the show by playing a song he wrote with a veteran at a recent Music Therapy Retreat, which helps veterans with PTSD. 

We had some time before we could check into our hotel so we headed to the John Denver Sanctuary for a picnic lunch. 

The aspen trees were so colorful that I could not resist taking this picture of one of the stones with them in the background.

And we took a traditional selfie by the John Denver stone.

This evening was a Ron Matthews concert that started at 6:00 pm.   He was joined on stage by Paul Swanton as he has done, for many years in the past.  Unfortunately this could be the last time that Paul makes it to the Aspen in October events due to a serious medical condition.

Ron played a lot of lesser known John Denver songs.  This year he added a new twist by making some medleys of John Denver's and his personal songs. 

Tomorrow we are having coffee and pastries with Chris Nole for breakfast, followed by lunch with Mack Bailey.  In the evening is Mack and Chris's Poems, Prayers and Promises concert. 

Traveling To Aspen

So we are off on our travel day to Aspen - well, most of the way to Aspen - as we are staying tonight in Dillon, CO before driving the rest of the way tomorrow. 
As you can see we flew Southwest nonstop to Denver.  The flight was delayed a bit so we ended up getting into Denver 45 minutes behind schedule so that gave people making connections some heartburn. But beyond that we had one of our better travel days.  Parking at Detroit was quick, no line at the Southwest counter, our luggage came very quickly at Denver, and the Enterprise car rental went very smooth. I'm now a big fan of Enterprise. They have a great app, solid people who care, and good rates. 

Our drive west from Denver was cloudy and overcast so no pretty blue sky mountain pictures this time.  Mary took quite a few so here's a sample. We've driven this route so many times that we recognize the scenery, which is nice.  It's always a great feeling to be back in the mountains.

So on to Snowmass tomorrow for the noon Singers and Songwriters event, then on to Aspen where we are staying for the extended weekend. We know our way around Aspen, can easily get to the Sanctuary and to the Friday and Saturday concerts at the Wheeler Opera House.    More to come with 5 concerts in 3 days. 

Cruise Day 13 - Nanaimo

Well, visiting Naniamo was pretty much a bust.  Mary searched for attractions and the Harbourfront looked interesting, but after docking we found it was 1 1/2 miles away.  We got off the ship and headed to the visitor center on the dock, only to find it was a 1 mile walk into the city, but we could ride a shuttle for $15/person round trip.  Since we really had no reason to head into town except to walk around a bit, we passed and headed back to the ship, but not before getting this picture taken. 

So today was packing day.  After lunch we got out the suitcases and are 95% packed, with only a few things to add after visiting the dining room tonight.

Dinner was good, featuring Baked Alaska as the dessert. We had a coconut shrimp appetizer, shrimp for Mary's entree and pork tenderloin for me.  

Tomorrow we have a mid-afternoon flight which gets us home after 10pm. So it will be a long travel day as we have to kill about 4 hours at the Seattle airport. 

Since this is a shorter entry, and possibly my last one for this trip, I've added my reflections, below.

Cruise Reflections

In general we found this cruise to be very enjoyable.  It was well paced, with few back-to-back port days and we saw a lot of new places. We had not been to Kodiak since 2010 (could it really be 16 years ago??), and visiting Anchorage from the sea rather than via plane or train was unique. Those factors plus three new ports and sailing the Inside Passage, made this cruise a lot different from our 5 prior Alaska cruises.

It was also our second time on Holland-America.  We learned that HAL is not Princess, and that can be a good thing.  We enjoyed the entertainment, the smaller ship, a super unique itinerary that no other cruise line offers, the ease of moving around on the ship (after the first few days, of course!), and the food was good.  Of course the small-ish cabin and unusual storage space was an issue, but we adapted.  The crew was very friendly and engaging and we had excellent cabin stewards.  We did laugh about their deck naming convention: Lower Promenade Deck, Promenade Desk and Upper Promenade desk, followed by three similarly named Veranda decks but whatever floats your boat!  LOL  So nothing that would keep us from booking HAL in the future. 

Early on the shore excursion process was a bit rough, but it got better as the cruise progressed. The two tender ports proved challenging.  But our excursions ran pretty much on time and only 1 time did we have to wait due to a late returning shore excursion. It was great seeing the glaciers, whales, and bears once again.   

Cruise Day 12 - Inside Passage

Today we cruised the Inside Passage south from Ketchikan. Lots of scenery on both sides of the ship. Above is a panorama photo off the front of the ship showing the scenery. The picture came out a bit small, but click on it to make it larger.

Most cruise ships go west of Vancouver Island as they journey between the lower 48 and Ketchikan.  But we were fortunate to be traveling on the east side of the island, which is known as the Inside Passage since it is in protected waters rather that open ocean. This map picture was taken from our room TV.  It shows you the narrow passages we sailed though. This also means smoother sailing.  😀

One thing that we love about this cruise itinerary - it goes to ports and places the usual itineraries skip.  You won't experience this on your typical 7 day Alaska cruise!

At lunch today, Holland hosted a Cake Extravaganza with 16 different cakes - see list on the left. 

On the right you can see the serving line with all the cakes.  I can assure you the cakes tasted as good as they look!

Diner tonight was in the Italian specialty restaurant.  It was very nice with excellent service.  On the left was a very unique presentation of tiramisu.   I enjoyed a chocolate hazelnut tart dessert.

We had an Irish Dance production show tonight.  We both agreed this was the best show on this cruise.  The dancers were great and the show had good flow from one song to another.

Tomorrow we visit Nanaimo on Vancouver Island as we prepare for the last day of this cruise.