One Colorado Vacation Planner Excludes Boulder

En route back from Hawaii (more posts from that trip to come), I picked up a copy of the "Colorado Summer Vacation Planner 2009" (top right) at Denver International Airport this morning. A bit spacy after a full day on the Big Island and a red-eye nonstop flight from Kailua Kona International Airport, I thumbed through it on the ride home. There were the usual towns, resorts and counties in almost-alphabetical order: Aspen, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Cañon City, Chaffee County -- all the way to Winter Park.

Then I looked again. No Boulder! No Boulder? I know (and have repeated) the one-liner about "the People's Republic of Boulder," but as far as I knew, Boulder hadn't actually seceded from the State of Colorado, nor had Boulder been kicked out. Colorado towns as small as Ouray (population under 900) and even non-towns like Gateway, which is actually a resort development called Gateway Canyons Resort, near the Utah state line, get their own chapters. But no Boulder -- except in the lodging listings, where 11 properties are given.

I looked again through bleary red-eye flight eyes and finally noticed that this vacation planner is not the one issued by the Colorado Tourism Office, but rather by the Colorado Hotel & Lodging Association. The CTO's "2009 Official Sate Vacation Guide" (lower right) does not feature specific destination chapters, so low-keying Boulder is not quite so obvious. (I'm sorry that there's no larger image downloadable from the CTO's site, but you can see it here.) The covers of the two planners are similar: blue sky dome above a wildflower-filled meadow, with a couple of hikers on the CHLA's planner and a romantic couple lounging (off-trail) amid the flowers on the CTO's planner.

But back to omitting Boulder, oversight? Maybe. Deliberate? Maybe, perhaps because of an insufficient level of advertising support by city interests for state-wide tourism promotion efforts. Too bad? For sure.

Homage to Captain Cook with a Hot, Humid Hike

Sea-level obelisk can be seen easily from the sea -- or step by step on a hiking trail

Captain James Cook, the 18th century English navigator who met his end on February 14, 1779, at Kealekehua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii. Cook's Wikipedia entry is worth reading. An unhappy Valentine's Day for the adventurer who on his third epic voyage. On previous trips to Hawaii, my husband have seen the Cook monument from across the bay, and my son and snorkeled very close it. It was time to approach it one more way -- on foot.

Monday was a cool day (for Hawaii). In fact, Lihue on Kauai registered a record low for the high temperature of the day: 61 degrees. What better day for a sea-level hike? The trail to the Captain Cook monument is off a side road north of the eponymous town of Captain Cook. The unmarked trailhead is across from three tall palm trees (below).


Cars park along the road, which reeks from sewer pipe vents along the way. A few steps and the sewerage strench is mercifully gone. The rail is walled in dense greenery, and rooster and wild bird seranades accompanied us as we descended between old sugarcane fields with trailside trees here and there.
The cane fields give way to open woods and then to stark lava flows, which absorb the heat and blast it back at hikers. The current Kiluea erputon is on the other side of the island.

The vegetation thickens near the shore, where sea kayakers pull up. Authorities are concerned about damage to corral, and kayaking is probably going to be banned soon from Kelalekahua Bay.

A short spur trail leads to the monument, which is officially on British soil to this day. Note to the Queen: Your Majesty, send someone to repaint the monument. It's peeling.

Here is the inscription on the base of the obelisk. A couple of other, small commemorative plaques have been placed around the platform too.

The hike isn't too long (a tad over two miles each way, with about a 1,300 elevation difference), and there certainly is a lot of oxygen at sea level. However, the heat and the humidity made it feel much longer. In fact, coming up was miserable and ennervating. No matter what the thermometer registered, it felt beastly hot -- at least for people like us who live in a low-humidity place. But even as we took sweaty step after sweaty step, it was the least we could do to recognize one of the important early navigators who began mapping the world as we know it. I won't get into the political aspects of these voyages, "discoveries" and conquests. I'm just honoring the curiosity and courage required to make the months-long voyages to unknown places.

Follow-Up to Epic Delay

A few days ago, I posted an item called "Air Travel -- Fun or None?" detailing an delay in San Francisco, connected from Denver to Maui on the same aircraft (different flight numbers). Cynic that I am, I was not expecting more than a a verbal apology from United. Much to my surprise, the airline did not charge for food or drinks on the long-delayed flight -- a delay that was nearly five hours by the time the aircraft finally pushed back. Much to my greater surprise, I received an E-mail offering a $250 credit on a future flight, some kind of upgrade oppotunity or a credit of 10,000 Mileage Plus miles. I picked the $250 credit.

Air Travel -- Fun or None?

One short delay and one long one from Denver to Maui via San Francisco

I have a refrigerator magnet showing a woebegone Charle Brown saying, "Someday, my ship will come in, and with my luck, I'll be at the airport."

Just call me Charlie Brown.

Dateline: San Fransciso International Airport, May 15, 2009, 4:15 pm. PDT

United Flight 415 - DEN-SFO

Boeing 767, fully loaded,departed from Denver 40 minutes but landed in San Francisco on time. So far, so good. We arrived at Gate 87, which is the same gate our Maui flight was departing from. Hooray, we thought. They can't lose our luggage -- assuming it was on our plane to begin with.

United Flight 37 - SFO-OGG

Boarded aircraft, scheduled to depart at 1:1o p.m.. Sat and sat and sat. Captain announced a "small drip" from the left engine cowling. Mechanics going to check it out, and "we should be on our way shortly." Hah!

Flight attendants passed out water and started the movie. Then we were told to get off the plane with all our carry-ons. They didn't say, "change of aircraft," but that is what it turned out to be. We moved from Gate 87 to 85, where eventually, a smaller aircraft pulled up. United started prospecting for volunteers to leave tomorrow (free roundtrip ticket, free hotel in San Fransciso). We're going to a wedding tomorrow so couldn't accept.

Rescheduled Flight 37 was supposed to depart at 4:00, then 5:00 and now 5:30. It is supposed to arrive in Maui at 7:40. United still needs to offload 14 people and asked for volunteers willing to "leave in 20 minutes" for Honolulu and transfer to an interisland flight from there, arriving in Maui at 9:00-something p.m. And bags would not be transferred but would be waiting at the airport. In theory.

Right now, I have a confirmed seat on Flight 37, while my husband -- according to the status monitor -- is #12 on the list awaiting seat assignments. If we only have one seat, I'll give mine to him and try to join him tomorrow. It's his brother whose wedding we are going to.

Just call me Charlie Brown.

European Airline Consolidation Continues

You can't tell the airlines without a scorecard anymore. Mergers, consolidations, bankruptcies, start-ups, alliances and code shares make the airline industry very confusing -- more so with each day's headlines. The US led the way, and Europe is recently followed.

In the US, airline consolidations go back a long way, but consolidation fever . The present Continental was forged from an agglomeration of old carriers such as the original Frontier, Eastern, People Express and New York Air. Merger fever, economies of scale, Wall Street paper moving and so on have essentially left us with United and its current partner, U.S. Airways (that long ago took over the old Mohawk and Allegheny and recently AmericaWest), Delta (including Northwest) and American (which absorbed TWA) -- plus fast-growing, customer-friendly Southwest that currently seems to be the smartest carrier in the American skies. Along the way, other legacy domestic carriers disappeared. Think Pan Am (which had previously absorbed National) and Braniff. And these are just the ones that came to mind.

Similar consolidations, mergers and takeovers have raked European flag carriers too, but there, things are dicier because national pride is emblazoned on fuselages that are hard for airlines to relinquish, even as they are in dire financial straits. A merger between Belgium's SABENA and the former Swissair imploded or exploded after the national airline of Switzerland not only had its own financial problems by mismanaged SABENA. Brussels Airlines rose from its ashes but is a shadow of its predecessor

Air France and KLM (above right) are part of the same Dutch-controlled operating group that also owns 25 percent of Alitalia. Lufthansa, Germany's airline, owns SWISS, which succeeded Swissair after that carrier's bankruptcy; is a large stakeholder in Brussels Airlines and could take it over completely by 2011; bought BMI, and has just announced their takeover of Austrian Airlines. I could make a tasteless joke about an Anchluss in the air, but let's pretend that I didn't. There's also talk that Lufthansa might buy or merge with SAS -- or something. Stay tuned.

Avis Uses Bait, Switch and Upsell Tactics

Car rental firms jack up rates when using AmEx points

I use frequent flyer miles for flights whenever possible, expedient and/or wise, but I've been hoarding American Express points for car rentals for a long time. We are soon going to Hawaii -- first to Maui for a wedding and then to the Big Island for a vacation. Two rental car opportunities seemed like a good use of points. I started with the Big Island, because that will be the longer stay.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Avis website trying to figure out what promotion/coupon codes I could use for Avis, so I finally phoned. The AmEx system is that I could redeem points for several coupons to be used toward (but not in full payment for) the rental, which for one week with Avis was going to be more than $450. I was too shocked to write down the exact quote, but it was high. The reservation agent told me that I would be better off not using the coupon at all. He quoted an economy car rate of $242 for seven days, with unlimited mileage and no extra charge for the second driver. Sold.

Then he told me about a service that Avis offers which would net me a $20 gas coupon and 5 percent cash back on the rental. I asked whether this happens automatically when renting, and instead of answering, he switched me to a fast-talking sales type who "upgraded" the service which I could try for a month for "only one dollar" and "cancel any time." The carrot he dangled over the telephone was a $20 gas coupon plus that 5 percent rebate, but first, he said, I had to sign up. When I balked, he told me that he "has been authorized" to raise the gas coupon to $40. I told him my name, address, etc., but when he asked for my date of birth, I refused and said I wasn't interested in providing personal information. He huffed, "I'm not asking for your Social Security number." I said I didn't want to provide any more personal information, so he hung up on me.

Avis indeed seems to be trying harder -- trying harder to sell a "service" that I didn't really want (although a $40 gas coupon would be nice). No matter what they tried, they succeeded in annoying me. Because I knew that the AmEx coupons would not make sense for Maui either, I simply made the reservation online and ignored the "offer" for the same service that the phone folks tried to force on me.

Lady Liberty's Crown to Reopen

Closed since 9/11, the crown again will welcome a limited number of visitors

Especially after the recent ill-conceived recent photo op of a "spare" Air Force One flying low over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, it is refreshing that the crown will reopen to visitors on July 4. It has been closed since September 11, 2001. The official reason was given as "fire safety," but most of us believe that it was part of the previous administration's promoting an ongoing climate of fear. The airport threat level, after all, has been "orange" since this silly recorded alert was introduced.

Former Colorado senator and now Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced,“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America, it’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country, and it’s about President Obama’s agenda. So today we’re announcing that on the Fourth of July, we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty here in New York and New Jersey to the entire people of America in a way that we’ll be able to manage the crowds that come into this place."

Just to cover bases staked out by the paranoid, he said,“We have conducted a very comprehensive life-safety review for the statue itself and for the pedestal and there are improvements that are gonna have to be put in place. We’ll put some of those in place before we open it up on the Fourth of July. We’ll then go through a two-year period where the crown will be opened up, where the public — it will be about 30 people an hour that can come up here, it will be managed. And then following that, we’re going to go through a more major rehabilitation that ultimately will increase the number of people who can come up here to about 200,000.”

Timed passes will be distributed on a lottery-style basis, and access is ranger-guided. Even access to the statue's pedestal has been seriously limited to those who have a applied in advance for free monument pass and pick up the morning of the visit. Call 866-STATUE-4 or 212-269-5755. Oh, how unfortunately different this is from my childhood in Connecticut and young adult years in New York, when access to the pedestal and the statue was limited only by visitors' willingness to stand in line and climb a lot of stairs.

The ferries to Liberty Island board their last passengers well before the park's daily closing. There is no entrance fee to the park, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Park Service passes are not good for ferry fares. Due to the park's security procedures, visitors are advised to allow ample time for their visits. Ferry ticket prices from Battery Park are adult, $11:50; senior (62 and over), $9:50; child (4-12), $4.50, under 4, free.