Category: Travel

It’s a little after 10 am here in Denver and I made it into the office.  I got to bed so late on Sunday night that I slept all the way here on the flight from Seattle.   One of those flights where I go ‘Oh, are we landing already?’ as I wake up !

It was a short stay in Denver this week with Monday’s Memorial Day holiday, but I was ready to go home on Thursday nonetheless.  I had to put in long hours to support the second cycle of testing the system that we are building.

As for the new train terminal and 519-room hotel construction project at Denver airport – now estimated to cost $544 million – it is 9 percent over its original $500 million budget.  When additional ‘related’ costs of $128 million are added, the project is 34% over budget.    The project may very well impact other capital plans at the airport, says the Denver Post.   Denver winds play a role in the airport’s runway needs.  When strong winds blow from the west, which is a common occurrence, only two of the six runways may be used for take-offs and landings. A seventh runway would give the airport a third east-west option.  A master plan in 2011 forecast that a seventh runway would be needed as soon as 2015 to avoid flight delays.  The airport capital plan listed it as a “must do” project.  A year later, the runway was delayed, but the airport still budgeted $36.7 million for 2018 to begin construction.

 

There were more warnings of tornadoes in the Denver metro area today, and an hour later, that was followed by a severe thunderstorm with lightning and hail just as I was heading out to the airport.

(Hail damaged six Frontier Airlines aircraft at Denver International Airport on Wednesday, forcing them to cancel some 16 flights.  Wow. I wonder how hard it is to fix a fuselage or wing surface with hail dents in. Surely a hair dryer or letting it stand in the sun will NOT do?).

The little Prius taxi cab I was in took quite a pummeling from the cats-and-dogs-coming-down kind of rain, with some hail mixed in as well .. but thankfully none that would damage an aircraft !

We had some mild excitement this afternoon in the office when severaI of us got tornado alerts on our phones from the National Weather Service, and an announcement by the building management.  So we moved to the elevators and stairwells for 30 mins or so, until the coast (the Denver plains?) was clear.

Later on I walked down to Union Station to check on its remodeling progress.  The work on it still needs a few more months, though, and I could only admire the exterior.

 

Most of the time it’s nice to go and relax and go grab a bite with my colleagues .. but tonight was one of those where it took way too long.  We picked the Yard House, a popular place that offers 200 kinds of beers on tap.  Tonight it was bustling with people. (There’s probably a convention at the Colorado Convention Center going on again).  So what was supposed to be a 15 minute wait turned into a 40 minute wait, and then it took another 30 minutes before we finally had our food on the table.   But hey, I got to get a spectacular panorama picture as we left, and just as the sun was setting.

Monday was a spectacular blue sky day in Seattle.  I postponed my usual Monday morning trip to Denver to Tuesday due to a bad cold.  I think I will be OK to travel tomorrow.  (I see they had snow there in Denver today .. it’s very late for snow!).

P.S.  Here’s a link to Seattle Art Museum’s Deco Japan exhibit to go with the picture below. There’s some pretty cool graphic design posters in there.

My body clock is still shifted toward going to bed early and getting up early, so I went for a walk early in the morning.  (Normally I go to bed late and sleep until I have to get up!). Here are some pictures I took along 14th Street here in downtown Denver.

For the first time this year while I had been in Denver, I left my jacket in the hotel.  The day-time temperatures reached into the 80s (26 °C+) here in Denver on Monday and Tuesday. I’m still a little bleary-eyed from jet lag, but today was already a lot better than Monday!

It’s 7 am here in Frankfurt.  We arrived an hour ago from Johannesburg, at 6 am.  The Germans run a sharp operation here (of course), with everyone at the airport at their posts  this early in the morning, and most of the duty-free stores and others open as well.

 

I’m at Cape Town airport.  I will go back the same way I came, with a stop in Johannesburg, then up north to Frankfurt, and then across the Atlantic to Seattle for an arrival on Saturday.

My time in Stellenbosch is running out, so here are some pictures I took as I ran errands with my brother and sister-in-law.

We’re working our way through several closely-spaced national holidays here in South Africa : there was Good Friday and Easter Monday, and today (since Freedom Day fell on a Sunday). Then on Thursday May 1 it’s Workers Day .. and then on Wednesday May 7 it’s Election Day!  Whoah.    Because of the holiday my brother and I could not pursue the transitioning of a few more accounts into my mom’s name .. but we needed a break anyway, and took a little hike up the mountain here in the neighborhood.

I went into Stellenbosch on Friday afternoon looking for a few items : food for the house, printer paper and ink .. and the house needs a new washing machine.  The old one has been at it for 15 years and finally broke down completely.

A lot of these businesses are found along Bird Street here in Stellenbosch, so that’s where I went.  There is also a suburb called Onder Papegaaiberg (‘Lower Parrot Mountain’) here .. with the nickname Voëltjiesdorp (hard to translate, something like ‘Little Birdy Town’).

All went well with my departure out of Frankfurt, arrival in Johannesburg, and arrival into Cape Town International Airport.  My brothers picked me up at the airport, and we joined my mom and my aunt in Stellenbosch, a 40 minute drive away.  My dad’s memorial service is scheduled for Tuesday.

It is 7.30 pm in Germany on Saturday night.  I am back at Frankfurt airport after arriving this morning.  I did stay over for 8 hours in the Sheraton hotel right on the doorstep of the airport – very convenient.   I split the time between sleeping, and taking a quick train ride out to the city.

My bags are packed, and I’m heading to South Africa for my dad’s memorial service. I have a long layover in Frankfurt, so long that I should check into a day hotel there to get some sleep.  There are some right at the airport, and I may just do that.   I only arrive in Cape Town at about 12 noon on Sunday.

The project team stays in the Denver Sheraton this week. There is a big conference in the Colorado Conference Center, and the Hilton ‘kicked us out’ for the week.  (They can get more money from the conference goers.  We are on a special low long-term rate with them).

Anyway : I am too happy just to have a hotel room to go to, relax a little and then go sleep.  I tested the bed’s mattress already : firm, just the way I like it.  Who wants to sleep on a bed that is soft as a marshmallow?

It’s April, but we had an inch or two of snow on the ground this morning, and snow flurries while walking to the office.   We always fret a little when the weather is bad on Thursdays, because it could impact our flights back home.  We have people from Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Seattle (moi) and even New York, working on the project.

I have a nice view from my Hilton Garden Inn hotel room this week, looking out on the Colorado Convention Center with its blue bear (looking in).  It’s spring, and there’s been reports of bears roaming around in the ‘burbs in California, looking for food.  Colorado has an estimated 15,000 black bears.

In the distance is the Pepsi Center, home for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League, and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League (yes.. didn’t know there was a National Lacrosse League here in the USA, now did you?) .