The end of winter wonderland

What did I say in my last post? In a few days we'll have a BBQ on the porch again? Well... that's how Colorado is. One day you have warm temperatures and sunshine, then you have a blizzard pulling in leaving us with 17 inch of snow and a state shutdown for the day and the next morning everything is thawing again. The end of a winter wonderland.

Which kind of amazes me is how quickly all that is happening. Even though the temperatures are well below freezing the sun comes out and melts the snow in no time. At around noon the streets were cleared and the remaining water was steaming (!) off... look at this picture! Amazing... you have to love the Coloradan weather ;-)

Whiteout in Colorado

When I went to bed at midnight there was not even one snowflake in the air. The entire day I was running around in my T-Shirt. The previous weekend was even better... sunshine and temperatures in the mid 70s (21+ C).
When the weather forecast issues a blizzard warning once again I didn't really take it seriously. Well the last blizzard warning on Monday just missed us by a few hundred miles and hit Wyoming instead. What can happen to us... in March, right?

Well the answer is simple... a foot of snow (30 cm) in less then six hours. Enough to shut down all highways around us and making the daily commute a nightmare for most of us. Working for a high tech company has definitely advantages... we could simple stay in and work from home instead... and missing out on the fun on the freeway. Oh well.

Interesting is that blizzard warning is still in effect till tomorrow... not speaking about the temperature drop to freezing 19 F (-7 C). Tomorrow's commute could be fun too!

And finally I saw some proper white outs... with so much snow in the air that you have difficulties to spot your neighbors house across the street!

This is Colorado, man! And I am sure that in 3 days we will have BBQ's on the porch again :-)

Happy St Paddy's Day

It's once again this time of the year when we all start wearing green, watching parades and having (sometimes green) pints of Guinness. Even the local television station reported from the greenest holiday in Denver... the connection they made to how good environmental wise this particular holiday is I really couldn't make myself. Oh well... that's what you call Zeitgeist I guess.

On the other hand we had a fantastic parade downtown Denver. To make it more accessible for everyone (because Paddy's Day is not a national holiday over here) we had the parade already last weekend.

And what a parade that was: 4 hours of marching bands, pipe bands, Irish dancers, horses, lamas, floats and even Denver's mayor which I barely noticed among all other politicians. He also wore a green scarf :o)

But of course it is all about the Irish heritage and I am still amazed about how many Irish dancing schools are in and around Denver.

And about how many Americans which think that wearing a kilt is typical Irish ;-)

But we also had plenty (stereo-)typical American floats like a Native American Pow-Wow, cowboys herding cattle and of course Ronald McDonnald. I still wonder were the King from Burger King was this year ;-)

And like the last three years the Star Wars crowd was there again Which is really funny to see on St. Patrick's Day I think: First you have the marines, the young marines and then a crowd of people dressed in old uniforms (like world war or civil war uniforms) marching... followed by a bunch of Stormtroopers in white :-) I guess in this stage it is now part of the American culture... like the bunch of people dressed up in Stargate (TV series) uniforms who followed ;-)

But all that matters is having a good time: HAPPY PADDY'S DAY to all of you!

After the magic...

But even the best magic has to come to an end someday. And that day came much too soon... like always on vacations I guess :-( So I climbed my little airport shuttle, said goodbye to Mickey and Goofy and left the Magic Kingdom. While I had only some hand luggage there were two girls joining the shuttle bus which basically filled out the entire remaining space in that bus. Have a look on that picture... it seemed like everyone of them had at least 5 big bags and a couple of hand luggage pieces. Amazing! I wish I could have seen their luggage surcharge they had to pay...

The next eerie thing awaited me when I climbed my airplane to Denver. After getting all hyped up in the Tower of Terror I felt a bit strange sitting in an airplane nearly on my own. There might have been 10 people in the entire plane, if that!

Oh well... I live to tell the story... and arrived in Denver... from the... twilight zone :o)

A great vacation indeed! Thanks for having me Mickey ;-)

Around the world at Epcot

The last remaining park to visit was Epcot which is the educational park of the four Disney world parks. It is featuring iconic rides like Spaceship Earth which takes its visitors in a time machine through humankind's biggest inventions, a simulated space launch (which I took at least five times) and of course the world showcase build on the shores of a small lake.

This is actually the nicest part of the park as it allows its visitors to travel around the world in a matter of a short walk. Following eleven countries are represented: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom and Canada. Every country has its own small exposition, shops and restaurants.

Of course I had to spend some time in Germany. Lucky enough they were selling alcohol in this park unlike the other three parks. Can you imagine Germany without beer? Me neither ;-) But I have to admit the food was authentic. And the German part of the park looked much like Nuremberg and the German speaking waiter and waitress were wearing Dirndl and Lederhosen. Everyone knows that we are all wearing that stuff over there all the time :-P

The United Kingdom part of the park was very well done as well. I liked the fish and chips and the nice English pub they had there... playing some great (American) Rock music ;-)

The only thing which didn't really fit into the whole picture was the St. Paddy's stuff which was getting sold all over the place there. As one of the people beside me correctly noticed... isn't that Irish?

Oh well... I think it is hard to create a world showcase without presenting stereotypes as well. But I still think they did a great job at Epcot. And if you don't have the time or the money to travel to all those countries this might be the next best thing. Much better then going to Vegas believing that you saw Venice or Rome I guess :-)

Animal Kingdom safari

The third Disney park over in Orlando is a crossover of Zoo, safari and theme park. Their latest attraction is a roller coaster which takes its visitors on a trip through the Himalaya to encounter the infamous Yeti. Indeed very well made and the only attraction with a longer queue in the entire park. Except of course the two girls sitting behind me and screaming 'oh my god... oh my god' the entire time!

But even wandering through the park was good fun as it is separated into different parts of the world like Asia (with Nepal, Tibet and India) and Africa. Again everything is well themed and looks like the real deal... as much as I can tell because I never went there... yet ;-) On the other hand I think that most of the audience was never there too... so it worked for us :-)

But of course I was there for the animals so I booked my very own safari which was great fun as well. The main different here was that the safari was embedded in an entire story about our imaginary ranger hunting down some poacher and taking us from waterhole to waterhole in the process. Again very well made and a good chance to see elephants, rhinos and other animals from up close.

Speaking about animals... the last ride I took was in the dinosaur part of the park and presented you alive dinosaurs from up close...

I guess dinosaurs are animals as well... somehow. Oh well, still I had a great time over there as you can see :-)

Premiere at the Hollywood Studios

My next stop was the Disney Hollywood Studios which offers everything for a movie buff like me... lots of movie sets which allows you wandering through New York and San Fransisco at the same time. An interesting illusion which only from up close lets you see the fake buildings and street paintings.


Also very enjoyable are the different stunt shows they have over there. Like the car chase scene which would be quite impressive to see at the movies but live up close... astonishing. Also interesting is that for this short sequence they have already 3 different versions of the same car customized to perform the different stunts. And all cars are Opels made in Germany! I have to try those stunts with my own Opel Corsa back home now ;-)

But these were not the only things to do over there. Of course they had plenty of fun rides too... again heavily themed. Like the Star Tour ride which takes you into a Star Wars set... including an AT-AT walker, Tatooine and Endor set. Oh man... I would have loved that as a kid that's for sure.

Okay... you got me there... I still enjoyed it ;-)




My favorite ride though was the Tower of Terror which basically is a hunted elevator of this Hollywood hotel with a life on its own. Disney also themed this ride around a 'Twilight Zone' episode. Brilliant! I took at least 5 times this ride :-P

And I made it back... out of... THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Ticket to the Magic Kingdom

After 2 very stressful months at work I was in need of some hilarious and mindless fun... so I booked my ticket at Disney world in Orlando, Florida. After enjoying Disneyland in Anaheim, California last year this was the next logical step for me :-)
Arriving at my hotel it looked like they were expecting me. Not only they had the German flag flying but also the Irish... no other flag! That is too much of a coincidence for me... they knew! Impressive!

While Disney has 'only' two parks in California (Disneyland and The Californian Experience) over in Florida they have already four parks... the Magical Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom. Each park is heavily Disney themed but has its own charm.

So I started my 4-day Disney vacation at the Magic Kingdom which seems to be the most children-friendly one of the four with not too scary rides and Disney characters found at every corner. But I was there for the roller coasters of course ... and there were plenty of it. And because I was there out-of-season the lines were actual not too bad at all... most of the time I could directly walk up to the ride!

But then I had the chance to meet the only Disney character I wanted to meet for my entire trip: Goofy!

We had a great chat about the Federal income tax form W-2 after taking this picture. Thanks for saving me some money there Goody ;-)