We just spent a nice long weekend in Winter Park, Colorado to enjoy the fall colors, hike, and visit Rocky Mountain National Park to see the Elk rut! There are many great fall activities to enjoy within an hour of Winter Park, here are a few:

• Take the gondola up at the Winter Park Ski Resort, ride down the alpine slide, or take on the mini golf course.
• Grab some delicious food at nearby Winter Park (the town) or Fraser.
• Hike a couple of the nearby trails such as Jim’s Creek, St Louis Creek, or Broome Hut for the fall colors.
• Take a scenic drive to Hot Sulphur springs to see the aspens changing colors, drive through the scenic Byer’s Canyon, and take a dip in the hot springs.
• Stop by Grand Lake for the great views of the water and for some yummy food.
• Drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the dramatic scenery and the Elk rut which happens only in the fall.

For our visit some of our family was also able to join and we all had a wonderful time. We stayed just across the street from the ski resort at a condo with a hot tub and great views. Fall is great time to come to Winter Park as accommodations prices are significantly cheaper than peak season and there are almost no other tourists. However, one thing that is not predictable is what the weather will be like in Colorado in the fall especially in the mountains. We were extremely fortunate to have sunny and 60 degree days the entire time during the beginning of October. To make it even better many of the aspen trees were peaking in color.

After spending a couple of glorious days in Stoupa, Greece we ventured towards our next stop in the Peloponnese. Our next stop was to stay at the wonderful Westin Costa Navarino which is a two hour drive from Stoupa. To break up the drive we did a minor detour to hike and swim at the Polylimnio Waterfalls. The waterfalls were more than just a detour and were one of our highlights of our 2019 European trip. One of the best parts is that the waterfalls are free for everyone, you just need to drive there.

The Polylimnio waterfalls consists of 15 beautiful teal lakes, many of which have waterfalls. This is hike is not like anything you have experienced before. It is like walking through a teal tea garden in paradise. The hike itself is short, but technical and intense at times. Bring good hiking sandals as you will want good traction and your feet will get wet as you hike. As we climbed up the waterfalls we decided to jump into two of the larger lakes. The water was freezing, but it was worth it!

While my personal travel went on the back-burner the first half of this year I have been traveling a lot for work (Beth and I are moving to Denver, Colorado soon! More on that later!). A couple of these work trips were to the Reno, Nevada area and I couldn’t resist not visiting beautiful Lake Tahoe nearby and do some hiking. I was able to get in a couple hikes after work and before sunset while visiting the Reno area. Sunset was around 8:30 PM so I had just about 2 hours to get some hiking in before dark.

Growing up me and dad would do a ski trip every couple of years or so. Well our tradition took a hiatus for 6 years but we decided to head to Banff to ski and snowboard Lake Louise Ski Resort and Sunshine Village for our father son trip. In the past we went to the Salt Lake area doing a different ski resort each day and on another trip we went out east to Killington and got a taste of east coast skiing and snowboarding. Banff was by far the most scenic place I have ever snowboarded at and both the ski resorts had some great terrain!

The flights were actually booked many months ago to Calgary. Part of the reason for our decision to go to Banff for skiing was we had nearly perfect flights and were able to book the flights for 25,000 Delta miles round trip each (hey no money for the tickets!). That is cheap in miles too. The flights typically range in the $500 range so this was a great value and the best part was we met up in Minneapolis for our final connecting flight into Calgary and back home.

Having lived most of my life in the Midwest I always find it surprising how many new and interesting places I can find. The past weekend I was lucky enough to visit another new place, the beautiful Lake Cumberland, Kentucky. Although some would contest Kentucky is part of the south it was still within easy driving distance for us. It was only a 4 hour drive from Indianapolis with only the last hour on some windy country roads.

My girlfriend’s uncle was nice of us to have us down along with some other family at their lake house. It is always great to be invited by family or friends to their getaways. As for the lake, it was significantly different than your typical lake. But, different wasn’t a bad thing, it was beautiful with all the side shoots and lack of houses.