We leave Denver and enter the Front Range area; The top photo is a view
south of Pikes Peak, approximately 70 miles away.



The middle photo shows the small town of Idaho Springs, (center of the photo).
Here CO103 heads south from I-70, (toward the top of the photo), to the summit of Mount Evans. http://www.mountevans.com.











This road ascends over 14,000 feet as is the highest and is the highest paved
road in North America. (bottom photo).

About 50 miles west of Denver, I-70 and US 40 seperate. I-70 continues west
through the Eisenhower Tunnel past the town of Georgetown, (top of top photo). US 40 heads northwest through Berthoud Pass, (next 2 photos), eventually toward Salt Lake City


















After US40 descends from Berthoud, it passes by Winter Park Ski Area.
http://www.skiwinterpark.com. If driving over the pass is too challenging,
Winter Park has an express train from Denver's Union Station. http://www.skitrain.com.

Ski Summit County

On the other side of the Continental Divide from Winter Park, we reach the ski
resorts of Summit County. http://www.summitcolorado.com.

The top photo shows the resorts of Eastern Summit County. From left to right,
we see Arapahoe Basin, (the highest ski area in Summit County) http://www.arapahoebasin.com; Loveland, http://www.skiloveland.com; and
Keystone, (also shown in the second photo), http://keystone.snow.com.
If you follow the peak line left to right from Arapahoe to Loveland and beyond,
this makes up the Continental Divide. Any water flow on the East Side, (bottom
side of picture), flows eventually to the Atlantic Ocean; and water from the West, (top side), flows to the Pacific.






To the West of Keystone, (in the 3rd photo from the top), we see the towns of
Dillon, Silverthorne and Frisco. If you focus on the Dillon Reservior and follow
the road toward the top of the photo, (CO9 south), you see Breckenridge Ski Area. http://breckenridge.snow.com.
The reservior seperated the 3 towns. Dillon, just south of I-70 is a town that
mainly serves Keystone with motels, condos and restaurants. http://www.townofdillon.com. Silverthorne, on north side of 70 and the reservior, is known for outlet shopping. http://www.silverthorne.org. Frisco
is a town just south of the intersection of 70 and 9. It is the gateway to the
Breckenridge Ski Area. Breckenridge, unlike the other Summit County Resorts,
is located right in the town of Breckenridge, offering a true ski-in, ski-out
experience. http://www.townofbreckenridge.com.



The bottom photo shows Copper Mountain Ski Area, the next ski area west of
Frisco. http://www.coppercolorado.com.

Salt Lake City Thursday March 5th

We arrived in Salt Lake City after our flight from DEN. The top photo has
a view of Downtown Salt Lake as we land at SLC.









The next 3 photos offer a good view of the East Salt Lake Valley to the
Wasatch Mountains. Salt Lake City is a beautiful city with beautiful view.
http://www.visitsaltlake.com.





















If you click on the photo to the right, the buildings at the base of the mountain is
the campus of the University of Utah. www.utah.edu .

It was a beautiful evening in Salt Lake. I decided to take a walk to a local
establishment roughly 4 blocks from our hotel.



As I walked through the parking lot to West Temple, I passed the Union
Jack British Goods store. I was impressed with the mural on the north side
of their store. Click on the link below for my route of travel:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Cary%202/Desktop/616%20SW%20Temple,%20Salt%20Lake%20City,%20UT%2084101%20to%20232%20E%20800%20S,%20Salt%20Lake%20City,%20UT%2084111%20-%20Google%20Maps.htm













We look North on West Temple Street toward Downtown Salt Lake.












Crossing State Street on 700 South, we look north.

Looking North toward Temple Square.

Moochie's Meatballs

My wife and I are huge fans of the TV Show: "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"
on Food TV. http://www.foodnetwork.com/diners-drive-ins-and-dives/index.html . On the show, Guy Fieri visits local "hole in the wall" places
and samples some of the foods. One of 3 places he has visited in the Salt Lake
Valley, is a tiny mainly take-out place called Moochie's Meatballs www.moochiesmeatballs.com. It's located at 232 E. 800 South in Salt Lake.
http://http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=&jsv=149f&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.160552,77.871094&ie=UTF8&geocode=FeXRbQIdt8hU-Q&split=0.








They specialize in real Philly Cheesesteaks and Meatball Subs. The smell of their homemade meatballs was so enticing I could smell it a block and a half
away. I ordered their Junior Meatball Sub with Mozzarella Cheese. I took it
to go back to my hotel room. It was delicious!

















Guy's picture and autograph, which he typically leaves at restaurants he visits.

Some of the awards Moochie's has won locally by thier customers
in Salt Lake City. For a map of other
places Guy has visited, click on the
following: find.mapmuse.com/interest/diners-guy.

Flying MCO-MCI on Thursday March 5th Descent into Kansas City

Kansas City is one of the more interesting cities in the Midwest. It has a great sense of history during America's expansion west during the mid 19th century. I lived in the Metro KC area for 3 years when I was growing up as a young child.
www.visitkc.com . The top photo is a view of the suburb of Overland Park, KS, the home of Sprint with a thriving
Convention Center and recognized as one of the best places to live in The US. money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/snapshots/PL2053775.html


The 2nd photo is a view of the Country Club Plaza. The low-rise buildings on the Right Side of the river is the Plaza Shopping Village, built in the 1920's, it is credited with being America's first shopping center. It is KC's address for upscale shopping and dining. http://www.countryclubplaza.com.

The white building towards the bottom of the photo, is the Nichols-Atkins Art
Museum. www.nelson-atkins.org .



The next photos shows the Crown Center area, named for the crown of
Hallmark cards, www.hallmark.com . This area has numerous upscale hotels
as it is not too far from the downtown convention area. We used to stay down here until recently. As I mentioned the history of this area, The Liberty
Memorial, (in the center ), is a monument to World WarI and Union Station was once the center of the beef industry. Cattle would be shipped here and off
loaded to go to the slaughter houses in Kansas City www.crowncenter.com .
Union Station is now a museum with a Science Center. http://www.unionstation.org/

Downtown Kansas City has undergone a significant re-development in recent
years, (probably one of the reasons we don't stay there anymore). The top
shows the new Sprint Center Arena is a major league sized sports arena
which hosts major events and is Kansas City's hope to land either an NBA or
NHL franchise. In the mid 1970's briefly, Kansas City was a 4 major sports town with both an NHL and NBA franchise playing at the Kemper Arena, in
the stockyard area West of Downtown. However both the NBA Kings re-located to Sacramento and the NHL's Kansas City Scouts re-located twice to
Denver and finally to North Jersey where they have been the New Jersey Devils for the past 25 or so years. The Sprint Center is located in the bottom of the photo. http://www.sprintcenter.com/ .

The area between the Sprint Center and the Convention Center is the new
Kansas City Power & Light District, a new shopping, dining and entertainment
district. Kansas City, like many US cities is trying to lure people downtown beyond the work hours. http://www.powerandlightdistrict.com/.



The third photo has a view of Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas City is in two states. The large city is in Missouri, but there is large industrial suburb on the Kansas side. The Missouri River separates the states here. However just south
of this photo, the river heads west and State Line Road splits the Two State Metro the rest of the way south. State Avenue, (running from the bottom center of the photo to the upper right corner) is the main street through
Kansas City, KS.






Unlike its Missouri counterpart, Kansas City, KS has developed on the west side of town. The third photo has a view of the Speedway West Village are as we
turn north to land. This area has Kansas Speedway, www.kansasspeedway.com
a major venue along the NASCAR tour, as well as the new Village West shopping area. http://legendsshopping.com . Within Village West is a Cabelas
www.cabelas.com , as well as a minor league ballpark, and various other shops
and restaurants. According to Wikipedia, future plans call for a Hard Rock Hotel and Casino as well as a Major Water Park





Finally we see Kansas City International Airport as we pass it to the North and
turn around to land to the South. This airport is great if you happen begin or end your trip here, because the gates are close to the curb. However, if you have to change planes, it's difficult because the terminal is spread out lengthwise and each boarding area with 4-5 gates, has it's own security area. If
you have to change planes or even get something to eat, it may require one to be re-screened at security. www.flykci.com .

In PVD during the Noreaster Monday March 2nd

On Monday I was scheduled to work
my way from Providence to Los Angeles via PHL and DEN. However when these photos were taken, it was
1oam and the airport had not opened.

The top photos show the ground crew
valiantly trying to clear the runways.












The middle photo shows just how
deep the snow was, roughly a foot,
This was the roof overhang just below
my room.

Flying LAX-PHX Tuesday March 3rd, (Over LA)

As we took-off out of LAX, http://ww.los-angeles-lax.com/ , we see a view
of the beach towns between LAX and Long Beach. The top photos shows
Manhattan and Hermosa Beaches. The second photo looks in on Redondo
Beach, with the Redondo Beach Pier extending out from the beach.

http://www.ci.manhattan-beach.ca.us/ Manhattan Beach
http://www.hermosabch.org/ Hermosa Beach
http://www.redondochamber.org Redondo Beach
www.redondopier.com . The Pier at Redondo Beach.











The bottom phot shows, The Palos Verdes Penninsula as the morning
marine layer fog rolls in.

As we turn to head East toward Phoenix, we see, (top two photos), an aerial shot
of the LAX Airport area looking toward LA's West Side


As we look at the bottom two photos, we see the Port Areas of the LA area.
The Port of Los Angeles, the busiest port in the Western United States, is
shown in the photo to the right. http://www.portoflosangeles.org.













This photo is above Downtown Long Beach. Long Beach has seen a recent
revival in housing as well as a new Convention Center, Aquarium and the Pike at
Rainbow Harbor Shopping Area. http://www.thepikeatlongbeach.com/.
Planning to visit Long Beach, go here: http://www.visitlongbeach.com/.