Cities have personalities. Paris is chic, London is a busy financial hub and New York has a tough veneer all its own. I live in a city with a famous personality too: Boulder, Colorado. Home of more natural food startups, yoga studios and tech companies than you can count, the roads are clogged with Tesla, Prius and Volt alternative power vehicles, when you’re not being blocked by swarms of bicyclists 10 miles into their daily…Read More

This month’s been one for visiting museums and seeing exhibits, which has been great fun. A couple of weeks ago it was the new Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and this time it was ensuring that we caught the Christian Dior exhibit at the Denver Art Museum before it ended. By the time you read this, you’ll have missed the boat on Dior as Sunday, Mar. 17 was…Read More

Of the billions of people who have lived in the last few thousand years, it’s not hard to make a case the Leonardo da Vinci was one of the smartest. Born of poor parents and self-educated, he managed to turn the Renaissance on its head with his endless stream of inventions, artwork, scientific research, sketches and smart philosophies. He is the very definition of a “Renaissance Man” with his extraordinary output and often astonishingly forward…Read More

For reasons I can’t quite fathom, lots of people think that vacations require traveling great distances, often on a plane, and often overseas. Yes, there’s a whole world to explore, but if you live in Colorado then there are a ton of great adventure, activity, relaxation and other venues ready to enjoy within just a few hours drive. My family and I have definitely spent lots of time at Colorado destinations like Glenwood Springs, Manitou…Read More

October weather in Colorado has a tendency to be all over the place. I mean, all over the place. And this month is no different: last Sunday, Oct 14, I was up in Breckenridge, stuck in my hotel due to a snowstorm. Between 8-10 inches and sub-freezing conditions made for a tough day throughout the state. Seven days later we were at Anderson Farms in Erie, Colorado (north of Denver and east of Boulder) sweltering in…Read More

Toyota reached out and asked if we were baseball fans. Of course we are, it’s the Great American Pastime! “Great,” they said, “how’d you like to drive a shiny new Toyota vehicle to join us at Rockies vs Mets at Coors Field?” Well, you don’t have to ask us twice for a gig like that so before you could say “major league baseball” we were ready to, well, go places with Toyota. To start out,…Read More

I grew up in Southern California, so the idea of indoor pools was completely alien. When the weather’s always perfect, why wouldn’t you want to hang out at the beach or poolside in someone’s backyard? The rest of the nation doesn’t have the luxury of such weather, however, and as I traveled more – and lived in Indiana and Colorado – I learned about this white stuff popularly known as snow, about days colder than…Read More

This has got to be one of the best ideas for a summer camp for kids I’ve ever heard about: A boot camp for aspiring film critics. Imagine, instead of those tired old-school summer camp activities like canoeing, making lanyards and being bitten by bugs, your children will get to watch movies, debate what makes a movie great and even interview celebrities and industry experts, then write about it and make their own review videos!…Read More

I suspect I’m not alone in looking forward to school starting in September more than the summer break that’s about to start the beginning of June. While there’s a lot to be said for leisure and relaxation, I also believe that children do best if they have structure and rhythm. Staying up until midnight or later and sleeping in until noon? That’s fun for a few days but over the course of weeks or months,…Read More

I like museums. I write about ’em all the time, and we in Denver are blessed with our fair share of really good museums and galleries, including the beautiful Denver Art Museum. The outside is striking and is probably the most unusual architectural feature in the greater downtown Denver area, as you can see: Known as The Hamilton Building, it was designed as a joint venture by Studio Daniel Libeskind and Denver firm Davis Partnership Architects….Read More

Indiana Jones inspired a generation of archeologists, but the fact is, most archeology is fairly dry and dull work. Brushing off dirt in the middle of a desert for hours at a time, just to find that amazing pottery shard is from 75 years ago, not 1700 years ago can be a bit disheartening. But imagine that it’s the middle of the 1940’s and you’re a Bedouin shepherd. A sheep from the flock strays off…Read More

When I grew up, we went bowling maybe once every few years and I was, of course, horrible at the game. If there was a prize for gutter balls, I suspect I would have been in the running at any alley we attended. Then along came the Nintendo Wii with its terrific bowling simulator and that turned out to be super popular with my kids, particularly the practice bowling areas where you could watch the…Read More

It’s an annual tradition in my family, heading out to Anderson Farms in Erie in October to enjoy a pumpkin patch and, of course, a huge corn maze. What’s a corn maze, you ask? Well, imagine you have a big field of corn that’s past its prime for the season. Acres upon acres of dried brown stalks that are 6-8 feet high. Now plow through it with a small bulldozer and you can make a walkable…Read More