Ridgway is touted as one of Colorado’s nicer state parks and it lived up to that reputation. The facilities were quite clean and it even had a compost toilet near the walk-in tent camping area. There were also wheel-barrow-type carts available for loading and pushing items up to the camping area. They would have worked well had they not been filled with water (a few holes drilled in the bottom would remedy this?). Anyhow, the night at Ridgway was great; we should have known since a full double rainbow greeted us at the entrance.

Double rainbow at Ridgway State Park

From Ridgway, we headed further south through Silverton and to the trailhead of our first (and last for me!) high country adventure in the Weminuche Wilderness. The Highland Mary Lakes were our destination and the trailhead was a bit difficult to find based on directions from the book we were using. It turns out that San Juan County Road 110 is a bit tricky. Had we paid closer attention to the roads, the book turned out to be more accurate than we originally expected. Just before the trailhead in the Cunningham Gulch, our progress in the truck was interrupted by many 18-wheelers loaded with sheep. Apparently the farmers let the sheep out in the summer to feed on the grass and pick them up again in the fall. The sheep and the herders hiked directly up the face of one of the mountains in the gulch and it was quite a sight!

We started the Highland Mary Lakes loop hike around 3:30 in the afternoon. The first part of the trail was definitely less forgiving than the second day. Parts of it were actually pretty scary, with the crawl across the boulder field just before reaching the first lake topping my list. With a constant misting rain, the rocks were very slippery and it didn’t help encourage a positive frame of mind. Nevertheless, about 3.5 hours after starting, we reached around 12,000 ft and set up camp.

Camping at first of Highland Mary Lakes

We started back hiking in the morning around 10:30 after a decent night’s rest. Had the rainfly stake not blown loose and allowed my sleeping pad to become partially saturated with water, the night would have been more restful :-) Anyhow, the hike back down the mountain was much less intense than going up. The terrain was significantly less challenging, though it was damp, boggy, and muddy on most of the trail. The wildflowers and views were fantastic, even if it was very foggy in the higher elevations.

Taking a break at a Highland Mary Lake

Highland Mary Lakes wildflower

Stream on the descent

It felt nice to be back at our vehicles in Cunningham Gulch and I immediately ripped off my boots and let my feet dry out in a pair of flip flops. We headed back to Silverton and some rest and relaxation at the Triangle Motel.

After the wilderness (mis)adventure, we decided it might be a good idea to take things easy for a bit and headed over to Mesa Verde National Park, site of the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings. We arrived at the park somewhat later in the day after setting up camp at Mancos State Park. However, we had just enough time to catch the Cliff Palace tour, guided by Ranger Donal Lindsey, who gave a fantastic overview of the site and its history.

Cliff Palace

While driving through the park, we spotted several chimpmunks and even a couple of elk right near the park road. It’s a shame that so much of this park has been burned by wildfires in recent years. The ranger said it would take over 400 years for the forest to recover.

Old tree at a Mesa Verde N.P. scenic overlook

After Mesa Verde and Macos State Park, we headed further west to stop by the Grand Canyon en route to Las Vegas. The other half of the crew met a friend in Durango for more backcountry adventures. Having had enough of that for a while, a couple of days in Vegas were much enjoyed. But it seemed time to get back home so a 19.5 hour drive (got to love the 75 mph speed limit on I-40 through Arizona and New Mexico) straight back to Texas capped off the trip. Oh, I did make a quick stop by Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona.

Rock formation in Arizona

More interesting rocks

At Meteor Crater

A couple of fantastic restaurants along the way:

• Millwood Junction in Mancos, Colorado
• Himalayan Cuisine on Main Ave in Durango, Colorado

View from room at Outrigger Lauana Waikiki

Saturday, 20 May 2006

• Arrived at HNL around 7:30pm, picked up rental car, drove to hotel for check-in and relaxed
• Returned to airport around 11:00pm to pick up friends
• Crashed; 5 extra hours aren’t always good!

Sunday

• Went to Eggs ‘n Things for brunch – had a ham and cheese omelet and chocolate chip pancakes (delicious!)
• Drove to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial
• Shopped at a Foodland grocery store
• Window shopped in Waikiki
• Dinner at Duke’s Canoe Club

Eggs ‘n Things

Pearl Harbor

Duke’s Canoe Club

Monday

• Attended a free breakfast followed by a sales presentation for Fairfield vacation ownership (mistake!) — ended up taking almost 3 hours and not sure it was worth the discount I was “gifted” for the luau
• Visited Waikiki beach and lounged by the pool
• More shopping in Waikiki

Tuesday

• Visited the Dole Plantation
• Drove north from Dole to Haleiwa to eat at Cafe Haleiwa
• Continued driving along the north shore to see Pipline, Sunset Beach, and Chinaman’s Hat
• Drove the wrong way into the Polynesian Cultural Center parking lot; was stopped by a parking lot guard; inquired about admissions prices and promptly left after being informed it was $40/person :-)
• Drove down the east coast and through our first highway tunnel
• Visited Waikiki beach even though there was light rain
• Stayed by the pool at Outrigger Reef for happy hour

Dole Plantation

Cafe Haleiwa

Sunset Beach

Chinaman’s Hat

Wednesday

• Woke up early and went on a Makiki Valley Hike – we ended up turning around less than half-way through our intended route as the path was narrow and muddy with little protection from the cliffs
• Went back to Waikiki beach
• Went on a Starlet dinner cruise which had beautiful views of Waikiki, Diamondhead, and a nice (if a little cloudy) Hawaiian sunset

View on Makiki Valley hike

At the end of the hike, we came upon this sign and our shoes really needed washing!

View of Diamondhead onboard Starlet dinner cruise

Sunset aboard Starlet dinner cruise

Thursday

• Drove out to Hanuama Bay – as we were driving out, the lot was full and thus we set aside our plans of going back into town for snorkel gear (it was barely 10:15am; must get there earlier!)
• Drove up the eastern coast, visited “The Blowhole”
• Visited Kailua Beach Park
• Rented a kayak and paddled out to Flat Island – walked around the island, which is also a bird santuary and heard the strange baby cry noises of one bird
• Dined at Keo’s Thai Food in the heart of Waikiki

Lagoon just west of The Blowhole

Kailua Beach and Flat Island

Friday

• Slept in – vacation beggining to wear us down
• Returned to Eggs ‘n Things for late brunch
• Went to Germaine’s Luau out west of Pearl Harbor – the food was not as good as I expected, their frozen drink machine was inoperable (grr), but the show itself was quite nice – the bus ride could have been a bit quieter (our “escort” was on the PA system virtually the whole ride and late at night, it’s a bit much

Performance at Germaine’s Luau

The poi at Germaine’s Luau

Saturday

• Decided to hike Diamondhead as it was our last full day
• Lounged by the pool
• Went for an early dinner at The Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki

View from atop Diamondhead

Sunday

• Back to Eggs ‘n Things for a third time (mmm, this place is good) – instead of the ham and cheese omelet with chocolate chip pancakes I opted for scrambled eggs with Portuguese sausage (very delicious as well)
• Went to the airport for a dropoff around 2pm
• Decided to make one last trip around the island
• Drove as far as possible out west until the road ended near an observatory, doubled back, headed north back up past Pipeline, etc., then back down the east coast

edit: updated itinerary and published on 14 June 2006

Southwest has launched a way to contact them via email! Simply visit the contact us section of the website. It looks like you can also log in and have some information pre-populated for you.

UPDATE: 10 Jan 2008

Southwest appears to be making progress in regards to receiving customer emails! The customer service page originally linked below now reads:

Important Note About E-mail:

We are hard at work designing a system that will allow us to accept and respond to e-mail, yet maintain that personal touch that you have come to expect from Southwest.

ORIGINAL POST

I find Southwest’s policy on email absolutely ridiculous, particularly in light of the recent launching of their blog (at least it uses WordPress). From their customer service website:

E-mail Policy – Why We Don’t Accept E-mail

Call us traditional, but we elect to steer clear of the chat-style, respond-on-demand, quick casual format and focus on meaningful Customer dialogue. This is not because we don’t care. It’s because that style counters our commitment to Customer Service.

Our Customers deserve accurate, specific, personal, and professionally written answers, and it takes time to research, investigate, and compose a real business letter. We answer every letter we receive in the order it arrives, and we streamline in order to keep our costs low, our People productive, our operating efficiency high, and our responses warm and personal.

Traditional? Come on! I wonder if Southwest relies on email communication to facilitate any of its business-to-business transactions?

Well, I recently wrote in to Customer Service about a bug I found in their Rapid Rewards web scripts. My plane reservations were actually listed under the Car/Hotel Reservation heading. I figured it would be difficult to understand in words, so I went the extra mile to also enclose screenprints and highlight them to draw attention to exactly what I was talking about. True to their promise, they followed up with a letter via mail. I also received a phone call to ask what operating system I was using (totally irrelevant) and then once again right before the bug fix was scheduled to be released.

Here’s an idea
Catering to the Customer (I love how it’s a capital letter; a real business letter would use proper capitalization) would allow those of us who prefer email to send an email while those who prefer “less casual” communication to send in a “real business letter.” I reckon the above depiction is at least partially accurate in that it allows them to keep operating efficiency high. Because if they allowed people to send in legitimate customer service concerns via email, they’d be bombarded with real issues. And how about the cost savings of email? Just scan in that “real business letter”, send it via email, and save the cost of the stamp.

The security lines are also notorious. When you have an early (6:30am) flight, expect the line to be miles long. It’s nothing for airline employees to come through the line pulling people for flights that are close to takeoff. Sitting on the tarmac for over an hour is actually routine in my experience.

On my most recent trip to Orlando, the flight was scheduled to takeoff around 8:30pm. However, air traffic was so congested in Philadelphia that the controllers would not allow my plane to takeoff from Atlanta (AirTran). The plane finally arrived in Philadelphia, but not until around 11:30pm. Once on the plane, we had to sit on the runway for a good half hour. It had started sleeting and we sat too long so had to go to the de-icing station. Arriving in Orlando around 2am is no fun, particularly when you’re relying on a rental car and everyone who just landed with you is as well. At 2am, that makes for a very long line when only 1 rental car agent is working the counter.

[tags]phl[/tags]

I chose a ham, cheese, and egg crepe which came with my choice of soup or salad. I opted for the salad without garlic. It was a very simple dish of butter lettuce with a house dressing that was fantastic. At first I wasn’t sure I liked the dressing but it quickly grew on me and I could have eaten more of it and made it my entire meal.

The crepe itself was sweeter than I expected (at least compared to the savory crepes back in Philadelphia at Beau Monde). It was quite tasty and the serving size was ample. I decided to save room for a dessert crepe, though, so I ended up not finishing the main course.

For the dessert, I had a small sweet crepe filled with bananas, strawberries, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream. I must say that I’ve been spoiled by what I’ve been getting back home. While this one was good, it didn’t really hold a candle to the milk chocolate, white chocolate, honey, banana, and ice cream combination I usually order up. It still made for a very nice meal.

After I left the restaurant at lunch today, I snapped this shot of a dog that was totally dressed for the weather. Quite a sassy pooch!

I chose to walk back differently than I went and came back through part of the McGill campus. After passing under the football stadium, I walked up a long hill and then back down Rue Peel to the hotel.

Upon reaching the top, I noticed a pretty nice ski lodge looking building and decided I’d check it out later. I was anxious to walk over to the lookout point and see the sites of downtown. I was there just after sunset and the lighting made the vista quite nice. I snapped a few shots and then headed into the lodge.

The lodge was really nice, with a gas-powered fire and chairs and tables for visitors. There was a group of 15 or so in front of the fire. I wandered on over to the vending machine and came away with a Coke, a Mars bar, and a milk chocolate Hershey’s bar. I haven’t seen Mars bars in the U.S. in quite some time and this one was dark chocolate on the outside with no almonds. Quite tasty after such a long, cold hike. I saw something weird (at least to me in the machine). One of the items was a bag of ketchup-flavored chips. Yuk!?

I spent some time resting then headed back down the path. By this time, it was pretty dark so I looked for shortcuts. By the time the trail got to the residential area, I found a way to get down to the street and back to the hotel.

The flight was a quick hour and five minutes to Montreal and was quite smooth. The single flight attendant took head count on a napkin and it reminded me of when I was on an even smaller plane from Dallas to Killeen many Spring Breaks ago. There must be something with me, small planes, and Spring Break.

I was surprised that the airport was so empty. There were hardly any people going through customs and it was pretty easy to just zoom on through.

After taking a taxi from Dorval to the hotel (CAN$31) I set out for something to eat as I was starving. I opted for Chang Thai. The waiter noticed I was hungry after ordering two appetizers. I chose some chicken satay and a spring roll. For lunch I had chicken with green curry. I haven’t had a lot of Thai food recently but this was absolutely delicious. There is a Thai place in Philadelphia I’ve been to called Erawan but this place here in Montreal outdid it mostly because of the flavor and freshness of the ingredients.

I walked around the city after going back to the hotel and relaxing. It is pretty chilly here but nothing quick stops in and out of buildings can’t make pretty bearable. With a nice wool cap and some gloves it’s actually not too bad. But then there’s all the French writing. Takes me back to a trip to Paris back in 2002 where the only thing I really got down was looking for “Sortie” after coming out of the Metro. At least most people here speak English!

We went along Kelly Drive, then hit Lincoln, and both roads have really nice scenery. I guess I didn’t expect Pennsylvania to be near as scenic as it turned out to be and as we got out on the highway, the tree-lined hills were a great backdrop. A few miles from New Hope, we stopped at a winery in Buckingham and sampled some of the wines they made on site. For $12, I left with two bottles.

A little ways up the road we stopped again where there were some outlet stores and a lot of antiques. I think the place is called Peddler’s Village and there were many visitors. I resisted the urge to get a treat at Dairy Queen (I didn’t realize they had these outside Texas but there’s also one on South St in Philly. However, they don’t seem to have the full menu with the Belt Buster hamburger on it.).

When we arrived in New Hope, we went ahead and crossed the Free Bridge into Lambertville and quickly found parking. It was metered only until 6pm and since it was already 4:30pm, we didn’t have to put in many quarters. We wandered in and out of antique stores for a little while then proceeded back across the bridge to New Hope. We found a local place that serves over 50 flavors of home made ice cream. It was crowded but evidently the line can get much much longer. I opted for one scoop of vanilla fudge and one of Swiss chocolate. It was good but not quite like Amy’s Ice Creams back in Austin.

On the way back to Philadelphia, we decided to stop in Princeton. It was a bit too late to go around the campus but we did have some Thai food right on Nassau. It was a decent dinner but I’m not sure it was traditional Thai food, at least it wasn’t quite what I’m used to. After Thai we headed back to the city and it was cool to see the skyline from a car.

I might go to Denver later today and pick myself up an Apple laptop, but I’m still trying to convince myself I should wait and get a PC laptop so I can do my homework on it. I figure I’d rather do homework on a full size computer at home or in the labs, so I think a small, low-end Apple laptop would be handy for email, internet, etc. while I’m away from home (like now!).