Denver, Colorado. Rugged, hearty Queen City of the Plains, rising high from the foothills of the Rockies. And soon thanks to the cheap flights to America on offer at a range of sites like dialaflight.com, it could be yours to see and enjoy.

Indeed for sports fanatics the world over, Denver is a truly special place. As the home to many sports teams great and small, it is in fact one of a very special group of only twelve cities across the United States of America with teams from four major sports.

The Denver Broncos have consistently drawn crowds at levels of upwards of 70,000 since they began in the sixties at the Mile High Stadium. Today as legends of the National Football League, fans still flock in their tens of thousands, seeing them all the way to the Super Bowl six times, and going as far as to win consecutive Super Bowls in 1998 and 1999.

But back in the eighties, football was not enough for an ambitious big city on the move. Back then city mayor Federico Pena made it a key priority to bring major league baseball to Denver. After much effort and enthusiasm, the Colorado Rockies were formed and Coors Field was built in the city. The team made great strides and appeared in their first World Series just four years ago.

Not only is Denver renowned in two of the biggest American sports, football and baseball; it has become famous for its hockey team too. The Colorado Avalanche moved from their original home in Quebec City nearly two decades ago to their current venue at Pepsi Center, since which they have gone on to win two Stanley Cups (in 1996 and in 2001).

Even if that weren’t enough, the Pepsi Center also plays host to the great city’s National Basketball Association team, the Denver Nuggets. NASCAR is popular in Colorado too, and Furniture Row Racing is a team based in Denver, the only NASCAR team which has its headquarters in the state.

For the soccer fans, the Colorado Rapids are the local Major League Soccer team, who played their matches at Invesco Field at Mile High until they moved in to a new stadium at Commerce City, one of Denver’s suburbs in the north of the city, called Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

With an incredible sporting and cultural heritage, Denver is an exciting city. As the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, it is a haven for adventurers of all kinds. Sportsmen and fans will be at home there.

This price gouger is known among locals as the place to snare tourists racing to catch a flight needing to fill up their rental cars.

I was doing exactly this at 4am this past Monday morning. I knew this station was there, having stayed at the airport Sheraton before, but didn’t know this was the location of the infamous hurricane force rip off. I pulled in for a quick top off scanning for a price sign. And guess what-there are no price signs posted until you get to the pumps. (The legality of this is posted in this Bay News 9 article.)

I pulled up to the pump, saw the tiny LED number (yes, $5.89) and peeled out heading north, contemplating free markets and surprised that they got enough last minute business to justify those rates.

Only one mile north on Semoran sits a 7-Eleven/Citgo station at 5703 S Semoran, which as of Monday was priced at $3.47 with a friendly staff and fresh bananas two for a dollar.

Photo from Bay News 9

So here is a photo of a mushroom from camping last month up in Guanella Pass

Read any message board and someone always chimes in with “I don’t fly – it’s better just to drive everywhere.” I surmise these people have unlimited free time, don’t live out west where cities are 600 miles apart, have no interest in foreign travel, and have no worries about falling asleep midpoint into their 16 hour drive and smashing themselves into a bridge abutment.

I love a good road trip. But I also enjoy hanging out at airports, especially my home in Denver, a well designed facility where open space abound, power outlets and internet are free and and easy to find. With technology today I can accomplish the same tasks as I’d be doing at home. I can VNC into work, edit my photos, read, watch a movie, post inane updates on Facebook – all while sitting at the airport. It’s the same thing I’d do Saturday morning at a coffee shop – while watching jumbo jets rumble around the ramps.

And I get to fly. On almost every flight there’s a least one moment where I’ve been thrilled and amazed at the view, at the fact I’m floating through the air, and at the technology that makes it all happen. I can still recall a flight in the late 90s on a Northwest DC-10 into LAX doing some holding patterns through the most incredible cloud canyons I’ve ever seen. It was like an Imax movie. Or recently witnessing an amazing left seat view of the New York City skyline during a nighttime glide into LaGuardia.

This recent flight wasn’t a special flight to somewhere exotic, rather just another Southern California weekend I’ve made dozens of times to see friends and family. In addition to finally making an upgrade (thanks due to my 2010 mileage total) this was an exceptionally beautiful trip. Certain westbound departures out of Denver climb straight up along I-70 over the Rockies, and the morning flights are spectacular. In 25 minutes you go from the eastern plains, over the downtown skyline on the left, then see the rolling foothills morph in the an endless sea of jagged snow covered peaks. For an infrequent flyer out west it’s an amazing sight. For myself who calls Colorado home it’s simply neat to spot regular landmarks like I-70, the switchbacks of US-40 to Winter Park, a completely out of place casino highrise in a canyon that looks like a train set model, and the ski resorts of Copper Mountain and Vail. Someone watching me peer out the window and taking pictures might have thought it was my first time in an airplane.

I wonder why it’s lost on so many people how amazing it is one can wake up in in the Rockies and be laying on the beach by noon, taking in the Pacific ocean. Or cross an ocean in one night. I suppose I’m easy to impress. Or equally I’m appreciate of the marvel of mankind that makes it happen – even while crammed in coach.

If you set out expecting a negative experience, you’ll more than likely find one. But if take a moment to actually breath in what you’re doing and you might find yourself feeling like you did the first time you flew.

If the below photos don’t make you want to pick a window seat on your next trip then take a read from Captain Dave’s blog - who puts the beauty of air travel into eloquent words. It’s a favorite of mine..

But if you’re at work or travel through the corporateland Denver Tech Center the other location at I-25 and Arapahoe Road is one of the best southest lunch spots.  It’s been located here for a few years, housed in a former Denny’s, although you would never know if from the inside.

Despite being a popular lunch place the lines are never long.  It’s a bright open place – and even has a full service bar for those that need a lunch time pick me up.   The photo below, rapidly snapped from my phone, is probably one of the best local food porn pics I’ve taken and makes me hungry just posting it.

Two workers at Boeing’s Witchita complex brought their findings to their supervisors and the US Department of Justice. The program tells their story, interlaced with some dramatic cautions about his model of 737.

In light of the recent 737 incidents I watched this entire show last night. I thought this was very well presented and put together. Like my other favorite aviation investigative show “Mayday – Air Crash Investigation” it’s done straightforward, with little sensationalism – presents both sides and leaves the viewer to make an informed conclusion.

Full story and video here and below.

While showing my Mom around the Netherlands we were hungry. I’d taken her to a few of my favorite local spots but today we were en route to a museum, and didn’t want to languish in a corner table from noon til three.

We saw a McDonald’s, made the usual jokes, and walked in for a burger and salad. I was schocked. This McDonalds was really, really nice! I can’t believe I’m writing this but I enjoyed being there! It seems I’m way behind the times, and over the past rew years McDonald’s has rebranded some stores in a Starbucks-eque cafe style chique. And what they’ve done is pretty aesthetically appealing.

I figured it was a Europe thing. I’ve read McDonald’s maintains nicer, larger restaurants overseas, and some locals actually do make the arches a destination for a Big Mac, or “Royale” as it’s called in France.

The location on Kalverstraat, a pedestrial shopping mall in the heart of Amsterdam was clean, well maintained, replete with comfortable chairs cozy spaces. A week later, departing Schiphol airport, I had coffee, milk and a croissant while killing a few hours awaiting my flight. Location? A beautiful, quiet and modern mezzanine overlooking the departures/transit area. You guessed it – it was a McDonald’s.

Upon my return home this week, my newfound McDonald’s curiousity brought me to the Belleview and I-25 location near my work. Sure enough this one was just as nice as the two Amsterdam locations, with soft leather chairs, WiFi and soft orange and yellow lighting. The staff was wearing jet black shirts and looked well kept and professional. I had a sausage biscuit and coffee before biking over to work.

Unfortunately the food is still the McDonald’s from my youth, and smells just as bad when carried onto an airplane. But without getting into fat and calorie counts I’m certain a Quarter Pounder and a Diet coke won’t induce any more heart attacks than a Starbucks triple mocha latte with whip cream, downed with an oily muffin.

There it is – three McDonald’s restaurants in two weeks. Good job McDonald’s on the rebranding. I may not return often but it’s a nice look. Sorry it took me three years to notice it.

The handheld technology that’s evolved over the past seven to ten years is astounding. In the early to middle part of the last decade I could never imagine I’d have access to global maps (down to street detail), transit schedules, hotel and restaurant reviews, flight schedules check-in, travel apps and so much more right in my hand.

In fact when I visit a new city in the U.S. I never even pack a map. Google maps functions perfectly everywhere, and even includes transit schedules in many major cities. I can land in a strange city and plan my route from the airport to downtown while the plane is taxiing to the gate.

The downside is you can become very dependent on it. Or at least I have. When I travel outside the U.S. I’m forced to give up my constant web access unless I uprade to an expensive plan that includes data roaming. My budget says no thanks. Like most of my friends my data roaming is always turned off upon landing outside my home borders. With data and downloads at $19.95 a megabyte I don’t care to come home to a $25,000 phone bill.

But my smartphone is still extremely useful overseas thanks to the prevalence of public and private WiFi . I use Skype for my calls, which has an iPhone app so well integrated you forget you’re using Skype and not just making standard calls. (It even incorporates your contact lists.) I do admit to texting at 50 cents a text, but do so sparingly. (That is useful for maintaining contact when traveling with friends.) But above all, any WiFi signal for an iPhone or any smartphone opens the same access doors you have back home. In most major cities WiFi is extremely easy to find and use, so long as you know and take precaution against connecting to unsecured signals.

When abroad and opting out of data roaming, one feature I often use is the iPhone screenshot feature. This takes a photo of whatever is on your iPhone screen, then saves it to your photos for future reference. You simply hold down down the center button while quickly pressing the top (power) button. Your screen flashes as the screenshot is saved. I didn’t know about or use this feature until a year ago, and find some people who aren’t aware of this marvelous tool.

It’s a phenomenal tool if you want to retrieve an important document on your iPhone, but won’t have web access. For example an email with directions; rather than printing and carrying paper, or copying and pasting it to the “notes” app, simply take a screenshot and look at the photo.

My most recent and most useful example: A week ago I did a couple road trips in the Netherlands. Unable to find a decent map at my Denver library I planned to just purchase one at a gas station there. Before leaving I Google mapped the route from Amsterdam to Zeeland, which involved several busy and congested freeway interchanges around Rotterdam. I simply took screenshots of the route, and close up shots of the important interchanges, and saved them one by one to my phone. (Fortunately I was the passenger and able to fully concentrate as navigator.) I never even needed the a paper map.

Scrolling through the photos of the maps it reminded me of the old days when AAA would create a “Triptik” for their members – a small rectangular booklet with maps and turn by turn directions that you’d leaf through while driving. Even without web access this proved to be an amazingly easy way to not get lost and save money on maps or car rental GPS.

As shown below I’ve also used it for other maps – by taking a screenshot at the apartment with WiFi, then referencing it while out on the town.

Downtown Denver

I dismissed her by saying it was just the tops of the clouds and haze, and it’s near impossible to see anything while over the Atlantic. Sure enough I was wrong, and for about 15 minutes we passed over some amazing ice floes and glaciers far below…

I grabbed my camera and managed to get a few good shots. It rivals this photo departing Mexico as one of the most beautiful I’ve seen from above.