PLEASE RESPOND!!

Selinsky Reunion 2008

After a brief holiday respite (spanning the last half-dozen holidays), the Reunion Planning Committee is back in effect. During the RPC's annual Christmas meeting, we agreed that it would be best if we could get as many family members to the reunion as possible, and so the reunion should be as accessible as possible. We also agreed that we really need input from everyone in order to get this thing rolling; reservations should be locked in within the next couple weeks. So please, before you go back to checking your e-mail or playing spider solitaire, put in your two cents.

Our two potential destinations, according to the discussion several blogs ago, were Colorado and Tahoe. I crunched some numbers to try to figure out what would be more affordable in terms of both travel and lodging. If you don’t like numbers, click here.

(Note: For those of you who clicked on the link, I have no idea what that's all about. It just says something about hating numbers, in the headline. That’s the only relevance. I thought maybe you number haters could get together and form a group or something.)

I looked up airfare on Orbitz to both places from several different airports in Michigan and southern California, since those will probably our most common starting places. Tahoe is more expensive from Michigan, Denver is more expensive from California. Michigan is more expensive to fly out of in general: the fare to Reno, as averaged from three MI airports, was $513 (avg. of $392 to Denver). California travelers have it a little better with an average of $231 to Reno and $298 to Denver.

You may be able to find way better deals than this before summer rolls around. I just took a sampling of internet fares for the first weekend in August as an arbitrary date. Of course, you can also get to Denver by boat. It’s on the Platte River. You can pull right into downtown. Think about it.

I also looked up some lodging in several different parts of Colorado. The prices don’t vary too much across the different areas, but the distance does. How does everyone feel about driving a lot after getting off the plane? The closest place on my list was Winter Park, 1.5-2 hours from the airport. The resort has cabins available that sleep 8-10 for $257/night. There’s plenty to do and see in Winter Park during the summer: hiking, mountain biking, alpine slide, rafting, tubing, etc. They also have lots of concerts and other such events throughout the summer.

A little further away (~3 hours) is Glenwood Springs, where the big attractions are the hot springs, Hanging Lake, and the beautiful mountainside. There are also a number of vineyards in the area and, of course, all the usual mountain activities. Cabins run about $160-225/night for 4-7 people each, and there’s a ranch house that fits 10 for $500/night.

Still further away is Durango. When I asked my native Colorado friends what was the best place to visit in Colorado, they said Durango. It’s about a 5 hour drive from Denver, but that’s 5 hours of beautiful mountain scenery. Not like you’d be staring at cornfields and prairie grass the whole time. Anyway, the cabins I found are right on Vallecito Lake in the San Juan National Forest and run $140/night for 4 guests (additional charge for more guests). They look pretty basic, but the location is pretty rad. Durango offers balloon and glider rides, fishing, rafting, ancient Pueblo ruins, and a great event calendar.

My suggestion would be to stick with Winter Park, just because it’s way closer and, really, their beer is just as good as the beer in Durango.

That’s the Colorado side of it. I can’t remember how much the lodging was going to be in Tahoe; Sharon, would you mind reposting that?

So please let me know—right away, if possible—what you’d like to see in the family reunion. Specifically, I’d like to know what you think about the WHERE and WHEN. I used the first weekend in August, from Thursday, July 31-Sunday, August 3, as an arbitrary date for figuring out prices, but I’m free pretty much all summer.


Brandon
RPC Co-Chair