In golf, when you can travel in shoulder season you are going to get great course conditions, far less competition for tee times and the full options in local fare and lodging. Your chance to play golf where Golf Meets The Atlantic!

Pack up those sticks and head across the pond for St Enodoc Church Course, consistently regarded as a must play. And, with their special September and October Stay & Play rates, you also save while experiencing one of the top 100 golf courses.

The Church Course is going to give you a unique blend of visuals with its’ location viewing both the Camel river and the Atlantic Coast.

The golf is both visually stunning and challenging with some blind shots, ups, downs, and some gorse to catch those errant shots. This might be one course where you can play round after round and not get bored or in a swing rut. And, a signature hole with history as it snakes its way towards the 11th century St Enodoc Church, where poet laureate Sir John Betjeman lies buried beside his favorite course.

The club’s location on the high sand dunes of the north Cornwall overlooking the Camel River and Atlantic coast means the Church Course is set against the backdrop of some of the most fabulous sea and estuary views of any 18 holes in the world.

The 10th that is referred to as the signature hole as it winds its way towards the 11th century St Enodoc Church, where poet laureate Sir John Betjeman lies buried beside his favorite course.

Golfers can choose to play all three rounds at St Enodoc, although there is the option to play Perranporth or Bowood Park. Perranporth is a natural links course set on the high ground giving stunning views over Perran Bay. Though challenging thanks to numerous blind shots and tricky greens, Perranporth regularly charms visiting golfers when a stiff sea breeze whips up, it becomes a genuinely severe test of golf.

A different kind of golf is Bowood Park, set in rolling hills and woodland, designated an area of Special Landscape value. With well-drained greens and abundant water hazards, the signature hole is the 385-yard 12th, the Azalea hole, which is a challenging par 4 with an island green reached by a covered wooden footbridge reminiscent of New England.

Golf at St Enodoc allows you to visit Cornwall with a myriad of activities and adventures. Take the ferry to Padstow, where celebrity chef Rick Stein placed his first seafood restaurant. When golf needs a break, long walks along the beaches of Polzeath and Daymer bay provide both relaxation and inspiration.

A little way along the coast, culture hounds can enjoy a visit to the Tate St Ives, featuring local as well as international artists, and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and for garden-lovers, there are the fascinating Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project.

 

It was the 7th Annual Wine Festival at the Denver Downtown Aquarium on August 18th, and it might just be the sleeper wine festival in Denver.

Start with the fact the Denver Aquarium is easy navigation from I25 with ample parking. The festival occurs on the spacious and meandering grounds, so you don’t feel like you are crowded into just one area. While there is the central area with food and a number of the wine and liquor samplings, the event continues around the garden walkway to the park area to the west of the Aquarium. With each twist, there is another libation or food item along the path begging for a sampling.

Each year, wines are chosen from a different part of the U.S., and in 2018 the region was the Pacific Northwest. And, add another three spirits and brewery options, and you get plenty of sampling. Being the Downtown Aquarium, no event would be complete without a display of critters to liven up the event. After the greeting by the mermaid, the options to see and learn about wildlife and their needs featured sharks, snakes, and even a porcupine. Each year, the event benefits a local charity, this year being the Colorado Liver Foundation. And, if you are so inclined, your Wine fest ticket gets you a hefty discount on regular aquarium activities. So, kids can go to the aquarium for education and fun, while the adults get over-21 activities.

It’s not the most prominent wine festival in Denver, yet given the format and the quality of the offerings, this might be the most vino-based fun you can have in three hours on a Saturday afternoon.

What might be the distinguishing feature of this festival is the excellence of the food. When the Downtown Aquarium first came into being years back, it was no secret the restaurant efforts were nowhere near the level of the exhibits and educational opportunities. Kind of like going to that Mousy place in Orlando and the rides are stupendous with food that is a tad better than mediocre with prices like Paris. The Landry’s group purchased the Downtown Aquarium a few years back; this has all changed for the exceptional. Participating restaurants included the Downtown Aquarium, Morton’s, Landry’s Seafood, Saltgrass Steak House, McCormick & Schmick’s and Chart House dishing up the best stuff with full spreads. Oysters, salmon, leg of lamb and various shrimp options highlighted the food stations.

It’s not a wine festival without some fun that gets a little greased by the libations. You have DJ spinning tunes, and about 90 minutes into the event, the dancing, and Pinot-infused Karaoke begin. No extra charge for that show, and the longer you sit there, the more likely you will be a toasted and willing participant.

Who doesn’t love a one of a kind design? With this festival, you purchase a tee shirt, then stomp the grapes to get the right amount of color, pulp and skin in between those toes, and there you have it. Your own, foot dyed tee shirt that will remind you of the event long after the aroma of Merlot is gone.

If you had to pick one wine fest in Denver, this is hard to beat with the quality offerings, ease of access, and of course, the fact it’s at the Downtown Aquarium! Get there in 2019, and you won’t be disappointed.

Yes, every ski resort has lessons and hills just for kids. Keystone is different in that while the adults can join in a bevy of activities, kids get their own world in Kidtopia. You get jazz and wine, they get kid fun.

Keystone has morphed in a top-notch destination with a bevy of adult festivals, activities each day for children, and then activities the whole family can do together. The opportunity for boredom went out the window with the base altitude of 9,000 feet. At 80 miles west of Denver, this is either an easy destination or not too far out of the way if connected with other Rocky Mountain adventures.

During the summer, Keystone hosts numerous festivals, most of which have an adult theme, but still, have activities for the kids. Most are at the base of the mountain, so ample opportunity to take a chairlift or gondola ride sometime in the middle of your summer adventure. Kidtopia, which is Keystone’s no-charge kids’ program, has free adventure activities offered every day from June 8-Sept. 1. Two of the most popular are Friday’s ‘Face Painting and Craft-er-noon’ and Sunday’s ‘Meet the Rescue Dog.’ These are held at Kidtopia Headquarters in River Run Village.

Shake off that city dust with the Bluegrass & Beer Festival, the first weekend of August where over 30 different breweries mingle with food vendors. Entertainment is constant with 3 live stages. And, like all the festivals, Keystone is adept at mixing lodging and ticket packages to make it a one-stop reservation.

Not the best known, yet with enthusiastic attendees is the Wine & Jazz Festival in July. Two days of unlimited pours with top jazz entertainment on the village stage, and you have a recipe for expanding your musical and libation appreciation. Carefully spaced in the village streets are various food vendors so you won’t go hungry with everything from Asian BBQ to charred ribs with grits.

And if the kids don’t want to do their own Kidtopia excursion, face painting and art opportunities are within the festival so you can stick together. Top it off with various wine education events focusing on different varietals and even tequila.

Keystone has their own stable and riding program, so there is usually some type of wagon ride with dinner on the edges of Keystone proper in the White River National Forest. For the Wine & Jazz Festival, that wagon ride gets you to the original cabins where each holds a special dish in the five-course meal, with a wine pairing. Strolling to the original cabins from 1850 with new friends and live mountain music make this a special evening. Not all festivals have their own wagon ride and dinner, but those are offered weekly both in summers as wagon/dinner rides and in winter as sleigh/dinner adventure.

The most unique culinary experience lets you dine at the highest four-star restaurant in North America, the Alpenglow Stube, and a short gondola ride to the top of the mountain at 11,666 feet. Romantic dinners plus an award-winning brunch menu with such items as ricotta-infused French toast and braised pork hash with spinach and sweet potatoes are examples of their creative, high-country cuisine.

Lodging is really anything you want, as Keystone either owns or manages a majority of the base real estate in the village. So, from traditional hotel rooms to ski condos, you can choose, and the only real consideration is where your activity base will be. If you book through Keystone (probably the best way for you to tune into various lodging options), you receive a Play for Free package. This includes scenic lift rides for the kids, golf on arrival day, a guided hike, a yoga class and one hour of tennis.

Recently renovated, The Spa at the Keystone Lodge and Spa is way above what is the norm at a ski area. The treatment rooms are spacious, well decorated and the options reflect the high-country environment. For adults, the Altitude Massage combines a head to toe treatment with O2 to really get those muscles and joints up to high country function. In the spirit of getting the kids involved, finally a spa with limited-attention offerings for kids. The most fun is the Chocolate Mousse Facial. It might be edible, but it does work on pre-teen complexion issues. For even more fun, do the strawberry and chocolate mix, like a perfect Sunday for the face!

Golf does not play second fiddle at Keystone with two exceptional links options. The Ranch Course winds through the original ranch land with slight ups and downs in a mountain-links design. Great views of the valley with the meandering holes where you do get away from it all. The River Course is diversity at its’ best with water features, ups and downs (like a 194 foot elevation drop on hole 16), and holes in and out of the lodge pole pine forest.

While it is part of Vail Resorts, Keystone definitely gives you the small town, big mountain feel that made Colorado skiing famous. And it may just be that summer is a bit better than winter at Keystone, and winter is pretty darn good.

Denver sits at the the gateway to the Rocky Mountains. In the winter skiing rules, yet summer may have more interesting events. After the snow melts, the mountains shine for the summer/fall season of 2018 with exceptional food and wine festivals. Here is a sampling of the best and most unique experiences.

Telluride Wine Festival

After Butch Cassidy robbed the bank here, Telluride eventually turned into a ski and resort town.  The TWF has an innovative program that is smaller than similar wine festivals in attendance, yet exceptional in food and pairings. The Patron program features vintner seminars, winemaker food events, special seating, sommelier education and of course, stunning mountain views. As this is small event, there are no lines for any events.

Top Taco, Denver

Top Taco is THE EVENT if you want to taste never-made before creations paired with lively libations, all with chefs trying to win the big prize and bragging rights. The location is the Stanley Marketplace, just east of Downtown, a blend of indoor and outdoor restaurants in a park setting. The VIP pass is the ticket to extra tastings so you can sample all the tacos and the 40 various tequilas. This experience provides a VIP tent complete with more unique tacos, it’s own bar and entertainment action. Just about every taco imaginable means every taste preference has plenty of options.

North Fork Uncorked

The wines produced for this festival come from the highest elevation in North America on the Western Slope of Colorado. So, a little different taste twist from this climate and soil. The two day event combines farmers, cheese makers, brewers, chefs, brewers and chefs in the multi-day event. Some great picnics and tours, but the real attraction is the intimate interaction with the purveyors and community. Like Wine Festival meets county fair!

Denver Food & Wine Festival

This is a festival where you can pick different events to attend on the five-day schedule. How about a cinema series with libations and the foods featured in the film? The ultimate dinner experience is a five-course dinner from famous chefs on a railroad bridge under the stars. The Grand Tasting features over 700 wines and spirits combined with tasty bites from over 40 select restaurants. The cocktail “mixologist” of renown is crowned during The Shakedown competition which also features local restaurants making bites to match the creativity of the cocktail.

Keystone Wine & Jazz Festival

Keystone is about 80 miles west of Denver, and for the summer and this festival, the base area gets converted into a stage with jazz, wine varieties, seminars, and of course, really good food. Here you can pick which seminars and tastings fit your schedule so you can pursue activities like mountain bike rides, golf or fly fishing. The festival kick-starts with free gondola rides to the top of the mountain for great views of the valley. Keystone may be the most family-friendly ski resort in Colorado, as they provide numerous options in KidTopia.

Colorado Mountain Wine Festival

The Colorado home of world famous peaches and cantaloupes is also the hub of the Colorado Mountain Wine Festival. Start off with with painting and wine and see if the combo gives you the eye of a Master! As the vineyards are spread a bit, use the special bus tour to get around easily while you sample.The Grape Stomp at the Festival in The Park as a smashing selfie-station.

In golf, talk is expensive, and sometimes performance is cheap. Well, at least in a sense it doesn’t add up to the advertising and product claims.

 

In the case of TourEdge, and their Hot Launch 3 irons and woods, there is a definite match between the claims and performance. They say they match the performance of clubs at one half the price. So let the games begin, a bold claim, but does the performance match the claims?

 

The HL3 irons and woods were designed to give the average golfer a custom club at a reasonable price. Made and assembled in the USA, there is a lifetime warranty for all their clubs. All this sounded good, so off I went to purchase two HL3 clubs to test. Moreover, even more interesting, from ordering to arrival was just 48 hours, which is the typical turn around time. Nice not to have to wait two weeks for your clubs!

My Cobra Irons and Driver are excellent. And since I was custom fit at the PGA Tour Superstore, I had all the fit data. The clubs picked for testing were the HL3 iron-wood in a 6-iron loft and configuration, and a 10.5 driver. In the irons, same shaft (KBS Tour Steel), same set up in length, lie angle and grip. The only difference was the iron wood is just slightly more substantial in swing weight than the Cobra iron. The real difference was in price. The complete set of the HL3 iron-woods in steel is just over $500, while the same set of Cobra irons were just shy of $900. If you choose the get the more traditional cavity-back HL3, the iron set is only $419.

After a warm-up, I alternated five shots with each six iron until I had used 40 golf balls. The results were that the HL3 went just as far, but was far easier to hit consistently, likely from the iron-wood design. Easy-to-hit is an essential factor in that I like to play golf, yet time for practice is very limited. The Cobra iron was just a tad more precise if I wanted to work the ball, but only a slight difference. My overall impression was the performance for how I can devote time to golf was very good for quite a bit less money. I should note, I don’t always carry a handicap as time is tight, but will consistently score in the 80s. I have been told I have a relatively sound and repeatable golf swing.

On to the drivers, where there was a real difference in price. $189 for the HL3 in a 10.5 head, and about $400 for the Cobra in a 10.5 head. Once again, I alternated balls with each club. Four shots with the HL3, then four with the Cobra. Granted, it is a little challenging to tell distance without a launch monitor, but with that many golf balls, you get a feel for the club and performance parameters. The result was that the Cobra went little farther, maybe 3-5 yards. However, the HL3 Driver was more natural to hit consistently. They each have a different sound, but after 20 balls total with each, I was used to each sound. My bottom line is I would probably trade 5 yards for keeping it in the fairway more of the time with the knowledge that I can swing a little more confidently. For those with a slice tendency, the driver also comes in an off-set model.

Traditionally, TourEdge has been an exceptional hybrid, wood and driver company, and irons didn’t get much attention. The Hot Launch 3 irons all the way to driver are worth consideration because they perform well, and in the dollar per performance factor competition, they are the clear winner for the average golfer.