soo much to blog about so little time

In Chicago my kids attended a (very) Jewish day school.  This resulted in them barely going to school during September due to all the Jewish holidays. 

In Aspen my kids got oct 26-27 off for fall break, Nov 1-3 off for parent teacher conferences and Nov 20-24 off for Thanksgiving.  Normally this is where I would have a snide comment about the more you pay the less you go but they attend a public school and property taxes in Aspen are very low, so uh well........... I got to spend some quality time with the kids.

With the week off for Thanksgiving we made our every 4 year visit to see my wife's family.  But before we get to the main event in Philadelphia we visited NYC for 2 1/2 days with the kids.  Trying to show NYC to your 11 & 14 year old in a couple of days is impossible.  I will attempt to cover it in a Dave Letterman type top 10 list of the 'best' things about NYC.

10.  NYC--it pushes your immune system to be the best it can be (or to quote my daughter I can't breath there are too many germs.
9.  Laguardia airport --just like you remembered it (ditto Penn station)
8.  Cupcakes and Pizza everywhere
7.  Home of more restaurants than Aspen has people
6.  World Trade Center memorial ---powerful and really well done
5.  Same metrocard, same 2 & 3 trains as 1993--how comforting
4.  Same nightly noises ---trucks rolling over steel plates, barking dogs, construction, sirens and alarms
3.  Garbage in bags on streets --if the Aspen bears ever hear about NYC they are so outta here
2.  Diversity---and holy shit folks there are getting along
1.  Everything you could want (except space) jammed into 22 square miles

FYI Manhattan is 22 square miles with a population of around 1.7m people.  Pitkin county is 973 square miles with 18k people.  Running the numbers for you that makes Manhattan 4,177 times more dense than the Aspen area.  Or to put that another way all of Pitkin county's population fits into 1/4 of a mile of Manhattan and you could just about fit all of Aspen's population into one large Manhattan highrise.

off season trivia --prizes for the winner

There is a lot to be said for the off season.  Slightly less expensive.  Lots of open tables, parking spaces, and minimal traffic.

And wow are there some great places to go for a hike.  Its time to get off the beaten track.  No more smuggler, Ute or Tiehack.  Or for you Chicago folks going to the lake and heading left or right.


Can you figure out what slightly out of town trail this is?  4 hours and I didn't see a soul.  First one to name the trail gets a 6 pack of beer delivered to your home (assuming you are over 21 and live in Basalt or further up valley).  But really all ya all are winners if you go try a new trail --now is the time, no lines, no waiting and some beautiful days still predicted on the weather report.

totally jammed parking lot--lucky to get a space

it's going off

dog going for a frosty cold one (whoops how did she get off lead)

very frosty

name the peak and get a bonus beer 

ski co shocked that cheap lift tickets boosts demand

Are you kidding me.  For those of you who didn't read the Aspen times article monday ski co has stopped their $6.50 lift ticket promotion for December 15 (the day Snowmass turns 50) after they sold 12k of the 50 birthday special tickets.  Demand blew them away.  With limited acerage open that early in the season what are they going to do with all the skiers (besides hope they drink expensive beer and eat expensive food).

I was shocked to see Ski Co shocked by the fact that price impacts buyers.  That is basic Econ 101 stuff, or even something learned at the lemonade stand you set up in front of your house.

Ski Co seems to be willing to be very alternative with their marketing campaign (the Aspen way—love, respect, unity and commit).  How about applying some of that thinking to their business practices.  Given the demand for $6.50 lift tickets maybe they should consider a massive price cut for various types of lift tickets.   Ski Co makes money lots of ways,  (food, drink, rentals, ski school, lodging etc).  How important is lift ticket cost as a source of revenue?  They are willing to think outside the box for marketing, however Ski Co is super duper boring and conservative with their business practices.  All the mountains raise lift ticket costs every year.  How boring and predictable.  What would happen if you could ski our 4 mountains for let say $50 a day?  Could Ski Co make enough money from their other revenue streams to offset the loss of revenue from a much lower priced lift ticket?   

Figuring out the ‘right’ ticket price to maximize revenue for Ski Co and for Aspen in general is tricky, but it does seem the Ski Co hasn’t been particularly creative in their thinking.  Given the demand for a basically free ticket for an early season Friday, why not listen to what the market is clearly saying—ticket prices are too high.  Why not try cutting prices and see if having thousands of additional skiers every day isn’t more profitable.  And think of the money saved on the marketing budget.  'Ski for free' kicks the crap out of love, respect, unity and commit.  Ski Co talks like they think outside of the box but they sure don’t walk like it.  

Halloween post game wrap up

We have a clear winner and its Chicago.  Yes it's kinda fun to go trick or treating in the pitch dark.  And having a bunch of houses wind around a cemetery is pretty awesome, BUT

Chicago's north side has a great population distribution.  In 3 hours in Chicago my daughter netted 1,000 pieces of candy 2 years ago.  Last night my daughter's haul was 162 pieces.  More work in Aspen and less reward.  On pure volume alone (and how else should one judge Halloween) Chicago kills Aspen.

But wait there is more.  How about spooky moments when trick or treating.  In Chicago there are houses with dry ice and vampires and strobe lights and lots of recent big 10 graduates dressed as sexy ........ (fill in the blank).  In Aspen my kids were given bibles and my son (in his Kellyanne outfit) was treated to a full New Testament sermon.  That is a different type of scary.  I'll again give the nod to Chicago. 

And then there are numbers.  I would probably see close to 3,000 kids on Burling in 3 hours in Chicago.  That is half the total population of Aspen.  Yes, you do get some nice quiet moments around the cemetery to scare yourself or make out with a girlfriend, but I will again give the nod to Chicago for pure fun volume-cazy.

So if you want to pick your town based on 1 night Chicago is your place.

However, if you are planning on spending some time in the local jail, I am going to recommend Aspen.  Seems a 31 year old man had consensual sex with another inmate (a 36 year old woman) while in the clink.  For 2 hours.  In the afternoon.  It's good to be young and enjoy some afternoon delight.  And of course for those of you into role playing it's taking the prisoner and warden thing to a whole new level.  I guess that is one costume event Aspen wins.