Adventures Within Reach Travel Blog

Taken on Safari with AWR 2009 By, Kyle Jerichow

With over 75 gorgeous entries in our first Facebook Photo Contest, we decided to let our fans choose the winner. June 15th, Kyle Jerichow’s enchanting photograph of his safari in Tanzania won with 20 “likes,” with Josh Lee’s photo of the view from his lodge coming in second place at 11 “likes.”

Virginia Roosevelt, a fan, remarked of the winning entry, “Yes, I do like this best…it is stunning and I love the movement implied by the different cloud formations, the bush branches going every which way, the giraffe leaning, and the wonderful color palette of distant views. A spectacular photo!”

What’s truly remarkable to me, is that this is a real place on our planet, and the animals featured in these photos- giraffes, gorillas, iguanas, baboons, lions, elephants, zebras and more, are real too.

How does one ever experience something so magical? Well, it begins with your imagination. Peruse through these photos and more, allowing yourself to daydream without limit. Simply allow yourself to explore all the resources you can get your hands on.

Once you’ve done that, determine the cost of your journey, and write down the amount you will need to save by the date that you would like to travel.  Put it on a calendar- start pouring your imagination into concrete molds. In the meantime, contact us with any questions you might have. Our specialists, Barbara, Dan and Robin, have been planning trips like yours for over 10 years and we are passionate about sharing our experiences with you.

Perhaps print out this photo, or any others you find,  and tape it above your desk as your inspiration to bring a sack lunch to work, ask your boss for a week off, or get in shape to summit Kilimanjaro, and your photo could win our next contest!

Robin and Barbara, our travel goddesses,  shared an excellent evening of with all our friends and new supporters at our very first open house event.  We wanted to thank everyone who was able to attend, and all who sent us well-wishes but were unable to make it. Also, a special thanks to Landon, Robin’s 8-year-old son, gave a particularly fantastic Power Point on his recent trip to the Galapagos!

We’d like to give a special shout out to all of our 1200 Broadway Suites neighbors including

• Giuliana Imports, who provided some fantastic wine.
• Studio Allegro, who provided live violin music, Suzuki style.
• Chantique, who joined in the festivities in usual sparkling fashion.
• Dan Rosenberg of  Advisor Solutions, LLC, who helped advertise our big event
• Roger the Barber, who might just give us free haircuts next time!
• Left Hand Books, who bring in so many exceptional customers from the Pearl St. Mall

Hope to see you all, and more, at our next adventure on the mall!

May 31, 2010 marked the 32nd Bolder Boulder 10k race in Boulder, Colorado where “Team AWR” joined over 50,000 of our nearest and dearest friends on a quest to find our way to the University of Colorado football stadium.

AWR Bolder Boulder Team 2010

The Bolder Boulder route winds its way through the streets of Boulder through shops and office buildings, as well as residential areas.  There must be at least 20 bands playing along the way, including the Blues Brothers and Elvis.  Did I mention belly dancers, bag pipers wearing kilts, and tap dancers?

While there are water and Gatorade stations along the route, it’s the extras provided by those who live along the course that which makes the race so unique. They offered us important provisions like marshmallows, popsicles, bacon, Doritos, doughnuts, and beer to sustain us along the course.  Spectators also put out sprinklers, slip-and-slides, and, for the first time this year, a plunge pool.

Our race finished at the CU football stadium with thousands of adoring fans cheering us on!

Around noon, they cleared the course from us “regular folk” and started the elite race with professional teams of three runners each from various countries around the world.  The packed stadium erupted when the three Kenyan men entered the final lap side-by-side and hand-in-hand.  I don’t think I’ve seen longer, skinnier legs in my life….

The day finished with a special Memorial Day celebration complete with parachuters, fighter planes, and a rendition of Taps where you could not hear a pin drop.

Please contact us if you are interested in joining Team AWR next year!

Photo by Aaron Minton

With so many astounding entries in our photo contest, it will be almost impossible to pick just one winner. Our fans are truly adventurers at heart and artists in spirit, and I just have to thank them for contributing their experiences to our Facebook Page as an inspiration to those who uncertain about where to travel, when to go and what to see when they finally take the plunge. While we all have this inner nomadic drive, a voice that speaks into our ears and minds and souls, that says, “Go! See the world! Explore! Feel!  Taste! Try!” We often listen to the louder voice that tells us to “Work! Earn! Save!”

Photo by Jenny Cech Young

Why do we ignore our instincts to be courageous and summit Mt. Kilimanjaro? Face the lions of Africa? Embark on that cruise around the Galapagos?

Photo by Aaron Minton

Traveling to any corner of the globe you can imagine is attainable in just a few hours, it is the simplest it has been in human history, and relatively speaking, probably the least costly. It is available to anyone who so chooses to do so.

We at AWR hope to inspire our clients to see what they have never seen, do what they have never done, and experience something out of this world.

As Dan, an AWR staff member, put it today, “Night snorkeling, surrounded by bio-luminescent algae, and looking up at the stars, I felt like I was in space, and I was surrounded by light,” of his 8 day voyage to the Galapagos.

Wherever your adventurous dreams may be, we are here to guide you. All of these photos were taken by people just like yourselves, who had a dream and allowed us to bring them to the gorillas of Uganda, to the spice trails of Zanzibar, and to meet locals and safari through Tanzania.

Photo by William Jacobs

If you’d like to vote for your favorite entry in our photo contest, just become a fan of us on facebook (if you haven’t already), click on our “Photos” tab and “Like” your favorite! We’ll be announcing the winner June 15th, so vote now by clicking here.

With so many amazing photos coming in from all over the globe here at AWR, we’re having a tough time going through them and picking our favorites to add to the blog and website. Plus, whenever I start to look at pics of the friendship trail in Nepal, I just can’t seem to stop daydreaming for the rest of the day and I get nothing done! So, we decided to have a little photo contest amongst our facebook fans and see what you all can come up with. So, if you’d like to participate, just follow these simple steps by May 31st:

1) Become a fan of us on facebook:

2) Tag Adventures Within Reach in your favorite travel photo

3) Tell us you did it on our page

And you could win a gift bag full of goodies, including an awesome DVD (The Roof of Kilimanjaro), luggage loss protection service and more!!