Educator and travel writer Sandra Bornstein (A&S ex’78; MEdu’05), published in September 2022. She also is author of the travel memoir May This Be the Best Year of Your Life. Sandra lives in Jefferson County, Colorado, with her husband, Ira Bornstein (Hist’75). Three of their four sons also graduated from CU. 

Where is your favorite travel destination? 

My husband and I have visited more than 50 countries. My love of history and culture, combined with my Jewish heritage, makes Israel my top destination. We have visited Israel four times and look forward to our next trip. However, the most engaging was our duo trip to the Galapagos Islands and Machu Picchu. The combination of wildlife, unique ecosystems and history was incredible.

Can you tell us about 100 Things to Do in Boulder Before You Die? 

It was an incredible opportunity to write about a place I have loved since 1974. My goal was to create a guidebook that appeals to a large, diverse audience. The indexes offer itinerary suggestions for 10 categories, including one that highlights 12 day trips within a two-hour drive of Boulder.

What kept calling you and your husband, Ira, back to Boulder? 

As a college freshman, I fell in love with both Boulder and Ira. Long-distance relationships were extremely difficult in the 1970s, so we opted to get married and relocated to Chicago where Ira was attending law school. Even though I was physically in Illinois, a small intangible part remained in Colorado. Perhaps, it was the unfulfilled dream of a CU degree or incredibly happy memories of our time together in Boulder. When our two oldest sons were attending college, we returned to Boulder County.

A page on your website is dedicated to Ira’s battle against brain cancer. Why is sharing this important? 

My life was turned upside down when Ira was diagnosed with glioblastoma. Scrolling through online resources for terminal cancer patients, I saw far too many people succumbing to their prognosis. Few were embracing life. As I read about people who beat the odds, I became determined to work with Ira to figure out the best approach. We remain grateful for each day that Ira’s quality of life remains intact. I sincerely hope my “For Glio” webpage will encourage others facing a terminal diagnosis to not give up.

Of the 100 things to do in Boulder, which is your No. 1? 

I can’t narrow down everything you can do in Boulder to one favorite thing. However, I can single out the place that brings back the most memories. Shortly after we met, Ira drove me to Boulder Falls. There is no doubt that we have visited far more impressive waterfalls in other destinations. However, for me, this modest waterfall with a minuscule trail will always elicit a smile and fond recollections. 

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Photos courtesy Sandra Bornstein

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For 31 years, Rob Drugan (MPsych’81; PhD’84) has taught a course on behavioral medicine at Brown University and the University of New Hampshire. Last year, he decided to take his course — which focuses on the benefits of exercise — to the streets. He took a year of unpaid leave and, with his wife Connie Eppich (Psych’80), set out to cycle the continental U.S. starting in June 2019. They rode counterclockwise around most of the country, 9,560 miles in 285 days, until the COVID-19 pandemic halted their trip in Florida. 

What was your inspiration for an around the country bicycle trip?

Before we met Connie had gone on an eight-week, 3000 mile solo trip from Boulder to San Francisco through the Canadian Rockies. This has been a dream of ours for so many years that neither of us can remember where it came from. It just seemed like a good idea, spending the summer bicycling across the northern U.S., the fall down the west coast, winter across the south and spring heading north along the Atlantic coast as it warmed up

Have you always been an avid cyclist?

Connie has been bicycling all her life. I have been a runner and took up bicycling after we met. We've gone on numerous shorter tours (one to two weeks) throughout our marriage.

How did you train for the trip?

Not as much as we had hoped, given a wet spring in New Hampshire where we live. We went on a number of 30 to 50 mile rides, some with the gear we'd be carrying. 

What was the hardest stretch of cycling?

The second week riding through west Texas with few places to stop, barren scenery and lots of trash and dead animals on the side of the road.

Can you explain what WarmShowers.org is, and how was your experience?

Warm Showers is a worldwide organization of bicycling tourists and people who enjoy hosting them. It's sort of like couch surfing but is only available to bicyclists. No money exchanges hands. We met countless generous and fascinating people who often treated us like royalty, often cooking dinner and breakfast for us, offering beer and wine and use of laundry facilities. Perhaps more importantly than the free lodging was the opportunity to have an insider's glimpse into what excited people about the places where they lived.

What was your favorite stop?

Christmas in Tucson. We spent a week staying with three different couples through Warm Showers. One of our hosts took us on a hike Christmas morning, and a bike ride up Mt. Lemon the day after. We spent time exploring the many murals in the city and bicycling through East Sonoran National Park. 

What was the prettiest view during your trip?

The Oregon and Northern California coasts with so many incredible views of rocky cliffs and sea stacks.

Lastly, what were your biggest obstacles?

Headwinds, the invisible foe. With a mountain pass or long hill, you could at least celebrate getting to the top and enjoy the descent. Headwinds offered no relief and no end, just creative profanity.

Condensed and edited. 

Photo courtesy Rob Drugan

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2020 Trips

The Galapagos Islands 
January 8-15, 2020

Legends to Lagoons
March 5-15, 2020

Southern Italy & Sicily
April 1-15, 2020

Dutch Waterways
April 25 - March 3, 2020

Moroccan Discovery
April 17-30, 2020

For more information about the Roaming Buffs travel program, email lisa.munro@colorado.edu, call 303-492-5640 or visit.

Roaming Buffs Scholarship

A new Alumni Association travel scholarship will benefit its debut winners this fall, supporting three Buffs studying overseas. Funded by proceeds from the Roaming Buffs alumni travel program, the scholarship provides $1,500 grants for tuition, books and other academic expenses.

Magdalena Castillo (IntlAf’20) will go to Spain for the Council on International Educational Exchange Seville Liberal Arts program. Luke Collier (MechEngr’19) will attend the CIEE Madrid Engineering & Society program, also in Spain. And Austin Chrisp (PolSci’20) will study at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Donate at colorado.edu/alumni/ roamingbuffs/scholarship.

Alumni Association Tidbits

The new Silicon Valley alumni chapter is led by Bob Mickus (�ѱ𳦳󷡲Բ���’86). Genevieve (PolSci’09) and Jeff Land (Hist’09) have taken over in Memphis. And Kyle Landers (Acct’06) is steering the Aspen group, succeeding Mike Jahn (�Ѱ�ٲ�’90).

Buffs Give Back is organizing community service projects for August, November and January 2020. If you’d like to organize a project in your region, contact John Wetenkamp at john.wetenkamp@colorado.edu.

The Forever Buffs Golf Tournament, July 29 at the Boulder Country Club, supports the Alumni Association Scholarship program. Register at colorado. edu/alumni/golf. On August 19, the CU Boulder Latino Alumni Association hosts the Chili Open at the Colorado National Golf Course, also a scholarship fundraiser. Register at colorado.edu/alumni/latinoalumni.

This summer Buffs at the Ballpark is coming to Chicago, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. Tickets include a pregame reception, admission and a Buffs at the Ballpark hat. Register at colorado.edu/ alumni/buffsattheballpark.

June 5 – Colorado Rockies at Chicago Cubs
July 17 – Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox
July 20 – Colorado Rockies at New York Yankees
July 22 – Colorado Rockies at Washington Nationals

Or join Buffs in Denver Aug. 16 for CU Night at the Rockies. Register at .

Volunteer at Black and Gold Bash Aug. 23 and help The Herd welcome nearly 7,000 new students to the Forever Buffs family. The event involves bungee trampolines, a zip line, a ropes course and other games, plus free food, a DJ and more. Email Sara Abdulla at sara.abdulla@colorado.edu.

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Not much has changed at Julia Child's summer home in France, thanks to Craig Held (Psych'74) and family, who preserve the famed chef's epicurean legacy at their cooking school and vacation rental.

In the kitchen of La Pitchoune, the French Airbnb run by Craig Held (Psych’74) and his family, a fragrance of herbs, meats and simmering wines recalls the aromas that routinely scented the space beginning in the mid-1960s.

For nearly three decades, the stucco cottage was the summer home of American chef and cookbook author Julia Child and her husband, Paul. Today, Craig Held, wife Tina and daughter Makenna preserve the Childs’ epicurean legacy in the hilly French countryside by operating the property as a cooking school and vacation rental.
 

“Makenna imitated Julia as a child,” said Craig, a retired business executive who acquired La Pitchoune in 2016 at Makenna’s urging. “Now she’s 6'1", wears the same size 12 shoe as Julia [who was 6'2"] and went to Smith College like she did.”

Located about 10 miles north of Cannes, France, La Pitchoune (which translates as “little thing”) is available seven months a year for up to six adults in three rooms, starting at $970 a night. During the remaining months — April, May, June, September and October — it becomes the Courageous Cooking School. Guests receive six days of live-in cooking lessons and excursions led by Makenna, who is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef.

The Helds bought the property in 2015, after Makenna, then 30 and teaching skiing in Beaver Creek, Colo., saw a story in The New York Times about the house and felt an immediate draw to it — especially to the kitchen.

“My greatest fear?” said Makenna. “Someone would gut the kitchen and demolish the legacy Julia had left behind.…I knew that someone who wanted to keep the house somewhat, if not completely intact, had to buy it. I wanted to be that somebody.”
 

“Change is rampant in this part of Provence. But inside the kitchen of La Pitchoune, it felt as if little had changed.”

Besides a model of a Julia Child kitchen in the Smithsonian, La Pitchoune is the last original Julia Child kitchen, said Craig. The extra-tall countertops remain, as do the pegboards Paul installed on the walls with his hand-tracings of the utensils Julia hung there.

The Childs built the home around 1963 on the three-acre property of Julia’s friend and Mastering the Art of French Cooking co-author Simone Beck. Julia gave the home back to the Beck family in 1992, when Paul became ill. He died in 1994, Julia in 2004.

A student of Beck’s owned the home next and ran a cooking school there. She listed it in 2015 for $880,000. After the Helds acquired it, they decided to run the 1,500-square-foot dwelling as a family business.

“Airbnb was the platform that seemed most appropriate for us at the time,” said Craig, adding that the online property rental firm was eager to promote the , which describes the home as “a foodie paradise in Provence.”

La Pitchoune quickly drew interest from food writers at The New York Times, Vogue, Food & Wine and Condé Nast Traveler.

“Change is rampant in this part of Provence,” wrote Julia Moskin, a Times food writer who spent a week cooking at the house. “But inside the kitchen of La Pitchoune, it felt as if little had changed.”
 

Two years in, the Helds’ recipe for La Pitchoune appears to be a hit.

The home offers fresh opportunities for Craig, who helped coach the CU ski team under Olympian Bill Marolt (Bus’67). For most of his career, Craig worked as an executive at Pepsi, Taco Bell and Paramount Farms. Just 10 days before Makenna called him about La Pitchoune, he’d left his job as executive vice president of XetaWave, a software-defined radio company in Louisville, Colo.

Now, when he’s in France with Tina on one of their three annual trips, his focus is on providing guests with cozy comforts: “We welcome guests with charcuterie, wine and a fully stocked Julia Child kitchen,” including all pots, pans, knives and baking dishes, he said.

Two years in, the Helds’ recipe for La Pitchoune appears to be a hit.

“You will have moments throughout where it seems surreal and unimaginable that you are cooking in Julia Child's kitchen, in her house,” wrote one Airbnb reviewer. “It was a week in paradise.”

Comment on this story? Email editor@colorado.edu.

Photos by Beth Kirby
 

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The next time you’re traveling through Denver, longtime Colorado news anchor Kim Christiansen will be among the first to welcome you to the Mile High City.

Odds are good you’ve heard “The Voice” reprimanding stragglers squeezing through the closing doors of Denver International Airport’s gate train:

“You are delaying the departure of this train.”

Riding it is unavoidable for most of the airport’s travelers — 61 million of them in 2017. Their volume makes Kim Christiansen (Jour’84) nervous.

Last February, Christiansen, lead anchor for Denver’s 9News broadcast station, won the airport’s contest to become the train’s new female voice, replacing her former 9News colleague Adele Arakawa, who moved to Tucson.

“It’s the most flattering, humbling, exciting thing,” said Christiansen, who is paired with Alan Roach, the former Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies announcer who has been the train’s male voice since 2007.

Christiansen’s recordings began playing in September.

Since opening in 1995, the airport has enticed several local celebrities to be the voice of the train. Denver anchorwoman Reynelda Muse and the late radio and television personality Pete Smythe did it for years. Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper, Peyton Manning and Lindsey Vonn have supplied guest recordings.

Her new audience: Tens of millions of travelers. 

“Having local voices as part of the train call is a great way to welcome visitors to Colorado and locals home,” said Emily Williams, the airport's communications manager.

After winning the contest, Christiansen recorded more than 40 messages at a Denver audio studio. Despite decades of broadcast experience, the former Miss Colorado-turned-journalist
was anxious.

“I walk into this recording studio and here is Alan, the most perfect voice, waiting there, watching,” she said. “It was so intimidating.”

In addition to standard directional messages (“The train is now approaching the A Gates…”) Christiansen recorded announcements for mechanical errors, weather delays and instructions for sudden stops.

Two words in particular caused surprising difficulty.

“I could not get my ‘C’ separated from ‘Gate,’” she said. “I’d never felt so inadequate — and I talk all the time!”

All the same, Christiansen, who has been with 9News for 33 years, loves her new airport role. So does her most important fan: Her teenage son, Tanner, a high school senior.

“He could care less about anything I do, except for this,” she said. “He was like, ‘Mom, you have to get the voice. That would be so dope.’”

Christiansen, who grew up and lives in Arvada, Colo., and was once a twirler for the CU Buffs Marching Band, travels through the airport about four times a year. The rest of the time she is anchoring the 9News 4, 5, 9 and 10 p.m. newscasts. She’s become a familiar face for Coloradans, a reason she thinks won her the spot.

Her train voice partner, Roach, is glad she did.

“She has been a great Colorado story and great Colorado media member for decades,” he said. “She got my vote!”

Email Christie at sounart@colorado.edu.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa 

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Paolo Estefania (Psych'14), reading the latest Coloradan magazine at the base camp of Volcán Acatenango in Guatemala, with the active Volcán de Fuego in the background.  

Where do you read your Coloradan? Send your photographs to Eric Gershon at editor@colorado.edu.

Photo courtesy of Paolo Estefania.

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There’s no passenger rail service to Boulder today, and hasn’t been for decades. But in the early 1900s, a person could ride a train directly to and from the CU Boulder campus. The university depot, shown here, was located approximately where the Ramaley Biology building sits now, just behind Norlin Library. In 1910, the one-way fare from Denver was 70 cents. The last train went through on April 24, 1932.

Photo courtesy CU Heritage Center 

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2019 Trips

Sailing the Windward Islands   
Feb. 26-March 5, 2019

Israel: Timeless Wonder   
April 6-17, 2019

Southern Grandeur
April 7-15, 2019 

Mount Everest Base Camp Trek
April 23-May 9, 2019 

Wonders of Peru
April 25-May 6, 2019 

For more information about the Roaming Buffs travel program, email lisa.munro@colorado.edu, call 303-492-5640 or visit colorado.edu/alumni/travel. 

Homecoming Weekend 2018 

This Homecoming, Jeff Randall (Geog, Soc’78) of Boston and Jeff Gray (Psych’78) of Los Angeles will reconnect in Boulder to hike, visit friends, roam Pearl Street and rally behind the Buffs at Folsom Field. They and a core group of pals do it every few years. 

“It’s Boulder and CU that brought us all together in the first place,” said Randall, who, with Gray, is co-hosting a 40-year reunion for the Class of 1978. 

Also at Homecoming 2018 (Oct. 25-28), the alumni association will host its annual awards ceremony in the Glenn Miller Ballroom, a series of Buff Talks — short, Ted Talk-style lectures — in Old Main and Buffs on Tap, an afternoon of beer and wine tasting in Koenig Alumni Center’s backyard. There’s the Homecoming parade and pep rally on Pearl Street and the alumni tailgate before the big game against Oregon State.

In addition to the 40-year reunion, which includes a dinner at the Hotel Boulderado, more than 15 other reunions are planned.

Visit colorado.edu/homecoming to register.

Alumni Association Tidbits  

This summer, more than 600 people gathered in Colorado, California and Alaska for exclusive alumni showings of a new 30-minute documentary about CU’s history, The Light Shines On: A Celebration of CU Boulder. See the film yourself on campus during Homecoming Weekend. 

The NorCal alumni chapter has new leaders: Summer Vaughn (Phil’16) and Jenna Kinsinger (�󾱲�’16). Kelly McKee (PolSci’94) has taken over the Orlando chapter. Catch Buffs games this fall with alumni in your area. Visit colorado.edu/alumni/chapters to see which group meets nearest you.  

Join us on Duane Field before every home CU football game for our Ralphie’s Corral Tailgate. The free event, located south of Folsom Field, begins three hours prior to kickoff. Take a photo with live mascot Ralphie, pick up alumni swag, play games with your kids and get a bite to eat. On the road, we’ll hold Buff Bash tailgates at USC, Washington, Arizona and Cal. 

The Alumni Association welcomes its newest advisory board members: Chip Bollendonk (�ѱ𳦳󷡲Բ���’17), Kyle Evashevski (�����Dz�’96), Timothy Gurba (Chin, Fin’04), Svein Hasund (�ѱ𳦳󷡲Բ���’67), Mina McCullom (�������󷡲Բ���’09), Landon Mock (�ʲ��⳦��’07), Floyd Pierce (ApMath, Econ’17), Laurie Porter (Mktg’88) and Chrissy Renegar (Jour’06). The roughly 40-person volunteer board provides guidance and feedback to Alumni Association staff. 

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Jim Voss has been to space five times. He can handle the Houston-to-Boulder commute.

Jim Voss is no stranger to work travel.

In one two-year stretch, he flew monthly between Houston and a job site in Star City, Russia, near Moscow.

That wasn’t even extreme: As a NASA astronaut, Voss (MAero’74; HonPhD’00) circled Earth more than 550 times during five Space Shuttle missions.

He spent 201 days in space, 163 as a resident of the International Space Station. In 2001, he and a crewmate floated outside it for 8 hours, 56 minutes, setting the record for longest spacewalk.

Now 69 and three times retired and unretired, Voss continues traveling long-distance for work. Since 2009, he’s been teaching in CU Boulder’s aerospace engineering program, commuting twice a month from Houston, where his wife, Suzan, still works for NASA.

Usually Voss flies Southwest Airlines to Denver. But every few months he pilots himself in one of two small aircraft he owns, a single-engine, four-seat Cirrus SR22 with tan leather interior. He’s also got a two-seat Rutan Long-EZ experimental aircraft he built himself.

“There are never traffic jams,” he said in a June interview at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, where he keeps both aircraft in a meticulously organized hangar adorned with the flags of CU Boulder and Auburn University, his undergraduate alma mater.

Voss enjoys flying for most of the usual reasons: The views, the solitude, the sense of freedom. He also likes the technical challenge and convenience.

On “Voss Airlines,” he said, “there’s no rush, no schedule.”

Commuting by plane also gives him a chance to practice something he does for fun anyway. He’s flown over the Grand Canyon, up and down the Hudson River, past Mount Rushmore and to the Bahamas. He once took the Long-EZ all the way to Alaska.

One year, en route to Oshkosh, Wisc., for the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual fly-in, he took a detour to Dayton, Ohio, to check out the Air Force museum there.

Astronaut, Pilot, Professor

Name: Jim Voss (MAero’74; HonPhD’00)
Trips to space: 5, last in 2001
Shares record for longest spacewalk: 8 hours, 56 minutes (2001)
Started teaching at CU: 2009
Lives: Houston and Boulder
Travels between them: Twice a month
Trip takes: 5.5 hours in his Cirrus SR22
Voss’ other airplane: Rutan Long-EZ experimental aircraft
Years he spent hand-building it: 13
Likes: Tiny airports

And when his wife joins him in Colorado, he’ll pilot her and friends to a favorite vacation spot in Durango.

In Boulder, Voss and airport pals fly in formation to Fort Collins, Steamboat Springs and Greeley for lunch at little airport restaurants.

From time to time, Voss, who averages about a flight a week year-round, takes his aerospace graduate students for a spin.

Voss learned to fly more than 40 years ago, as a hobby. He later attended Naval Flight School, becoming a flight test engineer, a person who helps establish an aircraft’s capabilities.

Though it was never his job to pilot the Space Shuttle, Voss logged enough Shuttle time to appreciate why the commanders usually came from the ranks of the military’s elite test pilots. Upon reentry to Earth’s atmosphere, the Shuttles, which went out of service in 2011, moved blazingly fast and on an unusually steep path to the runway.

“You can’t afford to make a mistake,” he said.

In 1981, before becoming an astronaut, Voss began building the Long-EZ, following a design by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan. Given work obligations that often kept him away from home, it took him 13 years to finish the fiberglass-and-foam plane.

But it never felt like work, he said.

“This is fun for me,” he said during a break from his annual piece-by-piece inspection of the Long-EZ.

On the day the Coloradan visited, he was planning to reinstall the nose gear.

“I take good care of my airplanes,” he said. “My life depends on it.”

Voss began commuting by aircraft in 2003, while teaching at Auburn, near his hometown of Opelika, Ala. Flying in the Long-EZ was less of a hassle than taking a commercial flight to Atlanta or Birmingham, then driving two hours to Auburn. He was going almost weekly.

He bought the Cirrus in 2004. Faster and safer, it’s got a full-aircraft parachute for dire circumstances. Fortunately, he's never had to use it.

While teaching at CU, Voss has mostly been commuting on commercial airlines. It’s less expensive than using his own plane, and more reliable — commercial airliners can handle weather Voss wouldn’t risk.

Being a passenger is also less taxing: As pilot, he said, “You have to pay attention all the time.”

When Voss flies himself from Texas to Colorado, he steers a diagonal course northwest from Houston, across Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle, into Colorado, then north. He’ll stop at Dalhart, Tex., or Amarillo for lunch and gas. In the Cirrus, the trip takes five-and-a-half hours.

As much as Voss enjoys flying, he’s looking forward to the 2019 opening of the new aerospace engineering center on East Campus. It’s less than a mile from his Boulder condominium.

“I’m gonna walk,” he said.

Contact Eric Gershon at editor@colorado.edu.

Photos by Glenn Asakawa

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Where do you read the Coloradan? Paolo Estefania (Psych’14) brought his to the Dead Sea. He posted this photo on Instagram with the caption: “I always carry the best reading material!” Thanks, Paolo!

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