One of our favorite vacation destinations is the La Quinta Resort & Club. The pandemic made this year hard enough, but moving to Colorado also made it difficult to vacation in Palm Desert. On our drive back to Colorado, we stopped for two nights at La Quinta for sunbathing and pool time. It was like visiting with an old friend.

We have had the good fortune to experience many of the room styles at the resort, from the Pueblo Suite with its own garden and private pool, to the starlight casitas, and even a room located adjacent to actress Ginger Roger’s favorite swimming pool. On this trip, we were budget conscious and tried one of the standard rooms.

Only the La Quinta Resort & Club doesn’t have standard rooms. The resort was built in the 1920’s and every room has a unique layout. Nothing is cookie-cutter. We had the ability to pick our exact room using the Hilton app and it was difficult. We tried to gauge the size of the rooms by looking at the resort map and ended up picking a room in Santa Ursula section, primarily due to its proximity to the pools. The resort has 41 pools, so you are never far from the water!

We arrived late at night after a very long day of travel, so uncharacteristically, I did not photograph our room. It was the smallest of the rooms that we have stayed in at La Quinta, but quite comfortable. It had an enormous bathtub, which we both enjoyed, using bath bombs that Dan had given me for my birthday. Our home doesn’t currently have a large tub, so this is a real luxury for us.

In addition to the customary souvenir tile, we were give a bottle of hand sanitizer and wipes. Due to Covid, we did not check-in at the hotel reception desk, opting to head straight to our room using a digital key. The resort also didn’t bother with parking passes.

We woke-up around ten ( La Quinta has the best beds and I always sleep well) to discover a crisp November day. November is always a tricky month with weather. It was sunny, with a high of 71 degrees. When I lived in California, I would have worn a sweater and my Ugg boots, however, now I am accustomed to cold weather and I had no problem wearing a bikini and flip flops.

While walking around the resort, we encountered very few guests. Masks were mandatory and we only removed them for a few quick photos. I felt very safe visiting La Quinta.

The property is landscaped with citrus trees and a gardener caught us admiring the oranges. He urged us to pick one and try it.

We headed into town for breakfast at Koffi Coffee. Koffi Coffee is one of our Palm Desert favorite stops. The lattes are fabulous, but what we really love is their pineapple muffins. Unfortunately, we were too late for the muffins, as they had sold out!

One surreal aspect of our stay was due to the fall 2020 season of The Bachelorette, which is currently airing. The show would usually include fancy destinations around the world, but due to covid, they filmed a quarantined season where the contestants stayed exclusively at La Quinta. It’s strange to see a resort that feels like a second home used for the show.

This season’s bachelorette’s ( two of them), Tayshia Adams and Clare Crawley, both stayed in the El Presidente suite.

And the tennis courts have been used for many activities, including strip dodgeball! Scandalous!!!

Our primary objective was to get some pool time. We even splurged on a glass of bubbly.

Due to California covid restrictions, the hot tubs were closed. We have not experienced this with the pools in Colorado or Florida, but I’m guessing it is because of the difficulty of social distancing in spas. They kept the spas unheated to deter anyone thinking of ignoring the restrictions.

When another couple joined our pool, we decided to move on to the main pool. The main pool is enormous and we had the entire pool to ourselves, which we enjoyed until sunset.

The La Quinta Resort & Club is magical at night. We even saw the truck arrive with the Christmas tree. We were told that there is usually a big tree lightening ceremony, but this year it will go without fanfare due to the pandemic.

The Adobe Grill was open for outdoor dining and they had tables arranged with plenty of social distancing and space heaters to keep warm. It felt like a private dining experience. We were able to meet our friends Dan and Meg, who were spending a few months in the desert to escape from the Oregon cold. We hadn’t seen them since living in Portland, and even though we couldn’t hug, it still felt great to see them. We caught up over margaritas and fajitas.

We considered staying for another night, but we really needed to get back to Colorado, so bright and early the following morning, we hit the road for Arizona. It was difficult leaving both California and La Quinta. I hope that we will be back in 2021.

This week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis enacted a state-wide mask mandate. I’m thrilled about this and actually wish it had happened sooner. It takes the ambiguity out of the situation and makes it easier for cities/businesses to enforce the safety measure. The tide seems to be turning a bit with mask mandates happening in many states and Trump even finally caving to the pressure of masks. Of course, this all feels too little/too late, as the cases of covid are getting out of control in the United States.

If Douglas County can’t bring the cases down, we will be back to “Stay at Home” orders within a few weeks. This will be crushing for the economy and a very frustrating situation.

This weekend we took our first over-night trip of the year and stayed at the Hilton Doubletree in Breckenridge. It was strange. Last year, we spent about a third of the year in hotels, primarily Hilton properties as Dan has status with the chain, so Hiltons are very familiar, but this felt like being in The Twilight Zone.

We were requested to have one family member go into the lobby for check-in, a sign which we didn’t notice, and we both went in. Luckily, we were the only guests at check-in. The seating areas/tables/decorations in the lobby had been removed, creating a vast space, like the hotel was being remodeled. We didn’t receive our usual bottled water or signature DoubleTree chocolate-walnut cookies. Our free breakfast perk was gone, and I don’t think the restaurant was even open. Santizer gel and signs were absolutely everywhere, and only two people to an elevator for safety.

Our room had new signage, including a large sticker over the door to let us know that it had been cleaned and sanitized. We had to break the sticker seal to open the door. I guess I felt safe, but I didn’t sleep very well at night. I had the thought that someone else, potentially Covid infected, had been in that bed recently. Could it be properly sanitized? Was this a risky move?

The fun aspects of staying in a hotel, like the pool and cocktail lounge, were gone, so it was strictly a place to sleep situation. It cost over two hundred dollars for the night, with none of the perks. Maybe this is yet another reason to hold off on travel?

We did enjoy Breckenridge. The town takes the mask mandate seriously and we felt safe walking around. We ate BBQ and went up on the scenic chair lift. I will blog more extensively about our getaway in another post, but here are a few pictures. I did briefly take off my mask for the velociraptor picture, but no one was near us when I did. The town was very quiet mid-week.

On the way to Breckenridge, we went on the Historic Georgetown Loop Railroad. The ride is about an hour and it goes through stunning Colorado scenery. I will also write more on this in a future post, but I want to mention a Covid concern.

The train ride was mandatory masks, and we were seated by the staff in a semi-socially distanced way with our own companions. We sat in an outdoor train car. This is a picture of the people in the car next to us, very close to us…see how many refused to wear masks? This picture shows people from about six different families, sitting in close proximity.

Announcements were made that masks are mandatory, however, the employees walked past those not wearing them and did not enforce the state mandate. As I wrote last week, I feel empathy for the employees who are being made to be enforcers for this often volatile situation, however, it is a public safety mandate for a serious situation. These non-compliant people should have been directly asked to wear the masks when they were seated, especially prior to the train leaving the depot ( as many did not have them on then. It’s not like they were wearing them and removed them when seated) and if they refused to comply, they should have been asked to leave.

One family in particular, you can see the teenage son in the blue shirt in the forefront of the picture, was loud in their disagreement with masks and making mocking comments towards those complying with the mandate. We nearly said something rude to them, but didn’t. We were not alone in our feelings. This situation definitely diminished our enjoyment of the train experience. I was angry at those refusing to comply, and frustrated that the train company didn’t enforce the masks.

Here we are on the train following the mandate. We made the best of it by enjoying the sunshine and beautiful mountains.

Check out this beautiful Georgetown lake! We had lunch at a pub with this view.

We ate breakfast at The Original Pancake House in Denver, which was our last dine-in experience prior to the March covid closures. It was great to be back and we even had the same server.

It wasn’t all restaurant dining this week. I also experimented with several recipes in a Mediterranean cooking magazine that we bought at Sprouts. We made chicken kabobs with cucumber-yogurt sauce, stuffed tomatoes with couscous, zucchini fritters and a spicy shrimp marinade. All were delicious and healthy, but I only managed to snap a picture of the stuffed tomato.

We did some garden maintenance, and I pulled out an enormous weed that we actually think might be wheat. It was a monster to pull out. Here I am, having a Green Acres moment and feeling very chuffed.

On writing news, a poem I wrote was selected to appear in the “Field Notes” section of Cordella Magazine’s website. I’m not sure when it will be posted, but I was thrilled by the news!

Our community organized a visit to the nearby Happy Dog Ranch. Due to social distancing, we had to sign up in small groups for hour long visits. It was a great experience. We fed llamas and petted goats. A chicken named Penelope sat on my lap and we won a cute pig decoration in a charity raffle. The ranch helps rehabilitate both animals and people. It’s a great organization and the animals are delightful.

And finally, some adorable cat pictures!