Florida 2020: Doubletree Beach Resort Tampa Bay

As a birthday surprise, Dan took me on a short trip to Florida. This was especially sweet, since we moved from California to Colorado in 2019, and I’ve missed living near the beach. There is something about the salty air and the sound of the waves that brings an instant calm. Having a few days by the ocean was the best medicine for this tough year.

We stayed at the Doubletree Beach Resort by Hilton in Tampa Bay- North Redington Beach. I’ve traveled to Florida many times, but this was my first visit to the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. As much as I love the theme parks ( and I really, really do love them,) it was nice to have the opportunity to explore other aspects of Florida.

This was a typical Doubletree hotel, as far as room size and amenities. We were given the customary warmed chocolate chip-walnut cookies upon check-in. The only small changes were due to Covid, such as only taking the elevator with your own group and wearing masks while navigating the property. These were minor inconveniences that made us feel safe while traveling during the pandemic.

One of the funniest pictures was outside of the elevators. Look at those peepers!

Here are some pictures of our room. I appreciated that we had a refrigerator included. We drank gallons of bottled water!

The rooms with king beds were sold-out, but we did have an ocean view balcony. We bought parfaits and ate breakfast on our balcony both mornings.

Forty dollars provided us with a day rental of two cushioned sun loungers and a huge umbrella. This made our day at the beach far more enjoyable, than if we had been on beach towels or had to lug around our own beach chairs. An attendant came around periodically to adjust our umbrellas, and we could come and go as we pleased. As far as Covid, the lounge chairs were spaced apart, making social distancing a breeze. Even though it was mid-August, the beach was not crowded and we never felt like it was an unsafe vacation choice.

This was my first time swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The water was warm and clear enough to see small fish swimming around our legs. It was truly the perfect beach day and I look forward to coming back with my step-kids in 2021.

When it was time for lunch, we left our belongings on our beach chairs and headed to the outdoor cafe at our hotel. The cafe is just steps from the beach and we snagged a spot where we could keep an eye on our loungers. We didn’t use it, but the hotel pool is also adjacent to the cafe.

Lunch was fantastic. We shared a croissant club sandwich, a heaping platter of nachos, and tropical cocktails.

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Later in the day, we added some thrills by renting a Sea-Doo. Thirty minutes may not seem like very long, but it is plenty. Dan was the driver and I held on tight, getting some air-time as we bounced over waves. We didn’t tip over, which was my biggest concern. It was a blast.

Our beach day was fabulous and overall, we really enjoyed our stay at the Doubletree in North Redington Beach. The beach is beautiful and the area is filled with restaurants and activities. As much as I’m obsessed with theme park vacations, visiting the Gulf Coast is an excellent alternative.

I will end on these sunrise shots of the beach. I love the soft pastel colors and sense of calm. On our next visit, I want to wake up early and go for a walk on the sand.

Social Distancing in Littleton/Florida = Weeks 24-27

It has been a month since I’ve written a general update about the state of the world. We spent two of the weeks in Florida, returning a week ago.

This was our second set of flights during 2020, and our second time visiting Florida. We had such great time on my birthday trip, that we wanted to explore the idea of buying a vacation home or perhaps even moving full time to Florida.

We flew United again, which was a much better covid experience this time around. We did the same route, Denver to Tampa. Nearly everyone was complying with the mask mandate. We didn’t sit in first-class this time, so we were worried that we would have to share our row with a stranger. On the flight out, the middle seat was empty, and on the flight home, we had a stranger sitting by the window. Dan sat in the middle. I realize that leaving our house is risky, but I do feel much better when people are following social distancing and wearing masks. The only hiccup is on the flight home, United ran out of the antiseptic wipes that they hand out as you board. I thought this was a pretty bad oversight during these times. Luckily, I had extra wipes. I also wish they didn’t fill the flights. I guess on the positive, it is good for the economy that people are traveling and spending money.

We stayed in an Airbnb rental house in Kissimmee. The house was clean and felt safe. We had a private pool overlooking a lake, which was nice. It certainly felt safer than a hotel, as we didn’t come in contact with anyone while at the house. We kept our normal work schedules, so we were home a lot.

As before, dining-out was similar to Denver rules = Keep a mask on while walking through the restaurant and the tables are distanced. We played mini-golf, which was the same as usual, we just used a lot of hand sanitizer as we were touching things.

The biggest surprise is Dan bought us day tickets for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so we could experience Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.

We arrived at park opening and immediately got in the queue for Smugger’s Run. I’m not sure that Disney was as strict as Sea World with safety protocol, but I generally felt okay, especially when we escaped the crowds bunching-up at the entrance. I hate to admit that the park felt less magical. The sense of atmosphere was diminished ( a few storm troopers, but that was it) and there were queues for every store. I kind of wish we had waited to visit.

After Smuggler’s Run, we got a call from my stepson, Felix. He wanted to play video games with Dan, a normal part of their weekend routine, so we decided to leave the park. Our original plan was to upgrade our day pass to annual passes, which we have done in the past. We figured that with an annual pass, coming to the parks for a few hours wouldn’t be a big deal. We wouldn't need to squeeze all of the fun into one day.

It was absolutely pouring rain and the guest relations staff were standing outside with umbrellas. I think this was to prevent unnecessary people from entering the small guest relations room. A regretful employee informed us that Disney had temporarily stop selling annual passes. Deflated, we went home and I called Disney to get to the bottom of it. They offered to refund our day ticket, so in the end, we could not upgrade, but we did get 90 minutes in the park for free. That was the extent of our time at Disney. I’m hoping we will go back with the kids for Christmas or next summer and get our annual passes!

We found a vacation house and put in an offer. It looked great on the surface and we were really excited to become owners of a short-term rental property near Disney. However, upon the inspection problems arose and we decided that it no longer looked like an attractive deal. We backed out, and since we were going home shortly after, we didn’t look at more properties. I’m not sure if we will revisit this idea or let it die.

We enjoyed other Orlando activities, such as The Chocolate Kingdom, mini golf, and the Orlando Cat Cafe. I will write about all of this in a more detailed trip report, but I did want to share a picture of a cat named Todd.

We absolutely fell in love with Todd, who just wants to cuddle and take a nap. He is the sleepiest cat ever! We were thinking of how we could adopt him and get him back to Denver, when he was snatched up by another human. We hope he is off to a loving home with great sleeping spots!

Speaking of cats, we’ve had quite the stressful time with Slinky this last week. On Sunday, he started acting odd. He was lethargic and stopped eating/drinking. Today, we took him to the vet and he was given medicine and fluids. We are waiting for the lab results. Luckily, he seems to have perked up a bit with the fluids, and he did eat/drink a little when he came home. He also seems more feisty. I’ve been crying buckets for the last few days, worried that we would have to put him down, but now I feel like he is rebounding. Happy thoughts that he continues to get better and that the labs don’t reveal anything serious.

I was devastated to hear of the passing of Justice Ginsburg. I was upset enough at our Colorado Governor Cory Gardner to write him a letter regarding his decision to vote to confirm Trump’s nominee. I don’t expect Gardner to change his mind, as he is very much in Trump’s pocket, but I did feel better writing the letter. I’m mostly upset that republicans are going back on their word and the precedent set when Obama had a similar situation in his final year of presidency. I’m also definitely worried about who might get confirmed and what that could mean for future rulings. The world feels fragile.

I have a political themed movie recommendation: Irresistible starring Steve Carell and Chris Cooper. Irresistible is from the mind of John Stewart and follows a small town election that catches national interest, causing heavy-hitters from both major political parties to interfere. It’s a surprising and intelligent movie with a good dose of humor. We watched it last weekend and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Cordella Magazine sent me their latest literary journal. It was wrapped so beautifully, that I wanted to share a picture. Hurray for packages in the mail!

Fall has arrived, but we still have summer weather. We missed a small snow storm when we were in Florida. Check out this stunning sunset!

Apparently migrating tarantulas have been spotted in our neighborhood, but we haven’t seen them. We did have a wasps nest removed. I’ll take wasps over tarantulas.

Finally, some cat pictures. I’m transforming…

Summer 2020: Pikes Peak Bike Tours

Dan has been getting into cycling and for his birthday, I signed us up for a an excursion with Pikes Peak Bike Tours. Pikes Peak is one of the tallest mountains in Colorado. Named after explorer Zebulon Pike, Pikes Peak has an elevation of 14,115 feet, and is full of steep grades and sharp curves.

The idea to bike it came last year, when we met a family on vacation from Ohio who had gone on the excursion. They were not fit or young, but they raved about the experience. We thought, if they can do it, surely we can do it. This didn’t mean that I wasn’t apprehensive or on the verge of bailing right up to the last minute.

Dan is great on bikes, but I’m not a confident biker. Sure, I had a bike as a child, in fact, a BMX that I won during an elementary school candy sale. However, I was always more interested in roller skating or skate boarding…or books! Last Spring, Dan bought us bikes, and we have been practicing in our neighborhood, which has plenty of hills, so I’ve building my skills.

We arrived at Pikes Peak Bike Tours at 7am, where we checked-in and got fitted for bikes. We rode around the parking lot for a bit and got used to the gears. The tour operator also had a small buffet of snack items and cereal set out. We showed up hungry and picked a few things off of the buffet. it was kind of awkward, especially as we were trying to social distance from other guests. If I did this again, I would definitely have eaten breakfast prior to arriving. Many people in our group complained about the “continental breakfast.”

It took about an hour to get everyone settled and all of the bikes loaded on the two vans. Due to covid, masks were required in the vans. At this point, this was the riskiest behavior that we had done during the pandemic. It definitely felt uncomfortable to be in close proximity to strangers, and I have to say, that the mask wearing by the employees was spotty.

Covid precautions aside, I felt like the company really pushed safety on the ride. We have since learned that there have been some recent bike accidents on Pikes Peak. Certainly, there are risks involved with this activity. We were going fast down the mountain. It is steep and there are many sheer drops. However, the company constantly reinforced safety, including instructions for using the bikes, and specific tips for each leg of the ride. They had one van leading to prevent anyone from riding too fast and one van in the back to prevent other cars from entering our space. We were reminded to stay within our comfort zone and offered a ride in the van, if it became too much. I genuinely felt that Pikes Peak Bike Tours was watching out for our safety.

The actual bike ride is twenty miles and took about two hours with several breaks. The ride to the top of the mountain took forty-five minutes and it was slow going with traffic. Pikes Peak is a busy place, and if you plan on visiting, definitely arrive early in the morning.

Here are some pictures from the ride up. The brown cabin is about half-way up the mountain and it was originally a lodge for people who would make the trek back when it would take days. Currently, it is a pit stop with a bathroom and a store. We stopped here going up and coming down. On the way down, the tour operators inspected our bikes, and Dan’s break pads needed to be swapped out!

Here’s a shot of the winding roads. We biked that!

And here is a serious cyclist, not someone from our group! I have to admit that it was intimidating to see athletes cycling both up and down the mountain. I felt really nervous and unprepared for this excursion.

At the Summit we had a brief opportunity to take pictures, visit the gift shop, and buy the famous high-altitude donuts. Apparently it is very difficult to cook donuts at a high altitude. A bit of a gimmick, but they were tasty!

in the past, the tour would begin at the summit, but due to the construction of a new visitors center, we had to load back into the vans, and start our tour about half a mile from the summit.

It was cold at the top, and I was happy to have dressed in layers ( tee-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, and a fleece) and to have brought gloves. We brought jackets, but didn’t need them. As we dropped in altitude, we shed layers.

The first leg of the ride was harrowing. I was at the back of the group, and luckily one of the tour guides stayed with me to make sure that I was okay. I truly didn’t feel comfortable until about half-way through the descent.

Here we are at the first of several stops. My heart wouldn’t stop racing and I was shaking. We were told that we needed to keep a minimum speed of about 10 mph and no faster than 20 mph, but Dan and I were both confident that we were going faster than 20. We based this vibe on the knowledge of our speed around our housing estate.

A shot of the Cannondale bikes that we used. We also ride Cannondales at home, so it felt somewhat familiar. Note the souvenir water bottles that we were given.

One of the prettiest stops was near the bottom of the mountain, where we rested in a field with stunning views of the Pikes Peak. We rode down that!!!

At the end of the tour we were dropped off for lunch at a local restaurant. We were able to choose between two restaurants and our meals were preordered. We chose Alchemy and had their BLT sandwiches with thick cut fries. It was quite a find, as the bacon in the sandwiches were British style and we noticed that they served Scotch Eggs. Dan absolutely loves Scotch Eggs, but unfortunately they had sold out of them. We will have to return.

I’m proud of myself for completing the Pikes Peak ride without quitting, although I was certainly out of my comfort zone. Dan enjoyed his birthday present and it feels like another Colorado activity that we can check-off of our bucket list. I don’t think this is a tour for someone who is uncomfortable on a bike or who hasn’t ridden recently, as it can be dangerous, but if you feel that you can handle it, it’s quite a thrill.