Social Distancing in Littleton: Week 20

This week we continued the celebration of Dan’s birthday with an overnight trip to Colorado Springs, which is just about an hour from our house. Normally, we would’t have spent the night for a place so close, but we had a very early start on Saturday morning for an excursion with Bike Pike’s Peak, so we wanted to stay close to the tour office. The hotel was less than a ten minute drive.

In this post, I’m going to write about our trip in small details, writing a bigger review on the locations in a future post.

We left mid-morning on Friday, enjoying breakfast at The Original Pancake House in Denver, before driving to The Garden of the Gods.

The Garden of the Gods is a major tourist destination and it also happens to be free. Arriving mid-day, which seemed to be the peak of crowds is not advised. We couldn’t find parking, plus it just didn’t seem safe with Covid, so we only drove-through the park. We will have to come back, maybe in the early fall, certainly in the early morning.

Colorado Springs has tons of museums, but many of them are closed due to Covid. The “Ghost Town Wild West Museum” was open! Admittedly, it looked a little suspect as it is located in a strip mall and other signage put “Ghost Town” in quotes, but I love this sort of thing, so we gave it a go.

This place is amazing, again saving for a later review, but a quick note on covid: it’s an indoor museum with a large open space and very high, warehouse style ceilings. There were social distancing notices everywhere and masks were required. They also provided plenty of sanitizer. The best part was we were alone for a majority of our visit. It felt very safe. To drive the safety idea home, they put a mask on their deer statue.

We checked-in to our hotel, Hilton Doubletree in downtown Colorado Springs. Similar to the Hilton in Breckenridge, the hotel was filled with signage regarding masks/social distancing, and hand sanitizer was readily available. Our room did not have the sticker seal to show it had been cleaned, but it looked immaculate, and things like the tv remote had a sleeve to show it had been cleaned. The pool was open and we were able to use it after reserving a slot. The pool is indoors and they allowed a max of fifteen guests in the pool area. We were able to reserve it for an unpopular time and we had it completely to ourselves. It was great! The first swim of 2020!

For lunch, we walked to the nearby Phantom Canyon Brewery, where we were seated on their outdoor patio and the menu was touchless. We’ve seen the touchless menus at a few restaurants and I think it’s a great solution. Other restaurants have disposable menus, which seems like a waste.

For dinner, we had an absolutely amazing experience at Mood Tapas Bar. We were severely under-dressed, but fully welcomed by the staff. We ended up ordering a nine-course tasting menu with wine, that was created by Chef Curry. It was one of the best meals we have ever eaten! Chef Curry personally brought out our dessert and he couldn’t have been more humble. He’s only twenty-four, but he is destined to be a name in the culinary world. He also sent a very kind personal email in response to my Yelp review.

Downtown Colorado Springs is a cute area, with plenty of stores and restaurants. Unfortunately, there were also signs of Covid’s damage.

The next morning, we woke up at 5am for Dan’s big birthday present, a bike tour down the tallest mountain in Colorado: Pike’s Peak! The tour company, Bike Pike’s Peak, was great about Covid-safety, although I can’t help thinking that this was one of the riskiest things we have done in this new normal.

Masks were required, but we did get in a shuttle van with six other people. We also didn’t have sanitizer as we were biking. The bike ride itself was extremely thrilling, really pushing my comfort zone, but I would definitely do it again!

Our experience included lunch and we felt funny not sitting with a guy from our tour that was solo, so we joined him. This was risky, as we had to remove our masks to eat and we were in close proximity. Who knows how this stranger has been handling social distancing? I’m not sure if others feel the same way, but we have had some experiences where the norms of social politeness have prompted me to be a little risky. It hasn’t been anything really bad, but small risks or moments where I don’t know how to navigate politeness with this new normal.

On Sunday, we found out that our friends, Roger and Katrin, whom we haven’t seen in about four years, were driving through Denver on their move from Minnesota to Los Angeles. We couldn’t miss seeing them, so with other mutual friends (Julie and Ryan), we ate dinner at The Lazy Dog Cafe. Roger and Katrin have a very cute elderly beagle named Billy, and we all sat on the patio. Again though, we were in close proximity and we gave hugs.

It wasn’t enough catching-up, so we had the whole group over to our house for dinner the following evening.

Roger, Katrin, and Julie immigrated to the US from Germany, so I was proud to bring out the colored crystal glasses that my mom brought back from Germany in 1961. My father was in the military and my parents lived in Germany for two years. My mom was evacuated with other military families, when the Berlin Wall went up, and she carried these crystal glasses on her lap during the plane ride. She also hauled them around Tivoli Gardens, during a lay-over trip in Denmark. To me, they are holiday glasses, and when I look at them, I can taste my mom’s turkey dinner with her stuffing.

This was a busy week, but we did have time to start a fabulous, if not highly uncomfortable, television series: “Love Life” starring Anna Kendrick. We are three episodes in, and every episode has made us cringe, but we are blown away by the excellent writing and Kendrick’s performance. It’s on HBO Max and totally worth it. We also discovered that HBO Max carries our favorite cheesy show that we always watch in hotels, “Impractical Jokers.” So we are now working our way through the series to discover episodes we missed. It’s great to watch without commercials. It seems bizarre that this show was acquired by HBO. The brands are not compatible.

And my usual ending with cute cat pictures. Slinky is in a bed that Julie and Ryan gave to the cats and he’s owning it! My favorite picture is Tom listening attentively as Dan plays the ukulele. This time last year, we were heading home from our magical Hawaiian vacation. I hope we will return in 2021.

The Grammy Museum: October 2018

On my last full day on our 2018 mini-trip to Los Angeles, I ordered a lift and went to Pasadena to have breakfast with my friend, Fanny. I originally had planned on taking the train from downtown to Pasadena, but the trains were running behind schedule, and if I had waited for them, I would have been late.

I think it’s great that Los Angeles has a train system, and I know many people who rely on it for their work commutes, but I’ve never found it to be very reliable. Notably, I once took the train from Pasadena to downtown for a concert at The Staples Center, only to discover that the trains had stopped running after 11pm on a Friday night. I was not the only concert goer caught out by this surprise, and since this was pre-Uber/Lyft, it was a very expensive taxi ride back to Pasadena.

I asked to be dropped-off at the Paseo Mall in Pasadena, where I took a few pictures of one of my favorite cities. For about three years in my twenties, I lived walking distance from this mall, and I used to love coming here to have coffee and read a book.

I met Fanny, and her daughter Rachel for breakfast at Marston’s, a cute cafe just a few blocks from the Paseo Mall. When I lived in California, we would meet at Marston’s on a regular basis to share a veggie omelet and the cornflake crusted french toast. If you’re visiting Pasadena, Marston’s is a must-do for breakfast.

After breakfast, I order a Lyft back to downtown. This Lyft ride was a harrowing experience. It was the only time that I have given a negative review, and I also wrote to Lyft directly. The driver swerved, cut off other cars, and used her phone while driving. She was dangerous! I had her drop me off at the Velveteria.

Velveteria is a small museum dedicated to the art of velvet paintings and it is located in the heart of Chinatown. I have long wanted to visit this quirky gem, but I arrived to discover that it was locked up. A sign on the door gave me a number to call, as their hours were listed as open, but it went direct to voice mail. I was disappointed. I did receive a call a few days later with an apology from the owner, as they had an emergency that day. Hopefully I can visit the Velveteria on a future trip to Los Angeles. Here are a few pictures of the exterior of the museum.

Left with an unexpectedly free afternoon, I swapped the Velveteria for The Grammy Museum. The Grammy Museum is a famous Los Angeles attraction, but this was my first time visiting. It is located very close to The Staples Center. My admission was fifteen dollars and it took me about two hours to enjoy the multi-level museum.

One of the special exhibits focused on Johnny Cash’s concerts he performed at San Quentin and Folsom prisons. The exhibit included rare candid photographs of the concerts.

Another special exhibit called, “Jermaine Dupri & So So Def: 25 Years of Elevating Culture”, focused on hip-hop out of Atlanta. I have to admit that much of this was unfamiliar to me, but I did enjoy the exhibit. I love this Kris Kross fan club letter. It felt very much old-fashioned and of my childhood. I’m sure kids still join fan clubs for their favorite artists, but I can’t imagine that they are given a membership card and told to laminate it!

The permanent collection included things like a dizzying tiger shirt worn by Elvis and a bunch of Michael Jackson memorabilia.

Dan and I have a collection of the most ridiculous, funny album covers that we can find. If we saw this one in a record store, we would definitely buy it!

Here is a statue resembling a giant Grammy Award.

On the sidewalk outside of the museum, there are markers on the floor to honor each year’s major category winners. Here is the one for 2010. I saw Taylor Swift’s Fearless tour at The Staples Center!

I enjoyed my visit to The Gramy Museum, but I would be unlikely to return, unless there was an exhibit that really caught my interest. I would recommend it for locals who have never been, and for tourists, but only if you’re a real music buff or there is a specific exhibit that you wish to see. Los Angeles has so many incredible museums and attractions, that The Grammy Museum rates as a mid-list experience.

On my walk back to The Westin Bonaventure, I saw a funny advertisement tacked up on a pole. I have no idea what this is, but aren’t you curious too?

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Eighteen

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!