Of all the things I took for granted that I could do “pre-pandemic”, going to a breakfast buffet was one of them. This weekend I got to eat at my first breakfast buffet since 2019 and meet some very confused deer.
My partner John and I have an obsession with historic hotels and gravitate towards staying in them. We live in the Denver Metropolitan area and we’ve even gone for a weekend to a local historic hotel in downtown Denver, just to experience it.
Colorado has some cool historic hotels and one of them that we love is The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. I stayed there for the first time in May 2021 and you can read about that visit in this post – Weekend at The Broadmoor.


Well for Valentine’s Day weekend we returned there and surprisingly they had their renown breakfast buffet at the Lake Terrace Dining Room recently reopened! It had been closed for a long time due to the pandemic of course.
I tried to remain calm and make good choices, but I was ECSTATIC to wander about a breakfast buffet. Here are some photos from the buffet (why yes, I was the idiot wandering about the food at the buffet taking photos while “oooing” and “ahhhing”...):
They had a custom omelet station as well other delights such as cheese blintzes with berry compote. There was a lot more food than what was pictured but I would have looked even more pitiful (like I am never allowed out the house) if I took pictures of all the food stations at the buffet while people were waiting to serve themselves.
Yes, I was acting like I’d never been to a buffet before, like ever. Or like I had just landed on this planet and was learning my way around…
One of the things at the buffet that made my jaw drop was their honeycomb display for the local honey that had on the smoked meat and cheese table:

Perhaps I am just being weird after losing access for a couple years to things I took for granted, but I thought this was quite the delightful (and delicious) sight! And yes the honey drizzled over the gourmet cheese and smoked meats was sublime!
Although I wanted to be very naughty, I did not return for any refills (except on tea) and here are our plates after making our way through the buffet:

After our breakfast, we wandered outside to watch ducks and geese (they also have swans living on the lake) who live at the little lake at The Broadmoor fly about.


You are going to have to trust me that is was austere and peaceful to watch them, as the photos above do not do the experience any justice.
While watching the birds, we noticed a trio of deer wandering around the cobblestone grounds near the building where we had breakfast. At first they looked like they knew where they were going as they trotted down the stairs to the paved little shopping area below on the property. However after a while they looked like their GPS directions stopped working!
They looked like confused deer:



In the image above it looks like they are saying: “I thought you knew where we turn next…”
I hope they found their way to wherever they were going!
That looks a wonderful spread and obviously the deer took a peek through a window and thought so too! I am with you with the oohs and aahs of being away again. I just returned from an overnight hotel stay – sadly without a breakfast buffet, and actually breakfast was a bit rubbish – but staying somewhere where someone else changes the bed and cleans the room was just divine!
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It was wonderful, thanks! Yes the first time we could even stay at a hotel during the pandemic we were happy for the same thing. I think we got a pre-packaged breakfast or something but we did not mind because we got to sleep outside of our home – ha!
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Aww those deer are so cute. I followed your blog.
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Thanks for stopping by! I used the zoom on my camera to get a better photo of them, I was not that close to them after they quickly trotted by us.
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No worries. I followed your blog too.
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It’s funny I’m not usually a huge breakfast eater but give me access to a breakfast buffet and I’ll have a couple of plates. Hope you had a lovely weekend 🙂
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I am the same – usually it is just yogurt, granola and tea for me. But I had an out of body experience at that buffet (actually I was sort of restrained since I did not go back for seconds). Thanks for stopping by!
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That buffet. Wow!!!
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What fun!!!!! So glad for your fun weekend!
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Thanks so much Patty 🙂
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This made me chuckle! Thanks for the visual.
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Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading 🙂
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Those deers look so sweet. The buffet does look splendid indeed. I hope you two had a lovely time there on Valentine’s Day.
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I wanted to keep following the deer to see what they did next but we needed to check out of the hotel. We did have a lovely time, thanks!
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Yes, I gather a lot of buffet self serves have disappeared…but that one looks magic! Thanks for sharing your delight.
As for the deer…that’s absolutely precious. Including Oops what happened here. “When did this building arrive…?” “Excuse me, you were the navigator, stop blaming me!”
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Ha, yes the deer a surprise fun/laugh after the buffet. Perhaps all the humans heading to the buffet confused them 🙂
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Especially as when there was maybe a lockdown, they had the place to themselves… a ghost town of empty structures!
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I hadn’t thought about missing breakfast buffets until just now. Yum! I bet those deer were used to having the place to themselves until they reopened the buffet!
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I am the same, I did not realized how much I missed it. That might be the issue, you are right – the deer are confused to why all these humans are suddenly showing up 🙂
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It’s been years since I’ve been to a breakfast buffet. It’s on our Meemaw Car Clown Car trips…yes, we are planning a trip!
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Yay the Clown Car will be on the road again someday (and the buffets hopefully will be waiting for you all!) 🙂
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What a beautiful location and hotel! That buffet looks amazing and I love the honeycomb. I still haven’t eaten at a buffet and have been to very few restaurants. We still have so few servers and employees at our restaurants it’s not even worth going.
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I thought the honeycomb was the perfect addition to the buffet (and the honey itself was delicious). Sorry your local restaurants are struggling with staffing, it is a challenging time still for the whole industry. The buffet was obviously understaffed but luckily not that many people were getting made to order omelets.
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What a lovely getaway!
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It was, thanks for stopping by!
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Ooo, that buffet looks beautiful! I’m not a big buffet fan because I lack the control to not put one of everything on my plate! So for the sake of my waistline I avoid buffets…but this one definitely looks worth the trip 🙂 The pictures of the hotel & scenery are beautiful, so peaceful. I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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We were pretty proud of ourselves but we had to talk ourselves down from going back! In general I avoid buffets too (well at least pre-COVID when I had more choices, ha!) Thanks 🙂
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That is a beautiful setting. As for the deer? Not sure what is going on there. Very funny!
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It was and a nice way to spend a weekend in the winter. Perhaps the deer did some shopping at that shopping center area they ended up in!
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OMG! That looks like a really lovely hotel, and what a buffet! I would have been wandering around taking pictures too. That all looks amazing. Poor deer – I hope they got where they were going OK!!
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Yep I’m curious what happened with those wandering deer too! It was really lovely thanks for your comments!
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I recall wonderful breakfast buffets in San Francisco and New York. British ones are good but those were better,
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There’s something special about a good breakfast buffet! I’m glad you got to experience those I bet they were amazing in those cities!
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It looks like a lovely place 🙂
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It was 😀
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Now you’ve just made me hungry!!! 😉
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😀😀😀
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What a wonderful experience
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It was thanks 😀
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