Sharlot Hall Museum’s Ranch House

If you haven’t been to Prescott lately, you’ll be wowed by the superb collection of shops, museums and restaurants.

Feel that? It’s the hot wind of the approaching holiday season at our backs. Before it really starts blowing, I thought I’d take advantage of one last weekend retreat.

Since I’m always up for liberating the sweaters that live all year in a drawer, the decision was to go north. And because it is such an easy 100-mile jaunt from central Phoenix, yet feels worlds away, the Old Territorial capital of Prescott was the destination of choice.

While stopping and going through the sprawl of surrounding Prescott Valley, we commented on how the area has mushroomed in the four or so years since we’d last visited. Blessedly, Prescott still retains its compact, timeless, small-town feel that makes for the perfect backdrop of an old MGM musical, right down to the bandstand on the courthouse lawn.

Where to perch when visiting Prescott is an easy choice for me. I’ve loved the laid-back elegance of downtown’s Hassayampa Inn since it was originally renovated in 1985, almost 60 years after it first opened. New owners have continued to burnish the warm Victorian/Mission premises. It’s somewhat reminiscent of a tamped-down San Simeon, with rich woods, etched glass, glazed tiles, eye-popping painted ceilings and repro furniture, but at its core, it remains a friendly, peaceful retreat.

Hassayampa Inn

Not that there aren’t other local lodging choices. Depending on personal preference and budget, there are plenty of family-run motels, inns and B&Bs.

Friday evening we did a cocktail crawl along Whiskey Row, adjacent to Prescott’s signature town center, Courthouse Plaza. Once a rough-and-tumble locus for miners, cowboys and ranchers to meet, greet, drink and brawl, it still retains a bit of rowdy color. But now I noticed the number of appealing shops, galleries and boutiques squeezed in between the saloons.

Though back in the not-too-distant day, most stores hawked ersatz Indian jewelry, T-shirts, souvenir coffee mugs and gritty fudge, downtown Prescott is now prime shopping territory.

Our weekend getaway suddenly took on new purpose. Here was an opportunity to get a jump on holiday gift shopping with the guarantee of unusual, high-quality items not found in malls and chain stores. It made me happy – my companion a little less so.

(Luckily, there are a lot of very good golf courses in the Prescott area to keep non shoppers – OK, men – busy.)