Don't Back Down

After visiting Ghost Town in the Sky (and not enjoying it much), and visiting Santa's Land (and probably enjoying it more than we needed to), it was time to decide where we were going to stay. If you'll recall, the original plan for the Maggie Valley trip was to try - yes - camping. We even had a whole bunch of food packed up so that we would be able to be somewhat self-sustaining for the entire weekend.

The first thought was to try and find a hotel with a refrigerator, so that the food we had packed in the cooler at least wouldn't spoil. But then it came to us that if we actually preserved the food, it wouldn't really do much good unless we could prepare the food as well - and even a hotel room with a microwave wasn't likely to help much, when a lot of what we had was designed for open-flame cooking. Sure, hot dogs could go in the microwave, and in a pinch, so can many other things - but without certain accessories (bowls and the like), cooking eggs, chili and other products was out the window.

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When we took our trip to Pigeon Forge, we decided to make it a regular family reunion. The big problem with doing so is trying to figure out just how to make enough room for the entire family. It's not like there aren't any hotel rooms in the area - it's just that trying to get one that's large enough for our family (the two of us, plus the two kids) is bad enough. Throw in trying to organize things with both sets of parents and it can turn into a nightmare.

So we decided that we'd try out a cabin. Specifically, we turned to Starr Crest Resort, which isn't really a resort at all, in the typical use of the word, but a collection of properties (cabins, specifically) perched on a mountain. And when I use the word "perched", you may want to take me literally. Some of these places are right on the edge. Our choice was As Good As It Gets, a four bedroom monster right at the top of the mountain.

This may not be the right course of action for everyone. And I'm not even sure if we'd do it again, or if we did it again, if we would do it the same way we did it this time. But for this trip, it worked out great.

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While I was in New York for a brief conference, I decided to actually stay at the hotel where most of the events were being held. This was a change for me. Usually I'll stay elsewhere and just make my way to the hotel. I don't have a problem with the subway, and in fact typically enjoy it, but since the rate at the Affinia was one of the better ones, I decided that it would be easier to just stay there.

In general, I'm glad that I did. But you need to take it with a grain of salt, and be ready for what you'll get when you check in. Make sure that you realize that this is an older property, and you'll probably be okay with what you get when you arrive in your room.

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Even though our New Years celebration culminated with the Mt. Olive Pickle Drop, meaning that we were done by a few minutes past 7pm local time, there was little chance that we would make it home Sunday night. That's one of the problems with going somewhere that's 3 hours away. If we had started there we might have made it home, but that was a lot of driving to get where we were going. So we decided to stop on the way home and have a (somewhat) relaxing evening. That turned out to be the Embassy Suites Raleigh-Durham-Research Triangle East - about an hour from Mt. Olive, but still a ways from home.

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We booked a recent trip to New York because of a great rate ($49 each way). Unfortunately, t turns out that we went on the same weekend as the New York City Marathon - which means that very few rooms were available in the city, and those that were available were not cheap by any means. So we decided to look outside the city. Eventually we settled on the Sheraton LaGuardia East hotel, because it was well located (perhaps half a block from a subway stop) and the price was right. Throw in a AAA discount, and it worked out beautifully.

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While looking for a place to stay during our recent trip to the Norwood area (a business trip - there really isn't much to see for a pleasure trip), we decided to see what there was in the area. The map shows several hotels clustered around I-95, but I'm not usually a fan of being right there on the Interstate, though that's not always a bad thing, either - and it does offer plenty of options if I needed it, so I decided that we could come back if needed.

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During the speech last night by Dubya, he gave us some inspirational words - namely that his motivation shall "lead the 21st century into a shining age of human liberty". While of course he wouldn't say anything else, since he's in a position whereby it is his job to make sure that you are inspired, I have to wonder if anyone else was as amused by this position as I was.

If anything, we as a country have done nothing but lost liberty since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and while I don't necessarily agree with him in many cases, I would generally say that he at least tries in most cases. Or at least he tries to make us think that he is trying. What becomes difficult for him is trying to convince a populace that security is a difficult concept in such a world. But in this case, it's less of a best-case scenario and more of a flat-out lie.

While people will naturally define liberty differently, as they should, I think most would agree that there are some things that you perhaps would sacrifice in exchange for security. For instance, having to take off your shoes as you go through security at the airport. It doesn't make anything any safer, but if it makes someone a little happier, what the heck. It's a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things. But when does it stop?

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Having no familiarity with St. Thomas at all (not even geography), we went online looking for a place to stay. We did find a nice list of hotels - which I can't find now - and after reviewing several of them online, there seemed to be a pretty distinct breakdown. There were a couple of fairly high-end spa-type places, and we were going to be running about and that just made no sense, so those were out. There were some places downtown, which isn't bad, but gave no place to really pull back and relax, so we put those into a "hold" status.

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On our recent trip to Rhode Island, we decided to visit a winery. Surely there are wineries in the area, right? As it turns out, there are. But first, we thought it would be even more interesting to stop and get some cheese when we stumbled upon this page, which mentions many companies offer tours of their facilities. We've previously been on wine trails - what could be cooler than a cheese trail?

After calling at least a dozen of these companies who we'd be somewhat near to, we found that only one of them was open to the public, and several just seemed to have no idea what you were asking when you inquired about tours of the facilities. So we went back to wineries. We didn't find the bounty we did with cheese-makers, but still, we found one, and we filed it away for later.

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On a recent trip to Providence, we stayed in this hotel near downtown Providence. We picked it mostly because of location to Interstate 95, which made it east to access from the airport, but also because we had to travel towards Boston, Newport and Connecticut, which means we could easily get where we needed to go. The only problem is that accessing I-95 North from just about anywhere in downtown Providence can be a major hassle. Doing so from the hotel is even worse.

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While you can rent all sorts of houses at Folly Beach, there are only two hotels there, and oddly enough, both are called Holiday Inn (the other is spelled slightly differently, is about fifty years old, and isn't on the beach). This one, as rumor has it, is set to go at least partially towards the trend of condos, but for now, it provides rooms that are right on the beach, and it has a pool as well as a dining room and it's right in the middle of the beach, which is nice.

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This hotel near NC State University is a bit dated. It's layout is odd, with the lobby in a front building and the rooms in a rear building. The elevator is cramped and slow. The rooms are smallish, but not uncomfortable.

They advertise Tempur-Pedic © beds in their rooms, but be aware that if you try this hotel for this reason, not all rooms (or at least not all beds in all rooms) seem to have them. We stayed with some friends, and out of three rooms, two rooms had them, one room did not.

Read "Holiday Inn Brownstone Hotel" »