Don't Back Down

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" »

Yesterday I arrived in New York City after a relatively eventful trip. The flight left Charlotte after just a couple minute delay, then we sat on the runway for about fifteen minutes behind some other planes. The flight itself was okay, and the landing was very nice, but then we sat on the La Guardia runway for at least thirty minutes because of ground congestion. That was horrible.

Once inside, the process sped considerably. It actually took less time for me to get from the gate to the ground transportation desk to the shutle the the hotel in Manhattan than it did from the end of the runway to the gate. Absolutely insane. Now I'm in the Westin Times Square at the Six Apart Business Blogging Seminar listening to Anil speak. Back home next week unless there's more ground congestion.

When we visited New York City recently we stayed at this hotel, just across the street from United Nations Headquarters. This was both good and bad. Good because there weren't too many tourist-types in the area, and bad because it was a small walk to get to the subway (Grand Central was about five blocks away).

The hotel itself was nice, the room was well furnished and the view was excellent, looking over the East River. The only complaint is that our room was so high (we were on the 34th floor) that I was unable to get a decent cellular or Internet signal. However, if I went to the lobby both worked fine. The hotel did offer a wired Internet connection for - I believe - $10 per day, but I didn't use it, so I can't speak to the quality.

Read "Millenium UN Plaza Hotel" »

We took a whirlwind trip to Chicago over the weekend, stopping in for a few bites to eat, to take in a show and to visit the two of the three tallest buildings in the city. We made our plans last Wednesday, having planned well in advance to have a spontaneous trip over the weekend. Odd, I know, but we do what we can.

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We stayed two nights in this hotel, just a short distance from Chicago's O'Hare airport. The hotel offers a free shuttle service to and from the airport that runs about every 20 minutes, you can take the CTA blue line, which is just a 5-minute walk from the front door of the hotel, or I'm sure you can call a cab too (we didn't use a cab at all).

The rooms of the hotel are nice, if a bit modern. The noise of the airport isn't bad, though there is an airplane headed overhead from time to time that you can hear. For being so close to one of the world's busiest airports, it's surprisingly quiet. Our room had no bathtub in it, which wasn't a big deal, but if for some reason you like a tub, this might be an issue for you. Check to see if they have one.

Read "Renaissance Chicago O'Hare Hotel" »

On our recent trip (the same one involving this poor experience), we had occasion to stay in another hotel - the Embassy Suites in Historic Charleston. Historic is right - the place was constructed in the shell of the old Citadel building, right in the middle of the Charleston peninsula. It might not be the exact center, but you get the idea.

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After the events of the year, Denise and I decided that it was time to take a break. So we looked into lodging where we could truly get away from it all. The good news is that we found it in the The Cottages at Spring House Farm. The bad news is that it wasn't quite as they advertise.

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No, not busy with solving crimes or anything useful like that. But in their credit-card processing department.

You see, we went to Aruba in June of 2004. For those keeping track, that is roughly 15 months ago. One of the last stops on the trip was at Iguana Joe's for a bite to eat before heading to the airport for our flight home. You can also view their urinal if you are considering a trip yourself and just like to see that sort of thing in advance.

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Over the weekend we went to Myrtle Beach. Nice enough place, but I recall with some fondness the days of my youth going there and staying in the two or three story open motels with a swimming pool right there, seemingly inches from the main thoroughfare - Highway 17. While Highway 17 is still there, it's no longer the main drag, as it were. There are, it seems, dozens of them. There are high rises everywhere and perhaps even worse, people streaming here and there and everywhere, even in what is surely approaching the off-season.

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So the Independence-to-Albemarle interchange has finally opened. While that's great news, it's apparently without any signage.

This means that anyone who (understandably) stays to the left to make the turn on Sharon Amity will suddenly find themselves headed to Albemarle instead. You see, the state is having issues with the signs going up - so drivers have no advance warning that the lanes are now open, and make sudden lane shifts, across the median splitting the diverging paths, to get back on Independence.

Read "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" »

On our way back from Seattle, we noticed a cell phone lot at their airport. It makes sense, but like the social networking services that I just never seem to use, I don't know how often we would use it.

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