My first vacation of the year has come and gone and all I can say is, where the hell did that week go? This, I believe, is a very common sentiment, shared by just about everyone who has ever taken a vacation. You spend weeks looking forward to the day when you are going to leave, then it comes, and in a blink you're back home. My family's journey brought us to the wonderful state of Rhode Island. I would specify Providence, but do I really need to? I don't think Rhode Island is large enough to have more than one city. Just kidding. I am not going to sit here and make fun of the state because it is small--though I did notice, when I saw the sign that said "Now Leaving Rhode Island" the d of "Island" was actually on the "Welcome to Massachusetts" sign. Okay, no more RI jokes.
We hopped into the car Monday afternoon and travelled 3-4 hours down to Coventry, RI, to stay at the wonderful Hampton Inn. The appeal of this particular hotel was a pool, proximity to the places we wanted to go, the price and a free warm breakfast.
I love hotels (probably because I travel so rarely). Even though every hotel room I have ever been in has been about the same, I am always excited to slide that pass key and walk in for the first time. The hotel room we had on our vacation held no surprises. There was the giant bed (neatly made), the desk with the lamp and internet/phone cables and the dresser with the large TV on it. The bed had a nice little lap desk thingy that had the Showtime program guide and the traditional welcome to the Hampton Inn paper.
As I did my usual exploration, just in case there was a secret Jacuzzi or something equally awesome hidden in the room (hey, you never know), I explored the closet and the bathroom. The closet, the door of which was a large mirror, had an iron and ironing board in it, in case I needed to iron one of the four pairs of shorts I packed. There was nothing else of interest--no Jacuzzi, no passage to Narnia (drats!). The bathroom was all shiny, with fresh white towels, the little soap, shampoo and conditioner on a little tray, and the toilet paper folded over to form a V. I did notice that the little card that was with the soap said to call down to the front desk for any number of toiletries that you may have forgotten. (I should have left everything at home so I could of gotten the most out of the hotel.)
We were only staying for two nights, so there was no real reason to make use of the dressers in the room, so we left them untouched. We left our clothes in the suitcase and found a place to set them that was out of the way and easy to get to. The room actually had a refrigerator and a microwave, which was nice. We could have saved a fortune on eating out by packing a family-sized box of Hot Pockets. Though the microwave wasn't necessary, the refrigerator did end up being of use: not only was I able to chill our beverages in it, I was also able store the leftovers from our various eating trips there (I am cheap and hate to waste food).
The bed was enormous, and after being in the car for so long, I just wanted to dive in and sleep. Well, maybe not sleep right away -- there was that large TV calling to me, with its many channels. We only have about 23 channels at home, so having been presented with the next tier up in the cable world (including multiple Showtime Channels), I could not wait to give the controller a spin. Unfortunately, I had two small problems, the first being my two year old daughter. Because we were in a new place full of new things to check out, she was wide awake, despite the late hour. That meant only kid-appropriate programming was going to be on until she went to sleep. (Not that I was planning on ordering a bunch of porn or anything, but there is always a mindless action movie or something on.) The second issue was that, because we haven't had good cable in a while, I forgot how crappy cable television was. There are some excellent TV shows on cable, I am very aware of this, and usually have to wait for them to show up on Netflix. Being at the hotel for only two days, and with all of the activities we had in store, it was unlikely that they were going to have a marathon of a good show on while we were in the room to see it. Then again, if all of last season's Walking Dead was on, I probably wouldn't have left the hotel room.
I did feel the urge to take a shower after we had all gotten settled in, which had nothing to do with being in a car for several hours. I think it has something to do with the need to use all of the free stuff that the hotel had to offer. Not only did I have to use the soap, shampoo and conditioner (and I never use conditioner at home), but I also had to use every towel that was available. I used the wash cloth, the hand towel and the big towel. (By the way, the big towels aren't really that big. I don't know why anyone would even think to steal them, but then again, I wasn't exactly in the Waldorf Astoria.) Once used, I just piled them up in the middle of the floor, something I would never do at home. In fact, at home I would have reused the same towel for two or three showers.
It is a nice feeling to know someone else would be cleaning the room and doing all the laundry after we left. Just for the record, neither my wife nor I were jerks about it. I wasn't throwing garbage around and saying, "oh well, the help will get that." We kept the room tidy, and piled all the towels up neatly for easy access. I even folded the toilet paper to make an arrow again.
Once I was out of the shower and we got the young lady to sleep it was time for my wife and I to spend some quality alone time. And by quality alone time, I meant me trying to convince my wife that we should have sex. There is something about hotel rooms that just makes me want to have wild crazy hotel room sex, whether my wife is with me, or I'm alone (this would explain why people order porn in hotel rooms). I think alot of people share this view/feeling--unfortunately, my wife wasn't one of them. Maybe it was because she had done all the driving that day and was tired, or maybe she couldn't get past the fact that Gabby was only about three feet away. Maybe the whole sex-in-a-hotel thing is a guy thing? Whatever the reason, we ended up just going to bed. It wasn't even a great night of sleep; the matress was much firmer than the one we have at home and neither of us could sleep just right. (Maybe if there had been some exhausting/satisfying sex involved....)
The next morning it was time to enjoy our free breakfast. I am by no means a great traveller, but I have stayed in enough hotels to know that the breakfast wasn't going to be prepared by Wolfgang Puck in the hotel's four star restaurant. It actually ended up being not horrible, but then again, anyone who knows me would agree that I would eat rocks if they were prepared propely. The breakfast buffet included cheese omelets and sausage, which weren't too bad. There was also all your usual continental breakfast fare: toast/bagels, muffins, a cereal bar (three types of cereal only), a crock full of oatmeal, fresh (or not so fresh) fruit, etc. They even had the traditional make-your-own waffle maker, which has always made me wonder, why make-it-yourself waffles? I have seen them in a number of hotels and have been left wondering each time. Do people love waffles so much they refuse to eat prepared ones? How does Eggo make any money if this is true?
The next day was spent visiting the Roger Williams Zoo, followed by a quick trip to the grave of HP Lovecraft, and then back to the hotel. We were planning on meeting up with a friend of my wife's from Seattle who had moved to Providence, but, through a series of failing technologies and miscommunications, we were unable to meet up. This left a hole in our itinerary so we decided to go crazy and fill it with eating dinner at a typical Rhode Islandy eatery, and ended up at the Crackle Barrel (well, we tried). The restaurant was right across the street, and I think that was the main reason we went there. The meal was not great, but we had a good time.
Because we weren't meeting up with Christy's friends, I thought that night would be a great opportunity to hit the pool. I have stayed at several hotels with pools and always bring my swim trunks--unfortunately, I have never actually gone in. I love to swim, yet I never seem to make the time to use a hotel's pool. This time, I was bound and determined to use the pool.... and I didn't. I am still trying to figure out why I never got down to the pool. We got back from dinner that night and just hung out. It took a while once again to get the little one to sleep, and after that, we ended up sleeping.... no sex again. Rats!
That was it for our stay in the hotel. The next morning I showered again, of course: I had to use up the shampoo and conditioner. Breakfast was the same, just a different style of egg (scrambled) and meat choice (smoked suasage). We packed, loaded the car and headed for our next destination. We did not steal anything from the room, except a couple of pens (which wasn't really "stealing", but I had to take something from the room, and since the TV wouldn't fit in one of our bags...)
Our next stop was Cape Cod, to visit my wife's co-worker/friend and her husband (and their charming 3 year old daughter). Thankfully we were able to meet up with them, especially since we were supposed to be staying in their guest room that night. It was a nice room and a beautiful home. We enjoyed a delicious home-cooked dinner and spent most of the night chatting and had a great time. As great as it was, it was no hotel. And by that I mean, at someone's home you are required to be respectful of the home and the the things in it. You are under pressure to be on your best behavior. At a hotel, the only thing that prevents you from acting like a cocaine-fueled rock star (or Charlie Sheen -- wait, that's redundant) is the fact that they have your credit card info and will charge you for the damages. That and having a two year old go a log way to keeping you from going too crazy.
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