Birthday Trip
Lisa wasn't feeling up to doing anything during her birthday last weekend, so we took a little one-night trip this weekend. The Holiday Inn Express in Fallon, a short distance east of Fernley, had a "king balcony luxury suite" with a built-in whirlpool bath for less than what we were paying for a standard hotel room at the Omni Shoreham during Worldcon. (Location, Location, Location!) So we packed up and drove over to Fallon after work today.
Here's the centerpiece of the suite: a whirlpool bathtub. Lisa was able to finally get a nice long hot bath.
It is a little odd to us that the bathtub/shower/sink area is effectively in the same room at the bedroom without any partition separating them, but it's not the first room we've encountered that does this. The toilet has its own separate small room.
If a bath isn't to your liking, there is a double-headed shower as well.
Most of the time when Lisa and I are traveling or at a convention, we don't have enough time or energy to use any of the extra features of hotels in which we've stayed. Tonight, we deliberately set out to have a one-night mini-vacation without the usual stresses of travel, as Fallon is only a 30 minute drive from Fernley.
There is a separate large parlor with a balcony.
The balcony might be a little better used in spring or autumn when the weather is neither too cold or too hot. The view (of US-50) isn't the most inspiring, and it doesn't hold a candle to the views from our rooms from the Crown Plaza in Chicago and New Orleans, but it's nice enough.
There's plenty of room in which to relax.
Here's the view into the bedroom with the whirlpool bath in the distance.
There's what we call the "kitchen" with a separate sink, microwave oven, mini-fridge, and K-cup coffee maker.
To avoid having to go out to dinner or even deal with take-out, Lisa picked a "picnic dinner" of deviled eggs and smoked salmon, with scones for dessert.
She was able to use my new 25-year work anniversary cooler to pack the food and sodas for the drive from Fernley.
We kicked back on the sofa and ate our picnic dinner. I remembered to bring an HDMI cable with me and for a wonder, the hotel hadn't locked out the external inputs the way so many hotels seem to have done in our experience. We were able to watch a few videos and generally take it easy.
Tonight is something of an extravagance, but it's a calculated one: besides being enjoyable in itself, there are multiple IHG point specials running that make this stay worth multiple times its normal weight in points, so we can build up points toward what will probably be future convention travel.
I'm glad we were able to make this short trip, and we think we've managed to do so fairly safely. Now it's time for me to take advantage of that whirlpool bath. I wish we'd had it while we were at Worldcon, when both Lisa and I were stiff and sore much of the trip.
Here's the centerpiece of the suite: a whirlpool bathtub. Lisa was able to finally get a nice long hot bath.
It is a little odd to us that the bathtub/shower/sink area is effectively in the same room at the bedroom without any partition separating them, but it's not the first room we've encountered that does this. The toilet has its own separate small room.
If a bath isn't to your liking, there is a double-headed shower as well.
Most of the time when Lisa and I are traveling or at a convention, we don't have enough time or energy to use any of the extra features of hotels in which we've stayed. Tonight, we deliberately set out to have a one-night mini-vacation without the usual stresses of travel, as Fallon is only a 30 minute drive from Fernley.
There is a separate large parlor with a balcony.
The balcony might be a little better used in spring or autumn when the weather is neither too cold or too hot. The view (of US-50) isn't the most inspiring, and it doesn't hold a candle to the views from our rooms from the Crown Plaza in Chicago and New Orleans, but it's nice enough.
There's plenty of room in which to relax.
Here's the view into the bedroom with the whirlpool bath in the distance.
There's what we call the "kitchen" with a separate sink, microwave oven, mini-fridge, and K-cup coffee maker.
To avoid having to go out to dinner or even deal with take-out, Lisa picked a "picnic dinner" of deviled eggs and smoked salmon, with scones for dessert.
She was able to use my new 25-year work anniversary cooler to pack the food and sodas for the drive from Fernley.
We kicked back on the sofa and ate our picnic dinner. I remembered to bring an HDMI cable with me and for a wonder, the hotel hadn't locked out the external inputs the way so many hotels seem to have done in our experience. We were able to watch a few videos and generally take it easy.
Tonight is something of an extravagance, but it's a calculated one: besides being enjoyable in itself, there are multiple IHG point specials running that make this stay worth multiple times its normal weight in points, so we can build up points toward what will probably be future convention travel.
I'm glad we were able to make this short trip, and we think we've managed to do so fairly safely. Now it's time for me to take advantage of that whirlpool bath. I wish we'd had it while we were at Worldcon, when both Lisa and I were stiff and sore much of the trip.