Shiny Happy People
How to get a goodl hotel: when Sean first moved to San Diego, Mary and I both did some web searches for "inexpensive san diego hotel", and got a list of places which were humdrum and small. For this trip, I looked in the guide books for "great places to stay", and for about $50 a day more we have a suite with a full kitchen. When I was a college student, my older brother used to tell me "It only costs a little more to go first class" (insert video clip of my niece saying "Dad?" while raising her eyebrows), and in this case, he was right.
Park Manor Suites is absolutely fabulous. We booked a freaking huge one bedroom suite for $160 a night, which gives us a full kitchen (four burner stove, oven, full refrigerator, sink, plus pots and pans and a few dishes). Queen bed for Mary and Sean in the bedroom, murphy bed in the living room for me. The living room has a low chest of drawers, a writing desk, a coffee table, a games table used to hold a TV, a sofa, two wing chairs, and two end tables with lamps. There's a dressing area that, in a college town, would be called a room, with a big closet, a decent size safe (not the crappy kind that's only big enough for some jewelry, and can be opened with a can opener), an ironing board and a dressing table. This really is a suite - there are two doors between me and them, which is good 'cause they're sleeping and I'm typing. Oh yeah, there's a balcony with a table and two chairs also.
When I booked the room last night, I told the guy on the phone I really appreciated how friendly he'd been, and he assured me that all the staff - front desk, restaurant, housekeeping - were really friendly. And they have been.
A few of the online reviews suggested this place needed to be updated, because they were written by philistines. The style and furnishings of this place remind me of the house I grew up in, with added wifi. Well maintained old furniture is better than new, as you will find if you ever try to buy nice old pieces of furniture.
I am very amused by some of the comments: the one about "Over the weekend of my stay (New Year's 2010), I noticed an abundance of international and gay travelers" which is not surprising, as the Hillcrest neighborhood is San Diego's gay/lesbian/whatever district, and the one about "I was greeted by the most cheerful, helping guys. Joe was able to answer all of my many questions", because Joe was the guy I got also. The part about being gay friendly turns out to be important, because as Richard Florida notes in The Creative Class, many straight people like me have learned to use acceptance of the GLBT population as a quick index of how well they'll like a place. Open minded places tend to be well run and fun for everyone including straights.
Excitement this morning - as we were packing to leave for San Diego, fire trucks and police cars started pulling up. We went down the stairs with all our clothes, backpacks, coats, computer bags etc., not sure if we'd be allowed back up the steps for a second load. It was a candle fire at the other end of his building, and nothing too serious.
We hit Fifth Avenue Books and Bluestocking Books across the way, with lovely chats with the people at both stores. I used OpenTable's iPhone app to get a list of nearby restaurants, showed it to Mary and Sean, narrowed it down to 2 and asked the woman at BlueStocking and the man at our hotel, both of whom concurred that Kemo Sabe would be a wonderful place to go. The iPhone app also books the reservation and sends you an email with the confirmation and address, which links right to the iPhone map application so you can get directions. I made sure the manager at Kemo Sabe knew how we found it (both the app and the local businesses who'd recommended the place), because I want good restaurants to make good use of things like smartphone apps and social media and their neighbors. Both he and the server were really friendly without ever being intrusive, and we left feeling like we'd spent time with friends.
Park Manor Suites is absolutely fabulous. We booked a freaking huge one bedroom suite for $160 a night, which gives us a full kitchen (four burner stove, oven, full refrigerator, sink, plus pots and pans and a few dishes). Queen bed for Mary and Sean in the bedroom, murphy bed in the living room for me. The living room has a low chest of drawers, a writing desk, a coffee table, a games table used to hold a TV, a sofa, two wing chairs, and two end tables with lamps. There's a dressing area that, in a college town, would be called a room, with a big closet, a decent size safe (not the crappy kind that's only big enough for some jewelry, and can be opened with a can opener), an ironing board and a dressing table. This really is a suite - there are two doors between me and them, which is good 'cause they're sleeping and I'm typing. Oh yeah, there's a balcony with a table and two chairs also.
When I booked the room last night, I told the guy on the phone I really appreciated how friendly he'd been, and he assured me that all the staff - front desk, restaurant, housekeeping - were really friendly. And they have been.
A few of the online reviews suggested this place needed to be updated, because they were written by philistines. The style and furnishings of this place remind me of the house I grew up in, with added wifi. Well maintained old furniture is better than new, as you will find if you ever try to buy nice old pieces of furniture.
I am very amused by some of the comments: the one about "Over the weekend of my stay (New Year's 2010), I noticed an abundance of international and gay travelers" which is not surprising, as the Hillcrest neighborhood is San Diego's gay/lesbian/whatever district, and the one about "I was greeted by the most cheerful, helping guys. Joe was able to answer all of my many questions", because Joe was the guy I got also. The part about being gay friendly turns out to be important, because as Richard Florida notes in The Creative Class, many straight people like me have learned to use acceptance of the GLBT population as a quick index of how well they'll like a place. Open minded places tend to be well run and fun for everyone including straights.
Excitement this morning - as we were packing to leave for San Diego, fire trucks and police cars started pulling up. We went down the stairs with all our clothes, backpacks, coats, computer bags etc., not sure if we'd be allowed back up the steps for a second load. It was a candle fire at the other end of his building, and nothing too serious.
We hit Fifth Avenue Books and Bluestocking Books across the way, with lovely chats with the people at both stores. I used OpenTable's iPhone app to get a list of nearby restaurants, showed it to Mary and Sean, narrowed it down to 2 and asked the woman at BlueStocking and the man at our hotel, both of whom concurred that Kemo Sabe would be a wonderful place to go. The iPhone app also books the reservation and sends you an email with the confirmation and address, which links right to the iPhone map application so you can get directions. I made sure the manager at Kemo Sabe knew how we found it (both the app and the local businesses who'd recommended the place), because I want good restaurants to make good use of things like smartphone apps and social media and their neighbors. Both he and the server were really friendly without ever being intrusive, and we left feeling like we'd spent time with friends.