Review of the Hyatt Regency Bethesda Hotel

But maybe it's me when I stay at a Hyatt I kind of expect to be "wowed". At least a little! Now mind you I've only stayed at two Hyatt Regency hotels before this one-The Hyatt Regency Sacramento and the Hyatt Regency San Francisco. Both had a wow factor when you entered the lobby and the rooms. This one screamed "Okay, nice architecture" and the room was like "It's clean and serviceable, it'll do". Maybe because I don't spend 300 nights of the year in hotels as part of my work so when I do go somewhere I want to say "Hey, this is REALLY nice!" As I said the hotel was okay and the front desk staff are really nice and very helpful. Try as I might I always forget people's names so I can't mention the specific people I dealt with. My King bed room was roomy and I was very pleased with the size of the bathroom. Usually the bathrooms in a lot of hotels are kind of small but this one was very roomy. The bed was also very comfortable but still suffers

from that "motion transfer" issue I hate when sleeping with another person. Better known as the "I can feel it every time you move" syndrome. The location is very good but be warned you have to pay for parking even if you are parking it yourself. When I was there it was $15 per day for self parking and $20 to valet. There's also some type of pay difference between "in and out" and "park and stay" but I don't remember what it is because I've never been on a vacation where I had a car and didn't move it or use it for daily or even multiple times during the day/night.

They have 2 restaurants, Morton's Steak House and the Daily Grill. I ate at the Daily Grill (which also provides room service). The food was tasty but service is slooow. I had breakfast Saturday morning and there were several large tables of people already there but I waited at least 8 minutes at the desk waiting for someone to acknowledge my presence and seat us. Fortunately I wasn't starving or my grumpier nature would have taken over and I would have left. After we were seated as usual the waitress came 5 minutes later and asked us for our drink order. I just asked for coffee and my husband wanted tea. That took another 10 minutes!  When she came with our beverages we decided to give her our order in case we never saw her again. Once we got our order (omelet and a continental breakfast plus yogurt and berries) 20 minutes later we had been there from start to finish a total of 43 minutes before we got food. As I said once we got our food it was delicious but unless there is only one person back in the kitchen with one arm and one leg, it really seemed to last forever!

My other pet peeve was the wi-fi which seemed to be slow in the evening and faster in the morning-maybe more people were on it in the evening not sure but if you are charging $12 for "premium" service i.e. faster than basic but they don't tell you the speed but since it's double the price I want double the speed!

After an evening out on our return to the hotel I wanted a cup of coffee so I stopped at the Daily Grill for a to-go cup of coffee-how long do you think that took? Yep, another 10 minutes to pour hot brown liquid into a cup. A lady next to me was going to order but asked me how long I was waiting for coffee and when I told her she decided to bolt since she had a show to catch. Later on that evening I decided to push my luck  and call them for a piece of cake but this time I didn't time them but it sure felt like they came back quicker with the cake than any of my prior orders!

Frequent Traveler University in Tampa 2013

So this was my first FTU ever in life which I guess isn't odd considering I just started paying attention to the whole miles and points thing.  I have to tell you I'm glad I came for a lot of reasons. I would say I networked my ass off but that would be lying since I am inherently shy and really don't like talking to too many new people at once. My friends laugh and asked me if my brain was on the verge of exploding because of all the people. Now that I think about it I don't know why they are my friends, they are just lucky that I'm too shy to want to make new ones! That being said, my fellow miles and points nerds are awesome! I really like that there are so many people that are getting into this hobby. I really like travelling and have always enjoyed going to new places and seeing new sites but most of all meeting really nice people. Ok I know that sentence sounded like the direct opposite of how I started this paragraph so let me explain. I don't mind meeting new people but I'm awful at small talk, if I meet them in the context of a shared interest (i.e. miles and points) then we have something to talk about but to start off with no common area is foreign to me. Hopefully that makes sense and I sound less crazy than I intended.

Back to FTU, anyone who wants to start learning about the travel hobby should really start reading the blogs like Million Mile Secrets, Loyalty Lobby, Mommy Points, Pizza in Motion, Frequent Miler....I could go on but if you start with any of those you should be off to a great start. I met a mix of people who either thought these get together's were great to those that have gone to a few and found them redundant. Since this was my first, I can't say either way but I do know I want to go to another one next year because they had so much great information but I couldn't go to every talk since some overlapped in regards to time, so my strategy is to go to the ones I missed on subsequent seminars. But let's face it, there is so much information and since unlike the serious bloggers, this isn't my "job" so I don't devote nearly as much time to the hobby. As I mentioned earlier, I've only started doing this earlier this year and my focus is on hotels at this time. I'm giving myself a year before I start on the airline stuff.

Speaking of the airline stuff, I sat in on a talk given by the Miles Professor and I was totally lost! She was talking about off peak European travel and how to save 10,000 miles by doing an open jaw going this way and that way, my head started spinning! Whew! She's really a professor and a mathematician and I felt like I was in the advanced class but I also knew that since I haven't done anything but join the different airline clubs, it would make sense that I had no idea what she was talking about. That's why I'm not concerning myself with that right now, it isn't my first goal or priority. The one take away I got from every presenter I heard was-Set a Goal. So my goal for the next year is to get some status going without credit card assistance because I have 3 boys in varying stages of education which require parent loans so I can't really take a chance on playing with my credit scores nor can I take expensive flights or take extended time off from work so right now it's strictly being a weekend hotel geek grabbing as many nights/stays as I can to rack up my points and elite status. I'm not biting off more than I can chew, I'm taking human bites! So what about you? What are your travel goals for the next 12 months????

Saratoga Springs/Lake George Area

Well my husband and I drove to Saratoga Springs for the weekend hoping for lovely spring weather and to be able to stroll hand in hand along the little streets with different colorful shops in mind. What we got was a grey, overcast, decidedly dreary wet day! But the hotel looked nice. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn & Suites in Saratoga Springs.








After a good night's sleep- I always sleep better in the rain- we got up and found a Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I have a thing for Cracker Barrel food, I try to have at least one meal there on all of our trips. What can I say? If there's a Cracker Barrel within 30 minutes of where I am staying or within an hour of where we are sightseeing, I'm going!
The weather right now is still overcast but Andrea is moving quickly out of the area. Our plan is to eat breakfast, go to the Regal Cinemas near by to see Star Trek( yes I like that too!) then by the time we emerge from the theater it should be sunny and then go to Lake George. It sort of worked in Burlington so why not try it again?
It worked! Our wacky plan for sun has been successful. Off we go to see what we can see! Our plan was only moderately successful. Turns out this weekend there is a Tour Expo for bikers. The whole town was flooded with bikers, there wasn't a single place to stop so we could enjoy a stroll through the streets and enjoy the little shops.















We switched gears and headed towards Lake Placid as the sun looked like it may be making an appearance. The town was empty compared to Lake George but as you can see from the photos, the sun failed to make an appearance!








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Location:S Broadway,Saratoga Springs,United States

Happy June!

Wow! Another month already! Time is flying although I can't complain. The faster it goes, the faster my son graduates from college. Whew! I can't believe he's so close. The best part is, we get to turn it into a lovely vacation spot as well. Friends and family will gather in Hawaii for the graduation and to stretch out on the beach. Not a bad thing that's for sure. June is the traditional month for graduations so let me say "Congratulations Graduates of 2013" to those of you graduating or have people graduating in your family.

Burlington/Boston MA

We took a rainy car ride to Massachusetts this afternoon. We got to see tons of traffic and a car accident. Luckily no one was severely hurt just some minor cuts and the girls were shook up. Their car didn't look so good but overall I think they did ok.
We pressed onward to Massachusetts and was welcomed by....more rain! Yay! "Welcome to gray, overcast and cold Massachusetts" the sign said. Okay, so it really didn't say that but it should have. All the places I wanted to go were outdoors so I was outta luck. We did go to Not Your Average Joe's restaurant for dinner.




Sunday started off rainy and a chilly 38 degrees so we decided to have breakfast in the hotel. We stayed at Hyatt House and it was pretty nice. The omelet station is great when you get to it before the kids that seem to have taken over the hotel this weekend. From the looks of them I would say there is a team event happening and it is the girl's division playing. I'm going to go out on a limb and say its a girl's soccer team and considering I don't follow any sports it's a big guess on my part. Breakfast was good but we had to take it back to the room because there wasn't a seat to be had. That was ok too since we weren't in a hurry to go anywhere in the rain. I suggested we go to a movie and maybe by the time we got out of the theater it would stop raining and maybe warm up.
We caught a showing of Fast and the Furious 6- can't believe we are at 6 already- and it was pretty good. No action film is complete now a days without some "Matrix" moves thrown in. When we got out it was still overcast and chilly. We went downtown and the sun peeked out for a few shots












And across the Tobin Bridge




Because it was starting to rain again, my husband said "Let's try New Hampshire since we are so close". So off we went to NH in search of some sun and pictures.














We ate at The Cheesecake Factory when we got back to Burlington only because it was 8pm and two of the local spots we wanted to try were either not open in Sundays or was going to close at 9pm.
On Monday it was 70 degrees and sunny! We were heading home but since we knew we would hit traffic we took the back way and at least I got to see 2 rivers which we couldn't pull over to photograph but I did get a snippet of one.


Oh well, maybe next trip we'll actually be able to tour Boston! Such is my life...

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Location:I-95 N,Burlington,United States

Beware Home Ownership

The American dream has always been to own your own home. Personally I'm not sure if that should be classified as a dream or nightmare. I have lived in an apartment for years and I have lived in a private house. I think I liked an apartment better financially. Maybe I should clarify, I currently live in a 3 Family home with my siblings and their family. We each have our own space yet somehow I seem to be the only one that pays for things around the house.
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Vacations

Today I was discussing vacations with a colleague and I realized how differently everyone sees them. For instance I prefer to have multiple long weekends spread out throughout the year rather than than take my two weeks in one location, once per year. My colleague likes to store her weeks like a squirrel hiding nuts then take a month off every two years. I can't wait that long for a vacation! Besides that, there's a good chance I wouldn't have saved enough money to spend one whole month somewhere and live the way I like while on vacation (i.e Spas, massages and more spas). Then if I only spent a short time of my month actually "vacationing" and the rest at home I'd be tired! I work harder at home than anywhere else!
So what's your take on vacations? Ever given it any thought? Do you even go anywhere? Basically, what makes YOU happy?


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Friday

Returning back from any vacation is always challenging. Is it the jet lag? The job? Personal issues? Who knows but I haven't met anyone who enjoys returning back to work. I want to meet the mythical beast that enjoys their job so much that vacations have been relegated to being unneeded. Are you such a creature? I'd like to hear from you if you are. I have a ton of questions for you because I want to be like that but I haven't a clue as to how to achieve it without medication. Happy Friday everyone and enjoy your Mother's Day weekend.


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Location:E 161st St,New York,United States

The Ride Home

We are at Amtrak awaiting our bus to Seattle. It's 4:30am and the bus leaves in a hour. I'd love to curl up and sleep but I know there's no comfortable way to do that. At this station's clock has the proper Roman numerals.




At 6:30am we were actually at the border. Had a strange customs/border patrol agent. I guess strange isn't the right word. Or maybe that's what he's supposed to do but he would ask a question and after answering him he'd ask it again in a rephrased manner. Then he wanted to know why it was just the two of us and since my son has a different last name than me who wanted to know who his father was(???) as if when he said his name the agent would instantly recognize him because why? My son just stared at him and after he asked why we were here I said to celebrate my son's 21st birthday- he just stared at our passports- which of course has our dates of birth and then asks my son how old he was. Okay so I understand the concept of asking the same question in multiple ways to catch someone in a lie but wasn't that odd? Oh well, onward to Seattle.
We arrived in Seattle quickly- about two hours and then went to eat in Chinatown before getting back on the light rail to Sea-Tac. I just wanted to jump in a cab but J kept insisting on taking the rail. He said it was cheaper and the airport wasn't far. All valid points but I was thinking about my back hurting for the first 4 days after we arrived. He actually carried my bags and that might not seem like a big deal to you people with regular kids but my kid is not made for manual labor. I figured if it was important enough for him to carry my bags I might as well go ahead and take the rail.
Thwarted again! Again up for TSA Precheck and of course they didn't have it at the security checkpoint I was at! Damn, damn, damn! I can't win for losing. So far I have been up for Precheck 3 times and all 3 times it wasn't at the checkpoint I was fortunate enough to get. This is ridiculous, either it is up and running throughout the airport or it isn't. That's my take on it. If the TSA has already predetermined me to be a safe flight risk then let me on without being x-rayed. This has been a rant by the blogger. Thank you for reading.
On the plane. Whew that was work. I forgot we had to take a shuttle to the gate. We already had to walk half a mile from the light rail through the terminal to get to the Delta area. Oh well who needs a back. Here's the odd thing about our seats. Only one of us has room to put anything under the seat. The other area has some metal box in the way.




What if we didn't know each other? J said we would have to fight for it like gladiators.
We had a smooth uneventful flight- IMO the best kind. My husband picked us up and we are home. Now to get ready for work tomorrow :-(
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Location:Station St,Vancouver,Canada

The Last Day

Well the boy didn't get to go to Victoria either. It appears he cut his foot and so he is slowing down his pace. He said it already takes a long time to get there but with a hurt foot, it is even more bothersome. So he got on my nerves yesterday for no apparent reason. I have to say I have noticed one thing about him this trip. He gets cranky in the afternoon-yes like a five year old- without his nap. After he wakes up from his nap he is quite personable. I haven't noticed since he's been home from school because I am at work in the afternoons and by the time I see him in the evening he is back to being a normal human being. The great news is that since he is now officially 21 if we ever go anywhere ever again together, he will be in his own room! He can be as cranky as he wants to be to himself.
I'll tell you one thing-there's no way I would believe that Vancouver has rainy Spring weather. This week has been incredible. In so many ways it has been better Spring weather here than in NY. When I left NY it was chilly but here it has been mostly over 70 degrees and sunny every day. If someone asked me to stay and could give me a job and a roof over my head I would definitely jump on it! I'm sure I wouldn't have felt that way if I were rain soaked but sun soaked? Hell Yeah! I really am kind of sorry we have to leave and I almost got lost in the fantasy until J  started talking about his last 3 semesters of college and how much money I may have to cough up and my mind went immediately to work. Oh joy, the job I don't love but need to keep in order to keep paying my parent loan and whatever the current parental obligation will be for the Fall semester. Alright I am snapped out of my reverie now and I am thrust back to returning to my real life.  Don't get me wrong, there really isn't ANYTHING wrong with my life. Overall, it really is pretty damn good compared to a lot of people out there but like most human beings, there's something about the "have to's" that brings about this disdain and an overwhelming desire to say "Screw it! I'm outta here!" This too shall pass as my life goes in cycles as I suspect most of ours do.
I'm going to take my final stroll, then re-pack, call my husband and rest a bit since we have to leave at 4am. We are taking the train back to Seattle and flying out from there but before we go, J wants the cab driver to stop by Science World while it's dark so he can get some night shots before we leave. He did thank me for a wonderful trip, I think I entered the Twilight Zone.

Vancouver cont'd

As I said before, J and I split up last night for different adventures. Mine consisted of Granville Island, False Creek and Olympic Village and his consisted of sleeping and going to Olympic Village this morning. Ah, to be young.
While he was at Olympic Village I ate breakfast and got surprisingly full fast. It's not like I'm losing weight on vacation so I have no idea why that happened. Since today and tomorrow are our last days here I just decided to do what everyone on vacation loves to do- The Laundry! J was kind enough to leave me his clothes in case I felt compelled to wash them. So thoughtful and he's only 21. I'm sitting in the laundry room now waiting for the clothes to dry. I'm pretty much going to do a whole lotta nothin' else for today. I strolled around the other end of the neighborhood since I haven't gone on that side yet and found a small store that sold magazines, I bought one and sat in the park and read. Do you know I have never sat in the park near my house and read? Something about sitting here was so relaxing and inviting, maybe it was that water fountain thingy that made it peaceful or maybe the lack of weirdos, just people with their dogs and or kids.
Tomorrow we were supposed to go to Victoria which is the capital and supposedly really scenic but he got on my nerves so bad this evening I told him he could go by himself. Today it was pure relaxation...and laundry.


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Location:Helmcken St,Vancouver,Canada

J's Birthday Trip to Vancouver Pt 4

Today we went to the stadium where the Canucks play and the stadium where their soccer team plays.
But for me, my favorite place was the Telus World of Science. It caters to my inner nerd. Evidently it also triggers the happy place in my son who was having a good time with the different Arithmetricks. Those are those 3-D puzzles you have to figure out. I'm a spacially challenged individual and could only solve one of five puzzles I tried. J wouldn't leave until he got one as well so we could be "tied".
We had lunch in their restaurant Triple O's. I had a chicken sandwich and he had the poutine. Both were tasty and after our walk back, guess who jumped in bed???
This evening we have separated. Not sure when/if he was getting out of bed again so I went out to Granville Island. Most of the tourist guides recommended it so why not. You could walk...a lot or take a ferry. Since the only exercise I decided I was getting was walking around-I walked...a lot! It was interesting to see but I think you have to have a thing for boats or Yachts. Since it's pretty safe to say I don't have boat/yacht money it was just okay for me. They do have a large public market much like the one in Grand Central station in NYC. If I lived here I'd probably get a lot of my groceries here since they appear to be farm fresh and in the case of the flowers, garden fresh.
















I took a few photos because even though I don't have boat money, I love the water and the glint off the water from the sun. Something about it makes me happy and isn't that what life is supposed to be about?

Soccer Stadium

Hockey Stadium

Telus World of Science

Location:W Broadway,Vancouver,Canada

J's Birthday Trip to Vancouver Pt 3

It's another beautiful day. I think it's worth mentioning because the locals tell me they are surprised at how beautiful it is right now. They usually don't expect this type of weather during this time of the year. I think the fates have gotten together to grant us this nice weather to celebrate his birthday and we'll take it!
Went to the Pacific center mall. They are doing some renovations so you can't use the Robson St. entrance- enter on Georgia St.

Continued down the street to the Port of Vancouver. Another scenic spot that can be appreciated as you stroll along the sea wall.



I got to watch some seaplanes taking off which was nice since I've never seen one before. It's good to know you can still have "firsts" at 47.

It felt really good to sit on a bench and soak up some sun while an occasional cool breeze came by. This is too much nature for J, he's back in the room napping.
Now that he is well rested and can walk again, we are off to dinner. Unless one has traveled with my son, one has not experienced the wonder and acute aggravation that is my son. He asked ME what I wanted for dinner which of course is a ruse because I eat all types of food while he is very particular. So I ask him what his requirements are and he says "rice" I'm in the mood for something with rice. Now, many cultures have rice in their diet like Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese etc. But I know him so I start searching for Japanese restaurants. He says it doesn't have to be Japanese it could be Korean or Chinese- yeah right, I think to myself so I call off two places and I'm shot down for various reasons known only to him. I then say "You pick it then!" He goes on his computer and announces he has a place, lets go. We walk to the place maybe a 10-15 min walk and since we don't have reservations it's an hour long wait. He nixes that idea and we go around the corner and that place has a 45 minute wait which is somehow more acceptable. Both of these places were Japanese restaurants which he told me I didn't have to look for and the places that I named also took reservations which I could have easily reserved! I then ask him what he wants to do for 45 min. And he says "Walk around" which is fine but then he says "We can go our separate ways and meet back in front of the restaurant in 45 minutes". Did I mention acute aggravation???
We finally got seated at Gyu King Teppanyaki. The food was okay but not worth an hour wait but hey it's what the boy wants for his birthday trip right???

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Location:V6Z1E,Vancouver,Canada

J's Birthday Trip to Vancouver Pt 2

It's an absolutely gorgeous day! Happy 21st birthday son, I wish you many more. We are having breakfast at Miura. They have the lightest, fluffiest waffles. I had a waffle sandwich (BEC) bacon, egg and cheese. J had the original with a yummy cream.


They are filling though so we went back to the room for a nap.
Downtown Vancouver is really nice if you like the modern city vibe, which I do. I'm not really a rustic chic.





Anyway we had a ride on their Skyline train which is also a lot nicer than NY's subway. I'll take it any day! Look at the view from the train.








We had lunch at Sushioyama on Kingsway Street and it was decent. I just wish more Japanese restaurants were actually run by Japanese people! Most of the ones I have been seeing are usually Korean owned and there are subtle differences to how the food is made authentically versus another cultures take on it. My son was not happy that his chicken karaage had bones in it. Traditionally it is boneless-not a big deal but subtle nuances make a difference if you know what you are looking for. We walked so much his legs hurt so we got back on the train and returned to the room. I bought him some motrin and ordered pizza-Happy 21st Old Man!


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Location:Granville St,Vancouver,Canada

J's Birthday continues

As part of the magic of the trip, my son wanted to fly to Seattle then take the train into Vancouver. "Why can't we just fly to Vancouver," I say. "Why?", he says. It's like reliving his childhood for me. Okay so I'm game. We will fly to Seattle, my butt is firmly planted in the seat as I type this part of the story. My dear boy is sleeping peacefully next to me looking both childlike and grown at the same time. Twenty one is that magical age for parents letting their little birds fly. I'm wondering how hard I should shove. Don't get me wrong I love having him around in measured doses but when he's away at school I can't help but feel that's the way it's supposed to be. Our kids should strike out on their own and be independent, that's the fun part. I remember when I got my first full time job and made enough money to move out- I was ecstatic! So as I sit hire now looking at him I wonder how long before he gets to experience that feeling or will it even feel like that for him. Ah well, time will tell. For now, I'm just enjoying a lovely flight on Delta.✈ Well it was mostly a lovely flight, as we were descending the controls on my son's seat decided it was going to stop working altogether . No matter what they say he cannot return his seat to an upright position!
Seattle's airport is pretty big. J decided we should take the Link train downtown. I feel like I walked to the other end of the airport to get to their light rail train. I must be getting old.

After our brief sojourn on the light rail we got off at Chinatown. There is an Asian food-court/market on the corner that sells delicious cream puffs from a place called Beard Papa. I highly recommend them. I am a cream puff purist so I always get the original but they have lots of incarnations.

J had me walking around Kinokuniya which is a Japanese bookstore. At this point I'm really missing my husband who normally carries my bag! However I have learned an important lesson- I need to take my out of shape self back to the gym!








I think my son has figured out that his mother's back is giving out so we have proceeded to the Amtrak station on King street to await our iron horse. They rehabbed the station and it looks really nice. If you enter on the south Jackson St. entrance you get hit in the face with the smell of fresh paint. My son called it a huffing outbreak.


So since we have a couple of hours to kill I figured I'd update and probably post this today. We won't be getting to Vancouver until sometime after 10:30pm this evening so why not type away on the old iPhone. I encouraged him to go out and walk around while I type and watch the bags. Watching him wave as he went out made me forget he's 21 tomorrow! Oh my, enough typing for now, I think I'm getting misty.

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Location:S King St,Seattle,United States

J's Birthday Trip to Vancouver Pt 1

This morning I got up and printed our boarding passes and I discovered that for the first time since joining the Trusted Traveler program, I actually was selected for TSA Pre-check! Whoo- hoo I was so excited! I was finally going to zip through security. We get to the airport, I hear the exciting three beeps which scream Pre-check! Guess what- it's 5am and the security line is all but empty so they don't have a separate Pre-check line open. I slink sullenly through with my son, shoes in a basket, jacket in a bin and make our way through to the gate *sigh*.