They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

OK, they probably just like me for the money my company spends for me to stay there. Hey, as far as I'm concerned right now, it's a win-win! If you've read my blog in the past, you know that my current favorite place to stay when I travel to Los Angeles is W Hollywood. During my last few stays, I've had some unusual breakfast experiences. One time, I placed my order the night before (if you hang a your breakfast order on the handle outside your door by Midnight, your food will be delivered at the time you choose on the order form) and it never arrived. I was charged for it on my bill so before I left I noted this and they gave me a credit. The second time, since I now didn't trust that I would get my breakfast if I left my order on the door the night before, I called to place my order in the morning. The room service staff then told me they were very busy and I wouldn't be able to get breakfast for an hour. Forget that!

This is what showed up in my room during my recent stay. An apology note accompanied this lovely bowl of fruit and bottle of water! So nice of them.


Here are a couple of other photos from my stay:

Isn't it nice how they parked my silver SUV (glorified mini-van) next to the Lamborghini?

This is the view of the stairs from the Living Room I may not have shown in the past. It's a little gaudy, but so L.A. fabulous!

The Suite Life

I've been going to Los Angeles a lot for work lately. There a few more trips planned for early next year too, so I'm getting used to the "suite" life. Not always, but most of the time I've booked a room at the W Hollywood lately they've upgraded me to a suite! This is due to my Starwood Hotels Platinum level membership. It's taken me some time, but I finally made it! I think I may have mentioned this in a past post, but it's fun so humor me to read about it again. ; ) Whenever there is a suite available at one of the Starwood hotels (Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, etc.), if you are at a Platinum level, you are supposed to get an upgrade. It's nice! That said, sometimes I think, "This whole place is just for lil' ol' me?" I feel like I should be calling everyone I know in the area and throwing a party! Alas, it's a work trip and I'm usually needed on press early each morning. It's hard to see color well with a headache, so I usually have mellow evenings... in a room that is bigger than my apartment in San Francisco!

The Fabulous Suite. Bedroom/Living Room separated by a curtain behind the couch.

If you want to watch TV in bed, simply slide the curtain around to one side of the couch!

The couch. I can't say it's all that comfy, but it looks good!

Flat screen TV and desk.

The bathroom. Yes, a tub AND a separate shower. I love the lighting around their mirrors,

it's set so you always look great! ; )

Snow and Prohibition

Ah, Minneapolis... One my work travel locations. I hadn't been there in a while, but I really enjoy the reps from the printing company I send work to there. They are just really down to earth, nice people. Not the shifty, sales-y people you run into most of the time. This trip was a little cold and snowy, but I missed the worst of the snow that hit a few days before I arrived. I was able to stay at the W Foshay, in downtown Minneapolis. I had only stayed there once before, but like it a lot since the hotel has some history. It was at one time the tallest skyscraper in Minneapolis. It wasn't a "W hotel" then, obviously, but when W took it over and renovated it, they did a great job in capturing the history. If you ride the elevator to the top, there is a viewing deck similar to the Empire State Building, but on a smaller scale. This time, I decided to pop into their bar called Prohibition for a martini before I called it a night.

Sorry it's a little small, I pulled this from the hotel website.

A downtown view from Prohibition. The lights inside were low and looked kinda purple in the photos!

I was trying to catch the snow outside on the ledge. Can you see it?

A Cosmo. I know, I know... but I really like them! This one actually wasn't very good, but it was pretty.

More from La La Land

Yep, another trip to Los Angeles and the W Hollywood Hotel. Since I'm now a Platinum level Starwoood Preferred Member, I got an upgrade to a "Marvelous Suite!" This room was waaay to big for one person!

The "Living Room"

With TV

Around the corner, the bedroom with TV

Shower and tub!

And a nice little bottle of water in my rental car when I left. : )

The Historic W Foshay

Continuing my obsession with W hotels, I was finally able to stay at the W Foshay in downtown Minneapolis, MN. The last time I tried to stay there was in the dead of Winter so the reps from the printer I work with in the Minneapolis area pleaded with me to not stay downtown. There happened to be a snow storm and it would have been a slow traffic-laden drive from downtown to the plant in the suburbs. OK... I agreed. Next time though!

The first week of June was "next time." I was not disappointed. I've stayed in some pretty great rooms in W hotels, but this one was really cool and historic. The Foshay building, completed in 1929, was originally an office building and was considered the "first skyscraper West of the Mississippi." The 32-floor building was modeled after the Washington Monument in D.C. In 2006 it was purchased and renovated into a W hotel which opened in 2008.

I loved it! My room was so quiet and comfortable. I wished I was going to be there more than one night. Here are some photos from my stay:

An artist's rendering of the 1929 Minneapolis skyline.

The view from the street 2010 (I pulled this photo from the website, it was not a sunny day when I arrived).

The observation deck on the 30th floor. It was like a mini-Empire State Building.

My corner room! Each floor only had 6-8 rooms.

The desk, TV and bar

Comfy bed

W Hollywood - The Scene

If you've ever read my blog, you know I have a bit of an obsession with W Hotels. Last year I learned that construction on a new W Hotel was underway in Hollywood and it would open in early 2010. Some W Hotel room rates, for whatever reason, are out of the Gap Inc. price range so I just waited patiently to find out what the going rate was for this new location.

Woo hoo! It fell within our price limit. I was very excited to check it out in late March. Most W's have a contemporary, modern decor and this one definitely fit the bill. I found my room a bit on the "too-white" side, a little sterile in my opinion, but comfortable nonetheless.



The funky music, hip employees, and time-of-day changing floor mats (Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening) near the elevators made me feel the usual W vibe. This hotel even had a little "bling" around the door peepholes. This must have been a nod to the glitter of Hollywood!


The night I spent at the W Hollywood was pleasant and great for people-watching. I could tell this was a growing "scene," if you know what I mean, and experienced it during a later visit. Let's just say Drai's Hollywood, the new "it" bar on the roof top of the hotel, was full of celebrity wanna-be's and look-how-important-I-am types. Ugh. As long as you don't take that too seriously, this is a fun place to stay. Oh, and I don't think I've ever seen such good looking valets. They must have had to submit head shots to get their jobs!

Hotlanta... Not So "Hot"

The weather during my trip to Atlanta was freezing! It actually snowed the second day. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and after a long flight and shuttle ride from the airport (the driver was literally yelling out specific landmarks, we had no idea we would be getting an informal tour of the city!), I arrived at the W Hotel Midtown. It was great! As you all know, I'm a little obsessed with W Hotels. So far I haven't stayed at one I didn't like. I was given a "Spectacular" room on the 19th floor which was modern, yet comfortable. I always like that aspect of this hotel chain. Here are some photos:

The Entrance

My room

The view, day one

Thursday night, day two, a little snow

The snow the second day simply shut down the city on Friday. The experience reminded of me when I lived in Richmond, Virginia. Like Richmond, Atlanta just doesn't have equipment to remove snow from roads quickly and everyone simply panics. Schools where closed on Friday and all were discouraged from getting on the roads unless they really had to do so. Personally, I had to get to the printer. It turned out to be good that my ride was the printers plant operations manager, who was from Wisconsin. He was one of the few who understood driving on snow and ice. My press checks were slow-going on Friday due to employees arriving late to work because of the road conditions, but we made it through and accomplished what we needed to do by the end of the day. Whew... I was a little worried. Once the day was over I was on to a more enjoyable part of my trip, seeing some friends. More to come...

A Quick Trip to L.A.

This week spent two days in L.A. for work. I flew down Sunday night in order to be at the printing plant for press checks early on Monday morning. When I booked my flight and hotel last week I figured I would stay at one of the 2 or 3 hotels I tend to frequent in the L.A. area. My company doesn't limit our lodging to particular hotels, but there are company "preferred" hotels that offer a special rate. I've also learned if we want to stay somewhere that is not a "preferred" hotel, as long as we keep within a reasonable rate (which varies depending on the city) we can stay wherever we please. Usually my business trips involve staying at hotels within the Starwood chain. I must earn my Starwood points! I have gotten myself to their "Gold" level status and am working towards "Platinum." My plan is to be able to use the points I'm earning towards a personal trip in the near future.

To get back to this trip, last week I was playing around with my SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) application on my iPhone and realized the W Los Angeles was offering a really good rate for the two days I needed to stay in LA. Yipee!! I love W hotels. Usually this particular W charges more than what I am comfortable paying for a work trip so I've stuck to the Sheraton or Westin hotels in the Starwood group which are nice, but do not generate excitement o my part. So, I was more than a little excited to be staying at the W Los Angeles. If you haven't been to or stayed at a W hotel, they are pretty swanky. Not "swanky" in the way that they are outrageously pretentious. They are modern contemporary, hip, and even a little eccentric. The music in the lobbies, bars, and elevators play an electronic edgy beat which I enjoy in the moment, but I'm never quite sure I'm cool enough to listen to regularly. Anyway, I rented my car and drove to Westwood on Sunday night (I skipped the W valet parking... ahem... $32 per night(!), and parked on the street in the UCLA neighborhood), walked into the hotel and up to the brushed stainless steel and glass reservations desk to check in. The nice gentleman at the desk gave me a free upgrade (Yay gold level!) to a Spectacular Suite. I was appreciative of the upgrade, but only half listened to the fact he called it a "suite." I rolled my bag to the elevator which, annoyingly, had a camera focused on me riding the elevator and a screen showing the images it was taking. Does my hair really look that bad? Hmm... when is the elevator going to get to the 10th floor?

I opened my door and walked into the coolest room! I wanted to live there, it was so great. Of course it wasn't as if they upgraded me to the best room in the hotel, but you see, I live in a studio apartment in San Francisco. When I travel for work I stay in hotels that are one room 99% of the time. This suite had a separate bedroom... with a door I could close! Hey, this is exciting for a small studio apartment dweller. Here are some photos from my trip. Oh, and the work part went well too. : )

The Living Room #1

The Living Room #2

Bedroom through the left door, bathroom to the right

The office and munchie bar to the right of the Living Room

The comfy bedroom

Another TV in the bedroom!

"The Backyard" as they called it.

The pool transformed into a skating rink for the Winter.

Back in Manhattan

On Thursday, it was back to NYC, my last full day in New York. The week had gone by so fast, I barely wanted to think about going home. Since I couldn't check into my new hotel in the city until the afternoon, I spent some time in the morning shopping at Woodbury Commons. I stopped at Starbucks for another iced latte and people-watched for a bit. I had noticed a Stride Rite store the day before when I was with Sarah and Adam. I called my sister to find out Morgan's shoe size and bought my little niece Morgan some cute pink sneakers. Every toddler girl should have cute sneakers!

It was around 12:30 PM when I got on the bus for the short ride back to NYC. I was looking forward to seeing the hotel I chose for my last night in New York. I happened to find a "spectacular" room, as they called it, at the W Tuscany in the Murray Hill neighborhood. This was supposed to be a much bigger room than the "cozy" one I already stayed in, in midtown Manhattan. As much as the W New York was hip and modern, the W Tuscany was completely different. The neighborhood consisted of brownstones and few skyscrapers. The W Tuscany itself is an old brownstone. The lobby and cafe, The Audrey Lounge, had some of the modern vibe, but the rooms were quite contemporary with wooden blinds on the windows. At first, I was given a room on the 4th floor. It was big and spacious, but I soon realized how close it was to the elevator. Sometimes soundproofing in hotels is very good for rooms close to elevators, but this was not. It was a handsome, old building, but have you heard that "rocking" noise an old elevator makes in building such as this? It's a classic old sound that throws you back to old times, but it's a little noisy. I knew I would not be able to block out the sound. I went down to the lobby and was incredibly grateful when I was told I could move to another room. I transferred my bags to a room on the 7th floor and was very relieved when it was quiet. Here are some photos of my lovely room.

So spacious, my room was almost too big!

Pretty French door to the entryway

Now, what to do next? It was around 2:30 PM and I didn't have much time left of my vacation. I felt there were a few more things I wanted to check off my NYC list so off I went, pounding the pavement again. After a quick bite at a deli near Grand Central I headed back up to midtown. My destination was Serendipity. Yes, the same place that inspired the name of the movie with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. Kate and Molly Shannon (her character's best friend) chat there over a shared dessert in the movie. When I arrived, there was a long line almost out the door. Hmm, OK, maybe it was a super-touristy place. No matter. I worked my way through the crowd to the host and asked him how long I would need to wait to get a table. There is one good reason for being a "party of one," I got seated right away! I ordered the Frozen Hot Chocolate (a contradiction of words, in my opinion) that Serendipity is famous for creating. It was so good! It tastes similar to a Wendy's Frosty with whipped cream and shaved chocolate on top. Yum! The treat came with multiple straws, but I only needed one, and a spoon.

After my sweet tooth was satisfied I thought it would be nice to peek in on Central Park. My initial intention when planning my trip was to spend quite a bit of time there. Unfortunately, the threat of pending thunderstorms during that week, didn't allow that plan to come to fruition. Besides, to really see Central Park, I would need my knee to be in better shape. Another thing to do during my next visit. Still, I thought I would wander into the park a little way, before heading back to my hotel. It is such a pretty place!

I spent a little more time on 5th Avenue before I sadly bid it adieu. Back at the W Tuscany, I thought I would walk a block down to it's sister hotel the W Court. I had a glass of wine in it's, what I considered, trying-too-hard-to-be-an-"it"-location bar and noted an Italian restaurant across the street called Fagiolini. I jotted it's name into my handy Yelp application on my iPhone and it had some great reviews as a local restaurant. I walked over and after I ordered some food, snapped this somewhat blurry photo on my iPhone. Lights always "glow" in photos taken on my iPhone camera. Still, what a cool view of the Chrysler building at night. Fagiolini's in on the lower left. I ordered their house special, a chicken penne pasta with vodka sauce dish and asked if they would add some mushrooms. It was wonderful, one of those meals that was just right. Perfect for my last night in NYC.

Hello Big Apple!

Wow, the last month has flown by and I've been terrible about keeping up with my blog. It's actually August 5, 2009 as I write this, but I've chosen to back-date my blogs to keep the timeline correct. I'm doing to try my best to get caught up and have pretty much been writing half the day. One good thing about it is that I get to experience my whole vacation again by writing and posting photos. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

I'll start with my trip to NYC. It was a welcome break from the monotony of work and patience with my knee. I had a feeling I would end up walking too much around New York, but I was intent on using the subway, buses, and trains. Whatever I could to keep from over doing it. I flew out early on Saturday morning, July 25 (this blog date). I had decided red eye flights aren't for me, but the 4:15 AM pick-up from Super Shuttle wasn't great either. I was excited to be off for my city vacation so it was good to get on the plane and be on my way. I changed planes in Salt Lake City and arrived in Newark, NJ around 4:30 PM East Coast time. I had been told there is now a train from the EWR airport direct to Penn Station in NYC. I wandered around, pretending to know where I was going, and eventually (after a ridiculously long wait for my bag) found the entrance to the NJ Transit train. Cool, it was only $15.00! I arrived at Penn Station and this was my first sight of the city.

How could I have had a better first view of Summer in NYC?

I made my way on the subway over to the W New York, my home away from home, for the next 3 days. This W is in the midtown area, towards the East side of New York. My sister and brother-in-law stayed there several years ago and recommended it to me as a good location. I've always liked the style and atmosphere of W Hotels and was happy to find a good deal on this one.


I booked a "cozy" room so I knew it was going to be a small, but I thought in reality, I don't take up a whole lot of space! My room was on the 5th floor and I ended up loving it! Even though it was tiny, it was like my little cocoon. The bed was so comfy and I had a big flat-screen TV. It really was a nice place to curl up in in the evening hours to watch a little TV or read before I fell fast asleep.

Not much of a view behind the building, but it wasn't over a busy street. So quiet for NY!

Little desk and entryway

That first night I arrived, I went for a short walk around the neighborhood, got a bite to eat in the Living Room, (photo in an upcoming post) and went to bed with ideas of many places to visit the next day.