Today I traveled to Seattle. I need to be in Olympia, the capital of Washington tomorrow, but I am staying near the SeaTac Airport both nights. Olympia is just an hour’s drive south of here.
I get off the plane, pick up my rental car, punch in the directions to the Embassy Suites where I like to stay. When I get there, it does not look familiar, but to a guy who has spent more than 30 nights in hotels already in 2019 those hotels all start blending in together. As I am checking in, the desk clerk can’t find a reservation. Now I am stumped. I am certain I made a reservation, but maybe I just thought I did and forgot to actually do it. “Do you have any rooms?” They do. It’s a miracle what $250 a night and a Hilton Diamond card can do for you.
I get a room, go upstairs, open my computer, and start looking for my reservation. Sure enough, here it is: At the DoubleTree!
I went to the wrong hotel! You know you’re a road warrior when you go to the wrong hotel and never think twice about it.
So I go back down, cancel my stay, and make my way to the DoubleTree at SeaTac. The hotel is somewhat more dated than the Embassy Suites, but when I look out of the 11th floor window from the balcony, I see this:
Mt. Rainier in all its glory.
The mountain looms large in the evening light, some 50 miles away. At 14,411 feet (4,392m) it is one of the highest mountains in the United States outside of Alaska, and just a few hundred feet lower than the famous Matterhorn in Switzerland. Rainier is a majestic mountain.
These are the rewards of a road warrior.
My sister says that in Seattle they say, “The mountain is out.” Some days it is invisible, but when it looks like this, it is certainly glorious!
They let you cancel your stay? Is that one of the advantages of a Diamond Hilton card? I just took a trip with 10 nights on the road, staying mostly in the Hilton family of hotels. No Diamond card, though. And I see it takes a long time to gather points in that Hilton Honors program!
Beautiful photograph!!
My husband and I stayed at a beautiful hotel in Santa Cruz — spent the whole sleepless night waiting for the next LOUD boots? gravel? metal parts? to be dropped (intermittently) down a shoot next to our bed. We complained and got a very small discount and another discount for another night. BAH! (It might have been an Embassy Suites. But it wasn’t the worst night spent on the road —
You’ll read about that in the next installment of The Story Club
that asks the question: “What was the worst night you spent ‘on the road’?”
I bet you have some really doozies.
Safe traveling, Norbert.