And we ended up staying in practically all of them. Apparently last week was Spring Break. Hubby & I were not aware of this well known fact, so we were a bit surprised at how crowded Monterey was. Oh well, we still had a blast and we have 4 different hotel pens to show for it. Confused? Let me explain.

Last Thursday hubby & I traveled to Monterey, Ca. Hubby had never been and I knew that he’d love the Monterey Bay Aquarium & Fisherman’s Warf. I have been to Monterey many times growing up and was so happy to show hubby all the quaint spots (think Carmel) and wonderful beaches Monterey has to offer (not to mention to oh-so-adorable Sea Otters). So, we got busy calling around looking for a hotel and we were surprised that most hotels were booked up or didn’t have accessible rooms for all the nights we were staying (see first paragrah). So, we finally found a hotel by the name of The Hotel Pacific.

This is were it all starts. I might have to draw you a diagram later. Anyway, The Hotel Pacific looked all Spanish-y and quaint, a rustic quality if you will (at least the online pictures looked this way). When we got there, it was basically a fancy motel with Spanish tile adorning surfaces and hand carved furniture pieces about. What the hell were we thinking! This hand carved quaintness was basically embodied in the bed. The bed in our room was about 3 and a half feet off the floor with hand hewed planks making up it’s structure. We were baffled and a bit pissed. I even had trouble transferring into it – me! The room itself was odd with a pony wall and built in desk sectioning off the bed from the suite area, and a weird patio that was claustrophobic. Needless to say we immediately got out of there and went to the lobby. We informed the somewhat dim hotel check-in guy that we needed the box spring taking off our bed so the bed would be lowered and hubby could transfer easily. He didn’t seem too phased by our question (perhaps this is a common occurrence?) and immediately got the engineers of the hotel on the phone. At that point, hubby & I sighed with relief. They said it would be taken care of when we came back from dinner. Off we went to Fisherman’s Wharf for some good fish dinners, hoping we wouldn’t need a crane of some sort to get into bed when we returned.

When we got back, this is what we saw. Thebare box springs were left on the bed and the mattress had been put into the floor of the suite part of the room. My first reaction was of course anger, but the mattress was made up so nicely I just felt kind of bad for the whole situation. Hubby had to call the lobby to say this was just not going to work. They claimed the box springs couldn’t be removed from the frame (I picked one up at a corner, so that’s a bunch of bull … but anyway). They basically understood the room wouldn’t work for us, and called around to find another hotel for us (mind you, this is Spring Break). Ug. We waited and waited and finally (it’s now close to 9:00pm) they called and said they found a hotel for us. We hauled our stuff to the car and went to the lobby where they printed out directions and apologized more – thanks … but dude … seriously … what’s with the beds?! They told us they had found a hotel with the name Sea View Inn (or something similar) in Seaside (think a dirty version of Monterey) and they had it reserved for us. Off we went with our google map directions … Sea View didn’t sound that bad … it’s on the beach after all.

We finally found the hotel … The Best Western Sea View Inn – I don’t know if they intentionally left that part out? Whatever. We were tired and I wanted to take a shower. With our weary faces we greeted the nice girl at the front desk. “Hi, were the Fergusons! The Hotel Pacific called and reserved a room for us tonight.” (Oh yeah, they could only get a room for ONE night). The girl looked perplexed. She hadn’t gotten a call from The Hotel Pacific. Wah!? We checked the address with our little rumpled google map directions, yep this was the right hotel … but no reservation had been made! WTF?! They were all booked up (of course they were), so we had our perplexed check-in girl call around to other hotels, and by other hotels she called other Best Western hotels – or more specifically Best Western motels. Huzzah! She found one! A Best Western in Marina (think a crappier version of Seaside – kind of like Fresno with a beach), it was going to be $89.00 a night (oh, and only for ONE night as well – our Hotel Pacific was in the 200 dollar range and the three star range too … hmmm). What the hell, … I’ve stayed at many a Motel 6 in my day … bring it on … I can handle it.

The lovely Marina Best Western was a step up from a Motel 6 – that step being it had Spanish tile in the “lobby”. Our room was fine, right next to the stairs and it had all the basics: a bed, a TV, a desk and the soothing sounds of four lanes of traffic rushing by on highway 1. Oh well, at least hubby could transfer into bed. Finally we had a place to sleep – for ONE night. Before we went to bed, however, hubby called around to see if we could get a room at the hotel where we originally wanted to stay – The Plaza Hotel – right in the heart of Cannery Row. Yes! A room was available – but not an accessible one – we took our chances and booked it.

The next morning, after sleeping quite soundly in our scruffy Best Western room, we departed Marnia for the picturesque Cannery Row of Monterey. The Plaza Hotel was lovely (except for all the construction going on, the make shift lobby entrance & the fact that valet parking was totally messed up – yes lovely). We checked in and were surprised to find out that an accessible room was available, but it wasn’t ready. We couldn’t get into see it until later. What we didn’t know that “later”, really meant like 5 hours later. Meh, it was okay we wanted to get some lunch and had the Aquarium to see – that would take some time. As we were winding down our Aquarium visit (hubby was quite impressed and didn’t expect it to be so “polished” & Disneyland like), The Plaza Hotel called and said our room was ready! Weee!

We entered our lovely room on the fourth floor to see a beautiful ocean view, the waves crashing happily as if to say “look at the freakin’ bed!” Damn it! The bed was really high (not has high as The Hotel Pacific “Mount Everest” of a bed) but still high. We called the lobby and gave them the same spiel about the box spring. They said “not a problem”. Again we went out to dinner and when we came back the bed was pretty much perfect – even a bit too low (thank goodness we brought the sliding board, which I would run to get the next morning and be confronted with a valet parking situation … whatever I won’t get into it, this post is already long enough). The room was lovely and the view was gorgeous. Too bad we only had it for one night, we wanted to stay one more day & see Carmel so hubby got to calling again. We had noticed that the Portola Hotel (formally the Double Tree) was in a perfect location right by Fisherman’s Wharf – we would take our chances tomorrow and see if a room was available.

In we walked to the Portola Hotel, highly doubting that a room would be available. We were wrong, a room was available & luckily it was an accessible room. We booked it, but it wouldn’t be ready for a bit … right right … we know the drill, just call me in 5 hours. When we finally got into our room, the beds were at a perfect height but the view was horrible. We basically had a view onto a gravel balcony blocked by the atrium windows from the lobby. I got all misty thinking of the Plaza with our ocean view … then I remembered the sounds of a four lane highway and the Maria Best Western … a smile crept across my face.

We had a great time in Monterey (all things considered) & I have the hotel (& motel) pens to prove it.

Well, we just got back from Vegas. Damn I’m tired, we just drove 7 hours across pretty boring landscape and had a wonderful pit stop in Bakersfield to get gas. Exhilarating. Oh, and don’t get me started with driving on the 46 – two way traffic and big trucks. Ug. Anyway, the 7 hours was basically worth it. Do you feel a “meh” coming? Watch out, don’t let it hit you in the face.

Meh, the first time I went to Vegas I had a lot more fun. That was the first time I had ever been and the whole glitzy scene was really fun. This time, the glitz got annoying after awhile and all the lazy smoking people gambling wasn’t as amusing the second time around, just kind of sad. On the up side we saw a great performance of ‘Spamalot’. Both hubby & I are fans of Monty Python (hubby a bit more than me, as proven by him quoting lines during the show), so it was fun to see a live performance. John O’Hurley (or J. Peterman from Sienfield) was King Arthur and fit the role well.

We also shopped a bunch at all the stores (I have the best husband in the world) and we both found some new duds. This shopping, much like Vegas herself with her brightly painted face got kind of dreary and smudged after awhile. Needless to say, this morning her looks started to fade; we couldn’t wait to get home and leave the girl behind us.

What was also annoying about the trip was all the crowds. Last time we traveled on a Sunday through Wednesday. This time we traveled on Thursday through Sunday – a lot more people. Me being naive, said on the way to Vegas “the crowds probably will not be as large as last time because it’s not the Summer”. Right. What was I thinking? Vegas is always packed no matter what time of year it is. Next time we should go during Christmas.

So, all and all Vegas as fun in a “Meh” kind of way.

This is a quote I found that pretty much sums of what I think of Las Vegas:

For me, Vegas is a vacation from being overinhibited, in the highly overinhabited yet uninhabitable city of complete uninhibition.  ~Tammy Bloemzaken

Weee!  Vegas!  The place where I’d never want to live, however, visiting is awesome.  Hubby & I are traveling there next week and we’re staying at the Venetian.  The Venetian is basically a Disneyland version of Venice.  It’s pretty tacky, but a hell of a lot of fun.  They even have gondoliers on fake canals traveling through a fake city with fake buildings.  Yep, everything in Vegas is pretty much fake – but the money you win and all the stuff that is bought by this money is quite real.  For me, Vegas is all about the shopping and I can’t wait to buy stuff I probably don’t need.

We’re not much for gambling.  However, we have been known to play the slot machines – those little addicting machines with their twinkly lights and loud noises are hard to pass up.

So, here’s hoping we make it big in Vegas.  Or at least break even.