Our American Hotel I

One of the things I didn't mention in the last post on our trip to America (I do try to leave the boring parts out) is that I took the hotel shuttle with Lucy and Jacob while my wife picked up the rental car and drove there. We didn't have car seats for the kids. The UK car seats are approved for the EU but not for America. We probably could have gotten away with them but then we'd have to lug them through the airport. We'd left our American car seats with friends and we hoped for a delivery that day.

Yes, that is a shoe on Lucy's hand--don't ask.

Imagine our surprise walking into the hotel room and discovering our American car seats. Our good friend Teresa dropped them off along with some groceries (including peanut butter and raisins!) to get us started. The hotel was supposed to be a suite room with a kitchen, but it was basically a wet bar--small fridge, microwave, sink, coffee machine. We couldn't make tortellini but we did have food to get us going, including much needed caffeinated sodas.

On the plus side, the hotel had a great indoor pool with a hot tub. We used that every night we stayed. The kids loved it. Jacob played "cliffhanger" around the edge of the big pool. He'd hold on with his hands and inch his way around the perimeter. We used to play that because he wasn't tall enough to stand up even in the shallow end. On this trip he discovered that he could stand in the three-foot-deep water just fine. He was very happy about that.

One evening, just to mix things up, I decided to play "toe-hanger," floating with my toes hanging on to the edge. It worked okay for short distances but was really taxing. The challenge was to keep myself from drifting out into the middle. It was good for a laugh--possibly the most important part of it.

Lucy mostly liked the hot tub. She sat dangling her feet in it. One night the water was extra foamy. She started moving the foam from the hot tub to the main pool. I'm not sure if she was trying to warm up the big pool or just share the wealth. She did come occasionally into the big pool. Once she was on the stairs pushing my feet so I'd drift out into the water. She was holding onto the metal tube railing but slipped and started to twist around. She looked really worried. The life guard popped out of her chair and wiped out on the wet concrete floor trying to get to her. I didn't have my footing, so I had trouble getting to Lucy too. She hung on just long enough for me to pick her up. All ended well. I think it was the most excitement the lifeguard had in a long time. Except for one night, we were the only swimmers in two weeks!

The hotel houses mostly business people on travel. The area near BWI airport is a sort of office-opolis. One morning at breakfast, a guy came in and said, "The Aerotek bus is ready to go!" Immediately 95% of the people got up and left. Lucy said, "Where's everyone going?" One of the stragglers heard her and laughed. The mass exodus happened every morning the first week we were there.

The other fun thing at breakfast was the waffle makers. All of the food was buffet-style except for the two waffle irons. Lucy loved making fresh waffles every morning. So did I. I thought about getting a waffle iron back here in the UK but that would take away that special treat when traveling. Plus, we'd have to have strawberries and whipped cream in the house all the time.

The other cool thing about our hotel was the playground just across the road, but that will be fodder for the next blog post (which, as you may guess, will have a lot more pictures).