Our repairs were taking longer than we expected (we expected them to take longer than we expected, and they took even longer than that, which we should have expected), laundry was a troubling issue, and we were leaving for a trip to Massachusetts on the 1st.
Hurricane Katia was making me crazy. Well, at that time it was not a hurricane, not even a storm. By the time it reached SXM's vicinity, it would be a storm - but what kind of storm?
The forecast mostly showed Katia going north of the island. Sometimes it showed the storm coming right for us. Then it went north again. Katia was going to be a strong storm, then it was going to be a weak storm and strengthen after it passed us. The storm was far enough away that the forecast track and strength could change substantially. Katia would pass us around September 3rd or 4th - we would be off island, only able to call up the people taking care of our house and dogs and ask them to do their best.
Oh, and hope that our roof repairs were finished, because they were not going to be done before we left.
It sucked big time. We almost cancelled our trip. We argued. I stressed.
We watched the forecast avidly on the 31st and decided to leave.
By the time we landed in Massachusetts, I was all set. I felt free and happy. We had done everything we could to prepare, just in case. Now we were in Massachusetts and feeling fine.
The weather was beautiful for most of our visit, we got to see friends and family and we got to relax. We stayed at a nice place in Newburyport for the first part of our trip. Some of the decor was beautiful, with vintage feel to it - some was kinda... funky, but it was comfortable and right in the middle of the town.
The lobby area of the Garrison Inn, which also served as a sort of champagne lounge at night.
I always like to take pictures of our hotel rooms (I love staying in hotels) before we mess them up. I wondered about some of the furniture in this room, but it was comfortable, we had tons of space and in daylight we saw there was a nice view.
The surrounding wall inside our bath/shower was one of those one piece inserts, with the soap rests molded in - this one also had flower shapes. I wonder when those will come round into popularity again and be considered "vintage". 
My favorite feature of the bathroom was the heat lights in the ceiling - my grandmother had these in her house when I was growing up and I have always loved them. I can think of no way to convince myself that we need one of these here in the Caribbean, but I used the one in the hotel at every opportunity.
Another excellent feature of the Inn is the included breakfast. The offerings were fairly wide, and included one dish with some sort of insane hollandaise that I would be happy to eat by the jar. Next... pictures of Newburyport.
7 comments:
Jess~ Glad to see you online again! Love the pics of the Inn and ammenities. But wait .. there are no puppy paw prints on THEIR wood floor as the sunlight streams in? Gosh, I can't say the same for my own wood floor. LOL I hope your roof was finished and everything is back to normal. I would have been a nervous wreck. Kudos to you for living through it! I think my xanax consumption would have skyrocketed! Again, good to 'see" you! Counting the days until December! Jean
Judi also loves taking pictures of hotel rooms before we "move in." I have hundreds of pictures of scores of hotel rooms from over the years. She takes extra pictures of interesting decor or thrilling features like extra bathroom counter space so she can lay out all her stuff.
We also take pictures of our restaurant meals. Other people look at us like we're crazy, but we look at the pictures later and can remember how great that meal was.
Hi Jean! The roof is almost finished - we discovered that some cracks in the vertical wall are probably contributing to a residual leak on one side, a poorly fitted door ditto on the other side... plus I found a mysterious chunk of wall drilled out of the exterior wall that I have never seen before, I think it was hidden by foliage. I stand outside my house thinking WTF? Oh well :)
I am also looking forward to your December visit. I forget some of our suggested outings, I will have to look it up!
Hi gs! I do the restaurant thing too, or else I just don't remember. I wish I had done something of the kind at the fancy place in Boston we went to, but the place was dark and the only way to take photos would have been with flash...I couldn't do it. I do wish I had taken notes though. When we were in Vegas we went to a place with a multi-course tasting menu and were presented with a printed menu with the details as we left, I very much appreciated that.
I wonder how many people do the hotel room thing? I didn't post the photos, but I also took pictures of the bedding set-up (it was comfy) and of the bar area, which was thoughtfully laid out.
I don't take pictures of hotel rooms, but I appreciate the beauty of a clean room. And as I get older, i get let less tolerant of older, musty rooms.
Oh yes absolutely. I hate staying in places that make me uncomfortable. The first time we ever went to Italy, I was travelling with Aaron and his parents. We stayed in a hotel in Naples for one night that had obviously had all the rooms crowbarred open at some point, and every lightbulb and battery from our room had been stolen by the previous guests. No one else worried. I piled all our stuff and some of the furniture in front of the door before I could sleep.
I got hives just reading that post. Ugh!
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