Champaign and Chicago

I am in Chicago having a very fabulously Chicago day. This is rapidly becoming my favorite city in the US (besides San Diego). It's walkable, has delicious food, and probably the best art museum in the country in the Chicago Art Institute. It ranks up with the Hermitage and the Musee D'Orsay as my favorite art museums in this whole wide world.
I am now comfortably ensconced in the Blackstone, which, if a hotel could be considered a spiritual home, would be my spiritual home. I will show you rather than tell you why:




I love it so much I am actually trying to make the bathroom at my condo look like the Blackstone bathroom. They also have recently started using Aveda bath products, which I am hoarding like any good traveler does with high quality bathroom products. That's so that when I go places like the Hampton Inn, which I love except for their lackluster blue Crabtree and Evelyn toiletries, I can indulge a bit.

Anyway, depending on whether points or luxury are most important to you, you can let your company make a reservation and since the Blackstone is a Marriott brand hotel you have a chance of getting to the concierge level (oh la la), or just get the points. I almost always go for the latter but that's because I'm trying to fund the accommodations for a trip to Spain. They also have a great, sort of pricey wine bar called Mercat. Some fun, delicious offerings there. I got a cheese plate with various dipping sauces. My favorite, being hilariously disconcerting, was the roasted garlic dulce de leche sauce.

Today for breakfast I went to the Bongo room, which is on Roosevelt and Wabash on the South Loop. Um, yeah, that's the thing to do for breakfast, my friends. I was dreadinng having to choose between sweet and savory when the waitress told me I could get any pancake or french toast in a one slice size vs a whole order. so that would be what I did. I got the roasted red pepper, feta, and spinach eggs benedict and a slice of brown sugar brioche french toast. The eggs benedict was ridiculously good, truly the best hollandaise sauce I have ever had, a very generous portion with a mountain of potatoes that, if it weren't still so close to New Year's resolution time when I decided to make an effort at self-control, would have been annihilated to the pain of my tummy. The french toast was great, not necessarily something I felt like I couldn't have gotten elsewhere, but still excellent.

Atlanta Westin for 3 days

Some people love the Atlanta airport. I am not one of them. I guess I am not easy to please in airport design. Much as I don't love the long straight lines of places like Phoenix Sky Harbor, I am also chagrined at places that force me to take subway systems and then walk. With Atlanta it felt like too long a wait and too long a ride. and what's up with that creepy Ant sculpture? I get it AtlANTa, but yuck. Anyway, I was pretty stoked that I remembered that at the baggage claim there is only one exit towards the cabs. Also good to know is that you have to pay the little cab office first if you are using credit card and it's a flat rate to wherever you are going. Nice way to reduce gouging.

I stayed at the Westin in downtown ATL, the rooms of which were quite nice, though the building has a lot of energy coming off it. No, not new age voodoo energy, but like, actual movement. I was checking out the horrific dueling mirrors that gave me a view of my backside in its full glory, and the mirrors were vibrating the whole time. This same feeling persisted in the room when there was a storm raging outside. This is the hotel whose windows were ripped off when a tornado swooped through the very middle of the highway into downtown. Anyway, totally nice hotel, The Cafe restaurant was way too pricey for entrees. The bar made a delicious dirty martini with a twist. They have a rough time regulating the inside temperature because of their enormous atrium. Anyway, I had to get a fedex package delivered and they charged me a 5 dollar delivery fee. 5 dollars to get my package delivered to me, that's in addition to the fedex fee. seriously? what is that? They also charged our company 10 dollars a box for a receiving fee. Anyway, it's not worth all that. Last time I was here I stayed at the Omni at the CNN Center and don't remember any weird delivery fees. They also had a large foodcourt downstairs. So, for what I'm guessing is about the same price, I would definitely go with the Omni.