Friday, November 27, 2009

Inn at Queen Anne

I promised to get back to "our quaint hotel", so here it is. When I booked this trip on line, Tom and I had discussed staying in downtown Seattle rather than staying at his brother's house so that we could be in the midst of the downtown action. Well, to stay in the "heart" of downtown Seattle was a bit more expensive than I was willing to go, so I booked us into what appeared on-line to be a charming, older place in one of the neighborhoods close to the Space Needle. While this area IS still considered downtown Seattle, it is NOT just a few blocks away from Pike's Market.....more like 15 blocks away and a 15 block walk in notorious, rainy Seattle weather doesn't really sound like a very attractive way to get around. So, Tom was kind of grumpy when he realized that we were a bit further out from downtown's heart that he had envisioned. And, initially, I was a bit wary of my choice as well. While quite charming looking from the outside, (there is a cute little courtyard right by the entrance), there definitely is a very "vintage" feel (and smell) when one walks inside. Check in time is not until 3pm and we arrived at 1, so we were first told that we may have to wait a while for our rooms. It being Thanksgiving Day and us being on foot, this didn't sound so great to us. Apparently the desk staff saw this on our faces and told us that if we didn't mind being on the third floor, we could go ahead and get into rooms then and there. Why would we mind being on the third floor, you might ask?? Well, because this being the quaint, charming, vintage building that it is, there are no elevators. Since we were only packed for two days, our luggage was not that heavy so we decided we were OK with climbing up a couple of flights of stairs to the rooms. We were then handed our room keys and directed to the stairs. Yes, we were handed our room KEYS, not key cards. When was the last time you stayed in a place that still uses KEYS to unlock the doors??? Upon opening our doors we found nice-sized rooms with small kitchens, a large walk-in closet, radiators for heat, a musty odor and an open window, with no screen, to help air out the room. I actually really and truly do find these kind of places quite charming as long as they are clean and provide free wi-fi internet and this place fills the bill. I would bet that these were, once upon a time, studio apartments.

Because we had been up with the sunrise and had eaten very little, we decided that we would like to find something to snack on before Thanksgiving dinner. I called down to the front desk and was told that there was a market about a block away that was open until 2 where we would be sure to find something to tide us over. So we all headed out for the short walk to the Metropolitan Market and, much to our pleasant surprise, found that we are in the middle of a quite charming little neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants. Megan and I spotted two bookstores on the 1 block walk to the market, along with several very interesting looking ethnic restaurants (Thai, Vietnamese, Indian) and two record stores. We also found out that the hotel provides a free shuttle service that runs to the downtown area throughout the day, so if the weather is unpleasant and we don't feel like walking, we can catch a ride. Now, even Tom has warmed up a bit to our accommodations, which will make our stay here more pleasant than having him grumpy. And that market we went to?? The Metropolitan? Very hip, with a soup and salad bar, an olive bar, a nice deli where they make sandwiches and just an overall cool vibe. I believe this little home away from home will serve us well for the couple of days that we are here!!

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