A city of choice

Outside the University Club in Washington, DC– which way will Laura go?

This is where she says she’s headed.

This is where I think she’ll wind up.

Props to the Hotel Helix

While it wasn’t my best experience in Washington, DC, I do have to give the Hotel Helix’s management credit. They read every review posted to TripAdvisor about their property, and they seem to reply to all of them, as well. In fact, the responses are clearly based on the specific information in the reviews. I was excited to see that the management is investing considerable time and effort in communicating with guests. From me, this always gets two thumbs up.

Tough, but Fair

I have to be honest; the Hotel Helix sucked. So, I gave it two stars on TripAdvisor, because that’s what the hotel deserved. Life’s a bitch. They need to step up their game if they want me to come back.

 

Read about the Hotel Helix on TripAdvisor >>

Read the Wandering Blogger’s coverate of Hotel Helix >>

Fondue makes a comeback on TripAdvisor

While in DC over the weekend, I grabbed dinner one night at the Melting Pot, a cool fondue chain that has locations all over the country. I had a kickass fondue meal of lobster tail, fillet mignon and lots of other dippers. It was off the charts.

I didn’t mention this in the TripAdvisor review, but the drink menu at the Melting Pot is a lot of fun. The martini to your left was quite tasty. I’m not a chocoholic, but I still loved this drink. Shit, I enjoyed it enough to snap a picture of it with my Blackberry. So, I’d suggest ordering it.

Read the full review on TripAdvisor >>

Crazy Signs: Washington, DC Edition

Can you think of anything more foolish than telling Greeks not to smoke? It’s like telling a midget not to be short.

It’s not going to happen.

Well, if you want to see this wasted effort, it’s in a bar/restaurant across the street from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The food wasn’t bad, but they didn’t have potato skins. Now, I have wanted potato skins ever since. I’m going to go out now to try to find some.

Anyway, non-smoking signs bug me, and telling Greeks not to smoke is retarded. But, I found this one pretty funny, and I hope you do, too.

The Crazy Hotel Helix

The Hotel Helix is a pretty crazy place. The logo shows just how goofy the place is trying to be.

Once you go inside this joint, you’ll see why the place drove me fucking nuts. Quite simply, it’s trying to hard. It’s just trying too damned hard to be interesting. And, it’s failing.

 

The curtains are automatic, like an automatic door. You step up to them, and the spread open.

It seemed like a bit much. But, I guess it does add a bit of flair to the place, so, I’ll forgive it.

In general, the lobby tries to be both smooth contemporary and 1960s retro. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. The hotel should have chosen one way or the other.

 

The hotel’s bar was even worse than the lobby. It was fucking nuts, as evidenced by the padded walls.

 This hallway was rather tame, but the guestroom floors were not …

 … as you can plainly see below.

 So, here’s the guestroom. The colors were off the charts– way too much to see when you wake up in the morning. But, the beds were quite comfortable.

 The bathroom is around the corner, and they did have decent coffee available. Here’s what blew my mind. The coffee smelled terrible but tasted fine. I’m not sure I understand how that can happen, but it did.

 This is what passes for a closet …

 … holding exactly the sort of bathrobes you’d expect ot find here. But, they were comfortable.

 And, here’s the bathroom. There’s only a shower stall (not a bathtub). But, it worked well. 

The Washington Metro

This has to be one of my favorite subway systems in the world. Don’t get me wrong, I do love New York– and our subways. But, when you have as many people riding it every day as we do, it’s going to get tired quickly. Since D.C. is, to a certain extent, our nation’s showplace, they do seem to invest heavily in a clean and advanced subway system. It is nice, fast and has cool digital signs telling you how far away the next train is.

This city makes it easiest to take the subway from the airport into the city. In Boston, you have to take a shuttle bus from the terminals to the subway station. It’s not convenient, but not bad. New York is a genuine pain in the ass. To get from JFK to the city, you have to take a weird train to the subway (it costs more and takes a while). Then, you have to go from the outer reaches of Queens through all of Brooklyn, then up Manhattan from the bottom. Brutality. From LaGuardia, you have to take the Q47 or Q48 bus (depending on terminal) to the F train, V train or 7 train in Jackson Heights. After that, the subway ride isn’t bad, but the bus can be a major PITA.*

But, from Reagan National, the trip is easy. I got off the Delta Shuttle and was able to walk to the metro station from within the airport. It was easy. Seven stops later, I was at McPherson Square.

Too fucking easy.

————–

*Pain in the ass

Hitting the Same Ol’ Spots

As I’m sitting here, blogging and smoking my cigar, some crazy ass cougar is smoking American Spiritsand waxing drunk on politics, psychology and the boredom of living in DC. I made the mistake of mentioning that I live in New York. Apparently she did around 25 years ago. That lengthened an already boring conversation.

 

Apparently, we have entered the Age of Aquarius (this happened in 2000), and the assassination of John Lennon was orchestrated by the U.S. government. I’m sure she was hot when she lived in New York, but … yes … that was a long fucking time ago. Now, she looks tired. And, she has no sense of what is age appropriate. I was tempted to tell her that she’d like my father, but I don’t think his taste has fallen that much. I don’t want her to be my new mom, either.

 

I found myself regretting that I hadn’t put batteries in my audio recorder, because I really wanted to capture and publish every word this crazy-cougar-broad said. Seriously. She was out of her fucking mind. Her friends, she says, claim that she is one of the “pillars of light holding up this city [Washington, D.C.].”

 

Wow.

 

Well, enough of that. My headline mentions something about the “same ol’ spots.” As I left the McPherson Square metro station, I saw a familiar sight. McPherson Square, I hadn’t realized at first, was where I waited before interviewing Phil Harvey, founder of Adam & Eve, and I hung out there later before my flight. Well, that’s what I saw as soon as I came out from underground! It was really cool. I took the picture (above) of this spot with my blackberry (and now use it as my device’s wallpaper).

Headed Back to DC

I’m back in our nation’s capital, after only a few months. I went down in early May to interview Adam & Eve founder Phil Harvey—it was part of my ongoing effort to finish a Doctor of Business Administration degree. This time, the trip is purely recreational. I’m going to check out the pandas at the National Zoo, check out a new hotel and grab a few decent dinners. After the recent grind at day job, it’s nice to get away for a few days.

 

The Delta Shuttle has been … well … about as good as it can be. We were late getting out of LaGuardia—big surprise. But, we’re in the air as I type this, and everything seems to be running smoothly. The snack service has been surprisingly good. Pepperidge Farm must have paid a fortune for the privilege. Honestly, even the coffee’s not bad.

 

Maybe it’s just the Delta Shuttle to Boston that sucks. Hey, consider where it lands.

 

I used to go to Boston a few times a year for short getaways like this, but I’ve grown tired of that dump. I learned growing up there that the people are assholes with little on their minds aside from baseball (which bores me to fucking tears). Finally, I’ve decided that that second city won’t be on my itinerary for a while. For me, DC is the new Boston.

 

Last time, I stayed at two Hiltons (great deals on Hotwire.com). We’ve put Hotwire to work again for this trip—the Hotel Helix will be home for two nights. I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, check out my reviews of Hilton Washington and Capital Hilton on TripAdvisor.

 

Read about the Hilton Washington on TripAdvisor>>

 

Read about the Capital Hilton on TripAdvisor>>