Finally Home

We finally made it home today. We are still trying to finish getting all of the wash done and finally got everything else put away. Of course there is the tub full of accumulated held mail from the Post Office and a myriad of other chores that need to be done.
This weekend is the Annual Outer Banks Relay for Life event for the Cancer Society.
Tomorrow morning I begin the task of baking 40 dozen cookies to be sold at our booth. I believe there will be 3 cookies per packet, at a cost of $1 per packet. All proceeds from the cookie sale with go to the Cancer Society.
I may have other baking to do on Friday as well.
It will be a long weekend.
Veronica and I both have joined and use Pinterest. Not sure if you have heard of this site. Basically people share photos of whatever they are interested in...everything from general photography to places they want to go to, recipes, you like photographic windows or doors...you name it and it is on Pinterest.
I had uploaded some of the photos that I had taken of the Boston Harbor Hotel and of our room along with some exterior photos of the hotel. I put them on this blog and then uploaded them onto Pinterest onto what they call a "board" that I called Boston.
While checking my email, I came across an email from Pinterest. This isn't unusual as we always get an email when someone else on Pinterest likes one of the pictures(photos) that you placed on your board and they decide to re-pin it to one of their own boards.
As it turns out, the Boston Harbor Hotel found my Boston board and decided to re-pin some of my room photos and exterior photos to their official Boston Harbor Hotel board.
We thought that was pretty cool.
If you join Pinterest, type in Boston Harbor Hotel in the search engine on Pinterest and look through their boards. My photos will be the ones that show ricksgarden.blogspot.com which is the url of this blog.
Last night we stayed at a brand new hotel that is in Fredericksburg, VA. This hotel is called the Candlewood Suites.
This hotel just opened up, I believe it was last Friday. I mean this place is new.
Veronica and I were rather impressed with not only the prices but the overall quality of the hotel.
Here is a link to their web site.. Candlewood Suites ....an ALL Suites Hotel.
When we arrived there at about 9 o'clock or so, there were only 2 other people booked into the hotel.
We ended up having a room where we were the very first customers to stay in the room. How often does that happen. For us...this was the very first time.
The girl working the front desk was super nice and gave me a key so that I could view the 3 different style of rooms and take photos of each room style.
I usually don't do this unless I feel that an hotel is extremely good, pretty poor or a really good value.
This hotel covers two of those areas..I felt it was a really nice hotel that offered quality amenities and was well worth the cost paid, especially compared to other hotels in the area.
Here are the prices of the 3 levels of rooms that they have:
A room with a Queen size bed  $89.99
A room with 2 Double Beds $99.99
A room with a King sized bed $119.99
All of these rooms have a full sized fridge, eating utensils, pots and pans, cooking utensils, plates and glassware,  stove top, sink, microwave, toaster, plenty of storage in the kitchen cabinets, dishwasher, hallway closet with a laundry basket, iron and board and much more.
The bed was great and the room set up really nicely.
The only negative that I can say about this hotel is that in our room, which had a Queen sized bed, there was only one night stand next to the bed and the the side of the bed without a night stand was pushed a little tight against the wall.
I thought it would have been a little better for the customer to have a night stand on both sides of the bed. Personally I like to have my cold soda next to me while I watch TV and not have to maneuver my way between a bed and a wall when I wanted a sip to drink.
Other than that minor nuisance, I found this place to be great and well worth the money.
Below are some photos that I took of each level of rooms that they had plus a few other general photos of the interior and exterior of the building.

 Large brightly lit lobby area and front desk area

Large brand new commercial grade Char Broil Grills for customers use

 I was very impressed with this hotels pantry. They had a good assortment of items but what really blew me away was their prices. I found the prices to be extremely reasonable and it was very obvious that they weren't out to gauge their customers. Click on the photos to enlarge them and check out the prices.

 Now this was a pleasant surprise. A really nice laundry facility and check this out in the photo below....

 We have had to spend anywhere from $1.50-$2.00 a load for washing and then the same for drying a load...only to find out that it takes 3 rounds of quarters to get the clothes dry...up to $6.00 gone for a load of clothes to dry. You can't beat this deal. Even if it takes a long time to dry, your not out a dime.

 Very nice workout center

 Not many hotels have these

 Over sized elevators

Wide brightly lit interior hallways

 This was our room with a queen sized bedroom suite....$89.99 a night

 The cable tv came with lots of channels...Veronica thought there were a 100 but don't quote me on that. The reception was fantastic...that you can quote me on.

 Very comfortable mattress equalled a great nights sleep. The only drawback was with the right side of the bed...no night stand and a somewhat tight fit getting in and out of the bed.

 Well stocked kitchen with a full fridge and ice maker. I believe that the stove top is an invection style

 Nicely appointed bathroom with a built in hair dryer

 Large storage closet

 Nicely stocked kitchen cabinet. More than enough items for 2 people

 Below is the King bedroom size suite....$119.99

 The kitchen had all of the same utensils and amenities that our suite had

 A DVD/CD player in each suite

Below are the 2 Double Beds Suite....$99.99

 These kitchens have the same utensils and other amenities that all of the other Suites have

All in all...we were very pleased with the price room and what we got for our money. We gave the new Candlewood Suites 2 thumbs up. If you are ever in the Fredericksburg, VA area, give these folks a try. I don't think you will be disappointed at all.