So Whats Been Going On?

A very valid question if you are asking me. Haven't been posting too much lately but let's see if I can't get everyone caught up on the festivities:
I am still trying to get the rest of my gear back from the guide that works at the place that we used to visit on our fishing trips to Canada.
He hasn't been answering emails nor telephone calls. Gee... I wonder why. Although he has told me otherwise in a fairly long ago email, that he would spend the next week getting the rest of my gear together, so that he could give it back to me, I have not heard a word from him since. Like I said, that was a long ago email and weeks have passed by since he wrote me that. I have absolutely no faith that this person will do the right thing and I am mentally preparing to kiss the rest of my gear goodbye.
Been trying to get 2 years worth of our deposit from the owner of the fishing camp that we used to frequent. Looks like we will lose a total of $600 on that deal.
Because of the aforementioned situation with my gear, we have absolutely no plans on returning to this place ever again. It will be worth the $600 not to have to deal with these people ever again or the drama that we witnessed at that place.
We have already found a new fishing camp to stay at this year.
In September we will be going to a place called Stanley's Resort We had plenty of places to pick from on both Eagle Lake and other local lakes. I kind of like the looks of Stanleys Resort and I definitely liked all of the things that they included in their price, that cost us extra money at the other place we used to stay at.
Seriously...all of the bait and all gas included in the price.
We decided not to go with a 1 bedroom cabin. We wanted a little space, plus we wanted a decent lake view and with the cabin we chose we got both.
Here is the cabin that we have reserved for September..it is called The Chalet. This is like a palace compared to the other really rustic cabin that we have stayed in over the past several years.
We didn't mind the rustic cabin feel but we sure will enjoy having more room, having a tv with several channels, a dvd player and most importantly....a full kitchen with an actual stove and oven, not to mention a full bath to soak in after a long day of tossing lures and musky fishing.
Now all of this stuff is very nice but I think the best thing of all will be for to be able to fish with whomever we choose to fish with.
It will be great getting on the water with our friends Ken and John. This might actually be the year that I get my trophy fish.
A change of scenery and environment can do wonders for a persons luck.
And speaking of luck, Veronica and I will be heading to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. Before we fly to Vegas, we will be spending a couple of nights at a hotel that we had previously had problems with.
You might remember reading earlier blog entries about the issues we had with our room at the Crowne Plaza Ft. Magruder in Williamsburg, VA and Crowne Plaza ft. Magruder.
After Veronica spoke to management personnel at the hotel, we received a complimentary 2 night stay at this same hotel. We are supposed to be getting a much nicer room compared to the one we had during our last stay there. I plan on taking photos to share with everyone and we will all be able to compare the quality of the 2 rooms...the one we had during our last and the one we get during this upcoming visit.
While in the Williamsburg area, we will probably do a little shopping at the outlet malls.
After our 2 night stay in the Williamsburg area, we will be flying out of Newport News and head to Las Vegas.
We will be in Vegas for 5 nights and staying at the Monte Carlo. The Monte Carlo is part of the MGM family of hotels.
We got a real good deal on our deluxe room...around $30 a night.
On Thursday night, our last night in Vegas, we have tickets to see Cirque du Soleil "O" at the Bellagio. A very nice way to end our week long vacation.
Of course I will be taking lots of photos as I usually do and I will be sharing them with everyone upon our return.
I have been doing my workouts on a daily basis and just trying to keep my weight down as much as I can during these cold weather months. I really looked forward to warmer weather. That warm weather makes it so much easier for me to keep my weight down and makes those workouts much more enjoyable compared to doing them in 30 degree weather.
That pretty much gets everyone caught up on the excitement around here.
Hopefully the next couple of weeks will go by quickly. I am looking forward to a little change of scenery and if my memory does not fail me, I do believe that the temps in Vegas are somewhat warmer than they are here....Yyyeeeesssss!!!!!!

Crowne Plaza At Fort Magruder In Williamsburg, VA followup

Veronica and I had taken a long weekend break and went to Williamsburg, VA to visit Colonial Williamsburg and the surrounding area.
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza at Ft. Magruder in the Williamsburg, VA area.
Here is a link to that blog post about our hotel stay at the Crowne Plaza at Fort Magruder 
After leaving honest reviews at several web sites and also making contact with personnel at the hotel itself and corporate headquarters, we received a reply back.
Veronica had sent an email to someone at the hotel itself and told them that based on the sub par quality of our room, she felt that Crowne Plaza owed us a 2 night stay at the hotel in a much higher quality room.
Veronica received a telephone call from someone at the hotel. After discussing the issues that we encountered during our last stay, we were offered a 2 night stay for free. Veronica is supposed to contact this young lady, when we are interested in staying there again and that she would make sure that we received a high quality room for that stay.
I will make a blog entry  about our stay at the Crowne Plaza along with posting photos of our upgraded room there.
We haven't decided when we will return there. We are thinking that we might stay for a couple of nights before we head out to Las Vegas.
Veronica and I have decided to return to Las Vegas in February and we are flying out of Newport News.
Williamsburg is just up the road from Newport News, so we could take advantage of the 2 free nights that lead up to the date of our early morning flight.
I have signed up for many different fare and hotel alerts that I receive as email.
In one of those alerts, MGM had a special for the Monte Carlo, which is right on the strip.
I was able to get a 350 square foot Deluxe room in the Monte Carlo for around $36 a night plus they give us a discount coupon booklet for various things.
We will be staying for 5 nights.
It will be nice to return to Las Vegas and see some of the sites that we missed last time.
This time around, I won't be slowed down by any foot problems like I had last time.

Our Weekend Get Away To Colonial Williamsburg In Virginia

 Veronica and I returned home this afternoon after spending a 3 day weekend in Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. 

Before we left home and were in the planning stages of this get away, we made our very first attempt at getting a hotel room through Priceline.

Priceline has their own rating system for hotels and such.

The highest rating for a hotel in the Colonial Williamsburg area was 3 1/2 stars. We decided to go with a 3 star hotel. I am used to basing my decisions on AAA ratings and have stayed at many really nice quality 3 star hotels.

According to Priceline's web site, a 3 star hotel is considered as being the following:

3 star hotels offer a higher level of guest service with several amenities. Guestrooms and public spaces place a greater emphasis on style and generally offer such conveniences as hairdryers, iron and board, and a fitness room. On-site dining is offered but may not be available for all three meals.

We decided to try to get a hotel in this rating group and started placing "bids" for a room via Priceline. 

We ended up placing a "winning price" at $79 for each night and we were very pleasantly surprised to learn that we had got a room at the Crowne Plaza in the Colonial Williamsburg area.

Veronica has been at a Crowne Plaza in the Boston, MA area and told me that the hotel rooms and the hotel itself is extremely nice, so I was rather happy and excited that we had got the room at this hotel. She told me that Crowne Plaza hotels were very upscale hotels.

We left for Williamsburg on Friday morning and we were able to check in at the hotel around noon time. 

We quickly dropped off our luggage in the room before heading out to get some other things done. During our brief time in the room, it didn't appear to be close to what I was expecting nor what Veronica had seen at the other Crowne Plaza hotel that she had been too. 

We wanted to get going and didn't take a good look at things until we got back to the room.

While we were out, we got some picture frames at a local Michaels. The frames were for some of our many photos that we had enlarged from our recent Baltic Capitals cruise and also visited some other stores.

We then had dinner and returned to the hotel room for the night.

When we got back to our room, we started to notice how bad of shape the room was.

We also had problems with the tv set that was in the room. We could only watch about 5-6 channels out of all of the channels that were offered.

The other channels came in but were basically unwatchable.

I placed a call to the front desk and spoke to the hotel manager about the tv issue.

I was told that he would send someone right up.

Veronica and I stayed in the room for 2 1/2 hours waiting for someone to stop by the room to fix the tv.

There was supposed to be a person that was going to be telling ghost stories outside of the hotel at 8:30 that night.

We decided to go outside and listen to the storyteller. On our way out, we stopped by the front desk and explained that we had been waiting for someone to fix our tv after I had called down about the problem 2 1/2 hours ago. We also told the front desk person that we had no tissues nor was there any bars of soap in the room....neither bath nor hand soap.

The front desk personnel looked at a list and said that our room and name was not on it for any type of room issues that needed to be fixed. She immediately got someone to take care of the issues and said that it was unusual that the manager would forget to write our name and problem down on the list nor have the problem taken care of.

After talking to the front desk personnel, we went outside and listen to the ghost stories and had Smores that were served at the tail end of the stories.

We then went upstairs to our room for the rest of the night.

After looking around the room a little closer, I ended up being really disappointed and rather upset that we were staying in a hotel that was sub par especially for a hotel that was carrying the Crowne Plaza name.

The furniture was old, with chips and worn marks all over the wood, holes in the tv armoire, chips and worn marks on most of the other furniture in the room, torn wallpaper, marks all over the walls, stained desk chair with tears and worn out areas in the cushion and arms of the chair, worn out and very stained carpet. Usually when you leave the room in the morning and then return from a day of being out, your room has been cleaned and pretty close to made up as it was when you originally walked into the room the first time. Well.....after leaving the next morning and returning in the late afternoon,  we returned to our room to find that the bed had bed roughly put together and made, the sink was still dirty from when we brushed our teeth in the morning before we left...basically...whoever made up the room and cleaned it, stayed in it for as little time as they could and  barely spent any time cleaning it at all. 

Rather than continuing on with how poor shape this room was in, I figure that the photos would speak for themselves. 

I would like to add that none of these photos have been "doctored" or "Photoshopped"...the room is and was as you see it in the photos. Here is a link to the Crowne Plaza hotel that Veronica had stayed at when she was in Natick, MA. Look at the picture of the Double Room in that hotel compared to the Double Room photos below of our room...you will definitely see a huge difference.....  Double Room in the Crown Plaza in Natick, MA

 This is how we found our room after being gone for the day and it had been cleaned up and the bed made.

 Please feel free to click on each photo to enlarge it so that you can really see the wear and tear on the furniture and how poor of shape it was in

 And this is what you get for a 3 star Priceline hotel that is supposed to be upscale

 This was in the ceiling above the bed. I am not positive but it kind of looked like a bullet hole with something still lodged in the hole

The next morning, we got up early and got some breakfast before heading over to see Colonial Williamsburg.

This was in front of the Visitors Center where you get tickets to go to the various historic sites in the area. From the center, we got on a shuttle bus and were driven to the Colonial Williamsburg area. 

 Upon arriving we found an open air Farmers Market going on. It was really nice with many venders selling their wares. Got some good cookies and bread there.  It was also Homecoming weekend for the William & Mary College students, who also had a homecoming football game in the afternoon. There were a lot of parents and college students which added to the festive atmosphere

 Below is the "Capital" building from the colonial days

 Everyone that worked in the area wore era period clothing and there were always in "character" and acting/talking as they did back in the colonial day.  

 This nice lady welcomed us into the Coffee House where we had a tour and had some hot chocolate.

 Veronica with the welcoming lady

 This was in the game room

 This guy also gave us the tour of the coffee house

 This is the room that we had hot chocolate in..it was very strong and unsweetened...just the way they made it back in the colonial days. They did offer us sugar to sweeten it up.

I asked the nice lady if I could take a photo of their kitchen area that was attached to this room and was open but she said "no" because there were modern items in it...there was a dishwasher hidden behind an old looking cabinet door. They make every attempt to keep everything in the era period of the colonial days 

 This gentleman talked about the politics and worries of the day during that time period

 A general street view in the Colonial Williamsburg area

 A colonial era tavern and restaurant

 The local Silversmith and his female helper

 Local doctors office and apothocary

 Not exactly who this was but he was sure a rather dapper dresser

 Workers in a fabric/tailor shop

 More photos from inside of the doctors office and apothocary shop

 Here is a leather worker...he made shoes and other leather items along with repairing them

 Below is the local blacksmith

 Below are photos of the kitchen area in a tavern

 A typical meal was a whole fish, some mutten, potatoes and bread

 This was in the laundry room of the tavern

 They had several of these "announcement/bulletin boards" in the area.

 You can click on the announcements to enlarge them

 More folks in period garb and in character

 They had carriage rides throughout the area

 Various scenic photos of the area

 We stayed long enough to watch the Fife And Drum group march up the street

Even though our room was not even close to what was expected or should have been, Veronica and I still had a really nice and special weekend together.