Serious Trouble Will Bypass You – Part 2

The Hotel's Emblem

First of all, I’m thankful that the plane trip was uneventful.  With the fortunes in the cookies hours earlier I began to doubt whether or not we might have really been supposed to miss the flight.  But, all went well.  A kind lady changed seats with me so Chris and I could sit together.

We arrived in LA and picked up a rental car or van, rather, with relative ease.  The following day we were scheduled to return to the airport to pick up others flying in from Texas and West Virginia.  But tonight and the next morning was our time together.

You never know exactly what kind of hotel you are going to get from pictures on the web.  They always seem to look larger and better than what you actually open the door to, but not in this case.  We were very pleasantly surprised.  We stayed at the Inn at Venice Beach, which was actually at Marina Del Rey.  The location was great.  We were right in the midst of some great eating places, canals, shopping, and most importantly, the ocean.  There will be more on that later.  For now, I’m beginning and concentrating on the hotel.  Hopefully, this will give future visitors some insight in their own choosing of a hotel.  This was the third hotel we have stayed at in the area, and thus far this was the best, and will be the one we stay at again.

Our room was quite huge.  We took yoga mats.  Four people could have done yoga in there easily.  I’m including pictures.  The picture is of a slightly smaller room, which the maid kindly let us in to.  We had already pretty much trashed ours.  Well, not really – not the rock star variety of trashing – just an unmade bed and spreading out all of our stuff kind of trashing.

A live plant in the bathroom was rather a unique touch I thought.  The bathrobes were also a plus as were good shampoos, soaps, etc. – the biodegradable kind.  I love those California extras. The only thing I could even say unkind about the room was that there were no luggage holders.  The staff was extremely friendly.  As for the TV, when out traveling, we rarely turn it on, and with the beach outside and many interesting places to walk to, I couldn’t even tell you if it worked or what it looked like, as it was hidden away in an armoire.

There is a great breakfast area with all sorts of items to choose from.  This was included in the price.  This is in the center of the hotel with open sky.  It has that European feel.  There were plenty of vegetarian choices for us, and although it looked good I had a yearning to walk the 7/10-mile trek up to Collage Café for the great bagels and chai I experienced last year.  But, we did grab some fruit to go for later.

I will leave you with the website: 
http://www.innatvenicebeach.com/

And our own slide show of the hotel.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next time I hope we are able to have at least two nights there in order to enjoy the room more and explore the area further.

 

Serious Trouble Will Bypass You – Part 2

Wednesday Warm Up


Wednesday Warm Up I always consider Monday fresh start day, but in this case it is Wednesday. I refer to it as a warm up day due to residues of jet lag. I’m slowly approaching all those new things I’m doing – in most cases they are just what I took a vacation from. At the same time I hope to approach them with a new vigor and awareness.

We just returned from Lake Zaca Retreat near Santa Barbara, California.  One of its claims to fame is being the site where “Creature of the Black Lagoon” was filmed.  It was a rustic experience, but then I am used to rustic. There will be more on that later. We also got to spend some time in Venice Beach, Santa Monica, and Marina del Rey, also more on that in later blogging posts.

While away I basically disconnected myself from cell phones and Internet. In some cases it was my decision. But for several days it was due to the fact that in the mountains there was no cell service, and for part of the time no Internet service. We were stranded in nature, a good thing and a bad thing.  Needless to say, the post a day 2011, fell by the wayside.

Today, I’m back in nature, my own natural surroundings. The weather is beautiful. I walked out into our own woods with our black labs, Barney and Benka. Barney is enjoying the creek in the picture.

There was a brief hiatus from regular yoga practice, which I had kept up seven and a half months. I missed a few days due to travel. That will also start again tonight. And now on to one of those new projects – learning to make vegetarian gyros for dinner.

Right now I’m thankful to be home safe and sound.  That was iffy at times.