Anniversary Celebration Weekend

Here is the kickoff photo from our anniversary weekend. I got off work early and we left for Fort Worth at around 1 on Friday. What fun!


As I checked in at the infamous Hilton, I made sure to ask if it was a non-smoking room on a non-smoking floor. The front desk clerk assured me that it was. Curiously, as we arrived on the non-smoking floor it did not have one of those handy non-smoking signs. "No problem," we thought, "I'm sure that it is non-smoking. They can't have messed it up again, right?"

Bottom line? Never say never. The room smelled like stale icky smoke. We called the front desk, feeling a little like hard-to-pleasers, and asked for a new room.

As the bellhop (do they still call them that? - no matter, this guy was really old, so it is possible he has worked there since they called them bellhops) walked us to our new room. We noticed this interesting sign posted next to all the doors on our new non-smoking floor.


This OBVIOUS sign caused us pause. Hilton, do you really think we are that dumb? We can read the signs. I know a non-smoking sign when I see one. And I can only interpret the absence of the aforementioned sign means that it was not really a non-smoking room.

Hilton, I think I should clarify our terms. Non-smoking means that no one can smoke in the room...ever. It does not mean that the current paying customers happen to not be smokers, thus making it a "current" non-smoking room. I am thinking they must have misunderstood what we meant. Because it seems impossible that one hotel could get it so horribly wrong...twice.

The new room smelled fresh and wonderful. The bed was deliciously inviting and the down comforter was super comfy. The stay there was pretty great, for the Hilton.

Oh yeah, Hilton, one more thing. What are those little yellow "Do Not Disturb" signs for? I always thought they meant do not disturb. Apparently not. At nine in the morning (checkout isn't until noon) we were awoken by a housekeeper trying to get into our room. So, Hilton, what are the signs for?

They also charged for high speed internet and charged us twice for our valet parking...but at this point we kind of expected it.

For any blog readers or blog stalkers (I know you're out there and I still like you) who may think we sound a bit cranky or critical, please know, we are not hard to please. All we ask is for a good, clean room with no smoke smell and some peace and quiet when we put up the "Do Not Disturb" sign. We really think that this can't be too much to ask.


Enough of that. Here is a picture from our first evening in Fort Worth. We were at Reata. Yum! Behind us are some cigars. I tried to convince Marc to smoke a "Winston Churchill," but he declined. Sad! :)


On Saturday, we went to NRH2O. What fun! It is a great waterpark. We had a blast on the lazy river in our double inner-tube. We also enjoyed the wave pool and the SplashFactory!


On Saturday night we went to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was really yummy!


Here is the outside of the restaurant. It doesn't look like much, but the food was wonderful.


The spice of the food reminded me of Indian food. It was very flavorful. We ate it with this special bread called injera. The bread is kind of like a pancake that you tear off and use as a utensil. It tastes a lot like sourbread and is textured like a pancake. It is served lukewarm (at least in our case). No fork required! Our meal looked a lot like this (I didn't feel comfortable taking out the camera and looking like a total weirdo, so I lifted this photo off a google search).


I also enjoyed a GREAT cup of coffee and Marc enjoyed a cup of tea. What a great evening. Thanks, babe. Check one off the Thirty by 30 list!

For all of you wondering, I am currently on page 880 of Lord of the Rings. 128 more pages to go!