The Suite Life ~

So, my Walker had a birthday this past weekend.  As usual, we decided to celebrate in Minneapolis.  What wasn't so usual was, most of my family came along with us.

Walker and I left town on Friday, driving up to the Twin Cities in the early afternoon.  We had a beautiful day for the drive, sunny and warm, and made excellent time getting to our destination.  This year, we decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency for the first time.  Can I tell you?  I wish we had been staying here all along.  The hotel itself is beautiful.  The staff is wonderful, friendly & helpful, and everyone went out of their way to make sure we all had a great experience.  The first surprise?  Walker and I were on the standby list for a junior suite.  You can reserve a suite right off the bat, or you can gamble on the standby list, which means that if there is a junior suite available when you check in, you can have it at a significantly reduced price.  If there is no suite available, you still have your standard room.  Now, Walker and I are of the same mind when it comes to hotel reservations.  Typically if a room is clean and quiet, we don't care for the extras.  We go for value every time.  After all, we don't go out of town to hang out in a hotel room.

Our annual Minneapolis trip is the exception to that rule.  Why?  The weather, for one thing.  We do spend more time in the hotel when we travel in December.  Also, these are weekend trips.  Y'all know I work the night shift.  A two day trip is not long enough for me to completely switch my sleep schedule from days to nights.  So I'm up late and I sleep in in the morning.  Walker, on the other hand, has no trouble adjusting.  A suite with a separate sleeping area is helpful when we are on different schedules.  So we took the standby upgrade.

Then the Hyatt did us one better:  they upgraded our upgrade.  Instead of a junior suite, we were given the VIP suite, a one bedroom, two bath apartment on the top floor of the hotel.  It is beautiful. My first house wasn't that big.  It was quite a treat, and a timely one, as the suite had a dining room and we were expecting eleven family members.  Take a look: 

Comfy king sized bed ~

Sitting area in the bedroom

Living room ~

Dining area and the kitchenette ~

The kitchenette with seating for four ~

The view from the dining room ~

This was easily the nicest hotel room we have ever had the pleasure of staying in.  It was ours for Friday and Saturday nights, and on Sunday morning we hated to leave.  I was happy to leave a positive review on Trip Advisor and I sent an email thank you to the manager of the hotel, but I still feel like we owe the hotel staff a big, huge thank you for making our weekend so special.