I finally got around to booking a hotel in Virginia Beach, VA. I have been procrastinating, but decided I better do it before the hotels are all filled. I am running the Shamrock Marathon in March and wanted something near the starting line of the race. The Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront is 2 blocks from the starting line, but when I looked, it was full. But I used the address for the Hilton to search at Orbitz. I was able to search by address, and it would show me the closest hotels first.
The closest was a Knights Inn, followed by a Travelodge, which was followed by a Ramada. The Knights Inn and the Travelodge were only .2 miles and both 2 star hotels. The Ramada was listed as a 3 star hotel, and .3 miles away. The Ramada didn’t cost that much more than tke Knights Inn. But when I started reading the reviews of the Ramada, it was trashed. Everyone who reviewed it in the last year or more gave it a one out of five. Not good. The cheapest of the three was the Travelodge, but it also had some poor reviews. The Knights Inn had the best reviews of the three, but still a few negative ones.
I brought the seacrh up on my laptop computer, and found some new possiblities showed up that for some reason hadn’t appeared during my first search. Also the price for the Knights Inn had gotten cheaper. Cool! I examined the new listings, but the Knights Inn still seemed to be the best deal. Out of curiousity, I went to Knights Inn’s site and looked up the prices there. I was able to book the same room there for two nights and save $20 over the price at Orbitz.
I had everything booked except the car. Airline tickets, hotel. I even registered for the Las Vegas marathon. Not sure why I waited, but I needed to book a rental car. I went on to Orbitz, my favorite travel site. I did a search for rental cars. The cheapest car was from Advantage. Who? I never heard of them. The second cheapest was from Thrifty. Hmmmm…I have dealt with Thrifty, never heard of Advantage. I decided to spend an extra couple bucks for the week, and go with Thrifty. I debated about going with the economy car, or the compact. I decided to go with the cheaper economy car, which for Thrifty is a Kia Rio or similar.
I finished reserving the car, and now am set for my Las Vegas trip! I am very excited! I really need a vacation! And I am looking forward to running the marathon!
Depending on where you travel in the world, the water may or may not be safe to drink. The water may look clean, but there maybe be tiny microscopic bacteria and parasites that will maek you very sick. Think of Montezuma’s Revenge in Mexico. Even drinking water out of streams and lakes here in the US can may you sick.
You can try to obtain bottled water, or drink softdrinks. Be carefull about getting your drinks with ice, as the ice may have be made with contaminated water.
If you can’t get safe water, you will need to purify it in some way. Boiling the water is the safest solution. Just bring the water to a full rolling boil for one full minute.
Another solution is to use Iodine tablets. I recent did a trail run through the Adirondacks where I need to replenish my water bottles from streams. There are some nasty bugs in those streams including one called Beaver Fever. I used a product named Potable Aqua. If was a 2 part water purifier. The first tablet was iodine, which I needed to leave in the water for at least 30 minutes. This turned the water kind yellow/brown. Then I added a second tablet which would nullify the iodine. It also made the water clear again. The water didn’t taste half bad. The tablets came in a couple small bottles. Each tablet is good for 16 ounces of water.
There are also some tablets you can get that contain chlorine. I have read mixed reviews of these, mostly regarding taste. But probably like tap water, if you let the water sit, the chlorine will likely evaporate.
If the water is especially dirty, you may need to let the water purifying tablets work longer. Just be sure to follow the directions on the packages.
This last weekend we were flipping through the TV channels looking for something to watch, and we found a show called Cash And Treasures on the Travel Channel. We had never seen it before. They were having a marathon showing a bunch of episodes all in a row. So we watched the show while doing other stuff like cooking dinner, etc. It was pretty cool.
The premise of the show, is this woman named Becky goes to different places looking for treasures of different kinds. Each episode is 30 minutes. Most of them are stuff accessable to normal people. In one episode she goes panning for gold, and another she joins a guy going after sunken treasure. A few episodes that really sparked my interest were ones where she went after Sunstones in Oregon, and Amethyst in Georgia. Also of interest werer Thunder Eggs (Geodes) in New Mexico, and Meteorites in Kansas. There are some other episodes listed on the website that I didn’t see, where they go after Diamonds, Aquamarines, Sapphires, and Opals.
I suggested to my wife, that maybe we organize a vacation around one of these locations. She liked to idea. So I will have to do some research. Maybe record the shows next time they are on, and watch them a little more closely.
I was in town to compete in a tournament, and needed a place to stay. The tournament took place at the Westin at Forrestal Village, but they were booked solid. They had made arrangements for us to get discounts at the Lakeside Conference Center & Hotel for $125/night. The place sounded nice, but I decided to see if I could find a cheaper place online. I found the Premiere Hotel of Princeton at a significantly lower price than the Lakeside. It had a good star rating, and was much closer to the Westin. So I booked a room.
I arrived on a Friday afternoon, and found the parking lot almost empty, and a sign saying Coming Soon-Doubletree Inn. Uh oh. I was concerned that it might be closed, and I would be without a room. But they were open. I checked in and went to my room. Apparently before it was a Premiere Hotel, it was a Radisson.
The hotal looked like it had seen better days, but they were in the process of renovating. There was a perfumey odor in my room but I didn’t notice it after being in the room for a minute or two. The room was reasonably clean, but it wasn’t in emmaculate condition. Nothing major, but just small things.
The WIFI worked well, so I was happy.
I checked out the pool, and it looked nice, but I wasn’t going to go swimming before competing. And being at the party til 1:30am after the tournament, I slept in, and didn’t use it on Sunday morning either. I also checked out the fitness room. They had a decent looking treadmill, an elliptical trainer, a few stepper/climber type machines, and a excercise bike. I thought about using the treadmill for some running, but my schedule didn’t allow it.
There was an ice machine right down the hall from my room which was convenient, so I was able to keep ice in a small cooler that I had brought in with pop.
I didn’t interact with the staff much, but they seemed okay.
Would I stay here again? Maybe. I would want to see the rates of the other hotels in the area. And if they sounded nicer, and weren’t too much more, then maybe I would.