Hotels

When I was little, the best part about being away from home was sleeping in a hotel. We weren’t away from home very often – which made the time away from my own bed even more exciting. Even now, though the novelty has worn off somewhat, I have to admit, I still like staying in hotels.

During the summer Adam and I went to a drive-in on Whidbey Island. Good drive-ins are hard to find here, and this one (our favorite) is a ways away – especially at 2:00am, so we decided to stay overnight at the Best Western on the Island.

Adam checked us in before the movie as Addy and I stayed in the car. As we sat there under the drive-through carport that so often marks entrances to hotels, I was reminded of the times that my Mom and I would wait in the car for my Dad to come back with a map – our room marked with an “X”. A generation later, Mom and daughter repeated history, as we waited for Dad to come back with a key to our pit-stop for the night.

After the movie, we went back to the hotel and settled in for the evening. As we opened the door from the hallway to our room, I smelled the excitement of staying in a hotel - the scent of freshly laundered linens, combined with that lingering whiff of stale cigarette smoke that just won’t ever quite go away. It was right there, just beyond the door.

So I soaked it in.

That night my younger self took over and forgot the fact that the television remote is the germy-est thing in a hotel room and that the bedspread is probably a close second. I changed into my pjs and left my clothes in a pile at the side of the bed (because it’s ok to do that in a hotel for some reason) and then I crawled between the cool white sheets under the heavy bedspread and flipped on the television to watch whatever was on, just because it was on. Free from guilt, I thoroughly enjoyed the soda and candy bar (from the vending machine of course) on the bedside table (I guess calories don’t count in hotels either).

As it did twenty years ago, our hotel room offered a small bubble-like oasis for our little family.

The next morning we woke up slowly and watched some more TV and indulged in the continental breakfast (we took full advantage of the calorie-not-counting deal) and then packed up to head back home.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, I have to confess, I looked back – with just a little longing at the fact that we had turned in our keys to our small little corner of paradise. But was cheered by the fact that I know that delight is waiting for us again – just beyond the next hotel room door.