Hello, tender friends!
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, and our little trip to West Virginia brought us to one of the most unique hotels I have ever stayed at.
It didn’t look like anything unusual from the outside and actually needs some renovations , but I immediately fell in love on the porch outside the lobby. A docile kitty with a big belly rubbed against our legs and licked our hands as we stooped to pet her on the way in.
“Kitty!” cooed Jacob, as he rubbed her all over. He sat next to her and laughed as she rubbed against him.
Childhood. Easy delight. A slice of heaven in a podunk town.
We were in a town called Frost (yes, even the name was quaint), an area so remote that I never had to worry even if Jacob ran outside alone. It’s just one of those places where you knew there are so few people that bad things don’t happen. The hotel workers told me they leave their keys in their vehicles, unlocked, all the time.
Then there was the inside of the hotel. That multi-story library is one of the prime hang out spots.
You know that I just had to climb up that library ladder and pretend that I was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Oh, and this spiral staircase? I love spiral staircases because I imagine myself ascending and descending them in ball gowns. Maybe that’s childish, but the fantasy lives on.
Living in Virginia, I have no reason to ever wear ball gowns. One of the things I miss most about where I grew up was how my friends and I could buy impractically fancy dresses in high school and college and wear them out casually in the city. Gah, I miss that. I still think about a red satin dress I bought for a night out my senior year of college. The cut and color were perfect, and I felt so alive that night.
Ok, back to the hotel.
The upper floor was filled with decorative carousels and the most beautiful kaleidoscopes I’ve ever seen. It also had this amazing game room.
And this circular floor void with surrounding balustrade is not something I’ve ever seen in a hotel. It made me swoon. I’ve always been a sucker for unique architectural details.
A farm-fresh breakfast was part of the stay, around tables with proper table cloths, wide-brimmed mugs of tea and coffee, and large windows with views of the morning mist rising from the mountains.
I live for is meal times in large groups, and I loved getting to mingle with the other guests while eating farm-fresh eggs, sausage and bacon with a cup of organic tea. We met guests from England and different parts of the Midwestern United States.
When the horses came out of that barn, we fed them carrots – which the front desk staff always keeps on hand. What a charming detail.
There was more, including an observatory on the top floor of the hotel that I didn’t photograph and themed rooms (ours was called “Mediterranean Cove,” my parents’ was an Oriental something, and my sister and brother-in-law’s room was sort of a country getaway theme with patchwork quilts and raw wood everywhere.)
I’ll have to get more photos on a future trip, as I may have reason to return. I actually got my first-ever travel article approved for this trip from a local magazine, but the editor left the magazine before we set a date for me to write it since my trip was up in the air. She left notes for the new editor to approve my piece as soon as they took over, but the media company hasn’t actually been able to replace her (and she was AMAZING), So that dream that almost came true is currently on hold, but maybe, just maybe, I’ll somehow publish my first-ever travel article sometime this year. And if not, that’s ok too. If it happens, I’ll share it here ASAP.
Ok, that’s all for today, tender friends. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for sharing!
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