Luxury Lounging

As mentioned in my last Friday Fill-Ins post, we got to spend this past weekend in the Presidential Suite at the Park Plaza Hotel. Let me just tell you.... this place was FABULOUS!

Ilyana was, of course, right at home. She ran around and played the piano butt nekkid as if she had been living this way her whole life. She must have been royalty in a past life or something, because I was totally in AWE of this place, and here she was, acting as if she belonged there at one year old.

Friday night, we arrived, parked, and got ready to go out to dinner sans Bendy... We don't get to do that too often, so when Mom offered to take her, we were totally there! We walked to the restaurant, an awesome asian place called Jae's... Got a couple of good pics on the way, but my ass almost froze off so we decided to take the T on the way back. Well, I should say ATTEMPT to take the T. See, we got on the wrong line, and we thought our stop was the first one... turns out it dumped us two blocks over from where we should be and only about half of the distance back to the hotel. So I still froze my ass on the way back, too. Seriously. I thought I was gonna need a butt amputation or something. But I survived... Here are some cool pics from the walk:

A little bit of red, white and blue we spotted on the skyline...

Random street block

Hubby plays with the camera in a sidewalk mirror

My artistic alley find

When we were done with dinner and our freezing walk, we went back and relaxed for the night. We didn't want to try and cram too much into one night and get run down... Plus, how often do you get to relax in a suite that EVERY PRESIDENT since the 1920's has stayed in?!?

Yeah, me neither.

The suite was A-freakin-MAZING!

Here is one of the sitting areas in the living room space. There's Bendy in the middle, just for a little perspective. The bar is right behind her...

Here's a closer view of the bar, with my Stepdad David!

Well, hello again, David. I see you are sitting in the OTHER living area. tee hee.

The grand piano which sat in between the two living room sitting areas.

And here is the dining area.

Here is a shot of the kitchen/ bar area. Yeah... I hope my kitchen looks this chic someday! Notice the fruit plate and petit-fours they left us? They left something new for us to eat every day. Yum, yum! Check out some of our goodies:

Everything they served us was so fancy-shmancy! Will re-arranged some of it to get this pretty lil shot.

Spring water in wine bottles.

Truffles... mmmm....

Almost all of the food they gave us, like these nuts, was in edible containers. This one is made of peanut brittle. You can see from how much of it is gone that is was oh-so-good.

More and more fruit!

The suite had three bedrooms and five bathrooms. I don't know why, but we didn't get any good shots of EITHER (that's right, we had two!) of our bathrooms, and we only got this of our bedroom, which isn't very impressive to look at if you could have seen the WHOLE space:

I do have to say, though, that compared to my bed... This IS impressive. haha.

We made sure to get some shots of each of us sitting at the desk in the private office in our suite.We couldn't go without them, knowing that past Presidents had probably sat there to make some important executive decisions. Who doesn't like to feel big and important?

Bendy sitting at the big, honking, GORGEOUS desk which I am pretty sure had a leather inlay... Niiiccceeeee...

Some very important business...

I just love the face he is making! Like he is trying to decide whether to deploy the troops or not... Or maybe he's just trying to stifle a toot... hmmm...

Fancy offices make one feel very high-class, you know.

Oh, look! I can put on a pretty face when I try!

I had to be a little wacky.

This was our view from the living room, both at daytime and at night. Personally, I prefer the night-time view.


Day:

Night:

And here are just some more cute pics of the Ruggle. I got a few great ones of her looking down into the marble floor... She thought there was a baby trapped in there at first, because she could see her reflection. She found it very amusing...

I see you, baby!

And we, of course, found her amusing... As per usual.

Hamming it up for the Grumps.

Sneaking spicy cocktail mix leftover from the party the night before...

Saturday, we took Ilyana to the aquarium for the first time. It was fun... But it was SO crowded that we didn't even get to look at some of the exhibits. People were pushing past us, and it took about twenty minutes just to get back to our locker. So yeah, note to self- next time, go during the week. I think the girl was a little overwhelmed, because she didn't want to touch the animals in the tide pools and it seemed like she was more excited about getting back on the T (which she loved!!) than seeing the fish... fishes... Yes, they are both words. The aquarium says so.

Ilyana especially loved the jellies! This was one of the least crowded parts of the aquarium, so we got right up close to the glass with them. Some of them are so beautiful...

Funky glowy jellyfish!

We also liked it when Mr. Turtle in the big tank swam right up to our glass!

But not so much Mr. Scary Eel. Although Illy seemed less freaked by him than I did.... What?! He's creepy!

We just thought this *star* fish was cool. Is that what it is?? I don't know... it has a lot more arms than a typical starfish...

Nifty shot Dada took of the tank looking up.

And a little ray, too. I didn't even see him. I guess Dada Rugg has a better eye than I. heh.

I've always loved the penguins! They are so cute. Illy thought it was funny that they were taking a *shower* (they have mist sprayed onto them from nozzles.)


After the aquarium, the girl was due for a nap, and Dada Rugg decided to pass on shopping in Boston with the ladies... hmm... wonder why...
They went back to the suite for a much-needed nap and relax, while Mom and I tromped around Boston for another few hours. I do have to say, though, that our shopping trip was lacking. I couldn't find what I was looking for, and it took us forever to find my Mom's stuff! By the end, we were beat and our feet were saying "ow, ow". So we went back to the room. I couldn't wait to relax around the nice room, and sort of felt bad for my Mom, who still had a long night ahead of her... She had the big awards ceremony for NEPA to attend and afterwards, a cocktail party in our suite. So she had no time to rest! Her and my Stepdad got all gussied up:


Don't they look so nice?

Smiling on the outside, but inside... Her feet are saying OW, OW.


And went off to their big awards ceremony.

Of course, Mom had to come back a while later, after I had gotten the Bend up and bathed and ready, to give her some lovin' and bring her downstairs to show her off at the dinner...



I just love this photo! *Pats self on back*

Oh hello Momma, are you going to let me go to the awards ceremony? Pretty please?

So off went the Ruggle to show herself off and suck up to the peeps. They all loved her, of course.

This weekend was really amazing- more than I could have expected, a once in a lifetime experience to be treasured always.

Thanks again Mom and David! You. Guys. Seriously. ROCK! :) Love yaaaaaa....