Good Vibes from Residence Inn

I have to say that for the past two hockey trips we've made, we've had good experiences with the Residence Inn, especially this past weekend in Auburn. We reserved a room for two nights and even though I was bummed about spending the money getting a hotel and eating out, N had a lot of fun, and it's always nice being around hockey families. You have a really strong common bond. It didn't help that we've been traveling a fair amount for hockey but what are you going to do?

Anyway, the complication and sort-of bummer about this weekend was that it was highly possible that we weren't going to play on Sunday, but we couldn't know for sure. If we played, we would need a hotel for Saturday night, but if we didn't, a Saturday night stay would be frivolous. We wouldn't really know until Saturday afternoon, and by that time it would be a challenge to get a room at the last minute. The simplest and most straightforward way was to reserve the room for two nights and just suck it up if we didn't play on Sunday.

Sure enough, after Saturday's AM game (7:00AM, no less), which we lost, combined with Friday's loss, it was clear that we were not playing on Sunday. We had one more game Saturday afternoon and then we were done with hockey for that weekend. I figured we would play the game, stay in the hotel where N could swim and we would watch TV and eat junk food, and then head home Sunday morning. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised to hear from a few of the other parents that they were leaving Saturday afternoon, and that the hotel was amenable to checking out early. Talk about stoked!

I went to the front desk and they said yes, we could cancel Saturday night and to just let them know ASAP. I let her know right then and there. I'm thinking N was a little disappointed that he wasn't going to be able to swim and hang out with his buddies, but truth be told, most of his teammates were leaving that day, anyway. I think maybe LR was staying, and N really likes hanging with him, but mean old dad had to override the plan and get home. It was still early so we had plenty of time to pack up and clean the room, which I did while N hung out with his friends. We loaded up the car, checked out, and headed to the rink. The plan was to play the game, get some lunch, and then hit the road. It isn't easy doing a long drive when you've been up since 5:30AM, but I was eager to get home, so my pining for my family sustained me. We were able to save some money, the drive home wasn't so bad, and we got home at a reasonable time. N was even able to go to the town dance, thanks in no small part to the good vibes and flexibility of the Residence Inn.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks for for the pic, and thanks to Remington Marriott for the pic.