Our plans to Phoebe's and Brent's wedding in Fayetteville got mixed up by circumstances beyond our control (new nannies, sick children and aging dogs to be specific); but we were determined to make the trip. Our original reservation at a Marriott Courtyard was cancelled and the hotel was full when we tried to rebook. We began our road trip with no place to stay the night. Leaving from D.C. we expected to arrive in N.C. around eleven or twelve o'clock, plenty of time for a good night's sleep and ample time to get to the one o'clock wedding. Somewhere south of Richmond, Va. we started calling hotels and asking things like: how new is your hotel and what's the nicest place in town? It's frustrating to reach central reservations and ask a person (in God knows where) which of the two Marriots is closer to Fayetteville, much less what the differences are between the two hotels. Finding direct lines to hotels is harder than you think on a Blackberry.
We opted to stay in Raleigh, mostly because it was the closest option but also because it had more choices of full service hotels. We chose the Marriott City Center because it was the newest, and had a restaurant, bar and Starbucks in the lobby. Constructed in 2008 on a revitalized strip of downtown, where there was plenty of action in terms of restaurants and bars nearby. Exhausted from the drive, we decided to valet the car, check in, and head to the lobby bar for a quick cocktail and fried green tomatoes (which were great!) before hitting the beds. We had room service for breakfast (also surprisingly good) which sped up our morning prep and hit the road quickly for the wedding.
We didn't notice until we were pulling away that there was a Krispy Kreme next door, which was probably a good thing!
