For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to start our trip north after work on Friday. We've done the drive straight before, and have said we would never do it again! I found a reasonable rate at a Westin hotel off I-95 in Delaware, which split the drive almost in half. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the hotel was and it was even better that they allowed dogs for free. It's really difficult to travel with a dog on a budget. We've stayed at a Red Roof Inn before - which I won't do again - and I find myself tirelessly looking for nice, pet-friendly hotels, that are just off the highway. I just can't justify spending a lot of money on a room that we will only be in for 7-9 hours - to sleep. The hotel stay in Delaware was pleasant, but we arrived after midnight and Rose had been sleeping in the car all evening, so she did not want to go to bed. We opted to sleep in Saturday morning and get a late checkout so we could swim in the pool for a bit.
Heading north is a little easier than coming south. Since we can leave after work on the way up, the DC traffic isn't usually too bad. We are almost guaranteed to hit traffic on the way south. In an effort to beat the insanely horrible south-of-DC traffic, we opted for another Westin Hotel just outside of DC in Tysons Corner. I found a AAA rate of $59 for the hotel which is pet friendly (and free for pets), had good reviews, was right off the highway, and had an easy cancellation policy. I knew the pool was going to be out-of-service for repairs, but we didn't plan on using the pool anyway. We spent the whole day Saturday getting from Rhode Island to DC. We made great time to New Haven and then stopped to visit with friends for a few hours. Unfortunately, the afternoon travel was not as smooth as the morning and we hit bad traffic out of New Haven, CT and again in northern Maryland. Instead of arriving at the hotel at my planned 7pm, we didn't get there until closer to 10pm. I was tired, having left RI at 9:30am, and was grateful that the front desk staff was extremely friendly and quick with the check-in process. Because of Rose's poor sleeping on the trip up, and Darwin's occasion barking at sounds in the hallway, I asked if we could be away from high traffic areas and away from other guests (or they would be mad at a crying baby!). I was told we were set up in a suite already and that it was somewhat close to the elevator, but gave us a lot of room. The closest guests were 4 rooms away, so I agreed to the suite. I was not prepared for the room we received!
It had a living area with a dining room table, pull-out couch, treadmill and other exercise equipment - AND - had a separate bedroom/bathroom with another TV, office work station, and lounge area! I've never been placed in such a large room, especially for $60! It's too bad we arrived at 10p and had to depart early to beat the DC traffic. I'm not sure how I got the room, but I was glad we did. It made putting Rose to bed easier (she cries it out a little and settles down to sleep), even if she didn't stay asleep long. And it gave Darwin his own sleeping quarters - which I'm sure he loved! They even supplied us with a doggie bed - which Darwin didn't use because he thinks he's human and wants to be on the couch.
The few winks of sleep we did get were enough to get us through the drive from DC to NC - which only took just over 4 hours with our 8am departure. We were tired, but not nearly as bad as the time we tried driving from NYC straight through the night when Rose was 3 months old.
Every time we do the drive, we say we are going to fly next time. I guess we'll have to wait and see what we do when next time comes.
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| The living area |
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| The living area with its exercise equipment |
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| The bedroom and the crib the hotel provided |
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| A second look at the bedroom |
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