The Crown Plaza Hotel & O’Malley’s in Auburn Hills, MI (UFC 123 Weekend)

Crown Plaza in Auburn Hills, MI has to be the best hotel I have ever stayed at. (click Crown Plaza to see a slide show of where I am).

YouTube – Checking out hotel Video of Matt hugging the window a little too much LOLChecking out our fancy hotel, The Crown Plaza.I don’t want to get out of this bed, where I am typing this from.

I have stayed in quite a few hotels in my life. Some really, really gross and some have just been, well, a typical hotel.

I am quite pleased with the Crown Plaza. It has the highest ratings and it was actually cheaper than the other hotels in the area. We are on the 8th floor. I have never even stayed at a hotel that even had an 8th floor. Only two floor hotels. The thing that really gets me are the little things. This room was cheaper for us thanks to a AAA discount so in reality it is a little more than the ones around us. This fancy room cost us the same as the Bay Resort in Tawas, which you would *think* would be much more prone to small details. But they are not. Cups are plastic, coffee is plain.

Not here. We get real coffee cups, not those plastic ones that are wrapped in even more plastic. They even gave us travel coffee cups with lids. The coffee is not off brand like most places, instead we are being treated to Wolfgang Puck’s brand of coffee which he actually grows on his own land.

The bed is a nice plush king size bed with a feather bed topper and plenty of crisp clean sheets. Often, a single room has a queen bed. I know this because Matt and I tend to merge to the middle of the bed and there is not much room on either side of us. There are some hotels that offer single rooms with a king bed, but not too many. Most rooms are standard queen beds, either a single or double.

I liked the bed, don’t get me wrong. It’s awesome to sit and relax in. I am actually writing this blog post from the comforts of this bed. I feel like I am being pampered, spoiled. And with the way life has been lately, I deserve to feel this way.

Places that pay attention to small details get bonus points in my book. I am huge on customer satisfaction. Must have been all those years I had to work in retail.

We have a flat screen TV. Right now I am watching Man on Fire. Last night I watched Avatar. I don’t get to watch much TV at home, so this is a pure luxury. No dogs to take out to potty, no worries of work or homework. Even though technically I am working. Here I am posting a blog as well as working on my novel here. Quite and peaceful, not to mention relaxing is a good atmosphere for writing.

The hotel bar, O’Malley’s was your friendly, Irish Pub. We had a good time. Our waiter was awesome and the Guinness was on TAP! BONUS!! The food was pretty good too.

YouTube – At O’Malleys Having food, drinks, Guinness and dessert at the O’Malley’s pub inside our hotel. Good times.

Breakfast this morning was bacon and eggs for me, steak and eggs for Matt. Nothing too fancy, but again they pay attention to detail. Doilies on your plates, orange juice in wine glasses, pots of coffee, jelly, and peanut butter. I have never been anywhere that offered peanut butter packets! Everything just looks so pretty.

I know, I am weird. But again, these small things can make all the difference in the world.

The water glasses that every room has along with the water bucket are not typical either. The tray and bucket remind me of something that you would see in the den of someone with a lot of money, surrounded by walls of books. Brandy and whiskey bottles surrounding the glasses. These glasses are not plastic, which is what I have always had, like the coffee cups. Instead, they are glass and actually quite pretty. And there it all sits on top of the in room refrigerator. Very cool.

I know there is more, but that is all I can really think of right now.

The bed, as comfy as it is was not all that fun to sleep in. I had forgotten my pillow at home. I have a special pillow that supports my neck. Helps with all my spinal problems. These pillows, nice and fluffy and plush, and I love them, but my body does not. I woke with a bad headache, stiff neck, my hip had popped out-of-place where my disk problems are. So I am thinking a trip to the hot tub is in order before I do much of anything else. Not that I have much of a plan for today, except to chill. Tonight is going to be a long, and fun night, but I need to save what little energy I have on that.

You see, I did not sleep very well. Although we tried to go to sleep around Midnight, at 3am I was still awake. Every time Matt would move, even just the slightest, the bed would bounce. A little after 3 I was pretty frustrated and he ended up sleeping on the floor. Surprisingly he actually slept pretty good. I did not, I just could not sleep or get comfortable. It was almost 10am before we got up and around. I guess I did sleep a little, Matt said I was snoring. I know I dozed, but I know I did not stay asleep.

Friday we did not leave until about 11:30am or so. We stopped for some lunch at Joes Crab Shack, which was yummy per usual. We did some shopping at Old Navy, even though I did not find anything, Matt found a cute little winter hat. We checked into the hotel and hung around until dinner time. Matt forgot , his swim suit so he had to go to Wal Mart to get one while I stayed in the room to finish watching Avatar. We hung out in the Irish Pub, O’Malley’s located inside our hotel, for a few hours. Good food, good drinks, and great service.

Well, the battery is about to die on my laptop. The cord is around here, but I am thinking I would like to hit the hot tub before I do any more.

YouTube – Joes Crab Shack Here is a little video of Matt and I eating at Joes Crab Shack checking out my new iPod Touch and the video option!