A restaurant observa

A restaurant observation and a Hotel Recommendation

During  our trip to California I noticed a new practice at restaurants. Most of the time when they give you the menu they ask you what you would like to drink and a lot of the time we say, “Coffee, please”. The coffee comes almost immediately. Since you haven’t looked at the menu you are surprised to see that a cup of coffee is often more than a dollar. However, at IHOP in California they charged a dollar for the first cup and a dollar for every refill. Imagine your surprise when you get your bill.

We saw stuff like this a lot of the time. However, when we stayed with Donna Davi and daughter Lisa at the Oxford Suites in Redding we had a sensational deal. We rented a 2 bedroom suite with a living room, a TV in every room. Doors in every room, 2 air conditioners that worked., a coffee maker, refrigerator, microwave, couch, 2 chairs all for $123 for a night for which we split the bill. In addition there was free 24 hour coffee (and it was top notch coffee) in the dining area, Wifi for the computer hook up and the use of a computer if you didn’t have one. At 5:30 pm there were hot hor’derves and free drinks I had a couple of draft beers (Bud Lite). The hor’derves consisted of hot meatballs, several dips and finger foods. We all ate so much that dinner wasn’t necessary. In the morning there was a hot breakfast of sausages, eggs, fruit cocktail, hash browns, assorted juices, fruit, muffins, toast and oatmeal. Definitely not one of those el cheapo continental thingys.  My suggestion.. travel with friends and get a suite at the best hotels.. It is incredibly cheaper by far and a heck of a lot nicer. And they had check out at 12:00pm for late sleepers. The desk people were very nice also.