happy
Yes, we're doing a weekend trip to Tonopah, Nevada. Don't laugh! There are a number of things we've always wanted to see here while we've been passing through, but for which there has never been time. I'll write about them here and in subsequent messages.
One advantage of Tonopah is that a suite here costs less than an ordinary hotel room in Sacramento or the Bay Area. I splurged a bit and surprised Lisa by booking the Diamond Jim Suite. Here's what it looks like just after you come in the door, standing next to the bar.
Yes, really! The suite includes an actual bar. Here's Kuma Bear asking for a root beer.
Check out the detail behind the bar.
You have to provide your own utensils and supplies, of course, but imagine what sort of room party you could hold here.
The only drawback is that the bar is right inside the door. At a convention, this would be quite a bottleneck.
In the spacious parlor, there is a sofa (with a sofa-bed if you're filling the room with people), a fairly good sized work desk area (with power outlets you can reach without having to climb behind a bed), and a refrigerator, but no microwave oven.
There's a king bed. The sofa faces a television set attached to the wall.
The bathroom is decently sized, but there's an oddity here.
While there is a tub-shower combo, there's no spout to fill the bathtub. This makes it difficult (not impossible) to take a bath.
After checking in to our suite, we went next door to Raley's (the former Scolari's). There aren't a lot of hotels that have a full-service grocery store sharing their parking lot. It's very convenient. Unfortunately, we left the plastic spoons/forks/knives sitting on the counter at home, but we picked up a couple from a convenience store later than evening.
By then it was time for dinner. We went back downtown and stopped at the historic Mizpah Hotel. We originally had considered staying here, but Lisa looked at the photos of the rooms and said it was a bit too ornate to her taste. However, we decided to try the hotel restaurant. The Jack Dempsey Room is only open for special events, but the Pittman Cafe looked appetizing.
We all had tonight's special, which was salmon in a creamy lemon-dill sauce with mushrooms over pasta. Kuma Bear approved of this choice.
After dinner we explored the hotel's public areas, which are lovely.
Had we actually held a Westercon in Tonopah, this hotel would have likely been a popular place to stay, as it is only a block away from the Tonopah Convention Center.
A just-past-new moon was setting over downtown Tonopah as we returned to the car. Even from downtown, we could see how this place has the reputation as a good place to look at the night sky. My phone's camera is no good for taking these sorts of photos, though.
We returned to the hotel, unloaded the car, and settled in to our room. Although we have multiple things planned for the next couple of days, we're not rushing around, and I'm on a short vacation and don't have to worry about getting up at 4:45 AM.