This time would be different! I had come into a free stay at the Olympia Resort and my girlfriend and I decided we needed some girl-time away. It was only 25 minutes away, but at least it was away. We're both busy and trying to save money so a full vacation was just out of the question right now. We packed up our things, made sure we had enough Smirnoff Raw Tea to last our 2 night stay, and headed West on Thursday afternoon. I'm pretty certain we didn't stop talking the whole way there. We pull up and right away I see a wedding tent. A perfectly pitched white tent with french windows sitting on the side lawn area. Ahhhh!!!...a wedding while we're here! My immediate thought is to go in and take a peak, but I drive forward resisting the urge to see the wedding plan unfold.
If you've never been to the Olympia Resort, well, it's...um....it's old. And outdated. They must have recently updated the public area furniture because it's all leather and very inviting. But then it sits among the brass railings that are everywhere and the green and pink motif that surrounds it. Whatever, we think....there's a pool and drinks and girl-chat! Who cares! We proceed to check in with the Front Office Manager, who somehow we have been able to sweet-talk into a balcony room with free spa access. We've also somehow been able to make this nice young man quite nervous with us. It was one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. Once in our room we both dive into it checking it out. Being that I'm still a hotel girl that works in the industry and Michelle used to...this is just normal. Friends that travel with hotel people don't understand it, but we literally check everything. For dirt, for hair, for scratches, for missing items...you name it, we check it. It's funny to others, but not to us.
Our room left little to be desired. Again, it's old and comes complete with matching grandma's house draperies and bedspread. There is a full imprint of an iron on the carpet, and the balcony is crawling with bugs and webs that could have easily been wiped down on a regular cleaning basis. But we have a view of the pool and the lake that is beyond that. The pool! We decide to have a drink and head to the pool. We only laid out there for 2 hours and boy, did we get sun! After showering and changing and making more fun of this resort, we go downtown and find an Irish Pub to eat and have some beers. A friend that lives in the area meets us out and suddenly the night in the Downtown OC is getting out of hand. I'm pretty sure we made it into almost every bar that the area offers. We finally decide to head back to the Resort with a Taco Bell run included. I believe the last time I had Taco Bell was in college. That's why girl trips are so damn fun!
The next day we sleep in, eat a free breakfast at their restaurant, and head to the pool. Today we clocked 4 hours at the pool and you could tell. I'm lucky I brown up pretty well, but poor Michelle forgot sunblock on the back of her legs. Once inside, we watch Oprah like gal pals do, showered and got ready for dinner. We decided to go to Delafield and check out the Delafield Brewhaus. I had been there a few years ago and remembered it to be good. A 35 minute wait for a table meant drinkies at the bar. Vodka drinkies. Yikes. It was great though, we had drinks and ate an amazing fish fry and then decided to head back to the resort to check out the bar they had, Club Indigo. I think this will say it all:
We sipped more Vodka drinks in order to deal with the freaky blue images on the walls. There was a DJ, there were very young "kids", there was a darling bartender, and then there was John, the 40-year old man who apparently was only interested in going home with us. Weird, but so much better when he shoved his drink away and stomped out. Victory! The evening ended with a 1:30am bedtime and the getaway ended about 8 hours later when we packed up our things and headed back to Shorewood, back home. Hugs and promises to do this again and our girl time was over. It was so great though and reminded me that I need to take time to do this more often. So, I'm already trying to figure out what little off the beaten path town we're going to visit next! The only requirements are an outdoor pool and drinks of course!
3 comments:
I had a conference once at the Olympia....saying it needs to be updated is like saying Milwaukee can be "kind of" humid in the summer.
I was being super nice. Trying to maintain my professional hotel side and all. But oy vey! The pool was the only saving grace.
LOL. I still do the same thing, and didn't start doing that until I worked in hotels. Too funny to know I'm not the only "freak," as Nate so sweetly refers to me.
Post a Comment