I'm old. I remember a time before cell phones, cell phones without cameras, and cameras that required film film. Also, a time before the internet. The first hotel I ever found online was for a vacation in New Orleans. That was back when I didn't have a computer/internet at home so I had to do "online things" at work. I booked the hotel and flew in the night before, friends were flying the next day. The driver of the shuttle didn't want to leave me at the hotel. "Are you sure Miss? Well okay then, you be careful, I'll stay right here until you're inside." Inside meant buzzing to have a small window opened and the gated door then unlocked. Hell no I wasn't sure, but what other option did I have? That hotel taught me how careful cropping, and a little Photoshop magic, can make anything look good on the internet. Maybe someday I'll hunt down the printed photos from that vacation and scan them to share here. It was an amazing time, food poisoning, middle of the night hotel fire, and all.
Our hotel for the first two nights of our January trip to Southern California had me thinking back to the dangers of online booking. Oh it was nothing like the New Orleans adventure, but comparing what Andrew thought he had booked, to reality? Well there were a few less than subtle differences. And yes, this was a "name brand" hotel. One that had obviously slipped through their regulatory cracks.
Still, we were in California, so it wasn't all bad...
Our room didn't have a pool view, but I could see enough from the lobby that I wandered out to investigate.
I must have shown up just after the mow-n-blow crew had been through to take care of the landscaping.
And take care of it they did. Damn plant! It has more than three leaves! Must put a stop to that...
Ferns are supposed to be trimmed into balls...
Really, they respond well to this kind of thing.
Right?
Oh the kittys, there were several feral cats hiding behind pots and under chairs. They looked to be in pretty good shape. Note the reflective surface of the pot, that's water. Standing water.
Parts of the pool area seemed hugely disconnected from the current style of the hotel. I wonder what it was like in it's prime?
More standing water. I saw this a lot in my travels. Poor SoCal people aren't used to dealing with downpour after downpour.
Well that's unexpected!
And ornate.
I wonder how often Lily occupied her throne?
Does that mean the munchkins and the lollipop guild?
Is that Lily? (cool!)
Back to the plants...oh to live somewhere that sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas) looks like this in January!
Strelitzia nicolai
And seeds! Sorry for the blurry photo, but I had to include it, what with that orange goo.
So Lily's throne had definite 80's overtones to it, where as these all look to be older, with of course a few patch-jobs along the way.
This has got to be vintage, yes?
And then it fades into something a little more modern.
And back to vintage. I was a little self conscious taking these photos, since the windows above are for the breakfast/dining room/bar. I can see now there aren't many people in there but I wasn't sure as I was working my way around outside.
But heck, I was in the sunshine under blue skies and palms, so really, all was good in my world. Crazy strange hotel or not.
Weather Diary, March 6th: Hi 46, Low 34/ Precip .08
All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.
Funny you mention this about before internet. I thought yesterday when I was a kid and my friends went on far away holidays booking a week in the sun with just one photo in a holiday catalogue to go by. Insane now when you think of it.
ReplyDeleteReally it was! I remember my parents putting together vacations for us after requesting hotel pamphlets in the mail and pouring over them.
DeleteI was just reading a book about a garden in England where the couple who created it shopped at a 300-year-old family nursery! Can you even imagine such a thing when you compare it to pruning ferns. I learned that lesson of not letting the photo fool you from early catalogs years before the internet. After a couple of surprises, I always measured and read the descriptions very closely.
ReplyDeleteGreat comparison, knowledge and history...compared to blow through as fast as possible with no knowledge or care whatsoever.
DeleteOh to be in Socal and away from this gray wet and snowy business. Thanks for the tip about fern pruning, I'll go out right away and trim mine into balls. The tile work is nifty, especially the vintage stuff.
ReplyDeleteYour neighbors are going to be so impressed!
DeleteThat tile bench is cool, one of a kind. The plant trimming made me cringe. I'm surprised you guys don't always stay at the same place every time you go to SoCal. I'm most definitely old enough to remember a time before cell phones and the internet. I had many a vacation where I stayed in some dubious places.
ReplyDeleteSoCal, and especially the L.A. area is so vast that's not really possible, we base the area on what we plan on doing during that particular visit. So we don't spend the whole trip in traffic.
DeleteThis post makes me sad for some reason, nostalgic too. Need to get back to SoCal sometime...
ReplyDeleteMe too, like tomorrow! (this cold rainy "spring" is getting me down)
DeleteI even had standing water in some of my pots for a time until the discovery set me on a regular check-and-drain procedure after each new rainstorm. You're right that we're not used to that!
ReplyDeleteI was most amazed at the pots with no drainage at the Getty. They were so heavy too that tipping them over was not gonna be an option.
DeleteThank god for Google street view, I visit every new-to-me hotel that way before I book it. Back in the olden days I was a travel agent for a few years and I was obsessed with studying maps.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am turning into a curmudgeon , but the mow blow thing has really become a giant issue for me. Those ferns are just ludicrous.
Me too (street view)! I usually book all of our hotels, this one however was mainly a work trip for Andrew, and he was making the plans for himself and 2 other employees. Since I was just tagging along I stayed out of it. Over on my dg Facebook page someone commented that she stayed in a hotel in Australia where the crew had pruned the Bromeliads like that. Can you imagine!?
DeleteAnd Euphorbia Sticks on Fire - bet you didn't know it could (should!!???) be pruned to a nice rectangle... I thought of you the other day when I saw that one, but I didn't grab a picture. Maybe better not ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat tile work is fun!
Are you serious!? OMG. And that latex goo must have been running everywhere...
DeleteYep, go figure...
DeleteHa! We learned a similar lesson the first time we reserved a hotel over the internet. This was in Forks, Washington. It turned out to be a motel for migrant lumberjacks, complete with torn window screens, doors that couldn't close, and landscaping that consisted mostly of whitewashed tires.
ReplyDeleteYou guys win!
DeleteImagine the possibilities with airb&b.
ReplyDeleteRight!?! So many people I know have been very happy with their AirB&B experience but the whole idea scared the bejesus out of me.
DeleteThis was the City of Commerce? That tells a local something right there. There was never an era of prime. Still, it was sunny, right?
ReplyDelete