Five on Friday - July 10, 2015

It's Friday!!  Hopefully here in St. Louis the weekend will bring some actual summertime weather.  We've had cold and rain all week so I'm very hopeful we'll actually get to see the sun some this weekend.  The cloudy weather has definitely made me a tad bit grumpy.  I'm sure Eric is glad I was out of town this week so he didn't have to live through it.  I also took a little unplanned blogging break.  Work and life was just a bit too hectic to put some words together for a blog.  But I'm glad to be back and here's my five for this week:

1.  Me Before You
Guys -- I loved this book!  After seeing it mentioned on several blogs, I thought I'd give it a try.  I started reading it on Saturday afternoon and had a hard time doing anything else last weekend besides sitting and reading!  I finished it on Monday and was sad it ended.  If you're looking for a book, I recommend this one.  As an added bonus, it's only $2.99 in Kindle version right now.  Here's what Amazon says about it:

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

To purchase, click HERE

2.  The Peabody

A couple weeks ago we headed to Memphis for a couples shower and stayed at the Peabody.  Great experience!  We got a fabulous deal using Priceline's Name Your Own Price, so staying there didn't drain our bank account.  If you're ever headed to Memphis, I'd definitely recommend checking out this hotel and Priceline as a way to save some bucks.  The hotel is famous for the ducks -- as a matter of fact, duck things are everywhere!  Watching the live ones parade into the fountain in the morning and march out in the evening after their all day swim is rather entertaining.

3.  National Pina Colada Day

Break out the tiny umbrellas guys because it's National Pina Colada Day!!  This is not my typical drink to order (unless I'm poolside in Cancun), but today might be the perfect day to order one of these up.  Here's a little recipe I found on allrecipes.com:

Ingredients:
~ 1 fluid ounce light rum
~ 1 fluid ounce amber rum
~ 3 fluid ounces pineapple juice
~ 2 fluid ounces sweet and sour mix
~ 2 fluid ounces cram of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)
~ 1 fluid ounce half-and-half cream
~ 1/4 fluid ounce dark rum (optional)

Directions:
1.  Pour the light rum, amber rum, pineapple juice, sweet and sour mix, cream of coconut, and half-and-half cream into the pitcher of a blender with ice; blend until the cocktail has a slushy texture.  Pour the slushy mixture into a glass.
2.  Slowly and gently drizzle the dark rum over the drink so it just floats on top; serve.

4.  Salted Caramel Peanuts
These sound so yummy to me -- how about to you?!?  Putting them on my shopping list right now to look for when I head to the store.  These salty/sweet babies would be great to munch on.  I'm also picturing them chopped up and served on ice cream with some caramel sauce on top.  Yep -- that's how I'm going to try them.

                                 

5.  How true is this....

We're headed to the Muny (our outdoor theater in St. Louis) tonight to see Holiday Inn.  For the third week in a row there's a chance of rain.  Cross your fingers the rain doesn't happen after 7:00 pm!!  There's lots of chores on my agenda for the rest of the weekend.  I'll be back on Monday with a recap.  

Hope you enjoy the next couple of days and have tons of summer time fun!

Linking up with:

Rebecca at XOXO Rebecca

Jennie at The Diary of a Real Housewife

Amy at The Farmer's Wife

Amanda at Meet At The Barre

Erika at Little Bit of Everything

Hill Collection

Simply Sweet Home
High Five for Friday
5 on Friday 
The Jenny Evolution
Serenity Now
Blonde Ambition

Charleston - Where We Stayed

Our trip to Charleston was definitely enhanced by the hotel where we stayed.  DISCLAIMER:  We really enjoy a good hotel.  I recognize this isn't important to some people and I totally get that.  There are times when we are just looking for a cheap, clean place to rest our heads.  But for this trip, we chose to spend the extra money and stay at a nicer hotel.  For our trip to Charleston, I didn't have a ton of time to research different hotel options so I made my decision pretty quick. Luckily the hotel we choose - French Quarter Inn - was a WINNER!

Photo courtesy of French Quarter Inn

Upon arrival, you are greeted with a glass of champagne (how fun is that!).   Our room was ready even though we were checking in early so we were able to dump our bags and relax a little before heading out and about.  Entering the room you were greeted with soft music playing in the background.  I immediately began to feel relaxed and cozy.  Jenny, the great lady working the front desk, was able to steer us to a trendy lunch spot in addition to making dinner reservations for us.  Actually, every staff member we encountered was friendly and had great recommendations on things to do and places to see.

The French Quarter Inn has a wonderful turn of the century look and feel.  With quaint sitting spaces and fireplace in the lobby, you feel as though you are being welcomed by a close friend instead of staying at a hotel.

                                         

Each afternoon around 5:30 pm the hotel hosted a little wine and cheese spread.  It was great to come back to the hotel after being out all day to a glass of wine and plate of cheese before getting ready for our dinner adventure.

                                          

Then around 8:30 pm they would set out cookies, milk and port wine.  Yes, please!  This is not to overshadow the fabulous turn down service.  Each evening, the hotel-provided robes were neatly placed on the bed and chocolates were left on the desk.  I'm talking nice chocolates, you guys. Accompanying the chocolates was a note filling you in on weather information for the next day - what the morning and afternoon temperature were going to be, time of sunrise and sunset, and sky prediction.  This was sweet info to have when planning your clothes for the next day and knowing what time to be at the Battery to watch the sunset (you won't want to miss the sunset at the Battery and I'll show some pictures when I post about the attractions in Charleston).

Bicycles are also provided by the hotel if you want to pedal around town.  It was a bit chilly on our visit to take advantage of this amenity, but maybe next time.

The down side to the hotel (and it was my own fault) was we had three different rooms in 5 days.  There was an internet special for an upgraded room the two days in the middle of our stay.  So, the first day we stayed in a traditional room, moved to a suite for two days, then had to move to another room our last night.  The hotel did upgrade our room the final night to a larger room with a fireplace and balcony - SWEET!  In retrospect, I probably would have just stayed in the traditional room the entire time.  But it was fun getting to see all the different room types. And fun having a fireplace and balcony our last night.  Okay, maybe changing rooms was worth it.

To recap, here's my top and bottom five for the hotel:

Top Five

1.  Free complimentary breakfast delivered to the room each morning -- breakfast is not just a donut and juice.  We had quiche, halved brulee grapefruit, Greek yogurt parfait, and petite charcuterie and cheese.  Oh, and I almost forgot, Bloody Marys. 

2.  Location -- placed at 166 Church Street, this smaller hotel is very centrally located which made walking easy to the many attractions and restaurants in downtown Charleston.

3.  Overall amenities -- wine in the evening, cookies before bed, chocolates at turn down.  NICE!  They also have complimentary drinks (fruit infused water, rosemary lemonade, iced tea, coffee and hot teas) in the hallways and lobby all day.  Lots of pampering!
4.  Friendliness of staff -- seriously EVERYONE was kind and pleasant.  No bad experience or attitude from this staff.
5.  Newspaper placed on your door -- not just thrown on the ground like yesterday's trash.  It is actually hanging from your door in a cute little bag.  And we received a paper on Saturday (most hotels, if they give you a paper, is just Monday-Friday).

Bottom Five

1.  Having to change rooms -- again, my fault.

Ummmm, I really can't think of anything else.  So I guess this is my bottom one.

Sorry for the lack of great pictures from the hotel -- I didn't realize I had taken so few until after we had left.  You can visit their website to see their official photos.

I'll have upcoming posts on places we ate and things we did soon.  For now, I need to adjust to the reality of making my own bed and setting the alarm.

Special shout out to the adorable lady we sat next to on the first leg of our flight home - Amy.  She was travelling back home from her grandmother's funeral and we had the best talk the entire flight.  Isn't it great when you meet someone fun to talk to on airplanes?!?!