Hotel in Dublin

[kevin_standlee]

...no, not the one where this year's Eurocon will be; the one in California. Specifically, tonight I'm at the Holiday Inn Dublin, California, checking off one more goal on the IHG Big Win promotion. Tomorrow, Lisa is coming down and meeting me in Sacramento, where we have a joint errand about which I will write more later because I don't want to jinx it, then going to Yuba City to pull more boxes out of storage into my minivan, then staying tomorrow night in Sacramento before heading home Sunday.

I got away from work at about 3 PM today, but had several errands to run, including getting the oil changed on my minvan at the Jiffy Lube in Newark where they know me well, and with Bay Area Friday traffic, I didn't get to Dublin until around 6 PM. This is an older hotel property, not accessible friendly, and has odd half-steps here and there, one of which quite literally tripped me up and sent me sprawling as I wheeled my luggage through the door. As I lay there on my back trying to get my wind back, a family coming back from the pool rounded the corner and found me spread out there. I'm sure it looked worse than it really was. They helped me get to my feet and regather my belongings. I was just relieved that my computer (on my back in my pack) took no harm from me rolling over onto it.

I spoke to Lisa this evening. We're concerned about the late-season snow expected tomorrow over Donner. Her pickup should be good for it, though; it has 4WD and snow tires. Fortunately, the forecast for Sunday is clear, so our little two-car convoy should be okay to go then.

Comments

[dave-gallaher.livejournal.com]

That hotel is the old Howard Johnson's hotel; I think it was old when it was new.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of the hotel that hosted Portland's Furlandia convention, which I can fairly say was not the most con friendly facility I've seen.

(Some people think floors should occur in integer numbers. Ceilings, too, come to think of it. Hallways are often useful inside buildings, either in the interior or along an outside edge, but rarely parallel to the building at a two meter distance. The zig-zag ramp was just confusing.)

[delosharriman]

You only make me think of the Escher Hilton in Rye, long-time venue for Lunacon.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I've heard tales. I hope Lunacon was never viewed as acceptable collateral damage and a prime looting opportunity in an ongoing war between hotel staff and hotel management. Not that I'm pointing a finger or anything.

[delosharriman]

Err, no, by all accounts Lunacon has long been a welcomed by hotel staff. Apparently it's much more fun to be around than some kind of religious group which customarily takes one of the adjacent weekends.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

I believe it!

Upon further consideration, the previously mentioned situation may not be fully accurate. Apparently there was actually a three way war between the owners, management, and some hotel workers who had fantasies about being paid to do stuff. (Their fantasies about job security had gone away a long time before, as the hotel was about to close for good, and had been on the verge of this Any Day Now for at least a year and a half.) As far as I heard we never found out who raided the ice cream supply on Sunday, only that the con went from 'please come to the afters party and help us eat all this' to 'no, we don't have any ice cream' quite suddenly.

We don't appreciate good hotels until we see some alternatives.