kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2017-12-16 07:11 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2017-12-16 07:11 pm
Entry tags:
Our Trip to Sacramento
Because we were spending the night in the Sacramento area, we didn't have to rush out the door this morning, so while both Lisa and I were up relatively early, we didn't leave until after 8 AM. As planned, we went to the Peppermill for their Saturday buffet brunch, which is a much better value in our opinion than their OTT Sunday brunch. Helping the cost was a $20 rebate credit card I'd received from something a while back but forgotten about. It surfaced recently and I used it to pay toward the cost of the brunch. (Not all places understand how to do partial credit card charges, but I know the Peppermill does.) We certainly got our money's worth from brunch today. In fact, we didn't have any other meals at all today. We waddled out the door around 10:30 and set out for Sacramento.
Although it snowed a little in the Sierra overnight, it didn't affect our travels today. Lisa drove from Reno to Colfax and I read to her from an article in Trains about Union Pacific's snow-fighting operations over the Donner Pass route, and later from the latest issue we have of RAIL magazine. (Albeit that issue is about two months old; two issues showed up at once this past week.)
We went to Sacramento and spent a couple of hours visiting with my sister at the nursing home. Because of the condition of her ward-mate, I had to "gown up" to go into Kelli's room, including putting two gowns over my clothes and wearing rubber gloves and a face mask. Lisa declined to go through that and waited outside. I delivered Kelli's Christmas present, which she decided to open right away: a gift basket of cookies, chocolates, and other treats as we've done for her for the past few years. "This basket looks just like the one I have here," Kelli said.
"It should," I replied. "I bought it last year when Cost Plus World Market was doing a buy-one-get-one basket sale.
Kelli was well enough that she could disconnect from her "ground power" breathing apparatus and get out of her room in her wheelchair, so I left the room and de-kitted and washed up as directed. Presently, Kelli rolled out and joined Lisa, Kuma Bear, and me, and we went down to the smaller of the facilities' two lunch rooms and visited for a while. Kelli was feeling well enough, and the weather was still sufficiently fall-like in Sacramento, that she had Lisa roll her outside to the small park-like area on the grounds. We spent a while outside until the wind came up and we needed to retreat from it.
We were happy to be able to spend some time with Kelli without much time pressure to speak of. I promised to visit again the next time I come through, which will be in late January, weather permitting.
After leaving the nursing facility, we drove to the Fry's Electronics in Sacramento.
Lisa had on her list a number of electronic and computer-related items that are difficult or impossible to obtain in Reno. It turned out that the SSD drive she wanted was out of stock in Sacramento. "There are four of them showing in Roseville's inventory," they said. That was fine with us because our destination tonight was that direction anyway, so it was off to the Roseville Fry's. They did indeed have at least one left, and after Lisa confirmed that it was what she wanted, we bought it and headed for the hotel, after a short stop at Raley's grocery store. Although we were still not hungry, we were thirsty, and I had seen from the room description that it included a mini-fridge, so we got some drinks for the evening.
Our final destination tonight was the Hyatt Place Roseville Galleria, near (but as it happens, not near enough) to the Westfield Galleria Roseville Mall.
As per our usual practice, we first checked the room. Lisa was dismayed to find that (as is becoming all too common with many modern hotels) that they had only a shower stall, not a bathtub. The front desk said that the didn't have many rooms with bathtubs; however, they were able to find one one (room 626, one of their handicapped-accessible rooms). Lisa really was looking forward to a long soak in a full-size bathtub. We only have a shower in Fernley House. One of her long-term goals is to get a nice bathtub, either by fixing the upstairs plumbing (which has never worked) or by installing one in the ground floor bathroom.
While Lisa started unpacking, I checked to see if there was an easy way to get to the Galleria mall, which we could see across the parking lot. I have an errand there this weekend because I'm running out of my favorite after-shave lotion from Lush. There are no Lush stores in Northern Nevada either, and Roseville Galleria is the closest store to me. I discovered that while the Hyatt and the Galleria are very close to each other, they are separated by a small ravine, and while there is a place that looks like it should be the start of a bridge across the ravine, there is no bridge. One could walk back out to the main road and around, but we decided it wasn't worth it. We'll take care of it in the morning by driving over there on our way out.
Although Lisa was happy to have a nice long bath, the bathroom itself came in for criticism. The bathing/toilet room is separate from the vanity. There are no flat spaces in the bathroom other than the floor for putting stuff. There is no lid cover for the toilet, so you can't even stack stuff there. It's not a good design at all.
The room itself is huge — a mini-suite, really — but Lisa points out how much of the space is wasted by the design. There's also a big television set, with a full set of connections on a side panel (much like the Atlantis Hotel Reno has in their rooms), but I don't recall seeing that in the room description. Therefore, we didn't bring any of the connectors that would be necessary to connect the computer to the TV to watch the videos that are on either of our computers, or that we could download. I suppose that if we'd come here first before doing the rest of our day's errands, we might have known to buy cables at Fry's, but that's a bit silly. What's the point of having all of these toys if the only way to know they're here is to actually go look at it?
Speaking of downloads, I fired up the computer and connected to their wi-fi, and found a modest connection that is faster than my horridly slow home connection. But I noticed that there was an Ethernet port and tried that as well. (I did remember my patch cord.) The speed there was ten times faster than the wireless, and vastly faster than our home connection. While Lisa took a bath, I downloaded several videos that I knew she wanted but that I'd put off downloading because of how long they would take at home.
Not being a Hyatt regular (I still don't know how I ended up with enough points for this stay; it might be left over from points earned from the Calgary Westercon, years ago), it's not all that likely that we'll stay here again. However, if we do, we'll know to put in a specific room request and to carry a box of connectors.
Although it snowed a little in the Sierra overnight, it didn't affect our travels today. Lisa drove from Reno to Colfax and I read to her from an article in Trains about Union Pacific's snow-fighting operations over the Donner Pass route, and later from the latest issue we have of RAIL magazine. (Albeit that issue is about two months old; two issues showed up at once this past week.)
We went to Sacramento and spent a couple of hours visiting with my sister at the nursing home. Because of the condition of her ward-mate, I had to "gown up" to go into Kelli's room, including putting two gowns over my clothes and wearing rubber gloves and a face mask. Lisa declined to go through that and waited outside. I delivered Kelli's Christmas present, which she decided to open right away: a gift basket of cookies, chocolates, and other treats as we've done for her for the past few years. "This basket looks just like the one I have here," Kelli said.
"It should," I replied. "I bought it last year when Cost Plus World Market was doing a buy-one-get-one basket sale.
Kelli was well enough that she could disconnect from her "ground power" breathing apparatus and get out of her room in her wheelchair, so I left the room and de-kitted and washed up as directed. Presently, Kelli rolled out and joined Lisa, Kuma Bear, and me, and we went down to the smaller of the facilities' two lunch rooms and visited for a while. Kelli was feeling well enough, and the weather was still sufficiently fall-like in Sacramento, that she had Lisa roll her outside to the small park-like area on the grounds. We spent a while outside until the wind came up and we needed to retreat from it.
We were happy to be able to spend some time with Kelli without much time pressure to speak of. I promised to visit again the next time I come through, which will be in late January, weather permitting.
After leaving the nursing facility, we drove to the Fry's Electronics in Sacramento.
Lisa had on her list a number of electronic and computer-related items that are difficult or impossible to obtain in Reno. It turned out that the SSD drive she wanted was out of stock in Sacramento. "There are four of them showing in Roseville's inventory," they said. That was fine with us because our destination tonight was that direction anyway, so it was off to the Roseville Fry's. They did indeed have at least one left, and after Lisa confirmed that it was what she wanted, we bought it and headed for the hotel, after a short stop at Raley's grocery store. Although we were still not hungry, we were thirsty, and I had seen from the room description that it included a mini-fridge, so we got some drinks for the evening.
Our final destination tonight was the Hyatt Place Roseville Galleria, near (but as it happens, not near enough) to the Westfield Galleria Roseville Mall.
As per our usual practice, we first checked the room. Lisa was dismayed to find that (as is becoming all too common with many modern hotels) that they had only a shower stall, not a bathtub. The front desk said that the didn't have many rooms with bathtubs; however, they were able to find one one (room 626, one of their handicapped-accessible rooms). Lisa really was looking forward to a long soak in a full-size bathtub. We only have a shower in Fernley House. One of her long-term goals is to get a nice bathtub, either by fixing the upstairs plumbing (which has never worked) or by installing one in the ground floor bathroom.
While Lisa started unpacking, I checked to see if there was an easy way to get to the Galleria mall, which we could see across the parking lot. I have an errand there this weekend because I'm running out of my favorite after-shave lotion from Lush. There are no Lush stores in Northern Nevada either, and Roseville Galleria is the closest store to me. I discovered that while the Hyatt and the Galleria are very close to each other, they are separated by a small ravine, and while there is a place that looks like it should be the start of a bridge across the ravine, there is no bridge. One could walk back out to the main road and around, but we decided it wasn't worth it. We'll take care of it in the morning by driving over there on our way out.
Although Lisa was happy to have a nice long bath, the bathroom itself came in for criticism. The bathing/toilet room is separate from the vanity. There are no flat spaces in the bathroom other than the floor for putting stuff. There is no lid cover for the toilet, so you can't even stack stuff there. It's not a good design at all.
The room itself is huge — a mini-suite, really — but Lisa points out how much of the space is wasted by the design. There's also a big television set, with a full set of connections on a side panel (much like the Atlantis Hotel Reno has in their rooms), but I don't recall seeing that in the room description. Therefore, we didn't bring any of the connectors that would be necessary to connect the computer to the TV to watch the videos that are on either of our computers, or that we could download. I suppose that if we'd come here first before doing the rest of our day's errands, we might have known to buy cables at Fry's, but that's a bit silly. What's the point of having all of these toys if the only way to know they're here is to actually go look at it?
Speaking of downloads, I fired up the computer and connected to their wi-fi, and found a modest connection that is faster than my horridly slow home connection. But I noticed that there was an Ethernet port and tried that as well. (I did remember my patch cord.) The speed there was ten times faster than the wireless, and vastly faster than our home connection. While Lisa took a bath, I downloaded several videos that I knew she wanted but that I'd put off downloading because of how long they would take at home.
Not being a Hyatt regular (I still don't know how I ended up with enough points for this stay; it might be left over from points earned from the Calgary Westercon, years ago), it's not all that likely that we'll stay here again. However, if we do, we'll know to put in a specific room request and to carry a box of connectors.