Girdwood

Snowy Girdwood

While on vacation we stayed at the Alyeska Hotel in Girdwood and the Embassy Suites in Anchorage.  Hard to say which hotel the kids and I preferred.  The Embassy Suites had a two room hotel room, a pool table (HUGE deal for Stuey), a 'free' awesome breakfast, and 2 'free' beers in the evening.  Whereas the Alyeska Hotel had Ambiance, a much better view from the room, fancy meals,  hallways to roam and explore, and a much better pool.  I did explain to Stuey that there is no such thing as a 'Free Lunch', and that the Embassy Suites simply added the costs of the beer and breakfast to our room costs.  But that said, the Embassy Suites clearly was the cheaper place to stay.  One pays a lot for ambiance!

I think Stuey preferred the Embassy Suites simply because of the pool table.  That is all he wanted to do - play pool and beat dad.  Nora liked the Alyeska Hotel.  She liked how there were benches in the halls and by the elevators and she would sit in the benches and read.  No doing that in the Embassy Suites - their halls are just halls.  She really liked the ambiance.  If it was up to me I'd probably choose the Embassy Suites simply because of the 'Free' beer and breakfast.

Comparing the two basically reduced down to Amenities versus Ambiance.  The Alyeska Hotel reminded me of the Hotel in those old books about the little girl Eloise.  She lived in a hotel with a nanny and her pug and was always up to mischief.  While at the Alyeska Hotel in Girdwoood I sort of got the feeling that kids were expected to act somewhat like Eloise and do some exploring on their own; whereas at the Embassy Suites in Anchorage there was 'no running in the halls'.

Finally, I think the thing that impressed the kids the most about Girdwood was all the snow.  They were amazed by it, and kept on pointing out the huge piles of snow.  'look at all the snow', they repeated over and over.  I told Nora that it was sort of like Narnia in the opening scene of the 'lion the witch and the wardrobe', and daddy's idea of Heaven - always winter with no Christmas to mess it up!

Patrick

Reading in the window of the Hotel Room at Alyeska

Alyeska Hotel