Governor’s Suite, 360, and Florence-ish

My friends and I were upgraded to the Governor’s Suite at the Marriott Shoals which was so very nice

This was one of those areas where the designer’s brief was ‘stick with conservative, and by that we mean ferns and burgundy and cord covers’ but you know, this room has probably seen its share of Powerpoint presentations, soooo

I spent several years working in a very tasteful office building in a very tasteful corporate park. This kitchen area triggered me hard.

Actually, haaaaa, we loved it and it was super nice to have all that space. I forgot to even take a picture of the bedroom, and there were two bathrooms, too, but this is a Marriott so you know, it was that Marriott bathroom with the dark wood and the beige.

And we definitely loved the jukebox.

stuck on disc 39 because St Paul & The Broken Bones and we have great taste

This is the Shoals, after all, so besides the Rock-Ola, this framed Gibson from Sam Phillips is displayed in the room. The label reads This one of-a-kind, custom made Gibson guitar was presented to Sam Phillips by the Gibson Guitar Company to celebrate 50 years of Sam’s Sun Records and the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Supper was at the 360 Grille there on site. Just down a hallway and obv up the elevator…

We timed our reservation for sunset, and it was perfect — I think it did take about an hour to go all the way around. I’ve only eaten at five revolving restaurants (this, both in Atlanta, San Antonio, and the Skylon in Ontario) but I’d love to take a trip and do more of them. There’s a list here.

I was boring and just had the salad after we shared the charcuterie board, but everyone really liked what they had

There are so many great places to eat in Florence, but I’m glad we got to do this. My fave fave fave is Odette, but we also like Stanfield’s River Bottom and Stagg’s Grocery for hamburgers, Rice Box for quickie Chinese, Factory for light lunch, and Trowbridge’s for sandwiches & ice cream. On the list to try: Smokin on the Boulevard for barbecue to go, Red Clay Table, and George’s Steak Pit. And there’s a Doe’s Eat Place in Russellville that we definitely want to get to because we love the original.

PS if you do find yourself in Florence or Sheffield, it really is the perfect, perfect place to just walk for blocks downtown and stop in this shop & that, whatever looks interesting at the moment. A couple of other interesting hotels to consider, too: GunRunner and The Stricklin. And you can always picnic around the dams, go up to the Trace and see Teh-lah-nay’s Wall, drive downtown to see Victorian and even Sears kit houses, do a music tour, walk around LaGrange, see Nitrate Village One, the FLW Rosenbaum house…tons to do.

Some various Florence and Florence-ish pics