I’m missing hotels.
How glorious to go somewhere and be completely taken care of while free to do whatever. I just want to shut my eyes and think about how perfect that would be for a while.
This morning, I’m thinking of one of Shug’s favorites, the Atlanta Ritz-Carlton (exactly why he especially loves it, at the very bottom of this post). They’re always just super kind to everyone.
What follows will be really, really random; I’m just pulling together some pics and thoughts from the last few visits:
A welcome plate in the room with macarons.
Total macaron sidenote: I think my favorites are from Macaroon Boutique in Charleston, and maybe Le Cirque. Do you have a great macaron place? Laduree in Paris on the Champs Elysees is just dreamy, but I didn’t go when we were there (look how gorgeous), and didn’t even realize there was one in DC for our visit last summer. There are eight in the US now. Please do message me if you’re also a macaron fan and have a special place.
The lobby is all dark and metallics
Haaa I remember about ten or twelve years ago, I had a momentary lapse of judgment and told Av that what we needed in the dining room was a balloon chair a la the ones above at each end of the dining room table. Keep in mind our dining room is MCM: it’s Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb. Nothing would have looked more ridiculous (I mean, was I thinking traditional, or full-on Ashley Longshore with sequins?). Who even knows. 😂
Even better: I was making breakfast this morning (Thurs 10/8) when like a flash it occurred to me that I originally wrote those were umbrella chairs in this post. I’ve apparently spent too much time in the sun on a flag football field this summer without an umbrella chair.
And further sidenote, these balloon chairs from our stay at the St Anthony in SA are maybe my faves.
When the boys were younger, they liked the RitzKids activities and some of the resorts have day- and partial-day activities to keep the kids busy with fun things while the grown-ups are out doing whatever.
The valet area water available upon coming and going
Ta-da! The Ritz-Carlton cake. Yum.
I said this was random, y’all. It’s just a stream of consciousness of Atlanta R-C wonderfulness today.
Here, the on-site restaurant, AG.
We really like having breakfast there. This is the H&F Jerusalem bagel:
Banana pudding french toast. Sigh.
Really like all the LeCreuset serving pieces. The next time there’s a bunch of people over, I’m pulling out all ten thousand pounds of my LeCreuset just to recreate this look.
For Shugie’s birthday last October, we made a special visit, and besides these cupcakes they brought to the room, they brought another surprise plate with two just for him that said “Happy birthday” and his name spelled out in chocolate. So nice!
In the concierge lounge, a caricature artist with Shug:
I can start feeling like we can skip going out altogether when we snack from the concierge lounge. We always make friends and it’s fun to hear why people are in town and what they’re planning. The RC is close to so many other hotels there in downtown, though, that you can walk a couple of blocks in any direction and have just a full range of options for eating or just whatever, too. We’ve walked to Trader Vic’s at the Hilton and taken Marta (to give the boys a different Atlanta experience than just our car or Uber) up to One Eared Stag and then the High and MODA.
From another visit, they had these chocolate cupcakes waiting for us in the room as a surprise,
…and the other big surprise was this gift of balloons for our summer birthday boy Falcons fan! They seriously think of everything.
It’s birthday month here — both Shugie and I are October babies. It’s going to be a home-based birthday this year, but we’ll be planning how we’re going to celebrate big when we can. ❤ Hope we’re all making beautiful plans now and doing wonderful things together again soon soon soon. xoxo!