Well hello there, friends! Taylor and I are back from our vacation and I need to catch up on some blogging! First off, if you'd like to see some of our photos,
here's a link to the pictures I posted on Facebook.
As I mentioned before we left, we had the opportunity to turn some lemons into lemonade and to check an item off of my 30 before 30 list and stay at the world-renowned
Don CeSar hotel in St. Pete Beach, Florida.
The hotel was built in 1928 and was a favorite place of the likes of Al Capone, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and FDR. The hotel's builder died suddenly in the 1940's and the hotel fell into disrepair and was vacant by the end of World War II. From 1945 - 1967, the hotel was used as a military hospital and a VA Administration building. The hotel re-opened as a hotel in 1973 and has undergone multiple renovations since. Every president since Gerald Ford has stayed there (except Regan), and the hotel was the site of the filming of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1985.
I first became acquainted with the Don CeSar when I spent the summer of 2005 living in St. Petersburg and working for a Christian mission trip organization called Youthworks. The hotel is pretty famous in the area, and since I've always enjoyed touring (though not necessarily staying at) nice hotels, I went there one Saturday with my team just to see the hotel. It was beautiful and I was really hoping to go back someday. About a year later, I read this silly chick-lit book called
Mike, Mike and Me. In the book, the main character is traveling on business in St. Petersburg, FL and meets a fabulously rich, eligible bachelor (named Mike, of course) at the hotel bar at the Don CeSar.
That's the last I really thought of the hotel until a few weeks ago when Taylor and I found out that my grandparents wouldn't be in Florida when we were going to visit them and therefore we would have to make backup plans. We used some credit card points and booked the hotel about a week before our trip for just over $200 per night (average rates are about $450/night).
We arrived in Tampa on Friday night, but we stayed at a Ramada Friday night and didn't check into the Don CeSar until Saturday. Our luggage didn't make it to Tampa with us, and on Saturday afternoon, I had to go back to the airport to update our hotel from the Ramada to the Don CeSar. When I started to tell the woman the hotel and it's address, she was like, "Oh, the DON, why didn't you say so?" and another guy in the luggage office said, "Everybody knows the DON!"
When we got to the hotel, here's a photo from the parking lot:
We checked in and went up to our room.
Some of the reviews I had seen before we got to the hotel said that the rooms were too small. While I can definitely see how one might think that, especially for $450/night, we had no problem with it since we got a great deal on the room and also are used to living in 300 square feet!
Here's the view of the Gulf of Mexico from our room:
Some photos around the hotel:
After we explored a little bit, we went out for dinner and drinks. We came back and had a drink in the fancy hotel lobby, appropriately enough, it contained Curacao liqueur!
Late Saturday night, our long-lost baggage arrived from American Airlines! Yay!
Sunday morning, we woke up and went for a walk on the beach. We found a jellyfish!
Here's a nice shot of the hotel from the beach:
We spent some time at the pool:
The view of the pools from the 5th floor brunch
We checked out the brunch (but opted for Bob Evans instead :). Here are Ceasar salads in martini glasses.
And shots of seafood!
All in all, a great stay at a legendary hotel!
Late Saturday night, our long-lost baggage arrived from American Airlines! Yay!
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