StL Adventure #52 Have a staycation downtown
So the challenge was to “have a staycation downtown at the Four Seasons, Moonrise or The Hyatt.”
No joke, same day I published The List, my parents called to say they had booked hotel rooms at The Hyatt for the weekend they’d planned to visit. How perfect is that?!
It was a good weekend for a staycation too. It was mid-February, my least favorite time of the year. Everyone could stand to get out of town around that time. We had lots of plans that involved the city. We were going to have our own pub crawl in Soulard during the Taste of Soulard, we wanted to gamble it up at the casino and we were crazy excited for the Soulard Pet Parade which is probably my favorite St. Louis event of the entire year.
Rather than driving back and forth for all the events, staying downtown was a great option. The Hyatt didn’t disappoint. It’s been recently renovated so the rooms all had snazzy finishes and the rest of the hotel – bars, restaurants, etc. were all very nice. Including the breakfast buffett…nom nom.
I meant to take pictures of the room. I really did. But when we first got to it, I was buzzed up and passed out on the bed. Then I was just too busy getting dolled up or packing up my stuff to make it happen.
We ventured out that Saturday night for dinner and drinks and gambling – success was had on all fronts. When we got back to the hotel, my parents headed up to their room while Zac and I stopped by the gift shop to by a few bottles of $7 Gatorade. When we stepped out of the elevator we found 3 little girls – maybe 10 or 11 years old – chilling out on the floor. They were loungin’ around in the jammies, sharing a tub of cheese puff balls. We’d noticed earlier that the hotel was playing host to a dance convention, so we assumed these to be the conventioneers.
It was quite a picture – their carpet picnic – because they had set up shop right in front of a great big “Shhhh…Quiet Hours in Effect” sign : ) This instantly reminded me of some good ole high school days spent doing the exact same things with the Streator girls. I’m pretty sure we would have had the tub of cheese puff balls too. We definitely would have had a stale bag of circus peanuts.
To my delight, the girls we’re friendly and as soon as we stepped off the elevator we were greeted with “Hi! How was your night?!”
So we stopped to chat about our night and asked the girls about their convention. They were part of the gymnastics convention not the dance convention. They were as sweet as could be. And I should note, they were speaking in proper indoor voices. As was I. I know you find that hard to believe, but I was.
Suddenly(!) we were rudely interrupted by a shusher. Yes, a shusher. As in, “Shhhhh!!! Ssshhhh!!! Shhh!! Shh!”
Seriously. Rapid fire shushing. Zac and I looked at each other in disbelieve. For a few quick seconds we couldn’t determine if this person was serious or kidding.
The girls confirmed the serious theory by rolling their eyes at us and saying, “Do you know that guy? He keeps doing that.”
Zac took a few steps and leaned around the hall to face the shusher. He was old. And wearing boxers and a white tshirt.
Zac stared in horror and the noise continued as the man looked right at Zac. “Sssshhhhh. Sshhhh. SSHhhhhhhh.”
Zac turned on his icy cold stare.
“Shh.”
Zac narrowed one eye, clenched a fist, did his best Clint Eastwood growl.
The door closed.
The man’s shushing, I’m certain, could have woken the dead. Imagine, an entire floor of hotel guest resting peacefully, blissfully unaware of a small party of 11-year-olds, awoken suddenly by a shusher. I love irony.
So that random story had nothing to do with The Hyatt. But just trust me that it was a nice place and I would recommend it for a St. Louis staycation, or just a visit for that matter. Just beware the shusher.
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