Category Archives: Hotels

The Omni Dallas Art Collection

Last week, I shared my experience at the Family Travel Conference, however I didn’t really have time to tell you that much about the Omni Hotel in Dallas. The moment has arrived!

The Omni Hotel was built just last year and is conveniently connected to the Convention Center. We were actually lucky enough to be there for the one year anniversary on 11/11/12 (that’s right – it opened on 11/11/11)! In just one year, the Omni has already made a name for themselves as being named one of 100 Best Places to Work in Dallas. When you look at it – why wouldn’t you want to work here?

The building is beautiful, inside and out.
The staff is absolutely out of this world! They’re kind, helpful and everywhere. Have you ever been somewhere where you need to find a staff member and can’t find a soul? That’s not going to happen at the Omni Dallas.
Parking – easy as it comes in the parking garage or you can valet.
Rooms – Well here is where I can’t provide much insight as I didn’t stay at the hotel but I did hear a lot about the TV’s in the bathrooms. Did your ears just perk up?! Plus, there’s also only 16 (out of 1,001) rooms (if I remember correctly) with a balcony so if you get one, you are one lucky duck!

During the Family Travel Conference, all of the attendees split up into various groups to tour the hotel. My particular group toured the art. Now at first you may say, is there really a lot of “interesting” art to see? The answer is yes. It’s everywhere and definitely interesting.

I love traveling but I love finding the “hidden treasures” even more. The art collection at the Omni is one of those “hidden treasures” but on top of that they stay true to their local roots. All of the art displayed within the hotel is by 150 local artists. All of it. All 6,500 individual pieces of it. Let me share some with you!

Wade Moore, Manager of the Collections Gift Shop provided us with the tour.

In the first photo on this post, you can see the lights on the outside of the building. These lights are moving all the time! When the Red River Rivalry was in town the lights showed the Texas Longhorn. Again -they’re moving all the time and the building looks gorgeous with the Dallas skyline behind it but the interior designers even took it to the next level. (Below) These the the walls along a hallway, the lights mirror the lights on the outside of the building!

Here are a some of the pieces of art that we were lucky enough to see on our tour. The art portion that we saw was so immensely small compared to the volume that is featured in the hotel.

Art can even be seen hanging from the ceilings.

Now, in the below picture, the water droplet pieces hanging from the ceilings are not actually featured art but items picked for the interior design of the hotel. Our group, thought it was just a piece of art that was included. It fits right in – amazing. Everything flows so well together!

The below artist also has artwork featured Barbara Bush’s personal collection.

I loved these pieces!

The artwork can also be found in local meeting rooms. Imagine holding in meeting in this room?! It’s absolutely stunning!

Now if the art featured inside the building wasn’t enough. Check out the stunning view of Dallas from inside the hotel!

Finally, I need to mention the Collections Gift Shop downstairs. If you enjoy a piece of the art in the hotel, it will not be difficult to find the artist go to with the piece. Some of the items, you can even purchase if you would like. In the Collections Gift Shop, the experience takes one step further. The shop holds items from the local Nasher Sculpture Center and Dallas Museum of Art that can also be purchased as well as other items from local vendors.

Below is the Villy Custom bike. Villy Custom was recently featured on ABC’s Shark Tank and received the largest amount of investment funding. Each bike can be customized however you like and can be shipped if you are visiting from out of town. Such a unique piece that can’t be found in all hotel gift shops! You could get one for yourself, for a friend, for me… just throwing out some ideas!

If you have an opportunity to at least stop into the Omni Dallas, I would definitely recommend it! I saw so many hidden treasures!

The Peabody, Memphis – March 2012

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Prior to this past weekend, I had only been to Memphis once and that was my pit stop at Graceland. I have a good friend from home who has taken part in reenactments all of his life and he was taking part in the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. It’s a great excuse to see a friend and take a little weekend getaway trip. What’s a couple hundred miles, right? That’s right, I’m a great friend. So last Friday, Sy and I rented a car and began our trip. We drove a few hours and decided to stop and stay in Little Rock (home of the Clinton’s), wake up early and take off for Memphis (where we’d be staying Saturday night) and then travel to the battle site which was about two hours east.

We had decided since we don’t really treat ourselves to relaxing trips all that often that this was going to be it – even if it just happened to be on a weekend. With that being said, we were staying at The Peabody in Memphis. With our helpful AAA discount, the rate of the room was just a little more than the surrounding hotels but what the heck. It’s our getaway but in the end, it was the best decision and completely worth it.

The Peabody is a hotel that sits about two blocks from Beale Street and has been around for over 100 years. Besides having Presidents, celebrities and quite frankly people who are a big deal stay here (I mean, we were staying here which was the biggest deal yet), they are famous for their ducks. Yes – I said ducks. Quack Quack. The story goes something like this, the original owner went on a hunting trip to Arkansas and when he and his friends returned (and after a few too many Jack Daniels) they had decided to put ducks in the fountain of the hotel (since they couldn’t use decoy ducks). Now, it has become a tradition and the ducks live in their mansion on the roof of the hotel and are brought down the elevator daily at 11am and 5pm. The red carpet is rolled out and they run to the fountain in the middle of the hotel lobby. No – I am not even kidding.

It draws a lot of attention. Much more attention than I thought it would. It’s seriously a big deal.

This is the Duck Master presenting the young lady next to him a certificate for being Honorary Duck Master for the day!

The Peabody is gorgeous. I fell in love. Our room was cute. I especially loved the doors to the rooms. I know, kind of odd. The room was a little small but I mean how much room does one really need? The bed, so comfortable and I really didn’t get to sleep enough since Sy wanted to wake up early and get a head start on our long trip back to Texas. They do leave two rubber ducks on the desk (which you can purchase for $8). No thanks. The atmosphere and architecture within the hotel is where it’s at.

Seriously, the one of the most comfortable beds!

The lobby. It’s like the kitchen of any home, right – where everyone gathers. Check it out – it’s beautiful.

The lobby also holds the “hotel bar”. There are tables and big comfy chairs where you can hang out and relax and listen to the pianist play the piano (I later learned the piano also plays itself, unless it was a ghost…). In the morning there is tea and coffee available. In the evening they set out an arrangement of desserts which you can purchase for $6.50. We ended up ordering dessert in the lobby Saturday night after dinner. Tiramisu was what we wanted and it was delicious!

Obviously, it was shaped as a little tea cup with a chocolate stick on top. The tea cup was completely made of chocolate. The filling was a soft cream with the wafers in the middle. Yum!

The mezzanine. Here we found a piano which was custom made for Francis Scott Key who wrote the Star Spangle Banner. This level also leads to the ballrooms which we looked inside (cleaning up from a wedding I presumed) and it was magnificent. The ceilings and stage inside. Now I wish I got a picture, I guess you’ll just have to reference the website.

The staff were gracious and extremely nice. Honestly, it was one of the best hotel experiences I’ve ever had. It’s too bad I can’t really afford to stay more than one night. It’s no wonder The Peabody is known to be one of the prime hotels of the South. If you don’t believe me, stay there and find out for yourself!

Miami, FL

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A few years ago, the Kardashian’s didn’t have anything on Miami like we did. Two co-workers and myself traveled down to Miami as part of a company wide business trip. We left behind the snowy, chilly weather of a typical February in New England and departed for sensational Miami!

We flew Jet Blue (great airline) and had a layover in NYC, because there are no direct flights out of Vermont to go anywhere farther than D.C. (probably not true but it sure feels like it sometimes). We stayed on our flight, waiting for the passengers to board to head to our final destination. The pilot was nice enough to come back and show us a few magic tricks, even though he refused to tell me how he pulled them off. A little while later, we arrived my first sighting of palm trees and flatness. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Vermont anymore.

Our company was gracious enough to accommodate our stay in The Diplomat, Westin Hotel. The most high end hotel that I’ve had the privilege of staying in thus far. The Diplomat was beyond beautiful. We were greeted by a bell hopper who helped us out of our car and held the door to the hotel open for us. The lobby was beyond phenomenal with palm trees, fountains and a grand view of the ocean. Various fine dining restaurants can be found in each corner for the lobby.

The Diplomat, is situated between the Atlantic and intercoastal canals and the views are fantastic. (Be sure to ask for a room on the intercoastal side! Thank me later!)

First thing was first, we had to check out our room. Holy moly – the views were ridiculous and frankly, so wasn’t the room. From the large soaking tub I could look out over the bed and see the canal and the city!

When we finally had a chance, we tried to check out some of the amenities available. The pool area outside was gorgeous! (See the pictures on the website.)

But why go in the pool when you can go into the ocean! It was so nice to hit the beach after a winter in Vermont. The Diplomat is also within walking distance to the boardwalk where you will find souvenir shops, restaurants and most importantly its a prime people watching site.

After all the fun outside you are bound to get a little hungry. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to dine at the Hollywood Prime Restaurant. This was the best feast I could have imagined. Wine, seafood, steaks, and the BEST lobster tail. It was delicious. If you would like to venture out of the hotel (although at this point I’m sure you are questioning whether there is a point to) there are more restaurant options across the street. The Diplomat has its own bridge so you will not have to mess with playing Frogger thru the traffic. We also ventured across the way, stopping at a very nice restaurant that New Englanders would feel out of place in. Everything was solid white, there were even beds against the back wall if you prefer to eat your meal in a bed(?).

The overall experience was great. If I had to pay for this out of my pocket is is on the higher end of the scale but if you really want to treat yourself this is the way to go. We later found out that the day we left, one of the teams playing in the SuperBowl was moving in. That’s right, the NFL loves The Diplomat too!

I never get why hotels dismiss the 13th floor. You are not fooling anyone, there is not a 13th floor that is empty folks.