A Jacuzzi Just Screams "Celebration!"

This is a fantastic small town story.  It is also a romantic story.  Matt and I just celebrated six years of marriage on Sunday and Matt really outdid himself this year.

The Rundle building

Matt rented us a jacuzzi suite in a historic hotel—The Rundle—in Glasgow for our anniversary celebration.  Matt knows how I love all things water, but especially long soaks in hot, hot water.  It was the only jacuzzi suite available in the eastern half of the state, so he tells me.  And even then getting it required the hotel owner pulling some strings on our behalf.  

Our room looked out on 2nd Street, overlooking some neat stone and brick buildings in the surrounding historic district.  I also enjoyed a lovely hour reading in that chair, gazing out occasionally from that huge ol' window.

Check this out:  Matt called The Rundle to inquire about renting the suite and they said it was booked for Friday, but Saturday was open.  They had regular rooms for Friday, but Matt said it was really the jacuzzi tub that made it perfect for me.  Because of our travel schedule staying Saturday instead of Friday wasn’t ideal so Matt just scraped the idea and started formulating a Plan B.  A little while later the Rundle folks called back to say they’d worked it out for us and we could rent the fancypants jacuzzi suite Friday after all.  As he explained it to Matt, the room had been booked as part of a charity silent auction package they'd donated.  The date had been chosen essentially at random for the auction prize.  So, the hotel keeper called the winner-–she was a local—and asked if she had her heart set on this date or if another night might work for her.  She didn’t care and agreeable to postponing her stay, so they rented it to us instead.  Talk about small-town good service and going the extra mile!  Nice folks all around.

The suite--with the fabulous bathroom through the sliding barn-style doors to the right.

It was amazing.  I was so surprised and tickled.  It was a perfect way to celebrate us.  The room was vintage and charming…and we had our own hot tub!!!  I kept singing “Heaven…I’m in heaven…and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak…”  That’s my happy-times song.  I was singing it with Lisa during our midnight sauna at Sleeping Buffalo days previous, actually.

A night time view of the room.  That was the schnazziest fake fireplace I've ever seen.  It was basically a light show!  I thoroughly enjoyed the way the ceiling light was reflected on the tin ceiling tiles.  I love those retro tin ceilings.

The suite has a fridge and microwave so we quite easily carried on our Pizza Friday tradition.  There was even a wine fridge for the bottle of lambic, our standard celebration drink.  We drank some on our wedding day, in fact.  Matt made strawberry pie, complete with a strawberry shaped crust topper.  We’re awash in strawberries right now and I have been singing my happy-times song about the parade of strawberry desserts for sure.

Matt was immensely pleased that all his schemes for a fabulous celebration went according to plan.  He kept the private hot tub bit a total surprise until the moment I walked into the room.  All he had told me was that he’d rented us a room at a hotel from 1914 that sounded pretty cool.  He said the owner was great to work with, but only because they’d worked out early check-in for me, too.  (Matt was coming up after work and wasn’t going to be there until 7pm, whereas I was already up north and was going to get dropped off there after lunch.)  My mom and I put Lisa on the train at 12:30, had lunch, and then checked me into the hotel.  It was actually a building I had commented on earlier that week with my sisters.  It has really lovely tile work on the outside.  It is a very eye-catching brick building.  

When I walked into my room and saw that bathroom—man!—was I pleased as punch.  I immediately turned to my mom and said, “Well, I know what I am doing for the rest of the afternoon.”  And pointed at the jacuzzi tub.  Heck yeah.

Actually though, I went for a bike ride first.  The hotel has free cruiser bicycle rentals for guests so I made some laps through the surrounding historic district.  I was trying to find my Grandma Fran’s old house…but it had gotten such a facelift that I didn’t even recognize it.  I had to get the address from my dad.  

And THEN I took a 3+ hour soak.  That bathroom was beautiful.  (For clarity:  the whole room was, but I was in love with that bathroom.)

Looking into the bathroom from the doorway.  There is a fabulous shower around the corner to the left.

I asked Matt when he arrived “Did you know you were renting my dream hotel room?  Or was that just a fantastic coincidence?”  Which is when he told me about calling around about jacuzzi suites and, ultimately, the guy pulling strings for us and all that.  What.a.Gem.  

Morning light on the ceiling.

The rest of the hotel was really neat, starting with the exceptionally long staircase leading up from the lobby.  That’s not the sort of thing you see these days.  The elevator was super old-school, too.  And tiny.  During the renovations to make the hotel nice and pretty, they also left plenty of the historic charm—panels of original brick work, a row of the (incredibly rusty) original tin ceiling tiles down the hallway, say.  The hallways are quite labyrinthine, with great little niches tucked here and there.  One had a chess table.  Several had coffee stations or microwaves.  There was a full kitchen on the third floor available for guest use.  The rooms up there had tiny door bells under the peephole because they used to be apartments.  There was a lounge with a pool table.  We both thought Matt was going to win the whole time and then I came out of nowhere and snagged a victory in the end.

My dad had all sorts of little stories about the businesses and apartments and things that have been housed in the building over the years.  My dad grew up in Glasgow, among other places.  He said there was a pool hall in the basement known to attract some tough characters so as a young boy he was forbidden from going there.

We were treated to a double rainbow following the rainstorm Matt drove through on his way north to meet me.

It was cool.    …and now I want to knock out a wall and expand my bathroom to include a jacuzzi tub.  Ha!