January Getaway

I was gone a majority of the month in Vegas, Salt Lake and Phoenix while Tony had to stay in RC for work so we planned another trip to Oakland/San Francisco for the last weekend of the month. My friend Marie told me about a conference called the World Fair Nano in SF.  I showed Tony and it looked pretty neat so we all got tickets to go. Tony & I left around noon on Friday and made our way down to Oakland where we were staying the night before going to the fair on Saturday. 

The views along the way were not bad at all

Rolling rolling rolling...

(I pulled this pic off Google)

We rolled right in to Oakland. To a place called the Sutter Hotel. It was sketchy as all get out. Tony found it on Travelocity and booked it. But when we got there...no parking (unless it was paid) and there were homeless people everywhere.  We managed to find a parking spot on the street but all signs said that the street cleaners come between 3-6am and cars must be moved. Who wakes up at that time to move their car!?

We went inside and talked to a lady behind a thick piece of plexiglass. Her information didn't show 2 people in the room, just one. She tried to charge us $10 for me to be in the room until Tony showed her his reservation which said 2 people. She handed the elevator man 2 keys and he controlled the elevator up to 2 different floors where he showed us 2 rooms that we could pick from.  Both rooms were on the dark side (not well lit) , grungy paint on the walls and a sink. There was a community bath in the hallway.

We picked the room we wanted and walked around the block trying to find different parking, with no luck. A $35 parking garage and another garage that was completely closed and it wasn't even 8pm yet. Scary people everywhere and I was worried about us walking around let alone my car being outside on the street AND the nice lady at the hotel said that 5 months ago they had a bout of bedbugs and they were required to tell everyone. Apparently they didn't tell Travelocity since we had no idea about the issue until we got there.

We just couldn't do it. Couldn't stay. Tony spent a long time on the phone with Travelocity and we found another hotel to stay at and Tony returned the key. I'm so glad we had not taken anything inside the hotel. Bugs. Shudder. I know there are bugs at other hotels but to be told straight up about it...thanks but...no thanks.

We ended up at the Harris Motel. Nicer? There were bars and gates. Cleaner? For sure, even though we got a smoking room. I brought my AirMoji and that solved any problems we may have had. 

We walked to get dinner at this place a few blocks away...

I guess it would be a 3/5. It was okay but I would not eat there again. Tony did not like the flavor of his food and ate some of mine. It was so unexciting I can't even remember what I ordered and we got it in to-go boxes since they were closing soon and they wouldn't let us have a table. 

We slept well despite all of the evening adventures and we were ready to hit the road Saturday morning!