and all I got was this stupid “Do Not Disturb” sign!” –Cookie

Oh my God, we had the best time this weekend. I hesitate to say “had” because really, we’re still in the midst of our anniversary weekend - we’re just at home for the last third. We’ve never stayed at a Ritz-Carlton…and I’m happy we were able to procure a decent rate…well, decent that is, until they tacked on the occupancy tax. I forgot how expensive the hotel taxes are here in Dallas.

Anyhoo…we’ve stayed at a couple of Four Seasons hotels and a handful of other “luxury”-type hotels, but this place spoiled us. Literally. Let me list out a few ways…

• Upon check-in, we asked if there was any way we could get upgraded - and they told us they had already upgraded us to a suite. Sweet!
• The staff sent up an anniversary card and chocolates after they found out we were there for our anniversary. Sweets!
• There was a TV in the bathroom mirror. A TV. In the bathroom mirror.
• Our original room had access to the club lounge, so we still had that - and the club lounge provided us with five food presentations a day which included continental breakfast, a light lunch presentation, afternoon tea, evening cocktails (complimentary) and late-evening desserts. My one regret - I didn’t get a picture of the clock made out of chocolate in the club lounge. Actually, I didn’t get any pictures of the club lounge. Oh well. Will have to go back, I guess.
• We took our books down to Fearing’s Bar last night around 5:30, and were treated to complimentary tastings of Fearing’s margaritas and freshly-made guacamole. As someone who gags and practically convulses at the smell of tequila, I didn’t want to bother with the margarita but…it was really good. Really good. And I’m not just saying that because it was complimentary.

You’re probably thinking…hey, you two never had to leave the hotel! And, you’d be right - but we did venture out twice during our stay. Saturday night we decided to go to dinner at Ferre in the West Village because it was close, and Guidelive seemed to like the place. After standing outside in 28-degree weather for thirty minutes waiting for the McKinney Trolley to show up, we wound up taking a cab uptown (didn’t want to drink and drive) and had one of the worst dinners ever. Thank God we didn’t go there last night on our actual anniversary. The service was lousy, the food average at best (CU’s pasta was gummy and when we sent it back, they replaced it with a burning-hot plate of food - nice) and despite my very specific request that we not be seated next to any service areas, that’s where we were seated. Sadly, it was really busy or else I probably would have asked them to move us. Anyway, if you live in Dallas - don’t go to Ferre unless you just like to watch your money disappear and not get anything of real value for your cash outlay.

Our second trip out took us to Cork, a wine shop in the West Village, yesterday afternoon. Dan Brogan’s the wine manager there and although he was in there for “just a few minutes” on his day off (he had plans to meet up with some folks to watch the Patriots/Chargers game) he wound up hanging out with us for a good hour, showing us how their tasting stations worked and just talking about wine in general. He’s really a great guy - and actually commented that he didn’t mind helping us out and talking to us because we were actually nice people. So remember folks, it’s a good thing to be nice. People will give you free wine. Worked for us. What a fun place…we’ll definitely go back. He said the next time we came back, if he was working he’d go and pull out “the good stuff.” Sweet.

Originally I made reservations for us to go to Fearing’s last night, but once I found out the finale of The Amazing Race was airing last night, I quickly canceled our reservation and we instead made plans to order room service and watch the show. Hey, we had our priorities.

I told CU that this weekend definitely ranked in the top seven anniversaries we’d ever had…six if you don’t count the year he was in Iraq, because we sort of generally take that year out of the running for just about everything.