The hotel - Key Largo - Day 1

I will admit it now. I am a hotel snob. After checking into the Hampton Inn in Key Largo we unloaded our cars and entered our two rooms. That was when I knew that I could never do this again. I have become a Wyndham resort girl. I like my two roomed "hotel" with its kitchen, laundry facilities, and space.

Our two rooms were sandwiched between another room because they hadn't gotten our request for adjoining rooms. Tom and the girls and I went into our room and dumped our luggage on the ground and the beds. We had two double beds, a closet, a balcony that led to the parking lot, a bathroom, and a little alcove that had a sink, refrigerator, and microwave. Not bad considering it was a hotel room. Tom went to shut the main door and discovered it would not close. That is without putting your weight behind it and pushing it away from the door jamb. Then he went into the bathroom to use the facilities and the toilet overflowed and gushed into our little alcove. When he called the front desk to let them know the girl said, "Can I call you back in a minute? I'm really swamped down here." And she hung up.

I hightailed it down to the lobby where I found it empty and the girl on the phone. When I explained our situation she turned green and threw her hands into the air in a helpless-this-just-can't-be-happening-to-me gesture and then worried that the maintenance man might have already left. She did check us into another room down the hall and around the corner from the others. We hefted our belongings and hiked down to the second room. This room was like the first room in layout and furniture. It had a different odor, but seeing as how we were in the Keys we threw down our luggage and got on with the evening.

Darcy and Teddy got into their suits and Mary Anne and I went down with them to the small swimming hole/beach with our hotel. It was very quiet and quite nice. The two got into the water while we sat in chairs and watched the sun set.

Darcy & Teddy in the Atlantic

Mary Anne watching the sun set

Before Mary Anne arrived to join me, I was sitting alone watching Teddy and Darcy hunting for fish in the water when I saw something slowly swimming parallel behind them heading to the left. For an instance I thought, "gator" because we had just come from the park and the whole gator experience, but then the object rose up and I saw a smooth, black back. "Manatee," said a voice to my right. I looked up and a young (cute) man was standing there enjoying my moment of panic. "It's a manatee," he told me. "It's been here most of the day." He and I went to the bridge to try to locate it, but he had apparently had enough of humans for one day. Whew! Although we do spot a nice, big crab hanging out by the foot of the bridge.

View from my chair on the beach

Crab!

After the sun had set we all went back to our room to shower. Darcy showered first, followed by Madison, and then it was my turn. I opened the bathroom door to find the room full of water. Apparently, the Hampton Inn cuts down on costs by only putting one unmovable door on its shower stalls.

Thus when you shower the water tends to spill out of the open side of the shower on to the floor in the bathroom. It took me two times before I figured out I could block the spray with my body if I stood in a certain way. I sent Darcy to the front desk for more towels to seep up the mess they had made in the bathroom. Darcy returns with the information that housekeeping will bring them to our room. I strip down naked and climb into the shower to begin my cleansing.

While I'm in the bathroom Tom and Madison head outside to the car to retrieve some item and Darcy heads down to the boys' room. Suddenly I hear pounding on the door and a deep voice yelling, "Housekeeping!" I'm naked in the shower waiting for someone to answer the door, but no one does and he just keeps banging. I'm now cursing and dancing around the shower, water spraying out of the shower and on to the floor. The main door opens and the housekeeper walks right on in yelling, "Housekeeping!" I yell back, "Throw them on the bed please!" and I imagine him splashing through the water that I know has gone under the door of the bathroom into the alcove. He is in and out in 2 seconds and by the time I'm out of the shower everyone is back in the room as if they have never been gone.

We all dress, clean up the water, and head out to dinner. We finish the night with cards and some candy and everyone heads off to bed. Tom goes to lock the balcony door and discovers that the security lock on the door is broken and our door does not lock.

He manages to turn it around so that we can at least shove a piece of the lock into the door so that no one can just walk from the parking lot into our room. Before he goes to sleep Tom gets online and reviews the Hampton Inn on some website. I don't think he gave them a high rating. I go to sleep promising myself that I shall always vacation where there are Wyndham resorts.