Text 15295, 97 rader
Skriven 2014-07-30 23:43:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tale 2 more hotels 721
==============================
a tale of two more hotels

Sheraton Anchorage. If all Starwoods were like this one I
might still be loyal to that brand.

You walk in, and it's a decorator's dream circa 1970,
which is about where my mindset is. The dominant feature
is the million-dollar staircase - it's made of jade, and
the first time I was here I was disappointed that it
hadn't been carved (impossibly) of one gigantic hunk of
the stuff. It's actually dozens of hundred-dollar chunks
but still pretty impressive. The lamps are of a distinctive
and I think very beautiful design - Lilli points out that
the ones above the check-in desk and in the bathrooms are
of a similar design but are not nearly so attractive.

Check-in is glacially slow but rather friendly.

There's a code to use the elevator to keep the riffraff out.
              
Our room was very small (we paid a relatively small rate),
and I had to sleep upright in a chair. The bathroom was
very nice, maybe even up to the standards of the Super 8
in Sitka. Wi-fi was okay.

Owing to Lilli's exalted status, breakfast came free.
Owing to our being two doors from the executive lounge, an
abbreviated breakfast came free. Being a breakfast enthusiast
she suggested we do both; I demurred.

Jade sounds like a Chinese restaurant, but the name actually
refers to the staircase . The breakfast buffet is 18; our
coupon states "value not to exceed $18 + 2.70 tax." The
specialty of the house is sausage and biscuits, which in my
experience have been excellent. We waited ten minutes to be
seated, which the waitress eventually did. They were seriously
understaffed, and she tried to do everything. Lilli saw her
trying to make pancakes for an impatient customer while the
chef was out - she made a mess of things, though.

Standard-issue breakfast potatoes with too much paprika and
too little taste; scrambled eggs with cheese melted over;
regular pork link sausages, reindeer sausages (tasted like
cheap Polskas), decent bacon. Sausage gravy, but they didn't
make biscuits today, substituting cheese blintzes, which I
didn't try. As I'd brought my pills in anticipation of the
world's best sausage gravy (from previous visits here I thought
this to be true), I put a couple ladlesful into a coffee mug
and drank it like soup. It was starchier and less buttery than
before but still much better than the commercial stuff.

Various other staff came in during the morning, and by the time
we left around 9 there was a full complement in the restaurant.

Not so at the front desk. Checkout was pleasant but again
glacially slow.

=

The Hatcher Pass Lodge gets mixed reviews on the Web.

I'd stayed here 15 years ago, and it was pleasant enough if a
little primitive. What do you expect for 3000 ft elevation next
to an abandoned gold mine.

We rolled in in the rain; instead of the owner Hap there was a
pleasant young woman there to check us in. We were mercifully
assigned a cabin near the main lodge. Turns out these have been
renovated since my last visit - newish beds, fresh carpet, and
gas heat (settable in 4F increments from 60 to 80). No screens
on the windows to dissuade the horsefly-size houseflies or the
housefly-size mosquitoes. Luckily these insects and their
oversize no-see-um colleagues (see-ums, if you will), are
really stupid and indolent and tend to collect outside the door
waiting for you to come to them.

The bathroom has a flush latrine - no better is available out
here on the tundra. A 2-gallon jug for water. A door to keep
out the smell and actually an electric fan to get rid of it.

Not altogether bad.

We were told there's wi-fi in the lodge building. We went over;
nobody knew the password (eventually we found it out). There
are Alaska beers and Franziskaner Hefeweizen for $7 and Bud
and Bud Light for $6. Also, the little girl who greeted us
mentioned, cookies that she'd made, $1 each. Alaska APA and
two snickerdoodles, $9. Excellent. Also you can get 

The views are remarkable, as fine as I've ever seen, and I've
stayed in the Machhapuchhre valley - I'd suggest seeking out
this place and enjoying it before they raze it in favor of a
$500-a-night Four Seasons or something.

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