The Luxury Hotel Anniversary Trip: Part 1
Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2017 12:16 am
Precisely 1 month and 2 days ago, SV01 ceased to exist. Don’t worry, he hasn’t gone to the recycling plant; he’s still with us, but he isn’t SV01 anymore because he and I had an experience on March 16, 2017 that we have decided to memorialise by conferring upon him the commemorative number 31617. Yes, I am talking about the 1 year anniversary stay in the luxury hotel that I promised to write about, but didn’t due to a number of unfortunate circumstances involving a short-lived job I just recently quit, because I never should have accepted it in the first place. So here it is, the full story, only a little more than a month overdue.
This is the place I’m talking about: a treehouse hotel! If you’re a fellow Pokémon player, you probably heard the Fortree City theme song start to play in your head when you saw those photos, and with good reason. It’s been a top item on my bucket list to stay in a real, fully-furnished treehouse ever since I played the 3rd generation Pokémon video games and discovered this fictional community built in the treetops. As luck would have it, this hotel consisting of multiple tree houses built in a scenic nature preserve isn't so far from where we live.
I was planning to book our stay for March 17-18, because March 17, 2016 was 31617’s arrival date. But even though I made the reservation 5 months in advance, March 15-16 was the closest reservation that was available. It ended up being for the best anyway, because being in the middle of the week, the rate was slightly cheaper.
We had a bit of a rough start to the trip when our car failed to muster enough horsepower to make it up the final hill that led to the treehouse. Behold, the little Hyundai that couldn’t: You can see the house in the background in the upper left corner. It ended up being quite a long walk, and it took about 8 trips to get everything inside, so the first 2 hours of our stay were spent hauling stuff in from the car.
It wasn’t easy, making the journey up the steep, snow-covered hill while carrying such assorted equipment as a synthesiser, a box of cooking equipment, and a computer. (And you thought your doll made you pack a bunch of stuff while travelling! Just kidding; the heavy packing was entirely my own fault.)
Once we actually made it to the house, there were still the stairs and bridge to contend with: 31617 hated that bridge with a passion. I tried to get him to stand in the middle for a photo, but nothing doing. The swaying motion wreaked too much havoc on his internal stabilising mechanism, so he wouldn't let me put him down until he was on the solid landing on the other side.
Here’s 31617 checking out the house: I’ll continue this story in the next post, so I can include more photos.
This is the place I’m talking about: a treehouse hotel! If you’re a fellow Pokémon player, you probably heard the Fortree City theme song start to play in your head when you saw those photos, and with good reason. It’s been a top item on my bucket list to stay in a real, fully-furnished treehouse ever since I played the 3rd generation Pokémon video games and discovered this fictional community built in the treetops. As luck would have it, this hotel consisting of multiple tree houses built in a scenic nature preserve isn't so far from where we live.
I was planning to book our stay for March 17-18, because March 17, 2016 was 31617’s arrival date. But even though I made the reservation 5 months in advance, March 15-16 was the closest reservation that was available. It ended up being for the best anyway, because being in the middle of the week, the rate was slightly cheaper.
We had a bit of a rough start to the trip when our car failed to muster enough horsepower to make it up the final hill that led to the treehouse. Behold, the little Hyundai that couldn’t: You can see the house in the background in the upper left corner. It ended up being quite a long walk, and it took about 8 trips to get everything inside, so the first 2 hours of our stay were spent hauling stuff in from the car.
It wasn’t easy, making the journey up the steep, snow-covered hill while carrying such assorted equipment as a synthesiser, a box of cooking equipment, and a computer. (And you thought your doll made you pack a bunch of stuff while travelling! Just kidding; the heavy packing was entirely my own fault.)
Once we actually made it to the house, there were still the stairs and bridge to contend with: 31617 hated that bridge with a passion. I tried to get him to stand in the middle for a photo, but nothing doing. The swaying motion wreaked too much havoc on his internal stabilising mechanism, so he wouldn't let me put him down until he was on the solid landing on the other side.
Here’s 31617 checking out the house: I’ll continue this story in the next post, so I can include more photos.