When planning this trip, it seemed as if the hardest decision would be where to stay.  Dh wanted to stay some place kind of close so that there wouldn’t be a need to rent a car.  He can be very fastidious when it comes to lodging destinations, so this was a monumental decision for me!  When I called Travelocity they highly recommended the Hyatt – they said that it had the highest service rating in the D.C. area.   I was skeptical that maybe they made a bigger commission and thus the high recommendation. 

It’s hard to pick a hotel, sight unseen.  When I finally had to choose, I picked the L’Enfant Hotel.  Some of my reasons were logical; some reasons were to fill the children’s wish list; and others, were rather shallow.

The Logical:

• ·         It is close to the center of things – I was told that you could see the Washington Monument from your hotel window.

• ·         There is a subway train in the basement of the hotel, and the train will take you anywhere in D.C.  (and since we weren’t going to rent a car, I figured this would be a good thing.) 

• ·         This was the only hotel I could find with two attached rooms to a living room (a suite). I wanted to be together as a family – that’s the fun of being on vacation – watching the kid’s excitement about all the little things.

For the kids:

• ·         A pool

The shallow:

• ·         It was French – “L’Enfant Hotel” and I love all things French (“Antoinette Lefaivre”…)

• ·         The hotel was named after a French developer – and that is the profession of my husband.

When we checked in, there was some confusion on our check-in date.  Whose fault was this?  Mine?  They had already given our room away.  D-i-s-a-p-p-o-i-n-t-m-e-n-t.    No connecting bedrooms. (However, by Wednesday afternoon, we were switched to the rooms that I had originally reserved.)

The rooms had some issues.  Matt and Kristi had to move to another room because of a black mold problem.  Several of our rooms had a window/door that wouldn’t close – on the eleventh floor, this wasn’t a small problem. 

I had a kitchen in our suite so we could eat in our room.  That’s a nice amenity for one with a large family such as ours.  But it turned out to not be so helpful as the refrig and the microwave didn’t work.

The restaurant in the hotel was excellent.  That was a good thing since we ended up eating there a lot. Everyone was very pleasant.

There was a Starbuck’s in the lobby – since several of us are Starbuck addicts, this, too, was a good thing.  The barista from Ethiopia serving us every day was exceptionally nice.

The best part of the hotel was the beds!  Down feathered pillows, comforter, and mattress pad made it the best sleep I’ve ever had away from home.  I’ve been to more hotels that I can count that I couldn’t sleep at. Sleep is a precious commodity and its value cannot be underestimated.

The pool turned out to be a bust.  They closed it for several days, and the other two days, it was rainy and cold.

We never did get that great view of the National Monument.  We directly faced the offices of HUD (Housing Urban Development).

 We did use the train in the basement several times. At first, it seemed kind of neat.  But after a few times of having difficulty getting tickets from the machine; and then a trip to another part of D.C. to eat where we encountered what seemed like D.C. thugs looking for trouble, we decided we’d rather walk. This was at times difficult for seven-month pregnant, Kristi, and Grandma.

I did find out something about the person that the hotel was named after.  L’Enfant was hired by George Washington himself to plan and develop the new capital of our nation.  Did you know that it was George Washington that planned our present day Washington D.C.?  We looked at the original plans that George had drawn out to scale for the new capital.  Amazingly, the city still holds true to this drawing.  In the end, though, L’Enfant was fired for not keeping deadlines.

I’m glad we stayed at the L’Enfant Plaza, even with its room deficiencies.  The convenience to the center of everything; the excellent restaurant (food and service); the comfortable beds; and the amicability of almost everyone in the hotel makes it a fine place to stay.