Matt and I got up fairly early in order to get him to the airport on time and the kids and I off to our next destination. The morning didn't start off as smooth as I had hoped. After a few days of lack of sleep, Ali was in one of her moods and decided to not cooperate in the least amount. This meant that leaving was filled with tantrums and lots of tears. Oh well...that seems to be part of parenthood.
Matt drove to the airport because, once again, I didn't want to have to deal with traffic and weird, last minute lane changes. We dropped him off without too much difficulty. Within 10 minutes, Ali started feeling sorry for all of the fuss that she caused in the morning and wanted us to return back to the in-laws house in order to apologize. Go figure.
Getting to the Crayola Factory was an awful driving experience. It seemed like every road was a toll road, and one of them, we missed our exit to find out that we couldn't turn around for another 40 minutes. By the end of it, I was frustrated and annoyed with the entire state in general.
We did eventually make it to the Crayola Factory though. By the time that we got there, I was starving and debating on whether it was smart to get the cranky kids out of the car or better to find a place to eat. Luckily, they ended up having a cafeteria center inside of the Crayola Factory. I wouldn't have made it otherwise.
The Crayola Factory was fun for everyone. Ali was still being difficult throughout, but managed to join into the games and activities after a good hour of pouting in the corner. Erin enjoyed the entire experience and was a doll throughout as we colored with melted wax, made our own puzzles, and enjoyed all of the supplies that the center had to offer.
We stayed for several hours until we got so hungry that we figured we would hit the over priced cafeteria for a snack and leave. We ended up driving about another hour to get out of the city in order to find a hotel. We found a Comfort inn that looked like it would do; so, I sent Mandi in to ask if they had 2 joining rooms that were non smoking.
She came out and said that they did, and she got us all set up. So, we headed out to Burger King to get some dinner before heading back to the room. When we opened the room though, there were not two joining rooms. It was one room with a queen sized bed and a double fold out bed from the couch.
Mandi went back to the lady and stated that this was not the room that we ordered. The lady basically said that there were no refunds. That's when I came out...because I am much more confrontational than Mandi. I told the lady that I wanted to speak with her manager. When she said that the manager was not available, I told her to call him. Then I got on the phone with my brother to see what we could do on our own side to get our money back.
My brother said to call up the credit card and stop payment. Luckily, she came back after talking with the manager and upgraded us to the presidential suite. We went in the room to find out that it was exactly what we had originally asked for - two joining rooms. The only difference was that it had a huge, heart shaped tub in the master room. It also smelled of smoke. I was too tired to care though. So, I got the kids to bed and stayed up talking to Mandi for a short while before falling asleep myself.
Luckily, the air conditioner had a nice, loud hum to it; so, I wasn't constantly woken up with Mandi's snoring. Everyone was much happier the next morning.
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