My Travels

I went to Chicago for a quick conference flying on United Airlines . Because it was a conference, my time was limited to the events. Fall is a great time to visit Chicago, the sun is still out and the humidity has left. Chicago skyline Chicago - River Interestingly, I'm beginning to come across a lot of 'integrated' hotels. In other words, hotels that are sharing the same building but are house on different floors of the same building. In this particular case, I was staying at the La Salle Hotel, Autograph Collection . I would later find out that the JW Marriott is also in the same building; however, both hotels have their own separate entrances. The LaSalle is on La Salle whereas the JW is on Adams. The rest of the building is occupied commercially with office space. The La Salle and the building lobby is the same entrance and the reception desk is on the top floor with the hotel lobby bar and restaurant. The JW entrance occupies most of the ground floor so you do have to

Went up the central coast in California and spent some time in Santa Maria. Checked into the Fairfield Inn & Suites Santa Maria.  I've been staying at this hotel for a few times now and I still think it is a difficult entrance to get to but easily visible from the freeway. Now that the pandemic is over, the breakfast served is satisfying with hot items offered. For such a quick trip, I didn't pull out the camera for much. One doesn't think of Santa Maria as a hotbed of culinary delights but I did find some interesting spots while in town. Klondike Pizza  - local pizza joint where kids grow up on and remember loving it to adulthood. The pizza is good if you want to avoid national chains. Main Street Donuts - located at 715 E Main St Santa Maria, CA 93454, local doughnut shop in the middle of town. It seems to cater to the working crews as they are only open from 4 am to noon. They also serve sandwiches but I wasn't in the mood for anything that hearty. The doughnuts