This hotel has what I really like in a convention hotel -- nice red leather furniture. The furniture in the lobby is upholstered but there's leather furniture groups in several other areas of the hotel. Great comfortable places to just sit and talk. I checked in Friday night before the walk-through because I knew that was the only way I'd be there at 10am Saturday.
There's plenty of free parking out front, plus two layers of parking garage, also free, with the hotel accessible by elevator.
The elevator lobbies on the sleeping room floors were large with telephones and an ice/Pepsi products ($1.50 each) niche. There was a convex mirror positioned so someone in the lobby could see into the niche and vice versa.
The elevators are very large and matched the floor exactly every time I used one.
I had a double-double (two double beds) which is the most common style of rooms at this Marriott. The room also had the standard TV wardrobe plus a comfortable arm chair, a small round table with nearby floor lamp, and two tables attempting to be a computer table. The comfortable chair at the two tables wouldn't slide under the table meant for the computer. All three lamps in the room had compact fluorescent fixtures that appeared to be about 100-watt equivalents. No problem reading here!
The bathroom was small but complete with a low tub and grab bar. The bathroom had all the towels, soaps, etc., that you'd expect, plus a coffee maker and some tea bags (Bigelow Earl Grey and Chamomile).
The closet had the standard mirrored doors with plenty of hangers inside and an iron and ironing board. The beds come with three down pillows, but foam pillows are available by request.
I won't be bringing my computer to Capclave -- whether you use their modem or your modem in the room, the cost is $3.95 for the first 15 minutes and $.25 for each additional minute. There was a small sign in the lobby mentioning a wireless hot spot, but I don't have wireless on the computer. Local phone calls are $1.00.
Shula's Steakhouse is a very expensive, quite formal dining room with excellent food. I was looking forward to eating there because the Washington Post had given it a top rating. The panelled walls held black and white pictures in golden frames, there were chandeliers, and more nice red leather chairs. I didn't realize the pictures were football until my menu arrived: a handpainted football on a tee that was set on my charger plate. Turns out the decor is based on a perfect football season. Everything is a la carte, literally, as the server brings you a cart that shows every cut of meat & fish (the lobster on mine was trying to kill a tomato with its banded claws), the veggies, and potatoes. The entrees (I had the filet mignon) came with sauteed button mushrooms and peppers plus a crusty bread (but rather bland inside) which would really be enough for most people, but I added asparagus. Their largest cut, a 48oz porterhouse, has a club attached -- if you eat it, you get your name on their website. I usually fold origami cranes while I'm waiting for food when I eat alone and then leave one (meaning peace) for the waiter. I had so many servers that I left a flock of cranes.
Corner Seven restaurant is a slightly uplifted coffee shop. I had breakfast there -- wonderful oatmeal with strawberries, plus orange juice and tea. There was a massive breakfast buffet that most customers patronized. Costs are a little high for a coffee shop, but not over the top.
Pitchers is a bar that was very dark and had TVs. I was amused the next morning to see it in the light via a door from the Corner Seven foyer and suddenly it looked more like a coffee shop. It normally opens at 5pm but Lee says that will be fixed.
There's also a small nook off the lobby that serves Starbucks as well as other snacks and drinks and has several small table and chair sets.
The pool and hot tub are in a beautiful light bright area on the second floor, where all the Capclave meeting rooms are located. The pool is two feet at the shallow end, four feet at the deep end. A lifeguard is on duty when the pool is open. Besides the lounge chairs around the pool and hot tub, there were several nice seating areas around the outer edge of the room. The hospitality suite will be off the pool area. The pool area provides towels, locker-rooms (be sure to bring your room key!), a sauna, and restrooms. There was a large room full of black exercise machines (two pre-teens were using the treadmills while watching cartoons when I went by) plus a couple more machines on a slight dais overlooking the pool (exercise and watch your kids at the same time?).
This page was created 28 August, 2004. This page was last updated 28 August 2004.