Bed & Breakfast
I'm finally caught up after being away last week and have a chance to write about the trip. It wasn't much of a trip, actually more of a chance to get away from phones and kids and responsibilities for a few days. Including lots of eating and sleeping.
I've always preferred B&Bs to hotels and after staying in many, I consider myself a good judge of them. In fact, I hope someday to put together a guide to Texas B&Bs. We stayed in Austin at Carrington's Bluff Bed and Breakfast . It was wonderful.
I would compare it to a stay at Grandma's. There are two houses, very well maintained. Decorating was a mish mash of old furniture, no fine antiques. A little shabby, but thankfully not "shabby chic". The keyword here is comfort. Everything was tasteful. Not overly cluttered by birdhouses, doilies, ruffles, tussie-mussies, or bowls of potpourri. John always complains about the frou frou in B&Bs and it was nowhere to be found here.
Phoebe, the proprietress, had foreseen her guests every need. In the bathroom there were plenty of towels, a hairdryer, great spa robes, and Caswell-Massey toiletries in a fragrance not too girly for guys. There was an iron and ironing board in the closet although I try to avoid that sort of thing. A notebook was provided of recommended restaurants and directions to each. A basket in the hall contained sundry items such as sunscreen, insect repellant, safety pins, etc. Each house had a fully equipped kitchen at the guests disposal with a fridge well stocked and constantly replenished with iced tea, lemonade, assorted sodas, St. Genevieve chardonay, and two flavors of Blue Bell ice cream. Coffee and a wide variety of teas were available as was microwavable popcorn. Every afternoon fresh cookies arrived.
We stayed in the Hermoine Lee room in the writer's cottage with our own door to the porch and deck. The house had three bedrooms, and although there were others staying there, we seldom heard them. Breakfast was a buffet served across the street at the main house. Each day was different, but there was always a meat, an egg dish, fresh fruit, toast, bagels, cereals and more. No miniscule juice glasses here, Phoebe provided us with our own carafe of orange juice. There were numerous small tables which I loved because I find repartee with strangers difficult over breakfast. One could even eat on the porch and share toast with the cardinals and squirrels. The only minus was that during the week breakfast was served between 7:30 and 8:30 due to a large number of guests there on business. We soon learned we could straggle in late and still find an abundance of hot and fresh goodies.
Did you guess that we loved the place? Hopefully, we'll get to return soon. I'll get to other things we did later and try not to be so wordy. There really weren't enough words to describe how much we enjoyed Carrington's Bluff .