Chapter 4
The Natural Bridge Inn and Conference Center
This hotel is
AAA rated and advertises an indoor heated pool, a full service dining room, and a play ground for kids. It also offers high speed internet, mountain views, and balconies. If you check out the link on line at naturalbrideva.com you will see how beautiful it is.
At 9:30 pm we finally pulled into the parking lot. We had thoughts of getting a bite to eat, maybe letting the kids play on the playground, and getting settled into the room. We requested a mountain view room without a balcony because we didnt want a place for Ethan to climb! We were assured that the room windows opened so that we could take in the wonderfully clean mountain air.
So mom goes into the lobby to get us registered and jump out to get Ethans shoes put on him so he could run around on the playground. Jarrod complained about leaving his movie but I promised him that if he wanted to watch the movie he could sleep in the car and watch the movie all night long
He chose not to do that.
Mom returns from the lobby with the look on her face. She said, So do you want bad, worse, or worsest (hehehe) news? Uh oh, hit me with it
Well, the dining room is closed
the closest food joints are 15 miles back the way we came
. The indoor heated pool is CLOSED FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR (and I went back to the house to pick up those stupid suits! Grrr!! Oh wait, I had to get the toothbrush too.
). And the playground is across the street (read: mountain highway) and closes at dusk. Just peachy
no dinner and wild kids! Joy Joy Happy Happy!
The desk clerks were very helpful
they told mom that there was an elevator that way to get to the third floor. They pointed as if we had to go to the end of the building on the outside. So we hop back in the car and drive to the end of the building looking for the elevator
did we find it? Did we locate a outside entrance to the hotel? Nope we located the exit for the hotel parking lot! So out we go and back up the hill back into the parking lot looking for the missing elevator. After the 2nd trip through the lot we discovered that the elevator was, in fact, not 4 feet from where mom checked in.
Do you think they could have been more helpful? Oh and did I mention that the lady kept moms credit card and then called up to the room and told mom that SHE had left it!
After 3 trips we got all the gear into the room. Now I will say the room was very nice. It was probably as big as the moderates at Disney. The beds however, were a definitely not as good as the Disney ones! Mom sat on the edge of hers and practically slid off the side because it caved in so far!! It was pretty funny! They did have our crib with sheets set up. There was very little light in the room so it stayed dark at night. The room had a sink outside the bathroom as well as one in the bathroom. The shower had a changeable shower head. I dont know what you call it but you could set the water to come out the way you wanted it.
The middle window was our room.
A note about the shower: those of you who have met my mom and I might have noticed that we have very different hair. She has baby fine not thick hair. Takes her 30 seconds to wash her hair. My hair, on the other hand, takes 5 minutes to wash and a garden rake to comb it. When mom got out of the shower (an unusually long shower
) she looks at me, shakes her head, and announces good luck getting your hair washed! I hope you are ready to run around in circles to get your head wet! Apparently the water pressure was less than optimal and to make things worse every time some one flushed the water actually stopped for a micromoment!!
It was true the water pressure was so bad I wanted to stick my head in the toilet to wash my hair because the water pressure was better. Heck, even Jar who hates showers, was able to take a shower! It felt like a gentle spring rain!
The full service dining room left a bit to be desired as well. The dining room served breakfast daily from 8 to 10 am and then dinner from 530 to 830pm. They had no lunch program. Well, the bar did but it only opened at 3 and closed around the same time as the dinning room. We had the Friday night Seafood Buffet, the Saturday night Prime Rib buffet, and the Easter Morning Brunch. The seafood was okay, but not much for a land lubber like me. They had salad, dried out chicken in a wonderful lemon sauce, and some what appeared to be canned vegetables. Although the desserts were very good. Mom had the all she could eat crab legs with drawn butter. Im not sure if she ate the crab for the crab or for the butter!!
On Saturday night the prime rib was heavenly and had a horseradish bourbon sauce! Yummy!!
Now when I think of the world brunch I think of some breakfast food with some lunch food. Am I wrong to think this way? The Easter brunch was very good. Roast beef, ham, lamb, shrimp Newberg, cold salads, corn, fresh bread, green beans, and some kind of stewed tomatoes with croutons on it. They had a ham dish with pineapples and raisin sauce over it. It was all very good but there was not a lick of breakfast food up there . Oh and they had a chocolate fountain with fresh fruit for dipping. Im not really sure why, but they asked me to leave the fountain
. Something about the fountain was for dipping food, not your face!!
Oh and the so called playground consisted of two swings and a tennis court!
Needless to say we never went over to it. I let the kids swing from the chandeliers in the dinning room instead! Hehehe
Overall, the hotel was nice. It was old, it was quaint, but it was nice. It had no themeing, no working pools, no place for the kids to play, no food court, and worst of all
no mickey soaps or towel animals. There was no money machine and they didnt cash personal checks. There was no room service or even pizza delivery. We did have a nice mountain view, however, the window did not open. After the maintanece men worked for 20 minutes it was determined that the folks who painted the outside of the building recently had in fact, painted the windows closed!
Our view:
and
Next up
our first full day
the Bridge
Someone let the poor dear out. I just hope she didn't have any dimes stuck up her nose before she got shoved in the trunk. 
your trip reports! (And Alan's photos!!)
Oh and I won't over do it... I'm young and can handle that much excitement in a day 
Sherry, Karen, Lily, Alan.
Hi Sherry & Kimmar!
Think I need more memory for me 
at a few (yuck on olives and prunes) and 
for others. 
