Night 1
Allen and the kids stayed at the Home 2 Suites Quail Springs on the north side of Oklahoma City. This was the first of this type of hotel we had stayed in and we would stay at them again. The rooms are very large and they have a refrigerator and microwave in them. You can request a hot plate from the front desk. Allen bought gluten free Eggo waffles and eggs for everyone for breakfast as they did not have gluten free options on their breakfast buffet.
Night 2
I had been staying at the Holiday Inn Country Club Plaza in Kansas City for my meeting so we just continued our stay there. They do not have rooms for 6 but my room was paid by my company so we just added a second room. The hotel was very nice and having stayed there for 4 nights and attending a conference there all day I felt very at home there. Breakfast was included in my conference reservation but not for everyone else. The restaurant was a little pricey but the food was good and the buffet was plentiful. Allen & Jonathan opted for ordering off the menu and had lots of gluten free choices. This was an older hotel that had been renovated. The rooms were quiet and for hotel beds and pillows they were comfortable. The hotel was very conveniently located to restaurants and in a pretty part of Kansas City.
Nights 3-4
We stayed at the Residence Inn in Eden Prairie, MN. This may be the original Residence Inn ever built. The property was in a nice part of Eden Prairie but it was more of a business area rather than the tourist part of town. I think many of the people staying there were long time residents not hotel guests - especially given the high school graduation party that was held down the hall in our building. The hotel was arranged in buildings with 8 rooms per building. We had one of their "penthouse" rooms. A very generous title to give our 2 story room. We did have 2 sleeping areas and 2 bathrooms which was nice. The kids were in the bedroom downstairs with the 2 queen beds and Allen and I were in the "penthouse loft" which was barely large enough for our bed and closet. The bed was not comfortable and since the Twin Cities were abnormally hot being upstairs was not a temperature advantage. We did have a decent kitchen and were able to cook breakfast in our room and had pizza brought in for dinner. Not a bad hotel but it could definitely use some attention and updates. We enjoyed our time in the Twin Cities but if we go back I will pick a hotel not in the business suburbs.
Night 5
We had originally been booked to stay at the Hampton Inn in north Duluth but a room opened up in the Canal Park part of town which is where we had wanted to stay. We stayed at the Comfort Suites in Canal Park which backs up to Lake Superior and was within view of the Aerial Lift Bridge and Canal. We loved Duluth and the hotel could not have been in a better location. We had a single room with 2 beds and a sofa bed with a refrigerator and microwave. We had a lake view room which was very nice and we were across the hall from the guest laundry area. Given the number of wet clothes we had it was very nice to be able to wash and dry them without dragging everything through the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised when looking through the guest services guide that there was a listing of all the gluten free offerings at breakfast. It did say to ask the server for assistance so we would not have known about the selection if we had just walked into the dining area. When I asked the server she brought the package out for us to review the ingredients if we wanted and then she took the bread back in the back to toast in a separate toaster from the one all the other bread was toasted in. During breakfast a ship was going under the bridge so we ran out to watch the bridge go up. It was very interesting to watch since the bridge goes straight up unlike a draw bridge. Just like Duluth was one of our favorite locations this was one of our favorite hotels.
Night 6-7
We stayed at the Mainstay Suites in Winnipeg. This was another good hotel. It was close to the airport instead of in town so that made it not as nice as if we had been closer to town. The room and the hotel were nice. The kitchen area was right by the door which made cooking a little awkward but otherwise it was a good choice. Allen decided to cook eggs for everyone in the morning and we had gluten free muffins so I can't speak to what they would have offered us as far as gluten free options. The staff was extremely friendly and welcoming.
Night 8
We were at the second Home 2 Suites of the trip in Fargo. We had a huge room with a separate living room and bedroom. It was the girls' night on the couch so they settled in nicely for a night of HGTV and the boys watched Cartoon Network in the bedroom while Allen and I set off to find the prairie chicken. We cooked breakfast on the hotel provided hot plate since they had no gluten free offerings on their buffet. We enjoyed being right off the lobby so we could again do laundry and enjoy the amenities of the hotel. Home 2 Suites is definitely worth checking out.
Night 9-10
Sioux Falls was our second stay at a Residence Inn. After our less than stellar accommodations in Eden Prairie I was a little worried about what we would find. Instead we had our nicest room of the trip. We had a true two bedroom suite with two bathrooms and a nice living room. The only drawback was that both bedrooms only had 1 king bed so the boys ended up sleeping on the sofa bed again. We weren't really in this room enough to enjoy it since we drove to Mount Rushmore and back but we did sleep well and enjoyed a nice breakfast including a fairly good gluten free selection (eggs, bacon etc. no gluten free bread items).
Night 11
This was the worst night of the trip. Not only were we getting tired of loading and unloading, but the hotel we were staying in was not at all as advertised. We had been expecting something like the Residence Inn we had just left or at least one like the Residence Inn we stayed at in Eden Prairie. We were staying at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham in Wichita. I have stayed at Wyndham properties before and they were nice and well kept. This one must have fallen off their radar. If I had been able to find us another room somewhere else in the city, we would have lost our night's room cost and gone elsewhere. The hotel was in disrepair and the carpet was patched and worn. The building needed some repairs and painting. It was clean and the AC worked so given no other place to stay we decided to make the best of it. The room was supposed to sleep 6 including 2 on the sofa bed but the sofa bed was at most a twin and that was being generous. So we had to get creative. Everyone had a place to sleep and we knew we would be in our own beds the next night. If there had not been a torrential storm during the night it would have been ok. Instead I didn't sleep much trying to figure out if we could load the car in the pouring rain. At sunrise I woke everyone and we loaded between storms. I was glad to be out of that hotel.
Night 12
HOME AT LAST
We arrived home around 5:30 on Sunday and were all very happy to have our own rooms and our own beds. It was a great trip with mostly good experiences with the hotels. I do know to look a little deeper before selecting a hotel in an unfamiliar city though.
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