Over the two weeks we were in Maryland we only experienced a few snow days. Not that we are disappointed at all, we were thrilled to have those days of snow, and aside from a day or two of rain, we only experienced the cold. And boy was it cold. Mittens, hats, freezing noses kind of cold. At least the fact that it didn't snow or rain much meant that we could really get out and explore every day.
Here are some of the photographs I took as we were traveling around.
These first few photographs were taken on Christmas Day. We spent the day with family and although there was no snow around our hotel, as we ventured out of town the ground was more and more white.
Back at our hotel, Homewood Suites by Hilton, we looked out of our window one morning to see the snow falling. We were staying on the 12th floor and our room overlooked the 8th floor rooftop garden. We watched and waited until the garden below was filled with fluffy white stuff, then bundled up the little ones and let them run.
Most of the next group of photos were taken around the Inner Harbor area. Homewood Suites is right there, so we were within walking distance to everything which was perfect.
The kids were lucky enough to get a third snow day, and built a snowman outside their grandma's apartment.
I want to share more about Homewood Suites by Hilton. We absolutely loved staying there. We had a one bedroom suite, that as I mentioned was on the 12th floor and overlooked the 8th floor rooftop garden. There were two double beds in the bedroom and a sofa bed in the living room, so it was perfect for the five of us. Jay was able to sleep out in the living room and use the internet or watch TV long after the rest of us had gone to sleep. We also had a full kitchen, not that we really needed it as we didn't end up doing any cooking, however it was very handy having a full refrigerator and microwave, because some evenings we would bring home leftovers from dinner and we could re-heat them, we also kept a constant supply of beverages for the kids.
Here are some of the other benefits to staying there:
- Complimentary dinner Monday to Thursday evenings. The menu changed each night, and we enjoyed meals such as soup, chicken and vegetables, personal pizza, and salad, and they include beer and wine as well. I loved the two soups I had, one was a crab minestrone and was amazing.
- Complimentary breakfast every morning. Again, the menu changed each day, there was everything from eggs and bacon, to cereal, fruit, waffles, pancakes, yogurt and omelets.
- Laundry facilities on-site. We took enough clothes for 5 days, so we did laundry a couple of times whilst we were there, so it was very handy to have facilities right there.
- Complimentary wi-fi
- They offer a complimentary grocery shopping service.
- You are in walking distance to CVS and Whole Food which are directly behind the building. Starbucks is next door and there are many, many fabulous restaurants which I will be sharing with you shortly, as well as being within walking distance to the Inner Harbor including the National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, Little Italy, and many other attractions and activities.
- There is complimentary access to the Business Center, Fitness Center, and Maryland Athletic Club.
- 2 flat-screen televisions in the suite. Which was perfect when we wanted to watch something late in the evening and the kids wanted to watch cartoons.