Shout out to Kurt Hall!!

Venice was gorgeous.  Just look at this!   But now.... Flashback time..... 

Picture it.  New Concord, Ohio, 2000.  Kurt and I are working on a project, late night, in-depth, pain-in-the-ass type of work.  We come to a stopping point for the evening and decide we need a drink.  Everything is closed in New Concord, which is a dry village anyway.  So we drive to Cambridge on a mission.  This was before Cambridge had any bars for the college kids, so we pulled Kurt's car into the one open place that we knew would have drinks: the Best Western Bar & Lounge.  This place had it all.  Middle-aged waitress with attitude, $5 cheese platter, and even cheaper main courses.  But above all, they had a fully stocked bar.  I'm not proud of what I'm about to type, but at that time in my life, my drink of choice was the buttery nipple.  It's a super-sweet shot of half butterscotch schnapps, half bailey's irish cream.  Today, I might be able to stand it over ice cream, but back in 2000 I thought it was tops.

So there we were, kickin' it sweet style at the Best Western Lounge.  We both drank enough to warrant an external DD, so we buzzed Ben & Kari's house.  Both were asleep.  Kari answered the phone, then brilliantly told Ben it was for him.  Lucky for us, Ben is easily amused and soon arrived at the BW to drive us safely back to campus.  Good friends and trashy liquor - always a pleasure.

So let's flash forward 8 years...... Kim and I found ourselves in Venice with full stomachs, miserable feet, aching backs, and sagging eyelids.  We thought we'd be able to stay up for the 3am train, but the beauty of the city convinced us to stay another day.  We just had to find a room.  Easy, right?

Well, the hostels were on the other side of the island.  Water taxis were 60 euro a pop.  After begging at 10 different hotels in the beautiful island paradise of Venice, we found one, single, tiny room at - you guessed it - the Best Western Hotel.  In Venice!  The room was big enough for one twin bed and some walking space on the floor.  The window faced a lovely, grey/brown stone wall.  The bar was open.  So eight years after what I thought might be my only night spent in the Best Western Lounge, Kim and I shared a nightcap at the Venice Best Western Hotel Bar to lull ourselves into a night of awkward sleeping arrangements.  And were it not for those silly college memories, I may have been too embarrassed to even write about such a generic hotel selection on this here blog of ours.  But Kurt, this one's for you.

p.s. - this time I had amaretto.