Delightfully Tacky - The Madonna Inn

Every once in awhile I get to stay in some pretty unique places including this one: The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA. Unfortunately, I failed to get a good shot of the outside of the hotel so you'll have to click on the link to see it in all of it's glory!

Each room in this unique hotel has a different theme: golf, caves, waterfalls, flowers, etc. Anything you could imagine probably exists in some distorted fashion at this hotel. My room for the night was the Floral Fantasy Suite and it certainly lived up to its name. Check it out:

Gotta love the red leather arm chair:


And then there is the restroom (note the floor tiles):

The entire night I wasn't really sure how to feel about my surroundings. I found it humorous but slightly disturbing at the same time. I mean, who really designs stuff like this!?

To get a feel for the other rooms that are available; check out some of these links: The Buffalo Room, The Caveman Room, and The Love Nest . Each room has a personality of its own and each one delightfully tacky.

Before I checked out I was told that I had to see the most famous part of the hotel: the "world famous" rock waterfall urinal . Check it out:

In my opinion; you can dress it up however you want to but it still smells like a urinal!

One interesting thing that I've just discovered is that The Madonna Inn was liked as the #10 Quirkiest Hotels in the world by tripadvisor.com. Of the ten hotels listed, only 2 of them were located in the United States. Guess I know how to pick'em!

Crazy Man 1, 2 & 3 - All In A Friday Night

This weekend was jam packed! So of course I have a story or two to tell...

Lets start with Friday night when I got a flat tire. Just my luck! So I'm in the alley behind my house emptying out my trunk so that the guy from AAA could get to the spare (more to come on this later). All of the sudden, Crazy Man #1 walks into the alley and decides to start up a conversation with me. Here are some of the highlights:

• He had just come from Brad Nowell's (Sublime) gravesite where he poured out baccardi, burned a joint, and snubbed out a cigarette on his tombstone - all in remberance of him. Not to mention, he cussed him out for "leaving us too early". I got the full play by play reenactment of this. Including him singing a Sublime song and playing air guitar. Amazing!
• He then invited me to Tommy's house on 17th Street. Since I didn't know him he thought that I might know Jimmy over on 14th. Negative...but that shouldn't stop me from heading over to Tommy's for a "kick ass" house party.
• So then he introduces himself (I can't remember his name) but when I said Nicole he immediately started calling me "Niki". We are suddenly best friends...
• He leaves and then not even two minutes later runs back around the corner and I hear "Hey Niki! Wanna go shoot some pool across the street". Me: "Nah, I'm about to head out." Crazy Man says: "I'm not trying to pick you up, Niki. I got a girl down in Laguna - I just wanna shoot some pool". Me: "No worries but my friend and I are about to take off. See ya later." I wave goodbye and pray that crazy man doesn't break into my house.

So my friend and I come around to the front of my house and we see a guy sitting on the steps smoking a cigarette. I should mention that the man looked very similar to this:

I'm totally freaked out at this point because we just left Crazy Guy #1 only to encounter Crazy Guy #2 who is actually in my front yard! So I say hello and asked if he knew Keith (my neighbor). He says yes and then explains that he is just there to lift some weights and then he's going to leave. I should mention that my neighbor brought home a weight bench & set of weights about two weeks ago and my front yard now resembles a prison yard. He said that the weights are his attempt to get in shape because he's going through a mid-life crisis...no lie. I shake my head and say goodbye to Crazy Man #2.

After my friend and I get back to my place I decide to call AAA to have them change the tire. I could have done it myself but I've paid for AAA for 5 years and never used it so why not try it now? Enter Crazy Man #3 (from Mandic Motors - insert your own joke here). "Yon" was his name and the moment he steps out of the truck I realize that he is RIPPED! It takes him well over an hour to change one tire. By the time that he finished I was pissed because I could have changed it in 15 minutes and I'm not even the professional! Friday night ends and I am exhausted....

So Saturday rolls around and I spent the entire morning running errands - 2 new tires (argh!), oil changes, etc. It's amazing how much there is to do when you are gone for nearly two weeks! At around 2pm I headed to the beach to meet some friends for a volleyball tournament, cook out and campfire at night. So much fun! After the fire, I headed up to Hermosa Beach to visit David who was in town visiting from TN. It was a fun night as we headed downtown and hung out with his brother, sister-in-law & a couple of their friends. Much, much later that night (or morning) Dave and I got to meet an "enchanting" dog. Bet you can't say that you've met one of those....

Sunday was spent napping/relaxing at home and getting ready for the end of the month.

Hmm...I wonder what adventures will be in store for me this week!?