Manchester, Connecticut

About twelve miles from Hartford, the suburb of Manchester seems like a logical place to stay one night when flying into Bradley International Airport to visit the University of Connecticut, which is another eighteen miles in the same general direction.

For our purposes, visiting our youngest daughter between classes at UConn over three days, eighteen miles was a bit of a stretch, but Amy's schedule is so crammed full for hours at a time, it actually worked out okay.

Manchester lacks the pastoral setting of Storrs, but it is certainly treesy in comparison to where we live, even if our neighborhood is known as The Trees. Our hotel can only be described as quirky, which is something I never thought I would say about a chain hotel.

Our floor of the Baymont Inn featured Nacar memorobilia, including framed photos of cars, drivers and trading card displays. By the elevator, a display case contained Hotwheels cars and other three dimensional tributes to Nascar, but sharing the space was a collection of footballs emblazoned with the logos of pro teams.



Walking down the stairs, I peaked through the small window to see a gold record for Don McLean's "American Pie," which tempted me to further explore that floor's walls adorned with more framed records and musical souvenirs.

Coming out of the stairs on the way to the lobby, there are old store fixtures like a pre-electronic cash register followed by a fish aquarium, some stuffed dolls posed like real little boys checking out a candy machine, then of course the Elvis Presley statue in the parlor next to the lobby.

The 50s era Elvis foreshadowed the 1950s diner-inspired breakfast room, with Coca Cola wallpaper broken up by posters of James Dean, Rick Nelson, Lucille Ball and assorted others including, of course, more Elvis. If all this sounds too gauche and off-putting, I wouldn't recommend staying here, but if you always thought the Kinks had a good ironic sense of humor, and enjoy spending time with people who don't take it all too seriously, then you'll love it.

Surprisingly, a lot of business people stay here, and I'm guessing it isn't exclusively because of the great pricing (we paid $64 per night plus tax). The buffet breakfast in the cheerful diner was very good, though not for a serious Atkins proponent. The waffle batter Baymont provided for the do-it-yourself waffle machine made fluffy, delicious, Belgian-thick waffles, and the bagels also toasted up tasty.

When we arrived on Wednesday evening, they had warm oatmeal cookies by the check-in desk. They tasted like my mother's recipe: fantastic. On Thursday evening, I think Julie grabbed one on her way out to meet me when I arrived back from the Mark Twain House just in time to proceed to UConn to see Amy. We were very disappointed to find they were out by the time we returned after dinner.

We had brought pizza to Amy's job at the Daily Campus as an excuse to linger around the office where she spends so much time. It's great to spend time with the bright, ebullient friends she loves working with. Amy would probably call us "lurks." By the way, Husky Pizza, located next to the UConn campus, is great, and if lurking at the Daily Campus meant missing the cookies, it was a fair exchange.

On Friday evening before heading to the football game, we were devestated to learn they only have hot cookies Monday through Thursday, apparently enticing those big kids disguised in stodgy suits known as business travelers to stay with them.

We had a great time tailgating before the game, even if our menu was limited to chips, salsa and drinks. Too bad Jay, Gina and Laszlo weren't there with us to share the Sam Adams 48 Degrees IPA I bought in honor of this New England occasion. I could only finish two bottles from the six pack.

The game started great, with UConn looking unbeatable, especially on defense, but by the end of the game, Iowa State came out on top.



I won't let a small setback like the outcome of sports even ruin my memories of our stay at the Baymont Inn of Manchester. By the way, on the practical side, our room was comfortable and well-furnished, with a cable-fed, big screened TV and excellent wireless internet access that allowed us to work on two computers at once at high speeds.