Tomatico woke up at his normal time on New Year’s Day despite staying up later than usual. He was hungry but everyone else was still sleeping so he and I went down to the lobby and got a quick bite in the cafe. We then headed to the gym for our morning workout. He’s been really focused on his workouts the last few days and I don’t want that to fade.

Checking In Again

Since we had booked two reservations in order to take advantage of a great AAA rate that was only available the last 3 nights of our stay. As part of that, we had two different types of rooms. On check-in the agent had offered us an upgrade for $25 a night which would mean we can stay in the same room for the whole stay, we’d just need to check in again and get our keys updated. We’d also get access to the lounge for the second three nights. if we had a higher level of status with Hyatt we’d be able to have gotten both of those for free. We’re working on it!

While Tomatico showered after the gym, I grabbed both keys and my credit card and went down to get that sorted out. The same agent that checked us in on the first day helped me with my re-check in. He remembered me and got things sorted out for us. He updated our keys and activated our lounge access.

Off to the Aquarium

The boys wanted to go to the aquarium which is located across the street. I was less interested in going so I stayed behind to get some blogging done and relax in the room. They were quite impressed with the aquarium. They got to see some shows with seals and sea otters, pet a shark, touch a jellyfish, and feel a stingray.

Around lunch my wife texted me and we met near the waterfront by the aquarium. Tomatico had a Mexican place he wanted to go to so we split up again. My youngest insisted on going to Hooters of all places.

After lunch, the boys wanted to go back and do some more at the aquarium so I went back to the room. On the way to our room I stopped by the lounge to see what it was like. It was smaller than expected and they didn’t have much our for snacks, but it had a fantastic view of the waterfront as it was on the next to the top floor. We’d have to see what would be offered for breakfast in the morning.

Gym Session 2

After another hour my wife texted that Tomatico was getting bored so I went over to get him. I figured he wanted to go back to the gym for another session. He’s really dedicated!

While he was on the machine I got some work done. I was next to the TV which was stuck on some random ESPN channel. The best I could tell, the show that was playing was the world championships of belly flop diving. It was as weird as it sounds but oddly fascinating. The next show that came on was the Tetris World Championships. Again, it was something fascinatingly odd that I watched far too closely.

Laundry and Dinner

After a couple hours on the machines (three hours total for the day for the second day in a row!) we went back up to the room. We were running low on laundry so my wife had found a local laundromat with a wash and fold service that could get us our clothes back (clean) in about 36 hours. We packed up our dirty clothes and carried them out to the car to get them to the laundromat. It was less than a mile away and we found it without a problem. My wife went in to get things sorted while we waited in the car.

My wife was back out within a couple minutes satisfied we’ll get our clothes back. It only cost $25 for the whole bag, which seemed like a fantastic price. We’ll see!

The boys were hungry, especially Tomatico due to his gym time. My wife found a place nearby calls Rosco’s Chicken ‘N Waffles which the boys were both super interested in. When we arrived the place looked a bit sketchy, but the chicken was fantastic. The boys both ate everything and really enjoyed the waffles.

Relaxing in the Room

Back at the hotel we first went to the lounge to see what was available in the evening appetizers. There wasn’t a huge selection, but we found some snacks. The lounge was about half full and there was a football game playing on the TV that most of the people were watching.

Back in the room, we put one of the Transformers movies on while we got ready for bed.