by Marty Coleman | Jul 12, 2012 | Gaylord Hotel - Grapevine, Texas, Travel |
This is the fourth and final installment of the story of my visit to the Gaylord Texan resort through winning the Grand Prize in a contest put on by Steinbrecher and Associates in conjunction with the publication of Susan Steinbrecher’s book, ‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening’. You can start at PART ONE here if you want to go back to the beginning.
___________________
Break Fast
Day Three at the Gaylord started with room service for Caitlin, since she had to get up and going to work really early. Simple enough oatmeal, but they made it the right way and it was delicious she said. I often take sunrise pictures at home and post them on Facebook so I decided I might as well do it in Texas as well.
Simple and Delicious at Sunrise
Linda and I meanwhile had heard about a very unique Texas breakfast spot down in Grapevine, the town we had meandered through the day before. It was called ‘Out West’ and was the genuine article, pure Texas. How ‘Texas’ was it? It was SO Texas that the table we sat at WAS Texas!
Linda looks over Amarillo
Small Town Time
We hadn’t really seen one side of the street as well as we wanted the day before so we took another stroll through Grapevine after breakfast. We came upon a pretty witty name of a store.
Coffee and religious books - Pun divinely intended, obviously
The ice cream store, a shaded gazebo and a cute farmer’s market called to us after our walk.
Where's John Phillip Sousa when you need him?
Linda in the distance getting yummy peaches!
Meeting Susan
One of the most exciting parts of the holiday for me was actually part business. I obviously had read up on Susan Steinbrecher, the person who awarded me the prize. She turned out to be a pretty amazing person, successful business woman who had a very unique and individual approach to her chosen profession of leadership consulting and training. She told me to let her know when we would take the vacation so she might come by and meet me. What exactly that meant, I didn’t know. Would it be a handshake, hello then off she would go, or would we have time to sit down and talk a bit? I wrote her a week before the vacation telling her that we would be there and we arranged a time to meet on our last day. I wrote back and asked if she would be willing to take a quick look at my Napkin Dad presentation, ‘The Six Stop Signs on Creativity Road’ that I would have on my iPad. I thought it would be a good way to let her know what I do and maybe how I could help her in her business. If not, perhaps she would have some good advice for a newbie speaker/presenter. She was gracious in saying she would be happy to.
Susan Steinbrecher and me
She gave me great advice about how to develop my speaking career and offering to help by giving advice into the future. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I am now excited to read her books, ‘Heart-Centered Leadership’ and ‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening’.
Right as we were finishing up, a couple came into the Celebrity Services offices where we were having our conversation. Susan knew them and introduced them to me. They were Angela Mitcham, the VP and Hotel Manager and John Imaizumi, the Senior VP and General Manager, who had a broken arm. They were the ones who had put the package together at Susan’s request so really it was them I had to thank for the incredible attention we received. Linda came in right at that time and we all talked for a few minutes about John having taken a nasty tumble on his bike. Luckily it looks like he will have a full recovery!
Dashing for the Airport
Then it was off for a hopefully traffic free dash for Love Field for me to get a flight home. Linda was going to be staying the weekend with Caitlin at her apartment while I bachelored it for the weekend with the dogs and cat. Dallas, not known for light traffic, opened up it’s highways and byways and we made it at the speed limit just in time for me to get in line as the plane boarded. I was a bit winded from running through the terminal but not sweaty enough to worry about my row mates being overwhelmed by my lack of cologne. I ended up sitting next to a very cool woman who told a great story about the dreams she had, and actions she was taking, to one day open her own boutique, but that’s a story for another day.
The End
_________________
Thanks so much for traipsing through the 4 part series. I really didn’t expect it to be this long but I felt very privileged to get the prize and wanted to give it justice in my recounting of it. I wish I had taken more photos (an odd thing for me to not take many) but I think I gave a good visual flavor of the trip nonetheless
Please consider staying at the Gaylord Texan (or any of their resorts) if you are in the Dallas area. They truly are an amazing company and the service was as excellent as one would hope for. I have not been paid or compensated for this series, beyond the initial awarding of the 2 night stay to begin with, which was not dependent on me writing or sharing anything about it.
If you are in business management and leadership, I hope you will consider Steinbrecher and Associates‘ services in developing custom plans for leadership training. Once again, I have not been paid or compensated for my mentioning of her company or services beyond the initial awarding of the contest prize, which was not dependent on any writing or sharing on my part.
Part Zero (the napkin)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 11, 2012 | Gaylord Hotel - Grapevine, Travel |
This is Part Three of the story of my luxury adventure at the Gaylord Texan resort that I won in a contest from Steinbrecher and Associates. You can read Part One and Part Two here.
_____________
A Texas sized Sunrise
The next morning I got up early and took a sunrise run around their running trail. They have a 1/2 mile and a mile trail. I chose the mile trail but took the 1/2 mile trail after that and found a nice little loop in a depressed gladed area that I was able to run around enough to get in my miles.
Sunrise on Lake Grapevine
We had a quick breakfast before Caitlin had to leave for work at the Texas Cantina along the meandering little river they have running through the entire hotel. I didn’t take a photo but I did draw the waitress for my one and only napkin of the trip. You can see the finished colored version here.
She poured it in Texas
Linda and I were then treated to relaxing massages at the Relache Spa. I had Carlos work me over pretty good and Linda had female massage therapist. It hit the spot, no doubt. If I could have gone back in for another one later that day AND the next morning…I would have.
HOT Couture in small town Texas
In the afternoon we drove a short distance to the small town of Grapevine. It’s a quaint and cute main street type town. Fantastic shops of all sorts. They’ve done a great job of bringing in a mix of shops, part tourist, part local, part food, part products and services. It felt real and like it had evolved organically over the years. We did mostly window shopping, stopping in here and there, meandering and just enjoying each other’s company.
We did find a fantastic resale shop, The Designer’s Rack, that just happened to have a new selection of designer shoes come in. I took pics to send to Caitlin, who was at work, to see if she would be interested. Turns out she was tempted but held off. Linda did end up buying a pair (not pictured unfortunately).
Prada, Choo, Tods, Chanel
I ended up in a conversation with one of the sales people, a true Texan with big hair, bright pink nails & lipstick and the greatest Texas accent you could imagine. I really regret not getting a picture of her! She did model one of the pairs of shoes so Caitlin could see it a bit better so I did get a photo of her foot.
Texas foot in a Parisian shoe (Chanel)
I hung out at the pool again that afternoon while Linda napped. I met a woman with 4 of her own kids who was also in charge of a slew of middle school kids from a baptist church. There was a big summer get together for baptist teens from all over Texas, Oklahoma and other states and that made for a LOT of energy in the pool. How they have that much energy without caffeine is a mystery. We talked about raising girls vs raising boys. I gave her an assurance it was likely (though not guaranteed) she would survive all their teen years.
Are You Outdoors if You Are in an Atrium?
That night we finally had our dinner at Zeppoles. It was mostly a seafood menu and none of it disappointed. It really was exquisite all around. The attention and knowledge of the waiter was a great benefit. There’s nothing better for a diner than a waiter who knows what he or she is talking about.
Caitlin and Linda at Zeppoles Restaurant
This is our ‘outdoor seating’ within the restaurant within the atrium. It was a funny experience to have such a HUGE atrium in the middle of the hotel. The whole thing was nothing but light and air, no real feeling of being inside at all, except it was air conditioned to about 72 degrees, which is odd when you are expecting to walk out into 100 degree heat. Here is what the very top of the atrium looked like. Many people look very funny snapping this exact same picture. I am sure I didn’t though.
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Planning
I ended the night organizing the next day’s schedule. I was going to finally meet Susan Steinbrecher, the woman who awarded me the Grand Prize. I was hoping to have enough time to have a sit down conversation with her, perhaps show her a quick overview of my ‘Six Stop Signs on Creativity Road’ presentation I did at Blog World to see if she might have suggestions about where I might go next in my plan to conquer the world. But we weren’t going to meet until 1 pm and I figured we would have to check out the usual hotel time of 11 or so. Luckily, being served by Celebrity Services meant our check out wasn’t until 4pm. Sweet! That got one problem out of the way, but the other problem was I needed to be at the airport by about 2:15, giving me a pretty brief window of time to meet with Susan….
________________
Part Zero (the napkin)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four. Find out if I get to sit down and talk to Susan! Sit on the edge of your seat wondering if I will make my flight! Laugh as we forget to check out!
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 10, 2012 | Gaylord Hotel - Grapevine, Texas, Travel |
This is Part Two of my story of winning the grand prize in the ‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening’ contest. You can read Part One here.
We are celebrities, uh huh
I won the ‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening’ contest in the winter of 2011 but the 2012 4th of July holiday turned out to be the perfect time to go. Caitlin was now living in Dallas and could either stay with us or at least hang out when she wasn’t working. The certificate said to call the executive offices to make our reservations. That was my first clue that this might not be your normal hotel stay. They in turn instructed me to go to ‘Celebrity Services’ when I checked in, not the usual reservation desk. This turned out to be a very good thing since the line for that desk was pretty long on the morning of the 4th.
Celebrity Services was behind a frosted glass wall in the lobby, with no signage. It looked like it might just be executive offices, or something like that. I suppose real celebrities would like that better than a big neon sign saying ‘come bug us, we have celebrities in here!’ In spite of my new found celebrity status I was not expecting a rush of autograph seekers.
Courtney and Tyler, our celebrity services peeps, insisted on having their picture taken with the celebrities.
I was grateful for them because most of the other patrons had luggage amounts like this to check in.
Note box fan: Linda was jealous!
A third Celebrity Services Peep (not sure if they have an actual title, their card just says ‘celebrity services’), Paula, brought us up to our room along with the Bell Hop and luggage to explain the details of our new humble abode, the 5th floor Presidential Suite. This was a good thing since Jed Clampett (me) didn’t really know where to start. This is why.
The lil' sittin' room
The one oversight was that she didn’t explain was the shower, which had about 14 knobs and a steamer that I didn’t figure out until I was in the middle of a ‘death by steaming’ James Bond assassination attempt. But I survived not terribly worse for wear. It made Linda laugh at me til she cried, so there’s that.
'Steaming Assassination Trap' off camera to the right.
One of the best things as we arrived was we got to taste the amazing treats Caitlin had made the night before for us. She loves doing holiday goodies so why not make them for the 4th of July, right? Check these out. They were SO delicious!
Patriotic Strawberries, YUM!
This was our view.
American Landscape
After we settled in we went to the outdoor pool (they also have an indoor pool and a waterpark). The pool was filled to the brim with kids splashing and having fun and I didn’t feel safe bringing my camera phone out but here is a pic of it when it is pretty and empty.
I, Octopus
Trust me when I say it was hot, fun, crowded and loud, just like it is suppose to be on a summer holiday. My exercise in the pool was swimming underwater from Linda and Caitlin’s dangling legs to the opposite side of the pool and back, my challenge was winding my way through legs and bodies. I did that again and again. It was fun and I only kicked one or two people. Really. I do think one lady thought I was an octopus or something when I swam by.
After we finished with the pool we went back upstairs and changed for dinner. We had originally made reservations for the Hotel’s Italian restaurant, Zeppoles, for that night but decided we would go into the small town of Grapevine and see if we couldn’t find a more 4th of July, American type dinner. We ended up at Pappadeaux’s, a cajun restaurant, of all places. It wasn’t exactly ‘all-american’ but it was really good anyway!
FOURTH!
As we drove back into the hotel area the roads were packed with people coming out to see the fireworks. Luckily we got a bit lost and took the road behind the hotel to get there, missing the main drag filled with cars. Mistakes happen for a reason, right? As we went into the lobby Linda and Caitlin decided they wanted to get a drink to bring up to the room. I don’t drink so I just went straight up while they went to the bar in the lobby. When I get upstairs, what should I find but that my new best friends at Celebrity Services (as Linda kept teasing me about) had a bottle of champagne and 3 Creme Brulee desserts waiting for us!
Sweet and Bubbly!
I immediately called the girls downstairs to tell them not to bother with the drinks, but they didn’t answer their phones. I arranged some chairs and placed the champagne and dessert cart near the window from which we would be watching the fireworks. I then waited and waited, continually opening the front door, hoping they would be up soon since I knew the show was about to begin. Finally they showed up, having gone to another bar in the giant atrium in the center of the hotel complex to find a quicker bartender. So much for that idea. Anyway, we popped the champagne right as the first fireworks exploded in the sky.
Bubbles and Sparkles
We not only saw our fireworks perfectly but we could also see at least 9 other fireworks going off in the far distance. See the photo of our view in the daytime above and you can imagine how easy it would be to see them. We turned on the TV and it had a fireworks show with great music on. It was a perfect accompaniment. After the music stopped Caitlin started singing every patriotic song she could think of and Linda and I sang along. Amazingly we knew almost all the words to all the songs! It really was a fantastic night.
____________________
Part Zero (the napkin)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 9, 2012 | Gaylord Hotel - Grapevine, Travel |
Rules, Rules, Rules
In the fall of 2011 I happened upon a contest put on by the author and business woman, Susan Steinbrecher.
It was being promoted in conjunction with the release of her book ‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening – Instigating Change in an Era of Global Renewal‘.
The contest idea was simple; tell a story of an ‘aha moment’, an awakening, in your life. I was about to tell my Napkin Dad story when I read the fine print in the rules. It appeared to me from my reading of the rules that I would be handing over the copyright to my story if I submitted it and it won. I, of course, was not interested in letting that happen and so I wrote to the contest and told them of my concerns.
A while later I received an email from Susan apologizing for the wording in the rules and explaining they had no desire to own the copyright of any story and had changed the rules to reflect that. I was happy to hear that but I really didn’t hold out much hope I would win since I had sort of been in their face about the rules. But, I submitted it anyway. I put it in the ‘good thing I read the fine print’ category and pretty much forgot about it.
Lo and Behold
I got a call not too long thereafter telling me I had won the grand prize, which was a 3 day 2 night stay at the Gaylord Texan, a huge resort hotel just outside of Dallas, in Grapevine, Texas.
The certificate came along with material from both the hotel and from Susan’s company, Steinbrecher and Associates (a leadership consulting firm) and her 2 bestselling books, the aforementioned ‘Kensho: A Modern Awakening’ and her prior book, ‘Heart-Centered Leadership‘. I realized I was in pretty heady company.
My wife, Linda was very excited about it since it included an hour long massage at their Relache Spa for both of us.
It said we would get to stay in a ‘Presidential Suite’ which sounded cool, and had a free dinner awaiting us at one of their restaurants, Zeppole. All in all it sounded like a great mini-holiday awaited us.
Zeppole Restaurant in the Great Atrium
We thought about when we might want to go but really couldn’t figure out a good time for quite a while. Our daughter, Caitlin, was going to Baylor, south of Dallas, and we drove through Dallas regularly, but exactly when we would find time for a weekend there was murky. Finally the opportunity presented itself when Caitlin finished school and moved to Dallas. We would go there for the fourth of July and she would be able to enjoy it with us!
Fireworks over the hotel
Part Zero (the napkin)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Like this:
Like Loading...
