Olympic Vacation

My husband and I love to travel, but have always been conservative in our spending.  We didn't even take a honeymoon, choosing to spend a week in our new home.  Once our daughter was born, trips were still budget-oriented:  visits to family,  amusement parks or campgrounds.  At the time we really enjoyed it;  but now that our daughter is graduating from college, George and I realized we haven't taken a trip together -- alone -- in over 20 years!  So we booked our trip-of-a-lifetime:  to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Our excitement soared as we stepped off the plane -- followed quickly by homesickness and guilt at leaving our family behind.  As we walked into the beautiful and elegant Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, we thought it might be a bit too stuffy for our taste, but were totally surprised to be greeted by the smiling face -- and wagging tail -- of Beau, a beautiful yellow lab just like our Scooter back home!  From that moment we knew we were in for a wonderful trip;  any hotel that has a Labrador retriever as a mascot is definitely our type of place.  The other employees -- the human ones -- were equally warm and welcoming;  although there were plenty of celebrities staying in the hotel at the time (Joe Biden and Michael Phelps, for example), the Fairmont staff made us feel like their most important guests.
Oh, and by the way, the Olympics were pretty great too!