Silence is what I got when I went up to Look Rock to catch sunrise Saturday morning.  If your life is like mine, it is filled with all kinds of devices like mine that chirp, beep, and buzz.   It was glorious to step out of my car into the pre-dawn morning and hear absolutely nothing.  It was so glorious it was stunning – and with a short walk across Foothills Parkway the sweet smell of pines from the Smokies quickly overtook me mingled with the earthy smell of forest.

Best word to describe it: rejuvenating.

Smoky Mountain National Park view from Foothills Parkway

Last weekend I was in Nashville, TN and stayed at the Embassy Suites – this wasn’t my first time staying with this chain but it was by far the most memorable.

It started with my room keys which listed features of the hotel in catchy copy.  One said “The guy in the white hat grants breakfast wishes.” – which speaks to their GREAT breakfast which is gratis.  The guy in the white hat refers to the chefs who make omlets and what not.

I’m not sure how many keys they have, but my two were different.  I’m a big fan of using keys for messaging, they get views and they also get replaced fairly often so messages can change without major investment cost.

Another benefit of the hotel was a free happy hour for beer, wine, and mixed drinks, I tweeted about it here

they had a name for this time, like the managers reception or something, but it was great and the lobby was packed.  I’m not sure how much this costs the hotel, but I’d be interested to see the bar and restaurant rings of one that doesn’t have it vs the hotel I was in.

Overall, just another example of a hotel making some waves in some cheap (and not so cheap) ways.

What do you think?