Great Place to Stay
My wife and I, along with another couple who are long-time close friends and business partners, were in Huntsville this past week to close on some investment properties and check out some new prospects. Highly recommended by other friends from Birmingham, we decided to stay at the Holiday Inn Research Park on University Drive near the Madison Square Mall. Our friends drive over an hour on most weekends to come stay at this Holiday Inn, eating at the restaurant and enjoying the live music, and tell us it’s also one of the only places in north Alabama they know of that has live entertainment and is non-smoking.
Upon our arrival the front desk personnel were very courteous and promptly checked us into a couple of very clean nicely decorated rooms. Later in the week, we got a few chances to visit the indoor/outdoor swimming pool and exercise area. On Friday night the four of us decided to have dinner in the hotels restaurant and check out the much recommended live music. We saw the band setting up, and sat at a nearby table with a good view of the stage and dance floor. We ordered dinner, and were unexpectedly surprised that our service and meal was very good. A few tables down another couple were having dinner, and we overheard them ask the waitress if she could dim the very bright lights a little bit. She apologized that she couldn't dim the lights until after 8pm. After hearing this, we also mentioned to our waitress that the lights were really unnecessarily bright, and was hoping she could dim them, at least just a tad. As with the other dinner guest, she also profusely apologized over and over for being unable to dim the lights until after 8pm. The band didn't take the stage till sometime well after 8:30pm, so I can’t for the life of me figure out why they can’t turn down their million watt sun lamps before 8pm! We put on some SPF 1,000,000 UV sun protecting suntan lotion along with our handy welding goggles, and finished our dinner – which was kept extra warm by the million watt sun lamps. Great for the Cajun Tilapia, but it melted my pie a’la mode.
After dinner we spent a few minute chatting with our friends then sat back to enjoy the entertainment, with our wives eager to get us out dancing. The band was kinda ok, but obviously not what we had expected. More like karaoke or a garage band, and definitely nothing to dance to. Our Birmingham friends had in the past bragged about “these two guys” in the band having a clean professional sound and look, and putting on an entertaining show. The band we saw was obnoxiously loud, shabbily dressed, and hopelessly boring. We asked that nice couple next to us if they knew which two “sloths” in the band were supposed to be entertaining. They laughed, then sadly advised that the regular band “Wolf & Peter” hardly come back anymore, and that if they had been there that evening, the dance floor would have been packed. Since there were only about ten people watching this band, I guess the locals knew how bad the band was and went elsewhere. We stayed for a half dozen or so more poorly done songs, then when the band went on break (hopefully to practice and tune their instruments), we decided to drive into downtown Huntsville in search of better live music.
Because "The Rocket City" is such a good place for business investment, we will definitely be doing more in this area. Might stay at this Holiday Inn again due to it’s decent restaurant and proximity to our business activities, shopping, movie theaters, etc… or maybe not - depending on the quality of future weekend entertainment and those freakin ice cream melting sunlamps. I’d rather stay at the hotel downtown next to the civic center because it’s closer to better entertainment, but my wife prefers this Holiday Inn and says those other places have way too much cigarette smoke for her. The smoke-free Hopper's bar & grill is definitely a plus with us. Hope to stay at this Holiday Inn again real soon - I’ll keep you posted!