A Perfect Day in Paradise

Our anniversary provided the perfect excuse to have a little staycation and try a new fancy hotel. The White Elephant Palm Beach was an ideal location for our little adventure. I still think it's an unusual, even quirky, name for a hotel, but they obviously didn't consult with me, and that's okay. It's a beautiful building and the employees are terrific. We felt appropriately pampered and thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary celebration.

Hotel Lobby

It may be an odd symbol for a hotel, but at least that it made it easy to spot - as door knockers, monogrammed on the pillowcases, and even on the lightswitches.

Without even mentioning it to us, they upgraded the standard room we reserved to a suite. Wasn't that nice of them?

Living Room

Another pampering touch - chocolate covered strawberries in honor of our anniversary.

Bedroom and Bathroom

Some of the little details I loved - the arched doorway, a black washcloth so mascara doesn't stain a white one, gorgeous tile, and unusual doorstops

One detail, which I'm sure was supposed to be thoughtful, but actually turned out to be a bit annoying, was that the nightstand lamps were on motion detectors. I guess that's fine if you don't move in your sleep, but everytime we rolled over, the light came on! Fortunately, it also went off in just a few seconds. Moral of the story - check the sensitivity of your motion sensors when you install them.

Pre-dinner snacks in the lobby. We passed on the wine (although the attendant brought us water), but the cheese was quite delicious. They even had a type of cracker I didn't know existed until I tried making my own recently - Nut Crisps.

We had dinner at the on-site restaurant, Lola 41. (Lo = longitude, La = latitude, 41 degrees = Nantucket location, ACK = Nantucket airport, BOS = Boston airport, PBI = Palm Beach airport. Don't you just love learning new trivia?) Apparently the menu is created from various international cuisines of cities located on the 41st parallel. It's heavy on sushi (Japan), but also had Italian dishes, and even  an American burger. Wayne started with Miso Soup; I had a crab-stuffed avocado which was surprisingly heavy on the crab and light on the avocado. Then Wayne had Diver Scallops (Asian) and I had Veal Milanese (Italian). They were delicious, but not necessarily memorable. And the dessert wasn't our favorite either, but I selected it because I had never heard of a Pretzel Parfait, and was intrigued enough to give it a try. I think I expected something like this Peach Pretzel Dessert, and many of the elements were there. However, it was heavy on the pretzel crumbs and light on the cream (mascarpone) filling, although the caramel layer was about right. Maybe it needed some peaches added!

This was the view from our room window. After dinner we decided to check out the quaint little park and walk over to the Intracoastal Waterway.

Still another luxurious touch - chocolate covered cranberries from Nantucket - where the original White Elephant is located.

Breakfast was also at Lola 41. Wayne had his usual Eggs Benedict (fine, but we like our version better), and I decided to keep the pretzel theme going so ordered the Belgian Waffle. The description included "Strawberry Cream, Salted Butter, Banana Brulee and Pretzel Crunch." Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Pretzel Crunch in what was served, so that was a bit disappointing. However, the Banana Brulee was actually quite delicious, and since I was doubtful I would even like it, that was a nice surprise.

After breakfast we found more elephant icons as we took advantage of the hotel's "beach" service. The beach was located two blocks away, and we could have walked, but why not be driven?

In case you can't tell, it was an absolutely wonderful, beautiful, perfect beach day - one of the best we've ever had. There wasn't a cloud in the sky (at least not when we arrived), it wasn't too windy (so the umbrella didn't collapse on us), it wasn't too crowded, and the water was warm and clear. It was an absolutely delightful way to spend some time together on our anniversary!