Steve Steve has the Smarch of his Life -- Volume 1: Marriott Hotels Suck

i-03039bcea54f5603597353d21092fabc-steve_steve_flymeeting_sm.JPG

What a weekend! Professor Steve Steve and I returned from Philadelphia on Sunday after hanging out with the Drosophilists. Steve arrived in Philly on Thursday morning on a direct flight from Iowa City, but the staff at the Philadelphia Marriott couldn't understand his thick accent when he asked that they notify me of his arrival. The little guy wandered the lobby of the hotel until Saturday morning, when I found him nibbling on the flamboyant floral display. That wasn't the only thing the Marriott screwed up.

More stories and pictures can be found below the fold.

Why the Marriott sucks: aside from the fact that they can't handle the simple act of notifying a guest that a highly respected colleague has arrived in town, they also don't think that the exorbitant room rate should include internet access. They even have the audacity to advertise internet access for the "low rate" of $9.95 per day. I've reached the conclusion that the more a hotel charges for a room, the fewer services they offer. A cheap motel will give you free breakfast and great wireless access, but an expensive conference center will have an overpriced breakfast buffet and no internet connections.

Anyway, Steve Steve and I finally rendezvoused in the lobby on Saturday morning. We were both famished, so we headed over to Reading Terminal Market for some lunch.

i-3b4fefd74451f24d3f14229b27d12ded-05_steve_market_sign_sm.JPG

Steve Steve couldn't track down any Philly Bamboo Cheesesteak sandwiches, but he did come to the conclusion that he loves the Illadelph.

i-a516944c83e00c96927fbbc51c7b75f8-04_steve_love_philly_sm.JPG

After eating lunch, Steve Steve checked in at the registration desk and picked up his name tag.

i-f06ba04e8de242ae2ff1567d30c3166d-08_steve_register_sm.JPG

With all the paperwork in order, we headed to the poster session.

i-73fd2c14378a7ce93670fd0dde2be410-01_steve_sign.JPG

More pictures soon of Steve meeting with vendors and hanging out with the evolutionary biologists.

More like this

Kevin has only 5 more days in China so, apart from rain, various farewell dinners are keeping him too busy to do much collecting. Except, this time, it is a different kind of herping altogether, watching the alligators at a farm and diving for turtles. Anhui 4 September My last complete day in…
tags: Sandwalk, Down House, Darwin, nature, photography, London, England, Bromley, England, Professor Steve Steve Darwin's "weed garden" experiment, located near the pathway next to Down House, near the Gardens. Image: GrrlScientist 31 August 2008 [larger view]. Sunday, the day after the Nature…
I was wondering why it took Kevin so long to send in another report. Well, he was sick... Chinese "Ebola" This write up is going to be short and concise. Most of the days it consists of I wasn't in the mood for remembering details, so some of these days will fly by. 22 July Today was another town…
The following will be of interest only to people who were at Boskone, or who for some reason care deeply about what I did there, so I'll put the bulk of the text below the fold. We arrived at about 3:00 Friday afternoon, parked in the hotel garage, and discovered that the trunk of my car would no…