This post continues the “edge of your seat” excitement in knowing all about our mini vacay at the end of January (and if that statement rings true with any of you, dear readers, please take time–now!–to reassess your life and goals).
Before having our wonderful dinner at Zooroona’s and then enjoying the splendors of the theater, we checked into our bed and breakfast aptly named The Henderson Castle–not because it is a true blue castle like the ones that pepper Europe and other interesting areas of the world but because it is a huge, mansion type home and that is as close as we get to castles in this neck of the woods.
The Henderson Castle was built in 1895 by Frank Henderson to the tune of $72,000 (equivalent to about $2 million today), who then promptly died by 1899. So much for enjoying his dream house. His wife stayed in the home a few more years before she moved on. The house was extravagantly built boasting 25 rooms and 11,000 square feet, including a ball room on the third floor. Since Mrs. Henderson sold it, it has passed hands nine times until it fell into the capable French hands of Francois Moyet, who is also a master chef–oooh la la pour nous!
I had gone on Priceline to find a hotel for the night of our play. Not really necessary since we only live 30-40 minutes away but there was the threat of brutal weather for that evening and I knew I wouldn’t want to be dealing with it at 11:00 PM. I was surprised to get a hit on a B&B on Priceline (thought they just handled hotels) but I was even more surprised by the price…under $60 for the night and, of course, this included breakfast (uh–breakfast by a French Master Chef no less). Originally I bought just the one night but the more we talked about the things we wanted to do around Kalamazoo ( a city we lived in for years, mind you), we decided two nights would be perfect. And it was.
We stayed in the Victorian Room which had two beds, the tiniest bathroom ever (it was even tinier than the one we had in Paris), fireplace and a huge closet. My apologies for the photo quality…I was dealing with very low lighting.
Chandelier in bathroom:
Room with a view:
It was fun exploring around the house admiring the architecture, different woods, marbles, inlays, chandeliers and sculptures. Here are some of the things we saw:
In the mornings we got to eat the BEST French Toast breakfast ever. It was so delicious. Brett and I have followed a plant-based diet for months now (I would confidently say we are 95% vegan/ 99% vegetarian–but we aren’t militants about it because there are some situations where we need flexibility…or starve. At home we are 99.9% vegan) but willingly made a slight exception to our diet so we could enjoy such a wonderfully French breakfast.
A romantic thing I would have loved to have done was to take advantage of the whirlpool tub on the roof. This house is situated on a hill overlooking downtown Kalamazoo which makes for some incredible views. I wanted so badly to take some wine and my honey and sit out under the stars. But the weather!! It was below zero with a ripping wind that would have snapped our exposed heads off our warmly submerged bodies in only minutes. Not worth it. But I did venture up there before we checked out to take photos of the view…because I am brave. Check it out:
This skylight slides open so one can get to the roof:
Voila!
Haha ! Yeah, the face is saying “I am brave” the mind is screaming “I gotta get the hell off this roof before I die”.
And that is the story of staying at The Henderson Castle…a castle in the sky.
~~Heather~~
