Twist of Fate

London was one of the first places that I worked on accommodations. Several times, I thought I found a great place, but for different reasons, our lodgings didn't work out. Finally I found the Marriott in Twickenham. It was a bit of a train ride into the city, but Marriotts always seemed to work out great, so I decided it was worth the sacrifice. I knew when I booked the hotel, they mentioned something about being near a rugby stadium, but I had no idea what we were in for. In fact, unbeknownst to me, I had just chosen what would be a highlight of the trip for Jonathan. We arrived at the hotel to find a huge rugby statue in front of the entrance doors. England's National Rugby Team's arena was literally attached to our hotel. Rather than looking out onto the street, our windows looked right onto the back of the stadium and the entire hotel, including the art work in our rooms followed a rugby theme. The International Rugby Museum was across the street and attached to the stadium was a great rugby store with all sorts of apparel. Steve played rugby all through high school, in college and on mens' leagues after we were married. Jonathan has fallen in love with rugby too, and couldn't be happier. He had a hundred questions about the area and the game that was played there. I wish that I had the answers. The only problem was that it made us all miss Steve. We knew that he would have loved staying here, especially to share it with Jonathan.   

The highlight of the stay was when we were checking out. The Royal Navy Rugby Team had arrived and was in the lobby checking in. They had a huge game the next day playing their rivals, the Royal Air Force. Of course we were sad that we wouldn't be there, but Jonathan did get to talk to the players and have his picture taken with them. We were all on cloud nine as we headed out of town.