Why you should remember to bring wine with you when you venture out of town

Rob and I totally enjoy a "get-away weekend." About four times per year, we go to DC for the weekend. Rob's company has a data center in Sterling, VA, so we sometimes have a legitimate excuse to get that direction.

One of our favorite places to stay is a Marriott in Herndon. Yes, it's outside of DC, but we've driven to the metro station and had a lot of fun in the city. Sometimes, though, just getting away and seeing a different set of four walls is gratifying too. And Reston is right next to Herndon, and a fun place to walk around.

We were able to go a few weekends ago ... it's the first time we've been out of town since last fall. We're both taking classes this semester, which has cut into our play time (him much more so than me). Rob felt like he had the time, so off we went.

What does this have to do with wine? I'm getting to that.

Saturday night we went to one of our favorite sushi places, if not our favorite sushi place. It was so awesome! When we got back to the hotel, we decided to have a night cap in our room. We went down to the bar to check out some of their wine, and picked BV Coastal Estates (I think 2006; that part is fuzzy in the picture).

Now, here's the thing. We have gotten pretty smart about bringing our own booze with us when we travel like this. Let's face it; drinking can get expensive. And if we're not driving and it's just us, what the hell, right? So we pick out this bottle of wine. The hotel charges us $30; after tip, this bottle is costing closer to $40. We decided we needed a snack, too. So we went to the hotel's snack shack and picked up a 1/2 container of Pringles (I know you guys have seen these) for a mere $2.38 (they sell for 89 cents in the grocery store), and god-knows-what for a bag of trail mix.

So we have our $50 snack.

Back to the room, we open the bottle. The wine was ok; I pretty much knew immediately it probably wasn't too expensive. Would I recommend it? Eh. It wasn't offensive. And I was right; I priced the same bottle for $10 at Kroger once we got back. It accomplished it's purpose; we enjoyed the wine and the relaxing time in our little suite. But, I really wish we had remembered to pack a bottle or two of wine...