Round 1 - miniMoon Madness Tournament

If you are playing along at home, now is the time to pull out those red pens and get ready to scratch out the sorry hotels who fell out of the minimoon tournament last night. 4 of the 8 brackets played: Nashville, the Mid-West, Michigan, and South Carolina! Without further ado - check who fell off the bandwagon this week!

Nashville
1 Hutton Hotel
2 Union Station
this was a tough one, after much back and forth Hutton Hotel got the "w" because the rooms at Union Station looked a little like Harry Potter's chamber under the stairs.
3 Renaissance
4 Opryland
Renaissance dominated this game.

Mid-West
1 Branson, Missouri – Chateau on the Lake
2 Niagara Falls – Hilton Niagara Falls
3 Branson, Missouri - Hilton Branson
4 Black Hills (Mt. Rushmore), South Dakota - Powder House Lodge
This bracket got a little busted - we knew Niagara Falls had an automatic bid to the second round, but it came up against Chateau on the Lake which was the favorite of the two Branson Hotels. So, we killed both teams 3-4, and gave 1-2 each spots in the the next round of the tournament.

Michigan
1 Mackinac Island – the Inn at Stonecliff
2 Bay Harbor – the Inn at Bay Harbor
After finding out the Inn at Stonecliff only had rooms for over $300/night left the week of our vacation, Bay Harbor trampled the competition and moved on.
3 Holland - City Flats Hotel
4 Mackinac Island - Chippewa Hotel
Although both City Flats Hotel and Chippewa Hotel looked like ugly step sisters in the field of 16, Chippewa gained the advantage in overtime because of its location in Mackinaw Island.

South Carolina
1 Hilton Head Island – Hilton Oceanfront
2 Charleston – Francis Marion Hotel
In Hilton Head vs. Francis Marion, Hilton Heads dynamic location and more modern playbook earned it a spot in the second round.
3 Charleston/Isle of Palms – Wild Dunes Inn
4 Charleston – Vendue Inn
In what KJ called the "upset" of the night, Wild Dunes Inn put Vendue Inn to rest. Wild Dunes location a block from the beach was just too much for Vendue.

miniMoon Madness

If you've read KJ's blog you'll already know what this post is all about.

In honor of the final four games this weekend and the national championship game tonight, I thought it was very appropriate to post this today.

I've told you all about our decision to take our official honeymoon after recovering from the wedding. So we've turned our efforts to finding out miniMoon destinations. By miniMoon I mean a small, less expensive trip you take right away after the wedding when you are planning a more elaborate "honeymoon" at a later date. We decided our miniMoon would be someplace within a days drive, and living in the midwest, we are semi-limited to where we could go.

There were a few places that came to mind right away, the top "seeds", if you will, but then there were a few places that if we looked into a little deeper, they could be winners to, underdogs.

So, in true college-sport lovers fashion, we made a miniMoon madness bracket!

March was pretty much dedicated to filling out the bracket, and April will be time for the hotels and regions to go head-to-head.

So, with no further ado, our bracket:



I know it's a little hard to see, we have a large version of it sitting at home for us to actually cross off, but here is a listing of all the players:

Nashville
1 Hutton Hotel
2 Union Station
3 Renaissance
4 Opryland

Mid-West
1 Branson, Missouri – Chateau on the Lake
2 Niagara Falls – Hilton Niagara Falls
3 Branson, Missouri - Hilton Branson
4 Black Hills (Mt. Rushmore), South Dakota - Powder House Lodge

Wisconsin
1 Lake Geneva – Grand Geneva
2 Door County – Stone Harbor
3 Milwaukee – the Pfister
4 Wisconsin Dells – Rhapsody on Lake Delton

Michigan
1 Mackinac Island – the Inn at Stonecliff
2 Bay Harbor – the Inn at Bay Harbor
3 Holland - City Flats Hotel
4 Mackinac Island - Chippewa Hotel

Florida
1 Amelia Island – Amelia Island Plantation
2 Santa Rosa Beach – Watercolor Inn
3 Point Vedra Beach – Point Vedra Beach Resorts
4 Destin - Hampton Inn Destin

South
1 Savannah – Westin Savannah Harbor Gold Resort & Spa
2 New Orleans - Windsor Court Hotel
3 Savannah – Bohemian Hotel Riverfront
4 New Orleans – Ritz Carlton

South Carolina
1 Hilton Head Island – Hilton Oceanfront
2 Charleston – Francis Marion Hotel
3 Charleston/Isle of Palms – Wild Dunes Inn
4 Charleston – Vendue Inn

North Carolina
1 Ashville – Grove Park Inn
2 Outer Banks - The Sanderling
3 Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk - Hilton Garden Inn
4 Charlotte – Ballantyne Resort

WHAT DO YOU THINK? I'm taking bets on who the winner will be, where is your favorite?