I Saw a Naked Man!

This was an epic weekend. It began on Thursday evening with the Freddie Awards – a gala event attended by many in the travel industry, including representatives of many of the major airlines and hotel chains.  The event was presided over by the one and only Randy Peterson, the founder of organizations such as Flyertalk and Milepoint, and one of the brightest and most genuine people I’ve ever met. He did a great job!

The event was held at the Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel, which even prepared special Freddie Award room keys for those staying at the hotel! .

The evening was special, not only because of the event, and the travel celebrities in attendance, but also because I had the opportunity to meet so many fellow bloggers and so many wonderful “points and miles” enthusiasts.  When the events ended, the after-parties began.

The next day, among other things, I went to the club lounge on the 10th floor of the hotel and was so excited to watch the Shuttle fly over the Hudson. Wow, that was amazing!

But what about the naked man you ask?  Patience, I am getting there.

Later, that day, we navigated the winding New Jersey highways to eventually find the Meadowlands Sheraton, for a weekend program of seminars on topics near and dear to mileage and points enthusiasts’ hearts entitled the Frequent Travelers University.  I learned so much (and have so much to share with my friends and readers), and it was also a ton of fun….  but I digress..

When I arrived at the hotel and checked in to my room, I decided I would go investigate the fitness center. After all, this IS a travel/running blog – so it seems appropriate to report on hotels’ fitness facilities!

I proceeded to the third floor of the hotel, where there’s an indoor pool and a fitness room.  Frankly, I thought the pool and fitness area looked a lot nicer than the rooms and the hallways of the hotel (which, in my opinion, although clean, seemed a little dated and frayed).

The pool was in an atrium-like setting, with a terrace outside.

There was an impressive view of the Manhattan skyline!

There was also a hot-tub, which looked nice, but actually didn’t have a very strong jet and wasn’t quite warm enough (yes, that is me in the mirror).

The fitness area was equipped with about 5 treadmills, 2 stationary bikes, a few ellipticals and some weights.

All in all the fitness area was adequate and clean – there was a decent selection of equipment and the room was open and airy.  I’ve seen better, but this was certainly acceptable.

I then decided to walk in the women’s locker room.  It was a little dingy, but it did have lockers and showers.  At then end of the locker room there was a sauna.  The door had a very small sign on it to indicate that the sauna was co-ed.  But the sign could easily be missed.

I opened the door and looked into the sauna.  It was very nice, it looked new and it was warm.  Then… the door on the other side of the sauna opened, obviously from the men’s locker room, and… voila there was a naked man standing there. Full frontal. Buck naked.  He was shocked when he saw me and quickly wrapped his towel around himself.  I was pretty shocked too, but, I have to say it was really hysterical!

In retrospect, I think the sign should have been really large and said something like:

Part Two of this story ———–> HERE