Sometime during Friday of BreyerFest, July 10, I drove over to the Embassy. I'd never been inside before. I had a reason: I would be picking up a fellow volunteer for the Children & Youth Show the very next day, and driving both of us out to the KHP at the crack of dawn. I like to scout out the locations of such escapades in advance if I possibly can!
But I had another reason. The threat of all the unknowns next year gave a higher priority to checking out the surrounding hotels. I'd known several people who'd stayed at the Embassy over the years. Even more: In my collection of hall poster photographs were several intriguing ones mentioning the Embassy.
Honestly I wouldn't have noticed if my eye hadn't been sharpened by all the worries and rumours. To my surprise, the cartoon creature below qualified. I'd seen it for years but blithely dismissed it. Yet there it was!
In particular there was a hall poster of great elegance which I'd never seen before. The method of construction was merely cutting out corrugated cardboard. But it was so classy. I was quite impressed. Kudos to whoever thought of this horsehead!
When I finally got into the Embassy, I was both delighted and disappointed.
The delight was from the beauty, open plan, ease of passage and sheer difference. It is clearly a high class place. I have known a hotel just like this in Sedalia, MO, for the Sedalia Ragtime Festival. The fountains lend a great deal of humidity to the central vessel, and (who'd've thought of it) noise; they echoed rather seriously.
The disappointment was just that such class is so different, shall we say, from the BreyerFest I know. This place would not welcome the masses the same way, nor would they be as comfortable. I was unable to discover a price.
And yet, there were pioneers here. The imagination could, after all, see the growth of a model horse convention in this space.
Each room had a front window. All the windows were the same size. That right there would be an interesting experiment in the skill of window-dressing!
I'm sorry I couldn't correlate these shots with any of my poster pix (except possibly for this next one). I'm also sorry these are apparently the only shots taken; I thought I had more. This particular window was obviously jam-packed. Yet there had been a peep-hole or opening left in the middle, through which the interior could be glimpsed. Rapid evolution of exploitation of window-space, anyone?!
I also wanted to visit the MainStay by Quality Inn, but time dictated that I merely drive around their building. This hotel, on Stanton Way, has had several owners over time. I now think most hotels do this, hah. I met Brigitte Eberle and Regine Nikolaidis here in the mid-1990s. This time the overall feel of the hotel was more amenable to the evolved 'class' of the BreyerFest I know.
Here's a glimpse of the side of the building. The lack of doors would be a handicap, but not a game-ending one.
I wound up in back. There was potential here, though I still worried about doors.
Circling back around the front, I was thrilled to spot the never-failing sign.
Yes, there is hope. While I cannot possibly predict what will actually happen, I have the example of the Tucson Gem Show and its 45 hotels. It seems to me the model horse hobby is large enough to start putting out a few feelers. I'm seeing tendrils, small but tenacious, growing out from the mother ship.
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