Friday night some friends and I decided to spend the night in the Leland downtown. I've heard some stories about this place in the past and decided it would be fun to check this less-showy and resilient lodging place at the corner of Bagley and Cass.

I was impressed with the lobby area - much more ornate and intact that I was imagining. It really looks quite nice despite the notion that this really is a budget place to stay/live. The elevator bank was rather old, to say the least, and it appears that only two of them are presently working....and the one we got on would not stop on the our 10th floor. We stopped at 9, but the 10 button would not work. So we went up to 11 and came back down the stairs. And of course it would not stop at 4, which is the un-renovated floor that's rumored to be haunted. We had two rooms, one on the Bagley side right near the corner with Cass, overlooking the AT&T building, the Rosa Parks Bus Station, and the Book Cadillac, and the other on the Cass side but facing west, toward the DTE Building and MGM Casino. Does anyone know why some of the rooms have double-width doors to the hallway? One of our rooms had this feature, as did a few others on our floor. Side note - parking is free if you're spending the night, but you'll need to go back to your car to put the required parking tag inside.

The rooms were about what I was expecting....nothing flashy, but all the essentials. I'm glad I didn't throw my duffel bag on the little table in my room, or it surely would have collapsed. My TV also didn't have a remote or a cable box, and to be honest I'm not even sure it worked. The windows really needed to be cleaned, inside and out. But the pillows were ok, there was plenty of hot water, the curtains really did black out the room, and the view was excellent. After a more or less restful night with the window cracked for some fresh air [[and the lullsome sounds of the People Mover), I awoke to a terrific rain storm in the morning. It was cool to see the other skyscrapers downtown shrouded in a misty morning fog.

I was up before my friends, so I took a little walk around the hotel, spending some more time in the two-story lobby now that it was daylight. I decided to buy a paper to pass the time, but apparently they don't stock the News and Free Press boxes on Saturday's on the lower level of the hotel right near the front doors. So it was off to the only paperbox downtown that I know IS stocked on Saturdays, the pair at on Cass at the corner of Michigan, as the Transit Center. Unfortunately, apparently when it rains heavily, the front entries of the hotel flood, and there was nearly an inch of water in the vestibules and revolving door out to Bagley. Also plugged right up was the stormdrain at the corner of Bagley and Cass, flooding the parallel parking out front. But my paperboxes WERE stocked and so I was able to get a little exercise and get caught up on the news despite the fact the dry, indoor paperboxes in the hotel aren't filled on Saturdays [[although this would seem to be a logical place to actually fill boxes on Saturday....I've heard that the Leland is usually pretty full on Friday nights). I was also nearly eaten by the elevator doors every single time I got in or left one of them...and of course took the "does-not-stop-on-10" car two other times during my stay. Floor 11 looks nice too.....

Check out is at noon and we were squared away on our bill. If you're looking for a cheap place to stay to get a decent view of the city, this place was alright. What are your stories? How's Luci and Ethels? Anyone else have any good adventures there?