The Westgate Hotel

Sorry about the text only post. I was at a training seminar which took place at the Westgate hotel in the Gaslamp District this past week. The interior decor of this place was very Victorian and elegant. Doormen were posted by the front door, wood baby grand piano in the lobby, chandeliers, mellow lighting. A very romantic setting, which made it very hard for me to stay awake during the training.
There was a spread of coffee, Tazo tea, juice, muffins, croissants, bagels (next to a toaster!), yogurt and fresh fruit set up outside of the conference room where the training took place. Though nothing fancy, the quality and presentation was top notch. That in itself made it feel like a luxurious spread.
As soon as I got to the conference room, one of my coworkers leaned over to me and told me that the coffee and muffins are to-die-for. I had quit drinking coffee, so I just got some orange juice and a muffin. Now, she has always been very much a tea guru and I was surprised to see her drinking coffee. It must have been very good because she had several cups of it. She was right, the muffin was deeelish. It was rather petite. The muffin top had a very nice crumbly texture in my mouth with out falling apart in my hands. It was very moist and light. I still dream of those muffins. One of my other coworkers was eating a flaky pastry that looked like a croissant with fruit filling. She was pleasantly surprised to find cream cheese in the filling.
The next day, I was blurry eyed and not quite awake and decided to have a croissant and fresh fruit with cranberry juice. After I poured the juice, I thought the color was a little off. A closer look at my glass, I discovered that it was tomato juice! I hate tomato juice. Don't like V8 or bloody Marys. But since I had already poured it out, I might as well suck it up and finish it. I took a little sip and to my surprise, it was really good! It wasn't too thick and tasted like fresh ripe tomatoes. I got up and refilled several times. The croissant had been lightly toasted and was nice and flaky. The fruit was extremely fresh and ripe. I couldn't get over how sweet the watermelon was.
During one of our lunch breaks, we wondered past a tea party! There was even a lady playing the harp.