that is an awesome story :-)

Awesome!

That's a wonderful story!

I gave Wendy and Karla a catalog to shut them up.

And that's very funny! LOL

Yep, I agree great story!

Oh, I love this! :-)

I loved your story. Makes me feel good.

That's a great story. Since many of our generation served then I don't find it odd that two men would meet this way. Wonderful coincidence.

But those idiot women are a prime example of why I like hanging with men over women. Sorry ladies but there are still too many shallow airheads amongst you.

I was like, OMG Tony. 6'2" and absolutely gorgeous. He's active military. home on leave from Afghanistan. I'm saying to myself this guy is just too gorgeous to send back.
And he was afraid of the dogs. what?!
But how many Tony's did we lose over there? Makes me very confused.

that's awesome...

dh was stationed in san diego and made it 1 1/2 times...i say a half cause they decomissioned the ship 8 hours after leaving hawaii! the ship was sold to iran! (during the shah's reign)

his next ship was a weekender for reserves to use on weekend jaunts..i HATED that..his capt because he wasn't getting "war" time took them out to places like easter week in mexico, or the rose festival in portland or. lol...

the guys should look up the ships they were staioned on...dh's one has yearly get togethers...

Wendy loved the Ballard Catalog. It kept her quiet for a few minutes while I was trying to listen to Fred and Richard talking about Viet Nam. It was a very weird situation to tell you the truth.
I was so happy to have these Veterans here staying with us. They were all in the living room talking about all they went through. Me and hubby were just sitting there, with them, quiet, just listening. Amazing stories we heard.
Then Wendy --- "where did you get that painting in the hallway?"
So I handed her another catalog.

Just as I told you guys above. Exactly. Wendy was in my dining room turning over the plates to see where they came from. Even though I was in the living room listening to stories, I had my eye on Wendy. Then Daisy strolled into the dining room. Daisy is a big saint bernard.
I'm watching this out of the corner of my eye. It was hysterical. Daisy sat down, in front of her. Wendy said "Richard, Richard, can you come here please?"

Good girl, Daisy.

Just curious...do the guests know that the dogs will be in the guest areas before they arrive? I think I briefly saw your website a while back that said they were on the premises but not in the guest areas, but I could be wrong on that. Do you consider the living room and dining room to be guest areas?

I like dogs but I think I would have reacted the same as Wendy if I was followed by huge dogs that I didn't know! Sweet or not, they make me nervous. So I'm curious if it's disclosed.

Neat story though. I like the restaurant owner's response!

What a great story! I'm sure you're guests will remember it for ever and tell others about what a wonderful time they had with their "brothers". So nice of the restaurant to comp their dinners, too!

Great coincidences, how fun for those guys to be able to rehash their experiences and mutual acquaintances.

This may sound harsh, Trisha, but maybe the women have heard enough war stories to last them a while, like 40 years worth? I don't think it's unusual for women to have different interests in topics and I would really hate to have the hostess at the B&B I'm staying in try to shut me up because she wanted to listen in on a conversation.

My husband served in Vietnam and I can tell you that he wouldn't ever dream of talking about anything that happened over there in front of a stranger, and certainly not in mixed company. He's probably only told me 4 or 5 things in our nearly 30 years together.

That is quite a set of coincidences! As I was reading thru I was thinking along the same lines as Flamingo, it sounds as if Karla and Wendy might have been trying to connect with you. Perhaps this was a new experience to them and so were trying to engage you.

That's a cool thing to do, Trish!

"Good girl Daisy"??
The way its worded, it almost sounds as though you were pleased that the woman was intimidated or even frightened by the dog. I certainly hope that is not correct. These people are paying a lot of money to stay in your B&B and deserve respect, and not be made fun of on a public forum that anyone can read.

"Good girl Daisy"?? Indeed!

You do seem to take a perverse pleasure in allowing your dogs intimidate your guests.

I hope that, at the very least, you changed the names of your guests when you posted this story. It would have been even better to change their service affiliation, too. Best of all would have been to NOT post the story about guests at your B&B. Many people do not care to have their names or personal information publicized online. I'm sure when these people made plans to stay at your business, they did not expect to be the subjects of a story online and especially not one that makes fun of some of them.

As PPs mentions, perhaps the wives had heard it all before (many tines) and were looking forward to some private time with their spouses instead of a group reunion. As for the dogs, they appear to be a real blind spot with you. I'd cancel my reservation and leave if I was greeted by large dogs (or cats or any other pets) upon arrival, particularly since you state in your ad that they are not permitted in guest areas. There are many reasons why people do not care to be around some animals, and they do not deserve to be mocked in a public forum.

With all of the posts you've made about your B&B and the info provided, it wouldn't surprise me if guests, or potential guests, might come across your posts while googling for info about your business.

I agree with everything rockmanor has said. The situation is the exact same as when you posted about the MRI inventor. I would be royally peeved off if I found some postings on the internet, for all the world to see, implying that I was a sissy because I was afraid of a 100# dog, or that I was a frivolous airhead wife because I wanted to know about a painting as opposed to listening to war stories for the millionth time!

Hmm, the wives are paying guests as well, I would think they are entitled to ask about paintings and be interested in something besides war stories? I would be kind of offended if I was a guest at a B&B and instead of answering a question, the owner would openly try to shut me up by shoving a catalog at me.

Re. the dogs, I love dogs and other animals, but it would be nice to know in advance that contrary to what it states on the website, the dogs ARE allowed in the guest areas.

And re. the reply by the OP, I don't understand the statement "But how many Tony's did we lose over there? Makes me very confused." at all. Must have missed something.

to all our KT friends. Love, Daisy and Duffy :)

Instead of "speaking" through your dogs, why don't you acknowledge what people are trying to politely tell you? That your comments are inappropriate and possibly hurtful. You really don't seem to have a clue about appropriate boundries.

I think Daisy and Duffy just gave us the middle toe!

Sounds like a great night and what a wonderful gesture that the restaurant picked up their tab.

I can understand why Wendy and Karla might not be interested. They may encounter this often and just want to give the guys their time to share stories. What was an amazing moment for you, was probably the norm for them. I experience this quite often with my FIL who served in WW II.

I think it's pretty neat that you have "special days" that kind of cater to military personnel. They book those reservations knowing that other guests PROBABLY also have a military background, which gives them some common ground. Once you've done this awhile, you will find that Military folks are always running into other military folks to whom they have a "tie" of some type. It really is not unusual at all.

I bet I can go to any Army post in the country and find someone who has a tie to my husband, who retired 30 years ago. LOL The military, regardless of the branch, is a giant family.

Oh ... and yes, the wives have been through "coincidences" like this for years and are used to it.

You sure have some interesting things happen around your place. What amazed me the most is that Fred and Richard are still carrying around Viet Nam era photos in their wallets.

Yup, they are still carrying around pictures from Viet Nam. When they left, I went up to clean the rooms -- one couple left a $50 gift certificate, one couple left a blown up picture of thier labradoodle (so cute! -- Sylvester) another couple came back with a beautiful, statue of a Saint Bernard.
I'm telling you, this weekend with the Veterans was the best weekend ever out here. So inspiring. It was just really, really, really nice.
I'm sitting here, still glowing from giving. It's the best feeling in the world.
I'm so, so blessed to have this beautiful house, these two gorgeous dogs, and my awesome husband. And we're so lucky to be able to share this home -- especially with our Vets.

This is amazing -- the Breeder that we got McDuff, Daisy and Duffy from have orders for 3 saints. They all gave our name. They all stayed here with us. So now, 3 of our guests will have the enjoyment of raising a Saint Bernard.

This whole thread is amazing.

Check out the reviews on TripAdvisor. The language is way too colorful and detail oriented on most of them. There is a similar overly effusive style from one rating to the next. Sounds like an advertising flyer. If you check out other TripAdvisor postings about other B&Bs, even the 5 star rated ones ones, the difference is pretty obvious.

I was thinking something similar reading the bedandbreakfast.com reviews. Like the word "gracious" being used in multiple reviews to describe the hosts. Very similar writing style in all of them. It's also interesting that not a single person has misspelled or not capitalized either host name, either dog name, the inn name or even the suite names even once. With close to 50 reviews on both sites, that's pretty amazing.

Every single person though the hosts were incredible, the dogs were the most adorable things in the world and the stay was perfect. Possible, sure, but not even the best hotels in the world have perfect reviews all the time.

The single negative review about the hosts has a reply by them saying that person didn't stay at the B&B. Which seems interesting because the reviews are anonymous so I'm not sure how they would know for sure.

I just find the whole thing hard to believe. Trisha has a history of posting negative comments about her guests on this forum and providing pretty sarcastic remarks back to the people who post opinions about it. Then to have all her guests rave and rave about her, calling her a fairy godmother and the most gracious and amazing host ever...I don't buy it.

My advice to Trisha would be to stop posting about her guests, stop being a smart aleck to people who are pointing out her service faults and focus on providing a good service. Your home is beautiful and has great potential but you've turned off many, many people with your commentary and behavior. And word certainly does spread.

I haven't been around here that long to really know anyone, but this seems like someone else trying to ruin Trisha's business. Who, in their right mind would come on a forum and bad mouth the very guests that butter their bread?? Seems REALLY dumb to me.....jmho.......

I have a clue for all you whiners...if you don't like the way she runs HER B&B....DON'T make reservations to go there...

She seems to be doing real good without your help.

Patti

Please say thanks to the restaurant owner from at least one person on the KT (and a furriner, at that) for his generosity to the Vets.

ole joyful