Lodgings As Memorable As Many A Memorial

WASHINGTON — We visited or viewed the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and the Smithsonian Institution - the sanctums sanctorum of our nation's politics, history and culture.

But what was it our three young children were eager, upon returning to school, to relate to their classmates about our Washington weekend?

The hotel's game room, the hotel's room service and the hotel's free breakfast.

Ha! What do grammar-school kids know, anyway? Now, in all immodesty, my wife and I are very sophisticated adults. What did we come back from Washington all enthused about? The hotel's game room, the hotel's room service, the hotel's free breakfast . . . and the other family conveniences that made our stay at the downtown Embassy Suites a "suite Washington weekend."

It all began with an invitation to a family wedding in Washington's Maryland suburbs. Why not, we thought, in our dutiful, conscientious parental way, take this opportunity to show our children the historic sites? So instead of just driving down from surburban Philadelphia for the wedding and returning the same day, we decided to make a long weekend of it.

Which raised the question of where to stay.

Now for two adults, a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old, a motel is all right as a place to stop, eat and crash during a long car journey. But spending a three-day weekend in some boxlike motel room with three squirmy kids and no place to hide is, or ought to be, a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

And big-city hotels, in addition to being fairly expensive propositions, are not generally geared to the needs and wants of young children, who are used to living spaces that contain and include multiple TVs, VCRs, video games and all other manner of entertainment and diversion.

Fortunately, friends whose family demographics match ours spoke glowingly of the accommodations and services provided by Embassy Suites, a national chain that, as the name indicates, offers reasonably priced hotel suites instead of mere rooms. So we gave them a call.