When your kid graduates from college, you go through a mix of emotions. On one hand, you’re ecstatic they’re almost off your payroll. On the other, it’s surreal your job raising them is nearing an end. So, when it comes time to celebrate all they (and you) have accomplished, you don’t skimp.

As if that were even an option. The hotels in Pullman, Washington jack up their nightly rates for any and all WSU events, and if you don’t book a year in advance, you’re out of luck if you want to stay within city limits.

We need two rooms to accommodate our family, and when May of 2025 rolled around, I diligently booked my family a room at my preferred hotel. A room. As in, somehow, I gaffed and only booked one room instead of two.

By the time I realized it six months later, the only room left in all of Pullman was an outdated king bed suite at the Quality Inn. I figured kids #3 and #4 could flip a coin and loser gets the sofa bed, or they could suck it up and sleep in the same bed for two nights.

Then 2026 rolled around, and kid #3 had started her career in nursing and was unable to take the time off. Problem solved. Kid #4 would have a room, and a bed, all to herself.

Fast-forward to a few days before departure. We are a blended family, and when milestone events occur, our party is expanded. The more the merrier, I say. And when I learned kid #4’s aunt would be sleeping on an air mattress, I gladly offered her the chance to share kid #4’s room.

But then it hit me. It made more sense to give them the nicer hotel room with two queen beds, and my husband and I would take the king room suite at the Quality Inn. How bad could it be, right?

Oh, where to begin. First of all, this hotel is suspended over a river. A literal waterway flows directly under it. As one of my girlfriends joked, “You don’t want to know where the flushes go.”