Foodmomiac

Mexico Part 1.5: I'm Still Peeved

Did any of you see the article about Fishers Island in the New York Times travel section on Sunday? It's here, if you missed it. To summarize, a mom took her 18-year-old daughter to spring break in Florida, splurging on a very upscale hotel. There were multiple issues at the hotel, and I couldn't help but be reminded of our own spring break debacle. The line that really resonated was this one,

One of the problems with staying at an exorbitantly priced resort is that the rates raise the bar so high that any slight or sign of neglect feels like betrayal; flaws that might be overlooked at a more modestly priced hotel are hard to forgive when a single night can cost more than the airfare.

That is exactly how I felt at the CasaMagna in Puerto Vallarta. Granted, it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as the hotel this woman stayed at, but since it was a five star joint, we had certain expectations. 

I also found myself relating to the writer's desire to share her experiences with other guests:

I wanted to buttonhole another guest to see if I was overreacting.

Michael and I spent the entire week saying, "Are we overreacting? Are we crazy?"

 

We do have one more story to tell about our Mexican adventure, and this one is a doozy, I promise!

Weird Mexico Trip: Part One

As I mentioned yesterday, we went on a very strange family vacation to Mexico. There are actually two stories to be told here, so I'm breaking this into two posts. 

(A note: this ENTIRE post could easily be filed under first world problems. We are so very fortunate to be able to take trips like this, and I am sharing this story because it amuses me, not because I am scarred in any way from my luxury vacation-gone-bad.)

This was our third visit to Puerto Vallarta. On our previous two visits, we stayed at the Sol Melia, which is just a fabulous all-inclusive hotel. It's not the fanciest place ever, but it is clean, and the rooms are spacious. The pool is enormous, and there is always something going on. The kids club has lots of different activities (art, water volleyball, face painting, talent shows, sand castles) and they have terrific entertainment every night under a large palapa. Silly me assumed that any four or five star all-inclusive hotel in that area would be the same way. So, when I started researching this year's spring break trip and there was a five star Marriott available just down the road from the Melia at a significantly lower price, we decided to make the switch. Ay yi yi - not a good call.

We arrived at the hotel and soon realized that most of the guests were NOT all-inclusive. This created a slew of annoyances, most of which are too boring to detail here, but the biggest issue was that it meant that all of the restaurants were empty. I mean, think about it. If you were staying at a pricey hotel and paying for all of your food and drink, would you choose to dine there? I think not. It is WAY more enticing to hop into a taxi and head into the downtown area for amazing and affordable food. We ended up doing that a few times ourselves (even though our meals were paid for), but for most of our meals, we were kind of stuck at the hotel. And thus we ended up eating dinner in restaurants that were virtually empty almost every night. So awkward. 

There were other aggravations as well. The kids club offered no activities beyond video games and movies. The fitness classes were taught by staff members with no training. The pool was packed with people who weren't even staying at the hotel so it was a total zoo (people walking around with six packs of beer in walmart bags, styrofoam coolers everywhere, etc.). There was no entertainment in the evening. Again, we are so fortunate to be able to take vacations like this, but when you pay for a 5 star hotel, you expect a 5 star experience.

So, I did what any other blogger in my situation would do. I took to Twitter. Oy, that was a HUGE mistake. As soon as Marriot corporate got wind of our displeasure, we were bombarded. Managers started calling our room just to check on us and see what they could do. The head of recreation took over the fitness classes and came to get me every day for the water aerobics (so awkward). I had complained that we were disappointed by the sad, Americanized kids menu at every restaurant (hot dog, chicken fingers, etc.). This led to Max receiving a plate of tuna tartare (his favorite) at every dinner (hand delivered from the one restaurant that served it on the other side of the resort). I can now kind of sympathize with celebrities who try to live a low-key life. It's impossible! Everywhere we went, we were greeted with, "The Wileys! How are you? Do you need anything?"

So... that's part one of our strange story. Part two is even stranger. Stay tuned. :-)

Travel Tip: Become a temporary regular

So, I'm traveling right now, but since I'm at a conference (The Mom 2.0 Summit which is amazing), I can't follow this advice. However, when we visited Massachusetts last weekend, we followed this advice to the max.

Here's the deal: there are a ton of benefits of being a regular, which is why most of us do it to one degree or another. Whether it's visiting your local Starbucks so often that the barista knows you want a grande nonfat latte, or walking into a local pub and having everyone yell out "Norm!", being a regular is a good thing. And, that is why I try to do it while on vacation.

It might seem like an impossibility to become a temporary regular, but it's actually quite easy. In Massachusetts, we did it for breakfast. My mom's house is in the middle of the country (dirt road and all), but about 2.5 miles away is a little place called the Southfield Store. Every morning, we drove there for our lattes and breakfast. By morning two, the people there recognized us and started chatting. By morning five, they knew that Michael wanted his latte to be a double. They knew that Max preferred his egg sandwich with ham. We felt comfortable, we felt at home, and really, anyone spending more than a night or two someplace can do the same thing that we did. It doesn't have to be breakfast. It can be choosing a pub in London where you enjoy an ale every afternoon or finding a little sandwich shop where you can grab a sandwich.

Whatever the meal (or drink), wherever the city (or hamlet), becoming a temporary regular definitely has its benefits. Traveling can be exhausting, but the comfort that comes from being a regular can add a bit of ease.

Do any of you do the same thing? (are we nuts?)

Cottage Living

Well, that took a bit longer than I expected. Following our overnight trip to Michigan, I left for one of the more tiring business trips I've ever embarked upon. On Monday, I flew into Philly and drove an hour to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (the mushroom capitol of the world) to meet with some mushroom growers. The highlight of that trip was a tour of Phillips Mushroom Farm. They are the largest grower of specialty mushrooms in the country, and it was totally fascinating. I was especially blown away by the way they grow some of the Asian varieties, such as enoki, maitake and shiitake. If you ever have a chance to visit a mushroom farm, I'd totally recommend doing so. It's just wild. Following a night in Kennett Square, I flew to San Francisco, spent the night in Palo Alto, and then drove down to Watsonville to meet with the west coast mushroom growers. That same day, I drove back up to San Francisco to fly home. We landed at 1am. Thursday and Friday were filled with crazy amounts of work, and I had no energy for blogging, sadly.

Anyway, last weekend was our overnight trip to Saugatuck, and we fell in love with the area. Our motel was nothing fancy, but it was clean and conveniently located, and the owner was great. After driving to Michigan (3 hours) and checking in, we spent the remainder of the afternoon on the dock of a waterfront restaurant, drinking Oberons (the kids had kiddie cocktails) and letting the kids go on carnival rides that were set up next door. The night ended early with takeout Mexican in the yard of the motel.

The next day, we had an amazing breakfast, stopped at a farm market, and cruised around a bit. We got on the road early in an effort to get ready for the crazy week ahead, but not before checking out a cottage called The Beachcomber. The cottage is right on Lake Michigan, and... that's where we are right now! We rented the cottage for 8 days, so we'll be here until Sunday. It's very relaxing, and the layout is perfect. One queen bedroom downstairs, and a bigger dorm-style room upstairs, with four twin beds (Paty, our au pair is with us).

The picture above is the beach next door. It's gorgeous.