We Have Real Readers!

Based on what my father told me about his 2008 travel blog, he told me not to expect to get too many readers besides him and a few of his friends.

In fact, my own mother doesn't even read Lap Child Diaries. But I'm not worried, because most of my baby friends are actually too young to read. So I'm sure my readership will spike in about 4-6 years from now.

But every so often, I'll get a comment from someone I don't know. While 99% of the time it's some small foreign business looking to promote their services via commenting on a random travel blog, sometimes it's a legit reader!

From Anonymous

August 5, 2013 at 11:40 PM 

Hi Lap Child, Although I am a few years older than you, I want to say THANKS to your Dad for making my family's last vacation awesome! After thoroughly reading about your travels, my Korean-American Dad also managed to get Hyatt Diamond status and upgraded us to a suite at the Park Hyatt in Seoul for my uncle's wedding last week. I swam every day in the spectacular infiniti pool and stuffed myself at the gourmet breakfast included with our room. Our last day we told the front desk we were checking out very early before the Cornerstone would be open, and my mom was stunned when they had room service delivered to us at 5:30AM. Wow!! I have to say my parents are not easily impressed with what is written in most blogs, but they say if they ever run into your dad in NY, they will buy him a drink!!

It's nice to know that my self-indulgent rants are helpful to others.

What's next for me? Well, I'm glad you asked. This coming weekend, we're taking a group trip with my new baby friend Ava and her parents down to Princeton, NJ.

In addition to my father forcing me to visit the fabled Princeton University (never too early for a campus tour, right?), we're using the central location to visit a few other nearby places (Philadelphia? Jersey Shore? Atlantic City?). The internet search came up with Crystal Springs Aquatic Facility in East Brunswick.

If anyone has any suggestions for baby-friendly activities, please do comment!

Hyatt Place Long Island/East End

Hotel Stay Detail 
Hotel: Hyatt Place Long Island/East End 
Dates: July 7-9, 2013 
Rate Paid: 8,000 Gold Passport Points/night
Regular Room Rate: $249/night (incl. tax) 
Total $ Benefit: $490
Point Redemption: 3.1 cents/pt 

We got back to NYC last Friday night after spending a few days out in Long Island's Montauk. The first day (Wednesday), we had perfectly sunny skies, so we went to Kirk Park Beach.

Parking: We picked this beach by accident, but it worked out well for us because Kirk Park Beach is one of the only Montauk beaches that doesn't require a parking permit. Other beaches require a $375 annual parking permit if you're a non-resident.

Sun & Sand: While my mother wanted to get some sun before our friend's wedding in Colorado, I preferred running around the sand with my father. When I was a young baby, I actually hated the feel of grainy sand between my toes and screamed whenever my parents put me down. But now, I was so much more mature. That was until, I decided to lean over and fill my mouth full of the stuff. Apparently, it's a lot more fun to play with than to eat.

Surf: The Atlantic was ... freezing refreshing. It was only about 80 degrees out so it wasn't as if we needed to run into the cold water, but my Asian dad wanted me to get used to being out of my comfort zone so we went in often. Tough love indeed!

Drive Home: The way to our hotel in Riverhead was on Highway 27 which was backed up with traffic heading into East Hampton. It literally took about 2 hours to drive 40 miles. It was OK though, since we weren't missing out on much back at the hotel and the surrounding area.

Hyatt Place Long Island/East End 
The Hyatt Place Long Island/East End wasn't one of my favorite places, but it served its purpose - a clean safe place to sleep with a few basic amenities (cable TV, wifi, swimming pool). The lobby and common areas were exactly as we expected. In fact, it was better than the Hyatt Place in Boise, ID that we stayed 15 days at a few months ago. We were offered our Hyatt Diamond amenity choice (my father picked 500 Hyatt points) and given the code for the WiFi. We weren't offered a late checkout though, but my father could just ask for it later. Overall, check in was smooth and efficient.

However, the room itself was less than perfect. In general, it could have used some better housekeeping. When we arrived, we found some sand and stray hairs in the shower floor (not ours). After a more thorough inspection, my mother removed the bedspread which was a bit smellier than we had hoped. But no traces of bed bugs so we were fine for a few nights.

That being said, the rest of the room was clean and functional. My father had a desk area with plenty of lights and electrical outlets for his gadgets. My mother had her 42" flat screen television where she could watch Master Chef from the bed. And I had my empty mini-fridge to store my snacks...and an ice bucket to play with.

Best of all, we were going swimming in the indoor pool downstairs, but not before I was going to chow down on my PB&J less than 30 minutes before swimming. Yes, you hear that correctly. I like to live dangerously.

The next morning, we had free breakfast downstairs and head out for the day.

When we came back Thursday night, we called downstairs for a 4PM checkout on Friday afternoon. However, we were told that we'd have to call back in the morning when housekeeping was available to confirm they'd have enough time to clean the room before the next guests checked in. Despite wanting to pull the Hyatt Diamond status card, my father just hung up and agreed to call back.

The next morning, we called as we were told and they were able to give us until 2PM (even though we had Diamond status). While a 2PM checkout would at first appear moderately helpful, it actually wasn't enough time to really do anything during the day because we wouldn't be able to go somewhere and still get back in time by 2PM to check out. So thanks, but no thanks Hyatt Place. We just packed up and checked out at 12PM.

Overall Thoughts
The Hyatt Place brand is focused on moderate business travelers and families looking for a place to sleep at night. The functionality comes to the forefront (free hot breakfasts, free wifi, free parking), but when everything's free, you usually get what you pay for. The breakfast was fine (scrambled eggs, sausages, oatmeal, cereal, fruit) but the wifi was horribly slow and even shut off completely late at night (after 11:30PM).

For 8,000 Hyatt points a night, it wasn't a huge cost, but I would shudder to even consider paying more than $80 per night to stay here (vs. the current $249 rate).

The Lobster Roll

As I mentioned last week, my parents and I decided to trek "out East" to Montauk for a few days this week. For those of you who aren't familiar, Montauk is a small beach town at the very tip of Long Island, past the famous Hampton beaches.

Since this was my first time out there, I had my father do some research on where we should have lunch our first day.

Location
After a VERY long time stuck in Wednesday mid-day traffic on the one-lane Highway 27, we finally got past the town of East Hampton and were cruising down until we reached The Lobster Roll (also affectionately known as "Lunch") right off the highway, just before you reached Montauk.


We arrived for a late lunch (around 2PM) and there were still a lot of people, but we were able to get seated right away.

The outdoor patio area looked appealing and fun. But given it was pretty crowded and a bit hot out, we opted to sit indoors. Some people love eating outside, but I definitely prefer sitting in the shade looking outside from my cool shaded area.

The decor is very simple and made everyone feel comfortable for strolling in wearing shorts and flip flops. My father has eaten at some very expensive posh restaurants in his life, but his favorite ones are just like this place - simple with great local food and welcoming service.

Baby Friendliness 
The entire region is very kid-friendly because most of the people here during the summer are families from Manhattan. Everywhere you look, there are kids decked out in fancy labels. So just about every restaurant we went to this week had kid-friendly amenities. (Apparently the Hamptons also have a great nightlife scene for young singles, but those people are probably still working in their Manhattan cubicles on a Wednesday afternoon.)

However, The Lobster Roll is by far the most baby friendly place we went to this trip. While all of the restaurants here had high chairs, and even some with crayons and kids place mats, this one also had toddler toys for me to play with at the table! To tell you the truth, the toys were actually a little young for me given I had just turned 21 months old, but I didn't want to make our server feel bad. It definitely made me reminisce about my 12 month old days way back when.

The Food
Of course, we didn't come here to watch me play with table-side toys. The oversized laminated menus fit well with the kitschy decor. There were so many things we wanted to try, so we ordered more than we probably should have. For starters, we chose the Crabby Seafood Dip ($14). My mother ordered the Seafood Chili ($13). My father opted for the Hot Lobster Roll Platter ($25 or $27 with fries) and I went with the Fish & Chips ($13).

My mother loved the Crab & Artichoke dip the best. Growing up in Israel, they didn't eat much shellfish at all, so the past few years in New York have introduced her to some great seafood dishes. Plus I've found that anything with cheese is just delicious.

While many lobster aficionados out here would scream in horror if you chose anything besides a cold lobster salad roll, my father was very happy with his hot lobster roll platter - mostly because it came with a lot of food. In fact, it was enough butter drenched lobster to fill two hot dog buns. I'm only a toddler, but even I know that 2 is better than 1!

For 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 1 dessert (plus a beer and a soda), the total bill came out to $88. Not cheap, but not super expensive either for seafood. We rationalized it by eating so late and so much that we skipped having dinner that evening. So $88 for 2 meals for 2 adults doesn't seem that unreasonable ($22/person per meal).

Fortunately, they took Visa and Mastercard, but interestingly enough, they ran our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card (2x points for dining) without leaving an option to add the tip on the card. So my father bit the bullet and paid the tip in cash.

The Lobster Roll
1980 Montauk Hwy, Amagansett, NY
(631) 267-3740

Extra Passport Pages

If you are new to reading Lap Child Diaries, the first thing you should know is that I'm a lap child (under 2 years old). The second thing is that my family and I travel ... a lot. Here's a map of where I've taken my parents since January 2013.

In one of my earlier posts, I explained how to get an infant passport so that you can start traveling outside the United States. My passport only lasts 5 years, but my parents' passports last 10 years. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of State doesn't give adults any extra pages for the additional 5 years. So while I still have a handful of empty pages in my passport left that I need to fill up in the next 3+ years, my father was starting to run low.

The Process and Timing
According to the U.S. Department of State website, if you have less than 4 empty pages left, you can get additional pages added to your current passport. After our last international trip to Germany/France, he was down to exactly 4 empty pages. With no immediate plans to travel outside the U.S., he decided to add some pages.

He had a few options. First, he could just mail in his passport and wait for regular processing. As of August 6, 2013, the official Travel.State.Gov website estimates you should allow up to 4-6 weeks before getting your passport back in the mail. Note: this timing may change based on when you apply, so check the official website, not an amateur blog.

• If you would like (but not need) your passport back sooner, then you can pay extra and have it expedited (up to 2-3 weeks).
• However, if you do NEED it back sooner (i.e., have near term travel plans within 2 weeks or applying for a foreign visa in the next 4 weeks), then they suggest you not mail it in. Instead, make an appointment to physically visit a Regional Passport Agency and have it done in person there.

The Application
When you apply, you need to submit the following items:

1. Your current passport
2. Form DS-4085 (seen here)
3. A check for the fees (currently $82 at the time of this post)

The DS-4085 document will have instructions telling you all the details about where to apply, so I will refer to that website instead of listing an outdated mailing address here.

Since my father's application was being sent to a P.O. Box, the UPS store said they'd have to send it via regular U.S. postal service mail, but my father made sure to (a) get a tracking number to make sure it was delivered and (b) write out a personal check to the "US Department of State" so that his bank would have a record of when it was endorsed and deposited. As much as he hates using cash/checks, in this situation, it made a lot of sense.

Our Timeline
July 15 - My father mailed out his passport with the DS-4085 form and the check for the fees.
July 18 - The US Postal Service notified him that the package was delivered.
July 19 - The check was cashed by the Department of State.

Now we waited...

Then on August 1st, my father saw that non-stop flights to Israel on United in early September were very reasonable ($1,100/person). Since I'd still be a lap child in September (but not during December), we decided to move our Christmas trip to Israel trip up a few months. Flights booked for September 3!

But now, my father would NEED his passport for our outbound flight! After looking at the calendar, 6 weeks from July 19 would be Friday August 30th, only 4 days before we were supposed to fly out on Tuesday September 3. Ruh-roh.

So my father checked online first at http://travel.state.gov/passport/status/status_2567.html. It said his passport was IN PROCESS. Not that helpful. My father did sign up online for email updates though.

Undeterred, he then searched online for a phone number to call them.

Passport Status Information Center: 1-877-487-2778
Automated Passport Information is available 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Speak with a representative Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., EST, excluding federal holidays.

The representative was extremely friendly, and said not to worry. While he couldn't specify exactly when my father would receive his passport, he said my father could call them back if it was within 2 weeks of departure (August 20th) and they'd then expedite.

However, he said he would be very shocked if it went even that long before the passport arrived.

Update
And he was right. Yesterday (August 6), my father received an email from Travel.State.Gov:

We have finished processing your passport, and it has been mailed to you. Your passport application locator number is xxxx301. 

You requested delivery by regular mail. Passport Agencies use Priority Mail. This means you should receive your passport on or about 08/10/2013.

Check the USPS status at: http://trkcnfrm1.smi.usps.com/PTSInternetWeb/InterLabelInquiry.do?origTrackNum=xxxx71". 

It's obviously not August 10 yet, but it looks like it will take just under 4 weeks door to door. However, if you're in a comparable situation and need your passport back in time for an upcoming trip, then don't rely on my father's experience. You may be applying at a much busier time and your results may vary.

Helpful Links

• Adding Passport Pages - http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/ds4085/ds4085_2662.html
• Passport Fees - http://travel.state.gov/passport/fees/fees_837.html
• Processing Times - http://travel.state.gov/passport/processing/processing_1740.html
• Expedited Service - http://travel.state.gov/passport/hurry/hurry_831.html
• Check Status Online - https://passportstatus.state.gov/opss/OPSS_Status_ip.asp
• Contact - http://travel.state.gov/passport/npic/npic_898.html

Montauk Trip Next Week

Yesterday morning, my father was working from home and decided to take a break. My mother and I offered to take him to Madison Square Park where he could spend an hour watching me run around the playground. He accepted immediately.

On our way crossing 5th Avenue, we noticed there was a white van blocking traffic with light grey smoke. As we looked closer, my father noticed there was a small fire below the van, so he hurried us away from the scene going further into the park. Then we heard it.

BOOM! The smoke turned much darker and the fire had now spread to engulf the entire van. The fire engines could be heard in the distance, getting louder and louder each second.

So as we head into August, we took the exploding van as a sign that we've been stuck in NYC too long. It's time to head out of the city and enjoy the summer weather and free time.

Montauk
Next week, we're going to take Wed-Fri and head "out East" (the snobbish way to say the Hamptons). We're not going to the Hamptons, actually, but rather spend a few days enjoying Montauk, a former fishing town-turned yuppie scene at the far tip of Long Island. Given it's during the workweek, we're hoping it will be less crowded and that I can enjoy a few buttery lobster rolls without the judging eyes of over-coddled gluten-free Manhattan babies.


There's a few options to get out there, but we're going to drive. My grandmother is willing to trade her car for the few days in exchange for staying at our NYC apartment, so she'll drive here Wednesday morning and we'll trade our set of keys for hers. I know Manhattan people love their long summer weekends, but hopefully traffic won't be too bad in the middle of the week.

While we're spending the day in Montauk, my father couldn't pass up the opportunity to save money and use his Hyatt Gold Passport points to stay at a "nearby" Hyatt Place Riverhead (right where the fork splits, about an hour drive from MTK).

For only 8,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points per night, we had a free & comfortable place to sleep (instead of paying $245/night with taxes). That's over 3.0 cents/pt of value, saving us $490 for our 2 night stay!

Sure, it's not the most luxurious/cool place to stay, but Hyatt Places are clean and functional (strong wifi, free breakfasts). Besides my father wasn't a fan of doing those 20-person Hampton House shares anymore. He was way past the age where he'd be interested in sleeping on the floor, sharing a room with 3 drunk people. Plus, I'm not sure those house shares are really that lapchild friendly.

This trip will be the first time I've visited Montauk, so if anyone has any suggestions on what an overly energetic 20 month old can do (or local places my parents should eat), please comment!

Now...the bigger question. Which shoes do I bring?

Staycation - Hyatt Regency Jersey City

Hotel Stay Detail
Hotel: Hyatt Regency Jersey City 
Dates: July 19-20, 2013 
Rate Paid: 15,000 Hyatt points/night 
Regular Room Rate: $250/night (incl. tax) 
Total $ Benefit: $250 
Point Redemption: 1.7 cents/pt

If you were around the Northeast U.S. two weeks ago, you probably endured one of the hottest stretches of weather in my recent memory (all of 20 months). It repeatedly hit 95-100 degrees almost each day that week. And living in Manhattan, the heat was exacerbated by the fact that all the tall buildings block any breezes from cooling you off. But our apartment building was no escape, because it had those environmentally friendly A/C units that just have an on/off switch. It will just never really get that cold. Well, by that Friday, we had enough and needed a little getaway.

But instead of booking a last minute fare to Iceland (expensive!), we opted instead to find a local hotel with a swimming pool and powerful air conditioning. As regular LCD readers know, my father loves Starwood and wants to earn Platinum status (50 nights), but he was on track to hitting that goal without any additional stays required.

However, since my father was a Hyatt Diamond for 2013, we'd get VIP treatment, free breakfast and internet if we chose a Hyatt hotel instead.

Our Hyatt choices were plentiful in Manhattan: Andaz 5th Avenue, Grand Hyatt 42nd Street, 48 Lex, Hyatt Place 36th Street, Andaz Wall Street and Hyatt Union Square. But unfortunately, none of these NYC Hyatt hotels had a swimming pool. Plus rates were all $250-350 for the night.

However, there was the Hyatt Regency in Jersey City just a PATH train away (in fact the PATH Exchange Place stop is right next to the Hyatt). They had an indoor swimming pool and had regular rooms available for $219/night (+ another $31 in taxes). But of course, my cheap clever father knew he had a large stash of Chase Ultimate Reward points that he could convert instantly into Hyatt Gold Passport Points.

So instead of paying $250, he opted to transfer 15,000 Chase UR points to Hyatt for the award stay. By basic math, he was getting a weak but acceptable 1.7 cents per Chase UR point, but it was better than having our family sweating profusely in our apartment for another 24 hours.

Plus, because he had Diamond status, we would get free breakfast the following morning (which is arguably worth another $10-25 per person). Of course, by using points, he was foregoing 5x points on his stay and another 3x points for charging it to his Chase Hyatt Visa card, but missing out on 1,752 Hyatt Gold Passport points didn't cause us to lose any sleep - especially in a 68 degree air conditioned room!.

Small Business Saturday - Nov 30

I realize it's still 4 months away, but if you're looking to maximize the value of your credit cards, then now is the time to start thinking about Thanksgiving.

Well, to be more specific, thinking about Small Business Saturday ("SBS") which comes after Thanksgiving Thursday.

For those of you who don't know, SBS is a program run by American Express (similar to Black Friday and Cyber Monday) where there are special promotions for shopping at retailers.

What is SBS?
The way it has worked in the past, you go online and register your American Express credit cards. Then if you spend over $25 at a small business (i.e., not a chain retailer/restaurant), then American Express will give you a $25 credit a few days later. So if you spend exactly $25 at your local independent restaurant using your Amex, it will end up 100% free!

How does it actually work?
I'm just a 21 month old toddler without any connections at American Express, so can't confirm the 2013 details with 100% certainty, but here's how it worked last year (November 2012).

1. On Sunday November 18 (few days before Thanksgiving), they opened the online registration. My father went online that morning and registered each of his American Express cards (Starwood Amex, Hilton Amex, etc). It's unclear if there's a limit on how many people can sign up, but he didn't take any chances so he did it first thing.
2. During the week, my father looked on Amex's Small Shop Map that listed all the small businesses that qualified for the SBS statement credit, including dry cleaners, independent retailers, small grocery stores, non-chain restaurants, wine shops, etc. Of course, my obsessive super organized father actually scheduled out his Saturday with stores he would visit and which Amex cards he would use to make sure he got full value.
3. On Thurs November 22, we enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner (thanks to pre-ordering from FreshDirect).
4. On Sat November 24, we spent at least $25 at each of the following places:  Ivory Dry Cleaners ($25), 11AM family dim sum brunch at Golden Unicorn ($50 split across 2 cards), picked up our favorite sandwiches at Defonte's of Brooklyn ($25) to eat later, nice dinner with family friends at Tre Dici ($75 split across 3 cards) and picked up a bottle of red at the local wine shop ($25).

Within 1 week, all 8 Amex cards received $25 statement credits each. $200 of value. Not a bad Saturday.

Why are you telling me now?
But why am I talking about SBS in the middle of July?  Because now is the time to think about applying for a few American Express cards so that you'll have 1 or 2 opportunities before November comes. As you may recall, my parents like to spread their rounds of applications out by about 3 months. So if they applied now (mid-July) for a few cards, then they would apply for their next round in mid-October.  Hopefully between the two rounds, they could get a bunch of American Express cards to use for SBS.

Baby Songer Tip
Yes, you heard correctly, my parents had 8 different American Express cards registered for Small Business Saturday. But we didn't have 8 different American Express card accounts.

Remember, unlike Visa or Mastercard, getting an additional authorized user card (or two) for an American Express account will result in having several unique American Express card numbers - meaning multiple $25 SBS statement credit opportunities.

• For example, my father's personal Starwood Amex card account also lists my mother and my grandmother as secondary card holders (3 different Amex cards under my father's account). 
• In addition, my mother's own personal Starwood Amex card (where she is the primary cardholder) also has my father as a secondary authorized user. 
• Then my mother also has a SPG Business Amex card with another 2 secondary cardholders. So between 3 SPG Amex card accounts, we have 8 unique SPG Amex cards. 8 x $25 = $200 of potential SBS statement credits! 

As you know, we love Starwood's loyalty program, so opening separate multiple accounts allows us to access those 25,000 SPG point sign up bonuses multiple times. Since the first year has the annual fee waived, we cancel old accounts and open new accounts for one of my parents (personal or business) each year. But given my father's account is one of his oldest active accounts, we keep that one open every year and pay the $65 annual fee on it. But with SBS, we can more than offset the annual fee.

OK, other than SPG, what other American Express cards are out there?  
Well, you can obviously check out the dozens of Amex cards available at www.americanexpress.com, but not every card is worth having and I sure don't recommend opening a new card just for $25-50 of SBS statement credits. We only open new cards if they have big sign up bonuses or offer incredible benefits (at least $500 of value). So with that, here are the ones that we have (for now):

• Starwood Amex (8 cards across 3 accounts, only 1 account has an annual fee this year)
• Citi American Airlines Amex (1 card, annual fee waived 1st year)
• Hilton HHonors Amex (4 cards across 2 accounts, no annual fee ever)
• Platinum Personal Amex (3 cards across 2 accounts, $450 annual fee + $175 for 3 additional users, but you can offset much of the annual fee if you're smart about the benefits)
• Gold Business Rewards Amex (2 cards across 1 account, annual fee waived 1st year)

That's 18 unique American Express cards, or as my crazy toddler math skills tell me, $450 of potential free spending. The question is though, can we find enough small businesses to spend that much money at on one Saturday?