Westin Princeton

Hotel Stay Details 
Hotel: Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village 
Dates: August 16-18, 2013 
AAA Rate Paid: $105/night 
Points Earned: 2,582 SPG Points 

This past weekend, my parents and I took a mini-trip with my friend Ava and her parents to lovely Princeton, New Jersey.

Why Princeton? Well, first, it's close enough to drive to for a weekend trip from New York City. Second, college towns are always very quaint places to visit for families, especially when there's a beautiful university campus to walk through. But more importantly, my father just saw the movie Admission with his celebrity crush Tina Fey where she plays a Princeton admissions officer.

Booking
When we searched for room availability and rates, we noticed that the hotel was a Starwood Category 4 property which meant that we could book for 10,000 SPG points per night. However, given it was a random August weekend at a hotel that caters more to business travelers, we were able to get an attractive cash rate using my father's AAA membership for just $105/night all-in including taxes (after taking into account a $15 food and beverage credit which they applied even without any F&B charges).

If we didn't have the AAA membership, the regular prepaid rate would have been $137/night including taxes. Note: while some hotels ask to see your AAA membership card when checking in, this Westin property didn't check, so you may be able to get this AAA rate without actually being a member.

Had we just wanted to save cash, however, we could have used 20,000 SPG points instead of paying $210 for two nights, but that would have meant redeeming SPG points at about 1 cent per point (vs. the usual 3-5 cents/pt redemption my father can usually find).

Booking Trick
There's rarely a benefit to booking multiple nights in a single reservation, with one big exception being if the hotel offers a 5th night free. So when we booked this reservation, we booked it as two separate 1 night stays. When you check in, you just let the Front Desk know that you have multiple bookings and they should accommodate accordingly. If they ask why, just say that you weren't sure which day you'd arrive or if you'd be staying the entire time. They usually don't even ask.

Per standard protocol, the Front Desk should just combine the multiple one-night stays into a single multi-night stay, but sometimes they'll keep it as multiple consecutive bookings. Why is this better for you? Well, glad you asked.

1. You get a welcome amenity for each stay (in our case multiple 500 SPG point gifts instead of one).
2. You get multiple stay credits that help you get Gold and Platinum status (2 stays).
3. You can easily modify your stay (more/less nights) if you want by just cancelling the individual bookings. When you have a single multi-night stay that you want to modify, Starwood's IT systems actually cancel the entire original booking and then try to re-book you, but it might be at a different rate or sometimes even show no availability if they're overbooked.

But this trick also has it's downside too.

1. There's a slight chance that your exact room may not be available every night of your total stay, so you'd have to check into another room the other days. However, this has NEVER happened to my parents, so more of a theoretical problem.
2. You will have to negotiate getting your SPG Green Choice gifts (500 SPG points for declining housekeeping) because you cannot request Green Choice on the nights before you check out (which would be every single night of your stay). However, we've always been able to explain the situation to the front desk and have them credit our room anyway.

Checking In

When we arrived on Friday 3PM, there was just one person ahead of us checking in. When it was our turn, the front desk welcomed my father and thanked him for being a Starwood Platinum member. He was immediately offered a choice of welcome amenity (500 SPG points, continental breakfast or a $15 gift certificate to a nearby steakhouse). But before he selected his gift, he first asked if there were any complimentary Platinum upgrades available. She spent a few minutes checking her systems and offered a Club Floor room on the 6th floor.

Since my father was going to get upgraded to a Club Floor room (that would give us access to free snacks, soft drinks and cold breakfast anyway), we opted for the 500 SPG points (worth at least $10-15) instead of the continental breakfast (cereal, bagels and fruit).

He told her that he was booked for a second night under a different reservation. She found it and was able to keep us in the same room both nights. She just asked that we come downstairs the next day and have our keys re-coded. For an extra 500 SPG points, no problem.

Room
The room itself was quite basic, a Westin Heavenly king bed, 42" flat screen TV, with a small seat and desk on the side. The bathroom was very clean and looked relatively new. After looking at some traveler photos on TripAdvisor, we were expecting some pretty outdated rooms, but we were pleasantly surprised. Besides, we weren't planning on staying in our rooms that much, so it was perfect for what we needed.

The wifi was free for Platinum guests and was strong/consistent throughout our entire stay. The single code could be used across multiple devices so that was helpful for me to stay up to date on my Doc McStuffins shows while my father researched TripAdvisor for where to have dinner.

We did have time to check out the swimming pool as well. The indoor pool area was quite large and was connected to the outdoor pool. The water was nicely heated for us little kids. Baby Ava and I had a great time swimming with our fathers, so Westin Princeton's highly recommended for other families.

The one issue that we encountered was that Forrestal Village complex is quite dead on weekend mornings. The Westin anchors the commercial development and you can walk to a variety of retail stores and restaurants. However, on Saturday morning, they're all closed with the exception of a very uninspiring food court (chinese food, pizza, Subway, sushi and burgers) and a small higher end cafe. As you may have guessed, we opted for the cafe and had some overpriced sandwiches and crepes for breakfast.

For the 2 night stay, we received our usual 3x SPG points for our room rate, plus two 500 SPG welcome gifts, plus two 500 SPG Green Choice gifts (one was a duplicate, but I won't complain). Assuming 2-3 cents/SPG point, we earned a rebate of about $50-75 on our total $210 hotel bill. Not too shabby!

2AM Fire Drill
The "highlight" of the weekend was that there was an Indian wedding at the hotel while we were there.

Small world, but it ended up being the wedding of a guy my father used to work with 5 years ago. We said hello and congratulated him, but didn't invite ourselves to the reception. But that didn't prevent us from enjoying some of their late night dance music.

Early Sunday morning, around 2AM, we heard a loud alarm going off. My mother originally thought it was my father's cell phone and started to get frustrated at him, but she soon realized it was the hotel's fire alarm. Dazed and confused, my father opened the door to see what was going on, but there wasn't anyone in the hallways yet, but thankfully no smoke as well.

After 30 seconds to focus, we decided to play it safe and evacuate. When we left our room, we were joined by the other guests on the 6th floor and we found our way to the staircase leading outside. There we saw dozens of other guests, many of which were still in full party mode with one "gentleman" blasting Robin Thick's Blurred Lines on his hand held speakers as the fire alarm raged on. I guess it's better than hearing Punjabi MC feat. Jay-Z from 2003.

After about 15 minutes (and yes, Blurred Lines was on repeat the entire time), the staff told us we could return to our rooms because it was a guest who pulled out the fire extinguisher in the hallway which sets off the fire alarm. There was no fire, just some drunk idiots.

The hotel staff did a great job of getting everyone back to their rooms as best they could. The next morning, we went to the "lounge" to find it closed. Apparently, that was the source of the fire extinguisher incident. But the repairman suggested we go to the front desk and see what they could do. Well, instead of bad bagels and fruit, we were offered a complementary full breakfast at the lobby restaurant.

Clearly the fire alarm wasn't the hotel's fault, but Baby Ava and I definitely appreciated that the Westin staff was proactive enough to make it up to the guests as best they could.

Starwood Platinum Status!

As many of you long time LCD readers have known, this year has been quite busy in terms of travel. In fact, we've spent over 100+ nights in hotels.

So when I'm back home, my stuffed animals friends like to have a sleepover party on the nights I'm sleeping in my own bed.

But one consolation for traveling so much is that we my father finally achieved Starwood Platinum Status today when his 25th hotel stay posted to his account.

The official Platinum status benefits you get (for hitting 25 stays or 50 nights in a calendar year) are as follows:

• Complimentary upgrades to the best available room at check-in (including SUITES!)
• Choice of welcome gift (500 Starwood points, free continental breakfast or a local gift)
• Executive Club lounge access (free snacks and drinks)
• Free in-room internet
• 4PM late checkout
• Platinum Concierge service
• 10 Suite Night Upgrade Certificates (only if you hit 50 nights, not just 25 stays)

Because the internet costs $12-25 per day, the 500 SPG points are worth at least $10-15 and a room upgrade could be worth hundreds of dollars, getting Platinum status is a huge deal for people, especially someone like my father who has gotten spoiled from being a Hyatt Diamond member.

To be 100% honest though, we really didn't stay 25 times or 50 nights. My father had the benefit of having the Starwood American Express credit cards (both the personal version and the business version, which he just applied for this past Sunday while they're still offering 30,000 SPG points for signing up).

When you have one of the cards, the Starwood member gets credit for 2 stays and 5 nights. When you have both cards, the Starwood member gets an additional 2 stays and an additional 5 nights (4 stays and 10 nights credit in total). So for my father to hit Platinum this year, he only needed 21 stays or 40 nights.

Now that's still a lot of hotel stays which can be quite expensive. But fortunately, Starwood also counts award stays (when you pay with points).  Of those 40 nights to hit Platinum, we only paid full cash for just 11 of them (6 in cheap Thailand, 2 paid by his company, and just 3 regular cash paid stays). The other 29 nights we needed to hit Platinum were subsidized using Starwood points (either 100% free Award Night or their Cash & Points rate).

Before when we only had Gold status, we just received free internet and a 4PM late checkout. They would sometimes "upgrade" us to an enhanced room (ie, on a higher floor), but that's not that impressive when you're staying in a 6 story hotel. So the real Platinum benefit is that we will now get a REAL upgrade.

We'll test this out when we arrive at the Westin Beaver Creek (Colorado) in a few weeks and see if we get bumped up to their spacious 2 bedroom suite. It sure would be nice to have my own hotel bedroom instead of sharing it with my snoring parents. I'm not holding my breath but I do have my tiny baby fingers crossed! In the meantime, I'll just keep eating ice cream.

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?