Are You a Mall Tourist?

Did that question put you on the defensive or did you jump at the word “mall” and spring immediately into shopping mode? Is the idea of a mall tourist something that repels you as a self-proclaimed traveler or does it intrigue you—even a little? More importantly, how did your relationship with malls as destinations in themselves change when you had children, if at all?

These are questions I would love for you to consider in the comments section if you’re so inclined as they’re questions I’ve been mulling over for the past year or so.  Actually, they’re questions that have emerged due to a combination of having a young child who needed some kid interaction, prohibitively cold weather in the Midwest and a lack of nearby short-notice indoor activities.

Before I was a parent, I was the type who liked shopping, but only in a distracted sort of “I’m going to get what I need and hightail it pronto” kind of way. Walking around malls for hours end in a manner similar to many of my fellow womenfolk friends just was never my idea of a great time. I didn’t necessarily avoid malls, but I didn’t go out of my way to seek them out either. In other words, if I was trekking through a city and trolling around for things to do, sniffing out top shopping ops would not exactly be at the top of my to-do list.

And again, I repeat, these were pre-parent sentiments.

Because man, oh man, my relationship with the mighty mall changed in a hurry when we would have days when we felt like getting out of the house in the evenings and didn’t want to spend a lot of money or do anything structured. When Bee was around 18 months and was cruising around like a champ, we would truck on over to the mall play area and let her loose to ramble with her kind. She had a ball and we were just thankful to have five minutes to sit back next to one another and enjoy a cup of coffee. That’s how it all started and before we knew it we became…(gasp!) mall tourists.

Instead of just hanging at a local mall though, we gradually branched out and included other cities on mall roll, keeping careful mental tally of the ones that had bad-ass playspaces and those malls that were all wig stores and pig-pen-style play boxes where I could see the typhus breeding on the snot-crusted vinyl seats. There are definite levels of quality with these mall play areas and my expert advice is to follow all of the Lexus SUVs with high-end babyseats in the back. You totally know they’re heading for the suburbs and I hate to say it, but that seems to be where the best mall playarea action is centered.

I should note that weren’t going to those cities specifically to go to the malls, but they did become an integral part of our stays because of the multiple benefits they offered to both us and the Bee.

But I digress. First things first.

How Does One Define a Mall Tourist?

A mall tourist in the TrekkerTots sense is defined loosely as someone scouting out malls with the intent of finding suitable playspace for kids and with the hopes of also encountering some chatter about the local area from other parents. A mall tourist is someone who is staying in a city for the short term and is checking out the malls a given area has to offer, staying where it’s good and moving on when the vibe is crappy.

A mall tourist as defined here is not, I should say, someone who goes to a new city and is looking for shopping exclusively. We rarely, if ever, actually shop when we’re doing the city mall circuit, and so boo for us and our role in the American economy, right?

Meh.

Say it With Me…There’s Nothing Wrong With Being a Mall Tourist

Quite simply put, being a mall tourist lets you meet other parents—parents who are quite likely from the area—who can offer you some firsthand insights on other things to do with your kids during your stay. Your kids can run off some steam and have fun in a totally new environment, you can sit on your can and increase your coffee power to exponential levels, and furthermore, you can spend some time out and about for free—or at least on the cheap.

It’s true.

Mall Tourists of the World, Unite!

Being a mall tourist is the best way to meet local parents and get the scoop on the city you’re in. Furthermore, if you’re on the road and have been for some time, it provides your kids with some meaningful QT with others of their kid-species, which is incredibly important. All we’re left with on the problematic side of things is that for some of us, it’s hard to think of ourselves as being “mall people” when that’s the last thing we were before the Invasion of the Little People. It’s hard. But oh well. We’re parents! We get used to things, we adjust, we adapt—that’s what are lives have become about. So carry over that flexibility to self-perception and let your freak flag fly.

Be the Metroplex Mamma, the Playarea Promoter, the … you get the point. So, how are you feeling about this?

An Outer Limits Weekend Family Trip to Chicago

We have become quite fond of taking short weekend trips to Chicago and have made something of a tradition out of staying just outside of the city limits where the vibe is a little calmer and there are fewer people. However, when we want to try to save some money by staying outside of town, we always keep in mind that we are not locals and therefore do not always know what kind of area we’re going to end up if we just drive around looking for a decent-looking kid-friendly hotel in Chicago. This is something we know from experience, I’m afraid. 

One of the first times we took a family weekend trip to Chicago, we decided that it would be okay to drive around for a while to look for nice places to stay and we got lost. For a long time. And if I recall correctly, we were somewhere on the south side of windy city. And while it was a great cultural experience to be able to view real live hookers in their native habitat and also to have the opportunity to observe open-air crack-smoking on a public sidewalk, it is not exactly my favorite travel memory. In fact, looking back, the whole experience can be best summarized as such:

My apologies, dear sensitive reader, but really. I can think of no other parallel from popular culture that communicates our experience so very succinctly or in words so profound.

Besides, by staying outside of downtown Chicago, one can avoid paying the parking fees that are nothing short of criminal. For instance, when researching one of our trips, we found a great four-star hotel that was just across from the Field Museum for something like $68 per night but our excitement over such a deal dissipated quickly when we learned that parking our car for our stay would cost us close to $120. If you are thinking about booking a family trip to Chicago and want to stay anywhere near downtown, make sure you ask over the phone how parking works and what the cost is. Some of the hotels do not even list the parking fees on their website. On that did, upon a quick phone call, confirmed that parking was less there than at other hotels because it would be parked at a garage four blocks away and valet was an additional $40.

The Outer Limits -- Family-Friendly Places to Stay Outside of (but still close to) Chicago : Merrillville Wins

We have checked out the airport and Lincoln Park areas but (and this is partially based on our starting location so might not be as accessible for those coming from the west) have settled on the nice town of Merrillville, Indiana. It’s about 30-40 minutes to downtown Chicago and staying will leave you fresh to enjoy the experience of driving through the city as opposed to being road-weary upon arrival. I like staying at a hotel in Merrillville because it’s easy to hop back on the highway and get truckin’ to Chicagoland and also because there is a lot to do in town. There are tons of good places to eat right near our general hotel choices as well as a movie theatre and a mall. There’s nothing special or quaint about it, but it makes a good pitstop and overnight stay location.

So, on to the reviews of where we stay…

There are two places we have stayed on more than one occasion and both have been excellent, despite the ways in which they are different. Our favorite is the Radisson at Star Plaza because of the crazy party pool thing and total kid-friendliness and the other, which is more relaxing and quieter with a smaller but clean, nice pool is the Merrillville Courtyard (or Courtyard Merrillville, however it goes). I have divided the mini-review of both into two categories: the calm one and the crazy one for your viewing pleasure.

The Calm, Cozy One – The Merrillville Courtyard in Merrillville, Indiana

This is a warm and cozy hotel that is tucked back on the road right off of I-65 (which offers instant access to the main trek into Chicagoland). It was a great place for a cold ass day in the Midwest because of their huge fireplace. In fact, here is our family taken right on front of the sucker. It was big and warm and the completely bored clerk at the front entertained Bee for a while and offered to take our picture. I wish I remembered her name.

We really liked the pool at the Merrillville Courtyard, mostly because it wasn’t all crazy with slides and kids running around everywhere. Everything was clean and our Bee had a wonderful time swimming with her daddy and a few little friends she met while we were there. The pool area had a lot of little tables and places to sit and was quite comfortable.

When we were done swimming, we actually hung out in the lobby (something we don’t usually do) because it was vast and lit up and warmed by said fireplace. This is one of the only hotels we’ve been to that people were just chilling with their families in the lobby, playing cards and chatting. It was very nice.

Bee making friends in the lobby. Who wouldn't want to be friends with a kid who chooses to wear tie-dye with cowgirl boots?

Another thing I liked about this hotel was the hot hotel breakfast buffet that comes with the reasonably-priced room. It sure beats the standard cold-ass bagel and stiff cream cheese with a stale cup of coffee we have had at so many other hotels that boast a “breakfast.”

The Crazy One - Radission at Star Plaza in Merrillville, Indiana

Omg, this place is crazy. I took pictures inside with my Blackberry but they don’t show off the full spectacle of this wild pool place enough, so I’m directing you to the website for the Radisson at Star Plaza. That is really what it looks like. I kid you not.

The pool is the best thing about this hotel. They’re going to ask you if you want a pool view room but let me tell you, if you want peace and quiet and plan on going to bed before 11:30, this is not a good idea at all. The acoustics reflect every single sound, scream, screech, and shriek directly through your door and into your sleeping ears and you can expect a gaggle of excitable kids hitting the pool well before you might want to be up and about too. Your kids might like having a room with a pool view but I don’t know about it myself. It was way too loud.

The pool and general vibe at the Radisson at Star Plaza in Merrillville is more in tune to the tween crowd. Having a little two or three-year old flopping around in water wings while surrounded by crazed Hannah Montanas might be a bit too much for a young one. And the pool never dies down either. It closes late at night and when we’ve been there, they have to ask the kids several times to get out. If your kids are older though, have a ball—this is the place for you.

I also like this hotel because it has a Starbucks built right into it. That’s the easiest way to lure me in and it worked. If you do get snookered into a pool-view room and wake up at 7 a.m. to the sound of splashing and laughing, at least you have this in store for you.

The rooms at both of the hotels listed here at comfortable and clean—we have never had any problems. The service and staff at the Courtyard are by far friendlier but that might just be because they are bored. It’s a quiet hotel and they don’t see the kind of endless action that goes on at the Radisson. They are also roughly the same price, although if there is a big event at the Star Theatre in Merrillville, you might get hit with a higher rate and might also want to consider booking ahead of time.

Oh, and by the way, Gary is Scary

We like Merrillville but also have considered staying in Gary, Indiana, which is even closer to Chicago and also boasts a number of very affordable hotels. Now, perhaps the poor town isn’t getting a fair shake here because we drove through the wrong parts of it, but Gary, Indiana is a scary place. It’s like a shanty town and I did not see anywhere—not even in the rehabbed downtown—that I would even consider staying. If you have thoughts on that, let me know. What are we missing about Gary?

I look forward to comments about staying outside of Chicago…Where do you like to take your family? Do you generally stay downtown when you go? If not, what is your favorite suburb or quick-trip hotel spot?

A Vacation Nanny. Really?

Why yes, children, with Photoshop and a little magic, anything can happen.

During a recent trip in Miami, Florida with my husband, I took advantage of a little baby-free time on my own and did a walkabout of the hotel, stopping finally at the pool bar to order something uncharacteristically strong for my drink of choice these days (which is usually orange juice spiked with baby backwash). Afraid to start visibly wobbling after a few sips, I decided to strike up a conversation with a woman at the bar who was reading a book I liked quite a bit. As she ordered her drink, we caught eyes, detected kindred-spirited-ness and began chatting about books, kids, and vacations.

Halfway into the conversation, she clucked her tongue and said that she wished to hell that Newport Beachside had a vacation nanny to take advantage of and that she was just dying without one.

A vacation nanny? Seriously?

So not-in-the-loop me was like, “well, I saw on the hotel information thing that they have a babysitting service but I didn’t see any details about price or qualifications or anything.”

She blinked blankly a few times and just kind of looked at me like I was already starting to waste her time.

“Oh, these days we hardly stay anywhere that does often vacation nanny service. I mean, we’re really only here because the kids love it so much. If I had it my way, John and I would just…you know, ramble around all day and do our own thing. We would so not be here.”

I nodded emphatically, eyes probably too wide.

She continued, “I mean, all self-respecting resorts should offer complimentary nanny services. Any that don’t are just nowhere we’d want to be anyway, you know? It’s just too much chaos any other way.”

Here is where my nodding in agreement began to lose its….emphatic-ness.

She spent the next several minutes telling me about this resort in Jamaica her whole crew (which included a husband and 3 boys, ages 3, 6, and 11 if I recall correctly on the ages) attended on a tri-yearly basis that offered a complimentary vacation nanny service to all guests. Not even a plain-vanilla vacation nanny service. A complimentary one. I was incredulous. 

And actually, in hindsight, I was incredulous because I am so damn picky about even a babysitter. But man, a vacation nanny? Someone please extinguish the hot, hot flames incited by my burning worry now.

I mean, for me anyway, the thought of having a nanny who has no connection with our little family whatsoever outside of the fact that we just happen to be guests at the same hotel where the former happens to work just doesn’t seem right to me. Furthermore, I worry not that either I am missing some immense luxury that only a lucky few are privy to or that I am far too much of a worrywart when it comes to what people watch my kids. Yes, even for five minutes. I mean, a nanny is assigned to the Bee. She becomes a charge. And this is a nanny who is not picked by me personally, thus I imagine will not be the kind of nanny prone to flying in, post-selection, ala Mary Poppins, to sweep my child off (within distance of my own sight) to engage in song and games. I just can’t handle that idea.

Pool-book lady expressed no sense of such concern. She had disdain for me and my plebian views about childcare. After all, what’s a family vacation if you have to be with your kids all the time? I am not being facetious either. That is really the mindset I was struggling with for a while.

I wonder sometimes if people with multiple children—nay, boy children—of a certain age might be more inclined to participate. This Bee is our first and only at the present moment and I’ve noticed that moms of multiple children, especially boychildren, are often admirably casual about their child-rearing philosophies. They are caring, loving, and attentive, but they have a much less strained and white-knuckled approach than I seem to. They sit back, watch, and smile a lot. Oh, the envy as I toddle behind the Bee’s every step.

Anyway…

The vacation nanny user told me the name of the resort they went to in Jamaica and I forgot it until we got back. After a short bit of research, I found it—bingo! It’s called the Franklyn D. Resort and it’s won tons of awards and receives super-rave reviews from travelers worldwide. Even on TripAdvisor, a site that is notorious for scathing reviews.

So, I hungrily just read like all content on their website and what it says about their services and I am strangely compelled. Here. You read it for yourself and tell me what you think of their concept of the “three-in-one vacation [where] you’ll get an intimate Jamaican escape for you and your spouse, a lively adventure for your children, and a chance to experience the best family holiday ever.” Make sure you click on the tab, which is unmistakably entitled, “Your Vacation Nanny” off the top of their home page too.

Due to good website copy that seems to understand the exact words that appeal to vacation-and-private-time-starved parents, I am thinking this might not be as bad as I thought.

Is this the kind of vacation you might consider for your family? One that was marketed mostly based on its availability of a vacation nanny? Have you ever had a vacation nanny? What were your experiences?