May in Review

Between work, travel, and things around Cliffwood, I have been quite the busy bee! Here’s a quick look back at my May highlights:

• Personal:  John and I spent quite a bit of time with family this month, including a weekend in Louisiana and celebrating Mother’s Day with my parents. John and I also traveled to Punta Mita, Mexico.
• Professional: I took three trips to Austin, TX, one to Edinburg, TX, one to Washington, D.C., one to Miami, FL (just returned last night!), and spent the rest of my time working from my home office.
• Running:  I logged 107 miles this month (I am still tracking on Daily Mile). Woo Hoo! I expect my mileage to increase for June due to my participation in the 2012 Runner’s World Streak.

• Travel Numbers for the Month: 16 – number of days spent traveling; 15 – number of nights spent in a hotel (away from Cliffwood).

I am buckling up for the summer months.  Why is the summer always cray cray? 

Review – St. Regis Punta Mita

Since the hotel opened, John and I have been dying to get down to the St. Regis Punta Mita.  Fortunately, our chance to experience the hotel arose for Memorial Day 2012.

Not surprisingly, this hotel is exceptional. The decor is sleek and modern, yet comfortable and inviting.  It is very easy to relax at the hotel, be it in your room, the pool, the restaurant, the lobby, etc.  The cuisine is also fantastic — you will not go hungry at this hotel! We were lodged in a deluxe suite during our stay and it was magnificent.  The linens, layout, furniture, bathroom products and the hotel’s attention to detail were impressive.

Additionally, the grounds of the hotel are immaculate and inspiring. We got a lot of ideas for our own yard while strolling the grounds of the property.

Although we did not take part in many activities, the hotel offers a wide-variety of activities for its guests, including biking, golfing, kayaking, boat cruises, exercise classes, cocktail and cooking classes, etc. However, you could always just lay around and enjoy the beach.

The private butler service was a fantastic treat, and we found all the staff at the hotel to be incredibly responsive, friendly and kind.  The only misstep of the trip was our experience with the massages, but again, we find that to be such a small issue.  We would recommend a stay at the hotel to anyone without hesitancy. Consider spending a holiday or celebrating a special occasion at the St. Regis Punta Mita – you won’t regret it!

Memorial Day in Mexico

John and I woke up on Memorial Day and hit the gym again. What can I say? I have a Streak to complete! For breakfast, I ordered a tomato/veggie juice. This was truly a homemade V8 without all the salt of the canned version. I loved this and will try to recreate this at home soon. So delicious.

Afterwards, we spent a few hours on the beach. I miss this place already.

Fortunately, we had a pretty uneventful trip back to Houston. However, things got interesting after we landed. Not to belabor the story, but there is a good and bad element to this part of the trip.  Let’s start with the good. Upon landing, there was a one hour wait in Customs. However, because we signed up recently for the Global Entry Program there was no wait. None. Less than 2 minutes at the kiosks and we were done. Easy Peasy. Highly Recommend. Now, the bad. John took the wrong suitcase and only realized this after we were home. He ended up driving back to IAH…where his luggage couldn’t be found. They eventually found it…the next day. Lesson: Always double check luggage tags. Even with this minor error, we still had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and a fantastic experience at the St. Regis Punta Mita.

Sunday Funday (Punta Mita Style)

John and I slept like logs on Saturday night and we were up and at ‘em early Sunday. We spent some time in the gym together to begin the day.  The gym, I might add, was very nice. Notice the cold towels in the fridge? Very nice touch!

Plenty of cardio machines, free weights, kettle bells, balance balls, as well as dressing areas and a spin room. When breakfast rolled around, I decided to keep it simple and ordered a tall green juice.

We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. We read, swam, laughed, chatted and napped.

Oh…and we also ate! For lunch I ended up ordering tortilla soup and ate it beachside (on a silver platter!). I also asked one of the beach butlers if the hotel had heard of a “Miami Vice” (remember this from LA?) and he responded “Andale!” Within 5 minutes I had my very own “Miami Vice.” Gosh, I love great customer service!

In the afternoon, John and I went to the Remede Spa for massages.  The ambiance, decor and offerings at the spa were incredible – modern, peaceful and relaxing. However, as much as it pains me to say this, the services themselves were lacking.  My treatment was so underwhelming that I ended up ending it after 15 minutes.  To make a long story short, my therapist ended up dousing me in oil and lotion a la the Exxon Valdez incident. It was disgusting and not pleasant in any way, shape or form.  I didn’t let that ruin my day or trip. Instead I just went back to the room and lounged on our terrace. NBD. For dinner, John and I returned to the SeaBreeze Restaurant) and dined al fresco. The restaurant was quiet and it was nice to relax and enjoy another nice meal.

We ended up sharing a Caprese salad and chocolate dessert (surprise, surprise) and I ordered the spicy shrimp tagliatele (again!) for my entree. I also had two of these babies — pomegranate ginger margaritas. So good! While we were dining, Busy Philips (the actress from Cougar Town and Dawson’s Creek) and two of her friends were sat next to us. She and her friends were having a girls getaway and ended up staying in a room next to ours.  Nothing salacious to report — she seemed nice and she and her friends seemed to be enjoying themselves.  John and I ended our evening by taking a nice relaxing stroll of the hotel property. Note to self: take more walks.

Saturday on the Beach

I slept for 9 glorious hours before the rain temporarily woke me up on Saturday morning. No worries, I was able to fall asleep again. If you’re counting, that’s 11 hours of sleeping time. Unheard of for an Arnold! We enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room to kick off our Saturday.

We shared a fruit plate and I also enjoyed a plate of eggs con chorizo and refried beans. Breakfast of champions. I also had a nice big glass of “green juice” to add some veggie/fruit action to my diet. Everything, including the presentation, was wonderful. Afterwards, we made our way to the adult pool area where we set up a lounge space by the beach.

I really appreciated the fact that the hotel has an adult-only area.  I love kids, but I don’t necessarily relax when they are screaming and carrying on right by me, especially if they are unsupervised. I always worry that someone is going to get hurt or accidentally drown, therefore putting me in high alert mode instead of relaxation mode. I am sure some of this perspective will change when I have kids, but for now I appreciate the selfish luxury of being able to focus on nothing when I vacation.  And that’s exactly what I did for the majority of the day – nothing. I read and watched a few shows on my iPad, but mostly I just relaxed and talked to John.

When lunchtime rolled around, we decided to enjoy our lonche (almuerzo, for you fancy folks) beach-side. What a treat!

We shared guacamole, salsa, fish tacos and chicken nachos.  I also had a nice, tall Coca-Light.  I swear, these taste very different in Mexico! After six hours by the beach, we adjourned to our room. John watched soccer games and I read on our terrace. Good Times. Later in the afternoon, I went to the gym and ran four miles. Yes, I run on vacation…and I love it. It’s all about balance for me.

We ate at the hotel’s Carolina Restaurant for dinner. Carolina’s is considered the “nice” restaurant on the property, but I’d call it “NICE!” The restaurant is pretty glamorous with chic furniture, modern decor and great views of the property. To boot, the staff rolled out the red carpet for us.

We ended up having an over-the-top multi-course dinner: tasting appetizers, a lamb amuse bouche, a (shared) goat cheese appetizer, an out-of-this world steak and potato entree, a (shared) chocolate dessert sampler, and a gracious gift of homemade macaroons (we had to package these “to go” — we were too full!).

Everything was fabulous, including my spicy margarita!

Once we got back to the room we discovered that hotel staff had decorated our suite for our anniversary. So sweet and fun! My favorite part of the decor was this elaborate towel swan creation.

I’d show you more pictures but only if you promise to drink two huge margaritas beforehand (otherwise it won’t be funny!).