Lap of Luxury: Not My Cup of Tea

Kent and I are in the last few hours of our two-day stay at The Montage Resort in Deer Valley, near Park City, Utah.  Kent is attending a business conference here, and I decided to come along and write for fun and catch up on some reading in the peace and quiet of the guest room.  Other than the hour-long yoga class I attended this morning followed by 25 minutes of cycling in the "wellness room", I've mostly sat curled up by fireplaces sipping hot chocolate.


This little library tucked away in the grand hall kept me cozy and comfortable for a few hours.  So comfortable, in fact, that I fell asleep while a father and his son played billiard games just outside the doorway.







I did spend about an hour yesterday getting over the shock of in-room dining prices here.  (Click the photo to view larger.)

  It's a good thing I brought my own $20 worth of snacks/meals (there were more in the fridge)...

...because the fancy snacks stocked in the room would have set me back $122.  

($4 for that bag of chips.  Really?!)

 When I sat down to write a letter, I had to chuckle that the pen tips were dipped in wax--to prevent them from drying out, I suppose.  Who thinks of these things?!

The attention to detail is probably what makes The Montage a luxury hotel.  One such detail that I noticed today is that every throw pillow on every sofa and wing-backed chair in the hotel has been karate-chopped on top:

The accommodations are quite nice, and I've enjoyed the interesting company of the other business owners in the evening.  But I have to admit that despite all the staff's efforts to make my stay as comfortable as possible, I just can't settle in completely.  Part of it is the fact that the money spent paying attention to all these details seems so ridiculous, especially as I look forward to our family spending Thanksgiving week sleeping on cots at Door of Faith Orphanage in Mexico.  Another part may be that I usually keep myself so busy with the demands of my life that I have a sense of wasting time in simply reading and doing nothing that serves others.  Mostly, though, I think I'm just not cut out for luxury.  I prefer the Clarion or Holiday Inn Express where I can enjoy a breakfast buffet without paying $21 for eggs, plus 18% gratuity, plus a $5 food delivery fee.  I can relax more with hotel staff who don't feel like servants bowing to my whims.

It's been nice to be surrounded by comfort for a couple days, but I'm ready to return to the loud, messy, vibrant place I call home.