If you’re in the market for a new SUV, visiting a W might give you the chance to test one out.

W Hotels and Acura have teamed up to offer guests at any of their 18 North American properties an MDX experience. Guests who need to get hither and thither will be chauffeured to local spots in the MDX, a luxury SUV with a starting pricetag of $40,195. Given that the MDX holds up to 7 passengers, it’s perfect for families. And since the chauffeur service is being rolled in as part of W’s Whatever Whenever program, maybe they’ll have carseats on hand! (We’d advise calling ahead of time about this, however, since W can be family-friendly but doesn’t exactly consider families their #1 market…)

The program will begin on April 1st of this year and run until January 31, 2009.

We haven’t posted since last Wednesday – not what we intended, but with good reason…

We have another little baby!

You may have noticed in some of our previous posts (Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall, W Hotel Union Square) a reference to a pregnancy.  Well, said pregnancy was due to end on July 5th.  As most of you know, pregnancies rarely end on the exact due date, but ours did.  We actually had a false alarm the day before (maybe not so false in hindsight, just the beginnings of labor), and that didn’t help us when it came to posting either, since we spent a good part of Wednesday in the hospital instead of on the computer as usual.  Then late Wednesday night when we were at home, contractions started in earnest, back to the hospital we went, and Thursday morning our son arrived.

We’re a little tapped out on energy but will try to get our butts back in gear with posts.  Also, we’ll be traveling to Chicago in 3 weeks with the baby and 3-year old so you’ll definitely read some reviews either along the way or when that trip is done.  So keep checking in!

If the whole trans-fat health issue has been of concern to you when feeding your family, you’ve probably been at least curious about the food service on your family vacations.  Today, Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced the company’s goal of eliminating all trans-fats by the end of 2007 from all food and beverage operations at properties in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.  “Our goal is to deliver healthier, high-quality food selections by eliminating artificial trans-fats from our food and beverage operations,” said Paul Scott, Vice President, Food & Beverage, North America in a press release issued today.

The Starwood portfolio of brands includes W Hotels, Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, the Luxury Collection, and Le Meridien.