Getting what you paid for

The Monterey Bay Aquarium

Since my mom is a physician, as a child, many of our family trips were scheduled around her Continuing Medical Education, or CME. I remember many of these trips fondly, especially because it usually meant that we got to stay at a fancy hotel, like a Hilton, or a Hyatt. This was super cool for my sister and me, since usually on family vacations, we were sleeping either in a tent or the more run-down version of a Motel 6. One of the first of these CME trips that I remember as a child was to Monterey Bay.

It was a terrific trip. We went to the aquarium, made new friends, and my parents let my sister and I run wild in the vendor exhibit area, where we would grab free tote bags and tear around collecting as much free swag and candy as we could. Free pens? Branded post-its? Magic folding cubes? Standing desktop calendars? This was before the moratorium on pharmaceutical branded swag, so there was so much of it. It was like trick-or-treating!

Free pharma swag!!!

Our trip to Monterey Bay was also the first time I remember staying at such a nice hotel. When we entered the room, we were amazed that there were glass cups next to the sink. Not only were they glass, but they were square glass cups. We had never seen square glasses before. The towels were thick and fluffy, and there were bathrobes in the closet! It was a sort of luxury that my sister and I had never seen before.

So it was with great reluctance that we packed up all of our things in the van at the end of the trip and started the long drive back home to LA. About an hour into the drive home, I turned around the try to get something out of the back of the car. I noticed a plastic bag stuffed with square glasses, fluffy towels, and bathrobes.

"Mom...?" I yelled, "Is this from the hotel? How come it's here? We have to turn around and give them back because they'll notice that we're stealing!"

My mom paused. And then told me, "Don't worry about it. It's not stealing. That hotel was very expensive, so it's okay."

That's right, Mom. Way to stick it to the man.