A Different Kind of Spa Experience.

A while ago, one of the doctors I work for was telling me about a spa that she went to up in Lynnwood(a suburb of Seattle). She said that it was really a great experience and that the spa treatments left your skin feeling really smooth. At the time I thought that it sounded kind of cool but never got around to going. Fast forward 1 year later to a hotel in San Francisco where I am telling Lucy about the spa and this particular treatment called Rejuvenation. Lucy surprised me by saying that she had been to that same spa and knew exactly what I was talking about. She assured me that it was worth going to.

As soon as I got back to Seattle I called and scheduled an appointment. As the appointment time drew near I started feeling a little...anxious. I know it sounds strange to hear but this is the reason; from what I had heard you basically walk around naked the whole time. Well, let me just say, they weren't lying! The spa itself is really nice, it has several hot rooms for you to chose depending on what your needs are. This I thought was pretty cool. I didn't realize that depending on the heat of a room it can effect different parts of your body. An example of this would be the 60 degree room which helps to aid circulation. I stayed away from this room and stuck to the fat burning, clear skin sauna. (by the way,you wear a robe in these rooms)

The room that intimidated me the most was where the hot tubs were. This was where any inhibitions you may have about your body are forced to go out the window. Again, there were about five different hot tubs with varying degrees of heat. I had to soak in the hot tub for 40 minutes so that I could get sufficiently pruny before having all of my dead skin cells sloughed off by an extremely chatty Asian woman who kept talking about her fellow co-workers. I decided to get into the 90 degree tub since I knew I was going to be there a while, but once I got in I found it to be too cold and forced myself out in the open to bravely walk the 15 feet to a warmer tub. Lets just say that I stayed here until my name was called for the actual treatment. I sat there in the tub and kept my eyes closed trying desperately to forget where I was and to relax. I kept telling myself that I was a mature woman and being in a room full of naked women was really not that big of a deal. Well guess what? It is a big deal! Now I am not much of a prude but this was just WEIRD!

Thankfully my torture ended with my name being called. I quickly wrapped my towel around me and ran over to my masseur, who promptly told me, "relax, you no need towel, nobody going to look at you." Feeling slightly embarrassed she ripped the towel off of me and told me to get on the table. She donned some gloves that had some serious scrubbers (brillo pads come to mind)and went to work. It doesn't exactly hurt, but it doesn't feel good either. I kept laughing to myself thinking of all of the blog entries I could write on this one experience. Joanne, my torturer kept asking me if I was alright because I kept looking around. I told her that I was trying to see the dead skin because I had heard from Lucy and Dr. Lee that there would be a lot of it. Joanne told me not to look, that it didn't look very good.

Anyways, after having barely any skin left on my body we entered the moisturizing part of the treatment. (it kind of sounds like a car wash. If that were so we would be at the waxing stage) They used hot olive oil, hot milk, honey, Aloe Vera and cucumber during this stage. I wont go into any more detail at this point, just boring cucumbers on the eyes stuff.

Three hours later I was walking out of the spa feeling...exhausted! My skin was, and still is feeling really soft. So the question is, was it worth it? Would I do it again? Well...I don't know that it was worth it but I would probably go again but only for a special occasion-like getting married or something like that. Otherwise I think that I could do without THAT kind of spa experience.

I am attaching a link so that if any of you feel so compelled you can know where to go.

My weekend in San Francisco

This weekend I jetted off to San Francisco with my friend Lucy. She had to go down for work so I thought I would tag along for a few days. Going to California always proves to be a slightly stressful experience. Family, family, and more family. I wanted to keep my visit on the dl as I didn't think that it would be fair to Lucy to drag her all over northern California visiting with people she doesn't know (as nice as they are).

The weekend was so much fun! We ate good food at restaurants filled with character. Most notably was Sears restaurant which made mini pancakes. Thankfully we were staying at a hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco so we were within walking distance of everything...including Nordstroms. Oh, yes, we caught the anniversary sale early Saturday morning. I felt like pretty woman in the shopping scene with the salesman catering to our every whim. We both left with three pairs of shoes, and big smiles on our faces.

After recouperating back at the hotel for a about an hour we headed out for some window shopping in Berkely. We grabbed lunch at a deli and took it up to the Oakland temple to eat. It was so peaceful up there. The last time that I was at this temple I was nine and my brothers and I were sealed to my parents. I remembered things so vivdly and it was nice to go back as an adult.
Later that evening Lucy and I caught a movie in Emeryville then had a late dinner at CPK.

Sunday we met my aunt and uncle at Cap's Corner for an early lunch then headed next door to see "Beach Blanket Babylon". The premise of the musical is Snow White going around the world in search of her handsome prince. It is set for modern times and is adapted to allow for current affairs to be included in the story line. Snow White ran into Prince, Hillary and Bill Clinton as well as Obama and Paris Hilton. My cheeks hurt a lot from all of the laughing. The wigs they created were AMAZING! One woman had the whole city of San Francisco on her head, which had a trolley car moving up one of the hills. Another "hat" that Snow White wore had a house that had all seven of the dwarfs in it singing along with the other characters.
The day ended with a short walk around downtown and dinner at a thai restaurant we found in a questionable area.

Monday came too quickly and while Lucy headed off to her class I headed back to the airport where I was hoping to catch the 11:30am flight back to Seattle. I have never flown stand by before so I was feeling a little out of my element. Luckily I had Jeff on speed dial and he helped me figure out what to do. Lucy also kept tabs on me through texting and checked on me during her breaks. I ended up hanging out at the airport until 3 that afternoon, and have never been more thankful to have a midle seat. The wait wasn't bad, I was just starting to wonder if I was going to get on a flt. The benefit of waiting around since 9am was that my luggage had arrived in Seattle hours before I did, so when I finally got there I didn't have to wait for it. I just walked up to an agent in the baggage area and she turned aroung and handed me my luggage. I was on the road within 30 minutes of landing and home in an hour.

Ahhhh....good times!

Am/Pm for dinner?

Unfortunately this evening I found myself once again searching the city for good deals on gas. Ok, I didn't really search the WHOLE city. I went straight to the Am/Pm by my house because it has the cheapest gas, and it was on the way to the store I was heading to.

As I am watching the gallons being added ever so slowly to my tank I look up and notice that Am/Pm sells cheeseburgers for 99 cents. I was slighlty horrified, one: to think that there is actually a demand for hamburgers at a gas station and two: are they really that safe if they can be sold for 99 cents? It made me wonder how many people actually go to the pump and think, "Wow, I could really go for a cheeseburger right now, good thing I came to this gas station"!

Needless to say, I did not succomb to temptation,(not hard at all to resist) but I did think that it was blog worthy.

The Hoh Rain Forest and Mt. Rainier

So, now that the sun has come out it is time to get out and enjoy nature. The above are some pictures that I took while out and about in the Hoh Rain Forest and most recently at Mt. Rainier. While most days I am very much in touch with my girlie side, I do have moments when the tomboy in me comes out.

The Hoh Rain Fores was beautiful. It is located about 4hrs west of Seattle in the Olympic Mountains. I went over after work on the 3rd of July and spent the night at a hotel in Port Angeles. I know, I know...no camping, but my aunt and uncle were visiting from California and my aunt is soooooo over camping so hotel it was. We got up early on the 4th and hit the trail. We really lucked out on this day with only a little bit of rain that lasted for about 10 minutes. I tried to capture a little bit of what the trees were like in the forest. The trees were covered with moss and there was nothing but green everywhere you looked.

We only hiked for about three hours because I had to catch a ferry back to Seattle that night. I caught the 9:40pm ferry just in time to watch the fireworks show in Edmonds begin. It was a fun, quick trip that left me soooo tired but happy.

Now on to Mt. Rainier. I met Jeff there on Sunday afternoon to camp for the night and do some hiking. I was very proud of myself for making foil dinners that did not stick to the foil. (Tip: it is helpful to use non-stick cooking spray when doing this) Jeff reminded me that the first time I made foil dinners I left out this very important step. So helpful. :)

I am also happy to announce that I managed to stay warm, for, I think the first time EVER while camping! While Jeff laughed a lot at my -10 below down sleeping bag, and multiple layers of clothing I had on, I stayed the perfect temperature throughout the night. I have nicknamed Jeff the furnace, because he is always too hot. So while he was dying in the warm tent, with the "windows" open, I relished in the warmth of all my layers.

Even though I was warm, neither of us slept very well that night. (I think we're getting old) I have yet to master getting comfortable in a tent, on the hard, cold ground. My little REI air mattress never seems to stay inflated-I can't figure out the whole nozzle thing. I inevitably wake up with a flat mattress and a rock wedged into my side.

The sun woke us up bright and early at 6:30am,(the worst part about camping in a tent, no black out curtains). Anyways, I managed to lay there for a couple more hours, refusing to let the sun win before getting up to head out for our hike of the day.

The hike itself, appropriately named The Patriarchs of The Forest, reminded me a lot of the Hoh trail. While there is very little moss here, both hikes follow the river as it snakes its way through the woods. I think my favorite features of the old trees we found were the uniquely shaped root systems and random knots found on the trees. It was so nice to walk along the trail and witness first hand trees that, as Jeff put it, were here long before our founding fathers came to this land.

The first hike we did, though beautiful, was....short. We decided to go across the street to the East side trail to explore some more. This trail proved to be slightly more challenging and ended with a huge waterfall that gave off a refreshingly cool breeze that made the 80+ degree heat more bearable. After a quick bite to eat, we headed back to the car and up to Sunrise for some shopping.

By 3pm I was back to my car and heading home. While it is always nice to come home, and have all of the modern conveniences I become so accustomed to, I love the peace the outdoors brings. There is a part of me that would love to get up every morning and spend the day exploring new trails, but the heels were back on this morning and the concrete jungle beckoned.

Finally! An evening with George!

This is a moment I have been waiting for patiently for a long time. I was supposed to see George Michael in concert when I was 18, but due to lack of funds and living out of the state, I had to give up my precious ticket to the "Faith" tour. My friends went without me and I had to settle for a tour book instead. Fast forward 20years, (how old am I!) and the opportunity to see the man, in the flesh, has presented itself again. I, of course jumped at the chance and bought tickets for myself as well as Jeff and Lucy.

Let me just say that after waiting 20years to see George up close, he did not disappoint. I love his voice, it is like butter! He did make us wait for about 45minutes before he showed himself, but he was worth the wait. (Jeff has the song list on his blog) George sang songs from his Wham! days up to his most current CD. Some of the songs brought back so many fond memories. Careless Whisper reminded me of church dances, desperate to dance with whatever crush I had at the moment. Everything She Wants, just makes me smile, as well as most of his other songs.

The funniest part of the evening was when George came out on stage with a TIGHT police officer's uniform on. Let me just say...Gay or not, the man looks gooooood, and that voice...!

The evening ended with a quick nightcap of Coconut cake that Jill made for Jeff's birthday. It was a perfect ending to a great evening.