Showing posts with label spa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spa. Show all posts

2.25.2014

Ski Chronicles

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**IF YOU ENTERED MY VALENTINE'S DAY POPCHIPS GIVEAWAY, CHECK YOUR EMAIL! I JUST CONTACTED THE WINNER!**

If you're sick of me talking about skiing and travel, you might want to take a break from my blog and come back in a week or two. Just kidding. Don't leave. I would miss you too much.

On Friday, we headed up north to Boyne Mountain for a ski weekend. My husband finished work a little early, and I was able to work from the car, so we left in the afternoon for what should have been a zippy 3-hour drive up the coast. It ended up being a 5-hour terror-filled drive with icy conditions and whiteouts.

We survived. :)

Driving conditions? Not impressed

Once we were finally settled at the resort around 8 or 9, we headed out to a restaurant that is on the resort grounds, called Pierson's. It was PACKED, so we waited about an hour for the table we got, but I was poured a mighty stiff Old Fashioned, so I forgive them.

Cheers, strangers!

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early (meaning my husband managed to shake me awake after an Old Fashioned-induced slumber). We had gotten over a foot of snow overnight, so my Mr. G was adamant that we experience the fresh early morning powder.

Yes, we are obsessed with our dog.

We got dressed in our slope-ready garb, said goodbye to the pup, and headed out. We are blessed to stay in my in-laws' condo, which is ski-in, ski-out, so it is pretty easy to get onto the slopes without wasting too much time.

View from the bedroom we stay in


We took a few runs before our friends showed up to ski/board with us. While we waited for them to get their gear, we headed inside the lodge for some coffee. In our haste to get out the door, we failed to imbibe in the obligatory pre-slopes warming ritual. Tisk tisk.


The rest of the day consisted of skiing, skiing, and more skiing, and then a late lunch and a few drinks at one of the restaurants on the resort grounds. 

...followed by my now rituatlistic post-ski hot soak. I have now had two baths in the past year, and this is a lot for me! I am going to call this a success.


Post-soak, I got ready to go to dinner with my in-laws. They had reservations at Twisted Olive in Petoskey.


We will have one of everything, please.

This place is so supremely cute, I just couldn't get enough. They set out a bunch of pastry-like desserts on the fireplace mantle, and had me salivating from the moment I walked in the door.

Hey, you're not an Old Fashioned!

I started with a delicious, islandy cocktail and then moved on to a charcuterie plate before the main course...

Chanting *Don't think about Bambi* *Don't think about Bambi*

...venison. I have not had venison in a while, so I don't have much to compare this to, but it was amazing. Very tender, kind of like a well-executed pot roast. I forced myself to eat it slowly, because it was just that good.

Pretty sure my husband wishes he married this instead of me ;-)

One more thing: chocolate cake. When the server mentioned that it was "lava cake"-like, we were all over it. This is pretty much my husband's favorite edible thing on earth besides bacon, so we had to have it.

After dinner, we hit up The Snowflake Lounge for one more drink before hitting the hay.

Sunday morning, I somehow managed to sleep all the way until 9am. This is very rare for me nowadays, but apparently I needed it after a day of skiing and 4 drinks. I had planned to hit up the spa for a workout and some sauna time before heading out of town, but by the time I ate breakfast and woke up from my hibernation, it seemed like a waste of a spa day, so we hit the road in stead.

Goodbye spa, hello gas station.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
  • Do you ski? Snowboard? Have you tried both? I've mostly skid but snowboarded once. I definitely am more comfortable on skis, but want to push myself to learn better snowboarding form.
  • Have any rituals for after a physically exhausting day? I love a glass of wine and pajamas, but when I am having a ski holiday, I am all about the baths!


9.04.2013

Villas Caletas, Costa Rica Pt 4

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On our fourth day at Villa Caletas, I spontaneously woke up early (despite drinking the night before)  and dressed myself for a run. I headed out the door around 6am, intending to take a short 20 minute run around the grounds.


Holy smokes, I forgot about the hills. The entire grounds at Villas Caletas are comprised of steep, rolling hills. I ended up alternating hill sprints with desperately tired uphill walking, and nailed a solid 45 minute workout. I. Was. Drenched.


I rinsed in the shower, put on my swimsuit, and headed to the main villa with my husband for some Costa Rican breakfast. 


We had an adventure ziplining the day before, and had booked surfing lessons and a spa package the following day, so we decided to take it easy and give ourselves a healthy dose of lounging.


After sitting by the pool a bit, we headed down toward the water for some delicious blackberry/ice cream/ rum smoothies. The drink was called "Caletas Dream" and it did indeed live up to its name.


Post-smoothie, we spent a while walking along the waterfront, which has a lot of rocky areas that are great for climbing but not so great for swimming.


Post-walk and another boozy smoothie later, we were both napping in our cabana on the beach. Here, my friends, is where Caletas Dream earned its name. It was the type of boozy smoothie that lends itself well to a short afternoon nap.


Did I mention one of my cover ups matched the cabana drapes? Meant to be.


In the late afternoon, it began to rain, so we headed back up to our villa to get jazzed up for dinner. Pardon the awful selfie, but this night needed to be documented - I showered, actually did my hair a bit for the first time on the trip (which entailed adding mousse - fancy!), and put on a dress my mom had given me to wear on the honeymoon.


We headed over to the restaurant for another amazing dinner. It was still early enough that we knew we could have a nice, long, leisurely dinner and watch the entire sunset.


One of our favorite servers, Jorje, brought me a mint lemonade that was to die for. I couldn't figure out if it was a mojito or what, at first, until he told me it was lemonade with blended ice and fresh mint. So refreshing.


But don't worry. I later moved on to wine and delicious food. I ordered a delicious mahi mahi with pineapple chutney and coconut jasmine rice. It was fresh and light.


The next morning, we skipped a workout and headed straight to brekkie. I had the "American Breakfast," which entails eggs any way you like (mine were scrambled with cheese), a choice of meats (bacon, obviously), and some kind of plantain hash browns.


We knew we were getting picked up to go surfing around 1pm, so we lounged by the pool at our palace all morning and then had lunch delivered there. We both went with loaded salads and split a hummus plate - having never surfed before, we wanted to be fully fed, in case it required a lot of energy!


Soon, we were picked up for surfing lessons by this vehicle (see below). How perfect is that? A brightly colored jeep seemed to fit the bill.


Our driver, Jefferson, was also going to be one of our surf instructors. As we approached the beach, he explained that it was one of the best surfing spots in Jaco (the town nearby). We asked if it was basically the "kiddie pool" or "bunny version" of surfing spots, and he said no - even the surf instructors hung out and surfed there on their own.

After a short demo, we were out in the water. Thank God, we both got the hang of surfing pretty quickly! The hardest part, in my opinion, was paddling out to the waves. The surfing part just felt like doing warrior poses in yoga!


We surfed for about two hours before it was time to ride in. I rode my last wave in about a minute before my husband, so I was able to get this shot of him riding a wave. Other than that, it is all in our memories!

My husband is hot!

Once we had dried off as best we could, we took a picture with our surfing instructors. These guys have been friends forever. We didn't learn until half way through our lesson that my instructor was the three time national surfing champion of Colombia! No wonder it felt so easy - we learned from the best!

Jefferson drove us back to our villa, and we headed up to the spa for a couple's treatment.


We had a few hours of pure pampering. Multiple exfoliations, massages, facials, and body wraps later, we emerged clean and new! We headed for some food and then met our friends for another drink before bed.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?
  • Have you ever surfed on vacation? What kind of activities are your favorite to try?
  • Do you like spa treatments? Have you ever done couples treatments?
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