CA Trip 2012 Part One: Balboa Bay Club & Resort

At the end of February, I was lucky enough to get to travel with Hubby to California. We first flew into Orange County & spent some time in Newport Beach. After that---a quick run to San Luis Obispo (where I think I could be truly happy for many many years!), and then the scenic roadtrip up the coast to San Francisco.

It was an awesome trip. Originally, Hubby had to go because of business. He was at a conference that was held at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. I am sooooo glad that I got to go too! Even though the husbands were busy during the days, we wives had the spa to keep us busy! {Have I mentioned yet how lucky I was???}

Part One of our adventures....



Our room...


Our views...




Each day, Hubby would go off to his meetings, and I'd head down to the most beautiful breakfast room to dine... Here is a picture of the entrance to the room. No pictures of the actual room because there is no cell phone usage allowed in there.


After that, I'd take my tea and head back to the room to lounge & flip through the bajillion different magazines they stock in each room....


Well, I did that until the phone rang, and YES!, the spa could fit me in for the day to lounge in the steam room, dry sauna, & hot tub while I awaited my turn for a massage, body scrub, and airbrush tan. Yikes! What fun!!!

This was my first "all-day-spa" adventure. I took a break for lunch. Notes about my day: Yes, I can say it was one of the top 10...no, top 5 days of my whole entire life. Yes, I truly appreciated it, and felt SO lucky! The massage was amazing!! The body scrub---physically, it felt good. Mentally/emotionally: a little weird. If I had written a paragraph in the brochure to describe it, nobody would sign up for it. "It feels like someone else is giving you a bath; with exfoliating gel. Instead of standing in the shower, you are laying on a table that reminds me of an autopsy table, and I don't know why. Still, it feels pretty good. Even though it's weird."
See? Like I said, it was weird, but felt good.
After that, the airbrush tan. Never had another female all up in every inch of me without an "MD" behind her name. Still, I was pretty pleased with the results. Nothing drastic, per my request.
:)

Oh, the spa day was fabulous!

What else? We went on a dinner cruise around the Bay one night. I didn't take any pictures of that, but it was nice. I sat with some of the other wives on a couch in the lounge/bar area of the boat. I called them the Couch Wives...I noted to Hubby that I was the only one of the Couch Wives that doesn't have a vacation home anywhere, or a home abroad... {Hubby rolled his eyes, of course, and said he'd get right on that...}

Anyhow....Newport Beach was nice. The cars there were A-MAZ-ING. Nevermind that the gal heading into the spa as I was leaving had a face that was a cross between Priscilla Presley (the later years) and that tricycle riding freak from the SAW movies; she drove up in the most beautiful Maserati. Yes, please! The best part---someone rolls up to the valet stand in a Toyota, tosses the key to the valet & apologizes, "It's a rental." Which was promptly followed up with the obligatory "Of course, sir." {A key? Who uses keys anymore!?}

Oh, it was a super fun start to a super fun trip!