September 11 2006 - Visit to the US - Arizona

Okay, the official cure for jet lag is a weekend visit to an Arizona spa. I arrived in St. Louis Wednesday night, and spent Thursday hanging out with my mom and checking out the shoes at Nordies (yes, I did buy a couple of pairs of Reefs, and a pair of sandals on sale..). My mom was playing Mahjong that day, so I stopped by there first and kind of got an idea of what the differences were between American (Jewish) mahjong, and the kind they play in Hong Kong. The biggest difference is the card that comes out yearly in the US, showing the different hands that you can make mahjong with. Hong Kong mahjong is simpler in the respect I think. I think my mom will find Chinese mahjong to be really easy, but faster.

I went to see my dad at the nursing home. He is doing okay. I showed him a bunch of pictures on my PC from when the kids visited. He was very impatient for my PC to boot up, but that was no surprise. Once the pictures finally came up he really enjoyed seeing them. I could make them all into a slide show, so to him it was like a little movie.

Frjday, we flew to Arizona. The spa was nice…REALLY nice. It was worth every penny. Our room was darling, with a view of the mountains and the spa itself, and a VERY comfortable bed. We ate dinner outside on the deck overlooking their infinity pool that night. In the morning we went to the fitness center. I did a yoga class (nothing special) and Sarah checked out the workout facility. Then we had breakfast. Their breakfasts were so good, and so expansive, that both Saturday and Sunday we only ate two meals a day, with a late afternoon snack by the pool just to tide us over until dinner.

After breakfast came the pool, with a break for a spa treatment both days. On Saturday I had a shiatsu Japanese massage, which involved a lot of deep pressure with the masseuse’s fingers, and at one point even her feet! It felt great. I love massages that really get deep into my muscles. I carry a lot of tension in my shoulders and in my jaw, and it takes some serious pushing to loosen them up. The jaw thing is weird – obviously they’re not going to actually massage my jaw, but when the massage OTHER places, eventually my jaw relaxes too.

On Sunday I had a seaweed wrap, kind of a facial for the entire body. First she painted me with a very fishy-smelling mud; that was with seaweed part. Then she wrapped me in plastic and blankets (asking first if I was claustrophobic!). It was pleasantly warm, but not hot or uncomfortable at all. While the mud was “setting” (I felt a little bit like a seaweed cookie!) she gave me a cranial massage. Then I went and washed off the mud. When I came back she painted me again with a cooling, nice-smelling concoction, and wrapped me up again, but not as tightly this time. While this part was setting (icing on the cookie?) I got a foot massage! Heavenly. When I was finished my skin felt so soft and new!

One of the nice things about the spa was the people, both the ones that worked there, and the guests. I was a little apprehensive that since it was pretty expensive people would be snobby and I would feel like an imposter (okay, I give up, I’m really just a poor Jewish kid from U City!!), but it wasn’t like that at all. From the bell hops to the waiters, to the pool-people, to the people at the fitness center and at the spa…everyone was very laid-back and friendly. They made us feel right at home. And the other guests were really nice too. We hung out at the pool most of the time and ended up talking to the other guests a lot. Nothing profound, just more friendly, laid-back people.

It was a bit of a come-down to move to the Hampton Sunday night – back to the real world! But even the Hampton was nice (they usually are). I used my Hilton Honors points, so the room was free; they upgraded us to a suite with two queen-sized beds, and I like the Hampton’s breakfasts!

Sunday night I had wanted to just have some real Southwestern-style cooking, but I had the spa choose a place for us, and they went REALLY high-end, not what I had had in mind at all…I was thinking more along the lines of Chuys! But oh well. We took Sarah’s friend Jesse from Madison that is currently living in Phoenix with us, and we had a lot of fun. This place was at another resort, and was beautiful. The food was good too…and the margaritas were excellent! My favorite was the tortilla soup…

All in all I would say Phoenix and Scottsdale were a hit with us, and so was spending a weekend at a spa. I don’t know if I’d ever convince Lee to do something like this – he’d like the hikes and the pool, but when I was describing the spa treatments he said – but I don’t usually like people touching me like that! Oh ha…

Now I’m hanging out in Minneapolis, doing Sarah’s laundry. I’m going to lunch with Nicole today, and then tomorrow it’s off to Nashville. I haven’t been to Nashville in a long time. I’m really looking forward to seeing Gail and Michael, and Tennessee….