Had a wonderfully chill weekend at the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs so that Marigny and I could celebrate together the milestone birthday that was separated by just a week back in December. Karen, Beth, Wendy & Laura joined us in the soaking and the adventure. We started the weekend on Friday in Salida at Amica's with yummy food, good beer and lots of laughter. We sought out the local bookstore which turned out to provide more than just a winter trails book for the area - chocolate and a tad bit more hilarity! Post dinner we head to the hot springs for a good evening soak. The stars were UNBELIEVABLE. You forget when you live in the city how many stars there really are. I was wishing for a star chart and remembering a time when my family (mom, dad, brother) spent a winter break at Yosemite looking at the stars!
Saturday morning allowed us to use that new book. The first attempt yielded a trailhead with no snow. Not ideal when you are hoping to snowshoe. So we headed back toward the hot springs and up the canyon a bit. This trailhead was better, but really, the snow levels didn't require snowshoes. But we ventured out anyway! Snowshoes in had, we trekked for a bit, until there was sort of enough snow to put on the snowshoes. For Wendy, Beth & Marigny this an inaugural snowshoe and they were eager to try it out. While they didn't really get the feel of those snowshoes because there wasn't enough snow, putting them on burned a few more calories and generated a lot more heat which was essential since we were in the shade nearly the whole time.
Arriving back at Mt. Hot Springs was perfectly timed as both Laura and Karen pulled up within minutes of each other. The afternoon was spent soaking in the 'guests only' pools. It was luxurious and lovely. Once we'd had our fill of soaking we headed in for showers and followed "that apple thing" (or Wendy's IPhone map) to Eddlyline Pub for dinner. It was as awesome as I'd heard - both beer and food! Not that I could get there again without the "apple thing" but I'll definitely go back. Not just because it was so good, but also because Beth bought two growlers of the seasonal Pumpkin Ale and one was left in my care, another in Marigny's. So now I have to refill it :-). We cracked a bottle of champagne and the chocolate upon returning and had a great girls night in.
Love these friends of mine and so lucky to have spent the weekend with them.
Monday saw me back to work, but it was a short work wee for me. On Thursday afternoon I headed to Phoenix for a long-planned girls weekend with two of me best girlfriends - KayKay and Shawnna! Miraculously, despite ridiculous weather on the East coast, we all arrived as planned on Thursday night! It was midnight by the time we got to Kip's place in Scottsdale and Shawnna had been on the road since 8 am EST.
Friday morning we found oatmeal and peanut butter toast and McDowell Sonoran Preserve for a morning walk. A quick trip to the grocery and a run through the showers and we were off to the day spa! Body and Soul Day Spa pampered us well. Kudos to Stime (Shawnna's husband) for finding this gem. We each had a massage and then KayKay and I had a Sugar/Salt Scrub. Seriously, that was heaven on earth. KayKay did it first and her report, "It was NOTHING like anything I've ever done. It was like I went through the car wash!" I was intrigued. Bliss. That's all I can say. And if you get the chance to do both a massage and a scrub, do the scrub after the massage. Pure heaven. We tossed around the idea of a variety of dinner options and opted for PF Chang's and a little shopping at Fashion Sqaure in Scottsdale. We laughed a lot on Friday. It was awesome.
Saturday we embarked on the real adventure of the weekend. We headed out to climbed Camelback. 1.2 miles. No problem. We picked what was deemed the easier of the two trails. 3 1/2 hours later, 30-minute summit break and a whole lot of shirtless llamas and we were back at the car. Cannot really describe the experience. Photos might help. In dire need of food, we went to Uncle Sam's and inhaled sandwiches. The afternoon was spent relaxing in the sunshine - catching a few rays. Shawnna cooked up a yummy stir fry. And Sunday was a leisurely morning. A trip to Target (after all, it's 45 minutes to WalMart for Shawnna) and a little more of that Phoenix sunshine and it was time to take KayKay to the airport. How is it that time goes so fast? Shawnna and I returned to Fashion Square for a bit more shopping and then I introduced her to Trader Joe's 99 cent cards. A tad more sunshine and it was time for me to go. We've promised to to this more often - like every other year. LOVED my time with these two awesome women. Love them both very much.
And so today, I ran with my Sunday Sistas. 9 miles. It's been a while since I clocked that many miles. It was chilly, but beautiful today. Syd ran 6 with me. Amber the last 3. We breakfasted at my house on oatmeal, carrot bread, banana bread and coffee. Tomorrow begins reality for real. School has started and there are files to be read. I used my month off well, as I also spent a lovely week in CA with mom and Dad. We had as much sun in Sacramento as we did rain, which is unusual for December. We saw the newly expanded Crocker were mom volunteers, we took a couple of drives into the foothills, including an afternoon wine tasting and gaping at the snow covered Sierra's. It was a good break from work and a good break from school. Now I brace myself for diving back into the everyday.
