So I'm not a pampered pooch or anything...what? shut up. I like to go to the spa on occasion.
I have a spa that I've gone to pretty regularly (maybe 4 or 5 times a year) for the last few years. It's not a chain but it is an Aveda concept salon which means it smells just like a spa should (Aveda, you either love it or you hate it).
It has an amazing steam shower in every dressing room, and lovely cucumber water, a staff that hovers just the right amount, and all the requisite spa amenities. It's quiet, blue, and comfy.
So, due to it's resulting wild success they opened a second spa in a neighboring town (a RITZY neighboring town, ahem). I had heard a couple of the staff at my regular spot talking about how gorgeous it was, etc.. So, I thought I should check it out.
Yikes.
Not.my.best.spa.day.
No place to sit in the lobby when you arrive. As I filled out my paperwork (questions to discern whether I am fire, wind, water or spice) I had to share a very small bench with a very large man, who presumably was waiting for his wife. I know it affected my answers. I came out half water and half earth....which, as you know, is mud. I digress.
When they finally admitted me to the spa section of the spa I realized that what should be a womb of tranquility unfortunately adjoined the hair salon divided by only a thin frosted glass door. It didn't help that the staff kept using the door so you could hear portions of what the nasally woman cutting some senior citizen's hair was sayin better than others. The chair on which I was perched was hard plastic with steel legs. There wasn't a cushion but thankfully I am endowed with my own.
The services were perfect. I had a facial and a massage. Heavenly. They had these new spa beds with comfy linens and such. That part was perfect....except of course that I could sometimes hear the nasally salon practitioner above the zen garden music.
Afterward I went in the mens room to try the Kohler shower which shoots out from the wall as well as rains down from above. The women's room did not have a fancy one so the massuse said I could go in the mens room. It was a nightmare, not just because I've had nightmares about accidentally going in the mens room either.
There was some sort of design flaw that made the water shoot out of the wall and then bounce off the back wall and out into the main part of the bathroom. It gave me pause in it's awesomeness until I realized that it was Flooding.the.bathroom.
As I discuss this with the staff afterwards they commented that they think I am the first to use this shower. uh. huh. probably because it's marked "mens".
As I check out I wonder how this spot will do. After all, if you've never been to the first one you have nothing to compare it to.
I'm giving it two manicured thumbs down. You might want to read the large man from the bench's blog to see what he thought.
So Wilfred Brimely was the large man on the bench with you!!! Oh my gosh! Did you tell him we loved him in Open Range and the diabetic supplies commercials? :)
Love, Mom
Posted by: Sandra | October 20, 2008 at 08:22 AM
Here it is: You find a spa you like and will go to 4-5 times per year, you do not NOT leave it to "try" another one! You will probably need an extra day at your real spa to make up for this one!!
Posted by: Chrissy | October 20, 2008 at 09:11 PM