Stina asked me if I would join her at tduring my visit. She didn’t give any more details then we should “hang” in the pools and get a body scrub because it was like a re-birth. I’m always up for pampering so I did a quick view of the website, confirmed it was naked in the pools (I hate having to put on a bathing suit for that) and said yeah, count me in.

It turned out if you are shy at all, skip this place! I’m not shy, and that was a good thing! Basically the day was spent naked and wet!!

When you arrive you get your small thin packet, your locker key and are told to remove your shoes and put them in your numbered spot!

You then head to the locker area and out on your “outfit” Which is a earily similar to concentration camp stripes! You are given a “beanie” with pink and white stripes to keep your hair under control! You are also given a think hospital style robe, a small towel and a large towel.

You head into the “pool” area and put your small towel in your cubby (leave your big towel in your locker, save that for last or bring an extra). You head to the showers and clean up using some amazing stuff! They have all different flavors. I washed my hair 3 times during my stay just so I could try all the flavors – lavender, cucumber something or other, and melon ginger. Ahhhhh…..

After your shower, you put on your beanie and head – yes, just your beanie – and head to the pools. This place is basically naked required, well no it is naked required. No clothes allowed. There were a number of different pools – a 94 degree pool, 104 degree pool, a 90 degree pool and a COLD, ice cold with a water fall pool. There were also a steam room and a dry sauna. We needed to soak prior to our “scrub” for at least 40 minutes. We soaked, and soaked and soaked. We drank our water and drank our water and drank our water and then realized it was now 11:45 and we were a bit nauseous from all the heat! Stina confirmed out appointment time which was indeed 11…  sigh. Apparently there was some training going on at the front desk and even though we had an appointment they had forgotten to send our numbers back to the scrubber gals. Sigh…  BTW- you are indeed just a number. You are your locker number. Whatever services you have, it is by your number. So keep your key with you!

They finally called us. I had been watching how the scrubbing happened and I was a little nervous…  They get pretty personal. They have this little mittens that they use to exfoliate your ENTIRE body. Yup the whole thing! They rub you about 6 times with these mitten, slothing off your dead skin cells. In between they pour hot water over you. Can I tell you how amazing that feels? So amazing! It’s a simple thing, but so relaxing and so wonderful! If I could figure out how to make this happen at home!

They do your boobs, they get pretty close to your butt crack and sometimes slip pretty far up when doing the inner thighs. Again not something for the shy or faint of heart!

After the slothing exercise, they do a foamy rough soap type of thing! Mmmmm…

They put a nice warm touwel over your face and give you a mini facial…

At the end they do a little massage on the shoulders and send you back out into the pool area. Oh my goodness – I am so soft and such a limp noodle!

After the scrub we went for lunch. I’ve noticed others did not enjoy the meal as much as I did. But I also have not experienced much Asian or Korean food while living in Denver. So I thoroughly enjoyed my meal! I did the BBQ shrimp and wow was it good! Tons of veggies! Yummy sauce! I would suggest skipping the shrimp just do to the fact that they were delivered to the table with the shells which made for a messy meal. But wow was it good! The meal started with a wide selection of kim chi and salad thingies…  Mmmmm!

They gave us hot tea and mmmmm!

After our meal we headed over to the warm rooms! There are about 7 different types of rooms with different temperatures and different meanings! The salt room was 150 degrees with the floor being a canvas cloth over rock salt. Really calming and neat, but too dang hot for me! I sent to the “reading” room which was a mere 90 degrees, with lights on and tons of magazines. Stina stayed in the salt room for a while more, and I headed back to the Pools for more wet heat and more shampoos!!

We ended our day around 3pm. It was an extremely relxaing day. I felt soft, smelled good, and was really relaxed! I’ll definitely come back again! I would probably add in a massage and pedicure to round out the day!!

Friday I awoke after a lovely many hour sleep in my lovely big bed and attempted to hit the gym. Unfortunately there were many others that had that same thought! So I ended up not getting in a work out. Sigh. But I did attempt to do a chakra balancing yoga thingy.  It was ok, but not a sweaty workout!

Mom-in-law grabbed me for some coffee and a parfait and then we were off for some wine tasting!

We started with Columbia Vineyard, then St Michelle and finally Red Hook for lunch!

We had a great time! We tasted some great wine and we had a nice lunch together!

I brought the Syrah to share with Stina and her hubby for the rest of the weekend!

After our lovely morning, MIL and I headed back to Seattle to Stina’s house. We of course got lost! Par for the course!

For the afternoon stina and I did generic stuff! Like a trip to Trader Joes! Man do I miss Trader Joes! Such great yummy fresh fruit, and frozen goodness and just everything great!  Sigh!!!

We walked around University of Washington and the downtown area!

It was fun! And great to see an old university!

For dinner we went to Blue C Sushi! It’s once of those conveyor belt type places! We went early but still had a great time and ate tons!

After that I got to watch Stina deal with the wee ones and remind myself why I’m really not cut out for parenthood!!!

We had some adult time after kiddo bed time and watched CSI!

I slept till 7am!!  Wow, and yeah me!!  I’ll tell you all about my "spa" experience tomorrow!

I decided to take some time off after my last pottery show and hang with my BFF from high school – Stina! You know, the one that “we are never in the same state at the same time” friend? We did it!

I arrived Thursday around 2 and had my mom-in-law pick me up! We battled the traffic to downtown! It was an hour for a 20 minute ride, but it gave us some quality mom/daughter time! Yeah!!! 

We checked in with ease at the Red Lion and got rooms on the 20^th floor facing Pikes Market! Woohoo!!!   (Thanks tom and john for the room!!)
 

We attempted to head out and see the city or at least have a good happy hour but the rain was just too intense! We were soaked in a matter of minutes. So we retreated to the hotel bar and enjoyed a glass of happy hour wine for me and water for MIL. The bartender was great about keeping our water glasses full too! We got the crab and shrimp nacho. It was not a bad deal for $4! I was also intrigued by the other options but MIL doesn’t like spicy food so we decided to head down stairs to the Elephant & Castle.
 

When we arrived it was just 5ish and not too crowded.  But our waitress was given a large table at the same time as us. She suggested a good merlot, but never returned to fill our water glasses (and for anyone that has experienced dining with me, I need A LOT of water). The warm spinach salad was missing something- so don’t order that! MIL liked her pot stickers a lot though! Our last visit here wasn’t all the great, so I’m not sure I’ll return if we hit Seattle again.
 

We hung out and attempted to watch TV and bond, but I was just too pooped. So at 8:30 I was sound asleep in my big giant bed!!!