A-ma-zing Babymoon Surprise!

Just two weeks ago, DH and I left for our 48 hr-grown-up-only babymoon.  Last summer we had fantasized about using some credit card reward points to take five to seven days for ourselves in the BVIs.  We had no idea what LO would do during that time, but we had time to figure that out, right?  We looked at hotels and different islands and swore we would do it.  Well, I wanted to wait out hurricane season which put us looking at time away during the holidays...that wasn't happening!  Before we knew it, January was upon us and we had no plans, no LO sitter, and I had a big belly that couldn't travel for much longer.  Sorry, BVIs, you'll have to wait.  In place of that trip, I asked DH if we could at least have a babymoon.  Then I asked him to plan it and keep it a surprise.  He's no stranger this request, he used to do it every year for our anniversary before we had LO and had to take a break from such things.  One of the greatest gifts he gives me is freedom from planning.  If he manages to pull that off and a surprise, well he's just golden for a long, long time!  Of course letting him plan something is also one of the hardest things for me to do...I'm just such a planner!  Having said that, he did, I did, and it was great!  I've waited two weeks to write about this because, well, it was just so amazing that I had to figure out how to write about it.  Seriously, I think I made my hairdresser hate me because I gushed about this non-stop for an hour.  She said she didn't, but I kinda think she did.  So...here's fair warning.  If you have trouble being happy for other people,or  hearing them gush about something you wish you could do.  I understand.  Know we went somewhere, time slowed down for 48 hrs, it was wonderful, and skip to the end when I talk about how LO greeted us when we got home. Oh yeah, and know I was sick, trying to hack up a lung the whole time. If on the other hand, you are my friend or family and love me and are dying to know what we did...read on.  I'll never do it justice, but I'll try. 


When we were dating, DH and I, on several occasions, waltzed into gorgeous places and walked around liked we belonged there.  Most of the time these were hotels, and most of the time they were way out of our league.  It was fun to feel like we were getting away with something, and fun to walk among "the other half"...whomever they were.  Most memorably, we did this at the Sanctuary on Kiawah island, the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, and we attempted, but were promptly rejected from, Trump Tower in NYC (pre-Apprentice days).   Eight years after we imagined what it'd be like to stay there, DH chose the Grove Park as our babymoon location.   

The back of the Inn

On being greeted both at the drive, and by the valet, we walked into that enormous lobby for the second time, and still felt out of our league.  How exciting it was to know that, this time, we'd be staying.  DH showed me to our room, down on the 5th floor, a huge space with panoramic views of both the Golf Course with the Blue Ridge mountains as its backdrop, and the fires and water falls of the spa area.

Out our other window, the golf course, and Blue Ridge Mountains

View from one window, the outdoor fire pits, waterfalls, and pool of the spa.

Our room with the windows open, the fifth from the top on the end.

We had a gorgeous, sunny day about 74 degrees, breezy, and I opened the windows and enjoyed  views while DH and the doorman grabbed our things.  I knew this was going to be heavenly, but thought the surprise was done.  Though DH had mentioned we had lunch plans.....

Let me say here, that DH historically is a very low-key vacationer.  His idea of planning a trip is to do just that.  FInd a location, get us there, have a place to stay.  He'd be perfectly happy to hang out at our accommodations, and eat, sleep, and watch TV.  I on the other hand, don't want to waste a second while I'm away.  I want to check out the sites, take advantage of every amenity, make sure I see and do everything, even if we're scheduled 12 hours a day to do it.  Oh, and I like all of that to be planned ahead of time.  This is the crux of why it is tough for me to let DH plan trips.  Even though I love it when he does, I always expect that I'll need to figure out what/where we're eating, and what we're doing while we're away because those things are important to me and just simply aren't on DH's radar. Though we travel together well, it has taken a bit of adjusting for us to find a happy medium.

So, at the mention of having lunch plans (actually he said it was being "provided"), I allowed myself to get a little more excited.  I had figured out we were going to the Grove Park, but figured we'd be spending time around Asheville, at the Biltmore, and maybe doing some pregnancy-friendly hiking. None of those things provide lunch though.  Could he possibly had made plans at the spa?  DH had worked two extra nights last month to help pay for our trip, so that told me a little something about the bottom line.  I carefully asked if I needed to be frugal (our usual MO when on vacation) or if it was safe to add some things to our itinerary if it worked out.  I thought I might be able to schedule a brief spa service I had had trouble working in at home, but needed to swing before we had pictures taken in 10 days. He told me to to have fun and not worry about it!!!  Music to any woman's ears.

After seeing our room, DH let me in on the rest of our agenda.  He had indeed scheduled time for us that the spa.  I had appointments both Thursday and Friday, he had them just Thursday.  We also had breakfast provided the following morning, and he planned to take me to my favorite Asheville vegetarian restaurant that night. I was beside myself that he had covered all of those bases.  I also knew that we had peaked at the spa when we were there years earlier, and I could not wait to go!  And go we did. For the rest of our time there, we hardly left the spa area.  We left for breakfast each morning in the Blue Ridge Dining Room, then back to our room just to grab our swimsuits, then down to the spa until it closed Thursday and Friday and until we had to leave on Saturday.  We ate lunch in our robes, and indulged in massages, wraps, facials, manicures, and pedicures. Because we had treatments scheduled Thursday and Friday, we had use of the spa areas all day both days.  No pictures are allowed there, so we have almost no pictures from our trip, but I know we will both remember it as long as our brains will let us.  I truly cannot do justice the quality of treatments, attention to detail, degree of service, and amount of sheer indulgence and relaxation we experienced there.  The spa is apparently ranked 7th in the country, and I cannot, for the life of me, imagine what the other six are doing that this one does not. There were nooks with fireplaces, cashmere blankets, and reading material.  Warm tea, lemon/thyme water, and snacks available throughout.  The women's side had a "quiet" lounge that opened up to the cool breezes and views of the Blue Ridge mountains, sounds of surrounding waterfalls, and with large leather chairs by the huge fireplace.  The outdoor pool was kept at 103 degrees, so you could stay warm even when it was cool outside, then get out and relax by yet another fireplace.  The indoor pools were at different temperatures, and were surrounded by more waterfalls (that fell into warmer pools and could be used to massage sore muscles), and huge vaulted rock arches and ceilings.  Men's and women's sauna, steam rooms, and inhalation rooms had iced peppermint towels outside, so help you feel refreshed.   Even the shower and vanity areas provided for our every need...slippers, excellent robes, towels, toiletries, razors, combs, hair bands.  They were serviced by attendants who promised to provide anything they might have overlooked. (I saw one fish bobbypins out of her own purse!) The showers were so great, we never showered in our own room!

While there were a number of things I could not enjoy because of my pregnancy (plunge pools, fully immersing in the warmer pools, sauna), it was such a treat to be in the water and the scheduled treatments were so fantastic, that our goal quickly became to maximize our spa time, relax, and let any other plans slide.  We ended up only leaving the hotel for dinner at Laughing Seed the first night.  DH enjoyed the hotels extensive seafood buffet the second night, and, true to the hotel's record of (the best, most consistent) service (I've ever experienced) they provided me with an alternative, vegetarian meal off a separate menu even though it is generally their policy not to do so.

 

DH and me on our second day before breakfast.  That belly is 34 weeks.

In front of one of two enormous fireplaces in the lobby just before we left.
Roses were given to me as part of my spa treatments.

The weather ended up being great while we were there.  It rained a little on us Friday morning when we ventured out for 30 minutes to see the surrounding neighborhood.  A quick game of pool with DH at the rec center, and it had dried enough for us to make it to the main hotel...and back to the spa.  By Saturday morning, the temperature had dropped 20 or more degrees since our arrival.  Just enough to make us feel we'd visited the mountains.  We called LO and Nanny K before we left to find LO sounding rather indifferent about our return. We learned they'd endured some extreme weather (tornado-like) the day before and lost power for 5 hours.   Of all the things I'd worried about leaving LO for 2 days (our longest time away), tornadoes, fortunately, were not on my radar.  I'm so grateful that they were safe.

Good-bye Grove Park; we'll miss you!

We were sad to leave, but eager to see our little guy.  The drive home always makes me feel as if I'm slowly re-entering real life.  That was especially true for this trip.  It helped to know we would soon see LO.  Unfortunately, LO did not prove so excited to see us.  I think he really was...maybe just worried we'd leave again? Our first hour at home was one meltdown, fit after another.  It looked like we'd be in for a very long couple of hours until we could get him to bed.  Grams and Gramps had come to stay with him for our last few hours away, and they made a speedy exit after the drama of our return.  LO did settle down after a bit, and only seemed a little concerned that we might leave again for the next few days. 

So that, in a very long nutshell was our babymoon. I hope we'll make it back there again, though I think it may be 50 years before we allow ourselves to indulge in so many treatments.  I'm not sure it will ever be the same as this magical first trip.  I'm hope that something, one day, will top it, but I can't imagine how it ever could.