For my mom's birthday this year, she turned 36 *ahem*, and my dad wanted to do something awesome for her! He decided to fly her, along with ME and Cassie and Ashley to a spa weekend someplace wonderful. (THANK YOU DADDY!!!!!!!!!)We landed on St. Petersburg because we have never been but had heard good things, and because the hotel looked awesome. Neither disappointed in the least.
The weekend started early for us on Thursday morning! My parents picked me up at 6am to make our 7:30 flight. Cassie, Ashley, and I decided that the best gift for us to give mom would be lots of smaller gifts all weekend long. We made a list of her favorite things and divided them up. I gave her her first gift on the way to the airport which turned out to be the BEST gift, because it was the gift that kept on giving!! I gave her a birthday sash, which she wore all weekend long. That sash scored her (us) some pretty awesome extras including: upgraded seats on the airplane, free donuts from the flight crew, desserts galore at multiple restaurants, and hundreds of complete strangers telling her happy birthday wherever she went. It. Was. Magic.
We met up with Cassie and Ashley in Tampa (they had connected in Dallas for their flight to Tampa).
After getting our rental car, we drove the short distance from the Tampa airport to our hotel in St. Pete's. We stayed at the historic Vinoy Hotel and it was amazing!!!
Our room was awesome! My dad booked us a "Spa Suite" and we had a private hot tub on our porch!
We got settled into our room a little bit and then went in search of a late lunch! We ended up eating at Alfresco's, which is the casual restaurant by the pool. It was delicious! Mom got free dessert, because birthday sash.
After lunch we ventured out a little but and ended up at CVS to get some things like bug spray and sunscreen that we didn't want to pay the hotel prices for. I also ended up with cute floppy hat for only $10! Because I just felt like I needed one. I do not regret this decision. But then everyone else wanted a floppy hat like mine so we drove to 3 other CVS's to find one. By the time we left the second one Cassie and Ashley decided they didn't want one anymore, but we kept on to the third store to check for Mom. No luck. But we did get to see a lot of this fun, quirky town. I fell in love with it. Truly. I can't wait to go back with Kyle sometime!
When we got back from our all the CVS's, Mom was feeling tuckered out from the early flight and wasn't hungry, so the three of us had dinner on the Veranda. It was delightful. By this time, I was in full-on VACAY mode, strawberry lemonade and all.
Friday was our Spa day. We don't have many pictures from our spa day because Cassie made us go "unplugged". I say she made us and when she reads this she will say "I didn't MAKE you!" or "If you can't do it, then you have a problem!" Maybe both are true, but it was for sure her idea, and I felt shame for my phone addiction so I left my phone in the room safe like a good girl. So no pictures from the spa. (And I certainly wasn't going to carry my big camera down to the spa... I left it in the safe too).
But let me just tell you, the spa was amazing! For my morning session I had a microderm abrasion facial and it was heavenly. This is my second facial experience. The first one was AWFUL but this one was blissful and left my skin feeling as smooth as a baby's(except not Fischer or Archer's skin because of the baby acne and all, more like LK or Shep's!) (Just to clarify). (In case you needed to know all of that). The afternoon I had a mani/pedi. All of it was amazing! Thanks again Dad!
Ashley had her massage while I had my facial, and then Cassie and Mom had their Mani/Pedi's first that morning. While they had their mani/pedis, the sash scored them cupcakes for the four of us. Some of the best cupcakes I have ever had in my life. (I ended up going to the room for my camera during our lunch break). Score another one for the birthday sash.
But let me just tell you, the spa was amazing! For my morning session I had a microderm abrasion facial and it was heavenly. This is my second facial experience. The first one was AWFUL but this one was blissful and left my skin feeling as smooth as a baby's(except not Fischer or Archer's skin because of the baby acne and all, more like LK or Shep's!) (Just to clarify). (In case you needed to know all of that). The afternoon I had a mani/pedi. All of it was amazing! Thanks again Dad!
Ashley had her massage while I had my facial, and then Cassie and Mom had their Mani/Pedi's first that morning. While they had their mani/pedis, the sash scored them cupcakes for the four of us. Some of the best cupcakes I have ever had in my life. (I ended up going to the room for my camera during our lunch break). Score another one for the birthday sash.
We ate at Alfresco's again for lunch, and again it was delicious.
The finished result!
After our day at the spa, we hit the town.... for us that means finding the nearest Thai restaurant. Some of ours was good, some was eh, ONE was AWESOME..... we all had serious order envy when Cassie's Curry came out. It was so good... some of the best Thai curry I have ever had!
We came back to our room and watched Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot. I had had seen it before but no one else had. It was still great the second time.
On Saturday, we decided we were too close to Orlando not to go to Disney. We are that crazy for Disney. We didn't go to any parks but we did go to Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney, which doesn't require admission cost. It is basically awesome Disney shopping and food. I havn't been since our trip in December of 2013 and they have updated so much since then that I didn't even recognize it! I'll have a separate post on it later this week, but here are a few pics from the day!
On Sunday we slept in, and Cassie, Ashley, and I went to the pool while Mom slept in a little later. We read by the pool for a little while and then got in for a little while too.
We had a late check out and went and ate at Chili's in Tampa. We stopped by the mall there to shop a little bit more and then headed to the airport where Mom and I said our goodbyes to Cassie and Ashley. We all made it home except Cassie. As I type this (Monday night at 11:19 pm), Cassie is STILL in the Dallas airport because of stupid maintenance issues on multiple American Airline flights that they keep rescheduling her for. Poor sister is so ready to see her boys!!!
It was such a fabulous way to celebrate my Mama (and kick my Summer off right!) and I'm so thankful to my dad for spoiling us all so much! Happy 36th Birthday to my beautiful Mama!!
A truly amazing weekend! Happy Birthday, Robin! :)
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