Grove Park Inn – 10th Anniversary Trip

I already know sitting here I can not do this weekend justice.  It was EXACTLY what Scott and I needed.  It was unbelievable.  I guess to start out I’ll go for a rundown of what we actually did..

Friday – We checked in and then went to a few local shops on a tip from Jenny O (thank you!).  We found an old metal glider there that we bought.  We had dinner reservations at 7 so we came back and got ready for that.  The restaurant was on a terrace and it overlooked the entire place as well as the nearby mountains.  The view was awesome, the food was awesome and I got my ring!

After that we walked around a bit and then headed down to the piano bar a bit early.  Maybe too early as we were the first ones there.  So much for cool points.  We were there to see the dueling pianos and stayed for about an hour and a half.  It was fun but I think might have been more fun with some friends or maybe some alcohol ??  We sang along and clapped and laughed but all I could think about was Simon telling them how they sounded like dueling piano singers and not in a good way.  We stopped at the bar and got a toffee bar cake we shared and then headed back to the room and enjoyed the chocolate covered strawberries and piano/nature sounds CD that my friend Melissa had delivered to us (major surprise and awesome!!)  We turned in pretty early as Scott had only 5 hours asleep that morning from working a 12 hour shift the night before.

Saturday – We had to wake up by 8:15 to get up and get ready for the big day at the spa.  We made some coffee, finished off the strawberries, packed our bag with a change of clothes and headed out.  I think I can make an entire post about the Spa. Let’s just say it’s one of the best experiences of my life.  Seriously.  We didn’t get out of there until 5.  At that point, we hung out in our room, took a little nap and got ready for dinner.  That night we went to a buffet.  Two entire rooms of food.  Just about anything you can imagine.  Among other things, I had shrimp, crab lets, prime rib, chicken, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese and dessert.  Yeah.  We were full.

We headed back to the room and changed, came back out and walked around a bit, grabbed a Daiquiri from the bar and then headed back to the room.  I think we were asleep by 11 again.

Sunday – We slept in this morning and got up just in time to get ready and head to brunch about 11.  Brunch was in the same place as the buffet the night before.  We got smart and asked for a window seat this time as it had a great view.  Brunch buffet took up 2 rooms.  I had a ton of stuff. I mean, really, just about anything you could think of you might want for breakfast they had.  It was amazing.

By that time, I think Scott and I were vacationed out.  We stopped by the store to get our glider and headed home!

Overall, the Spa was definitely the Star of the weekend.  It was just amazing. I really felt like a Queen for the day.  A very relazed Queen.  Scott was amazing the whole weekend.  He even got a few plates of food for me at the buffet on Saturday since I was a little self-conscious in my dress.  And if you know Scott, for him to stop and happily do something for someone else in the middle of eating a plate of food, well that’s just love there (well, and a lot of sex and a tight dress LOL).  It really was just what we needed though.  We had a great time together.  I don’t think we argued once and we were side by side for 48 hours :).

Here’s some other tidbits just as FYIs

• I guess I was surprised at the number of older folk there.  I’m not sure what I expected but we were one of only a few younger couples. The reason is pretty obvious with the next point.
• It is expensive.  When all was said and done, we paid $1600 for those 48 hours.  We had a package deal of two nights and Saturday’s dinner and Sunday’s brunch.  Other than that, we paid for the couples’ massage on Saturday which included access to the Spa all day, lunch on Saturday at the Spa, the cake Friday, the daiquiri Saturday and one gift at the gift shop.  It basically broke down to $415 a night.
• However, do not go there without going to the Spa.  It’s not the same without it.  It is worth every single little red penny you spend for that day.
• You can do the Spa without staying there.  We decided to definitely look into doing a B&B next time for a night and then spending the day at the Spa.  The room was nice but not that nice.
• Go in early fall. I can’t imagine how beautiful it would have been with the leaves changing.
• Ask for the new section.  I hear that over and over.
• Eat at the Sunset Terrace.  Scott loved the buffet but he loves food so that was paradise.  I liked the environment of eating outside.  Oh, and bring sunglasses.
• They have a Sports center where you can play tennis (indoors as well), ping pong, pool and they have a weight room with scheduled classes. I missed both their cycling classes I may have gone to (or not).
• I hear the golf is very good (although you couldn’t tell it by the guys playing outside our window lol) but I think it’s $150 to play.  Scott is not a golfer so I can’t provide any more info than that.

Here’s the whole set of pictures (adding captions there)