Rancho Relaxo

Greetings! It's another chilly day here in San Antonio. It matters less now though since I am spending more time inside. I am not holding out hope any longer that I will get a chance to get in the pool, but I did get to hang out in a hot tub for awhile today. This morning started with room service delivering our "pastel omelettes", which were 70% egg white 30% egg yolk (isn't that what an egg pretty much is to begin with?) with herbs and a grilled tomato. We augmented it with Great Harvest bread with peanut butter.

Then we set out in search of caffiene. There is a "3/4 Starbucks" in the lobby (the barista's description...apparently it means they don't do sandwiches but they accept gift cards and sell pastries) so I got a skinny mocha which we enjoyed in the "Texas Library", which is a lounge full of books about...Texas. 

After that we headed to the spa!

 We checked in early so that we could work out in the spa-only fitness area. After completing a nice workout (Will taught me the correct way to do Turkish Getups) we had a yummy lunch in the spa cafe. Avocado, pan-seared albacore tuna, salad and 100% whole grain toast (which I am 99% positive was NOT 100% whole grain) and a mango coconut yogurt jalapeno smoothie. I love mixing spicy with sweet but I never remember to do it when I'm preparing smoothies or food at home.

Once we were stuffed with lunch it was time to start officially spa-ing. I was excited to show Will a "real" spa since I had described the nice bathrooms with every possible necessity provided and plunge pools and snacks before we went to the spa in Jamaica....then they didn't have any of those things (plus they tried to dig through the skin in my back).  I had to leave Will though to go to the ladies-only side so when we split we made plans to meet back up in the unisex lounge an hour later. I used the hot tub, the steam room, the sauna and the shower, then went to find a very bored Will down in the lounge. Apparently he doesn't have as much of a tolerance for extended relaxation as I do :-) 

Spa snax

I think she put ALL of those lotions on my face

 I got my facial while Will got his massage, then after a quick turn about the outside portion of the spa I declared it fully explored and utilized so we retired back to our room to get ready for the dinner reception that was the kickoff to the conference.

It was pretty much as I had anticipated.  I saw some faces I haven't seen in 4.5 years since the last time I came to these conferences, and lots of new faces too.  The first day is always overwhelming as you try to dredge up names from your memory while concurrently trying to remember the names of new people.  Imbibing spirited beverages while you try to do this doesn't help either.

The newspaper industry is so interesting.  It is a very old industry, and by this I mean both that it has been around for a long time and also that most of the people working for newspapers are older people.  This was thrown into stark relief this weekend because there was also a drug rep conference going on at the same time and those people were all young and wearing 4" heels and getting blasted all night at the hotel bar.  I prefer the newspaper crowd though, because most of them love to drink just as much (they just hold their liquor better) and I guarantee you those 70 year old men who were newspaper publishers back when that job was like being a rock star are more interesting to talk to than any of the young people from the other conference I saw "networking" at the bar.

I did not take pictures at dinner since it was a more formal setting and we were with business people but I had:

-A glass of Shiraz
-A bloody mary
-A cup of french onion soup, the bread and cheese removed (so basically broth with onions...still delicious though)
-About 5 oz salmon, 2 oz skirt steak, and 2 bites of roasted chicken
-2 sips of a diet coke and rum (didn't like it and I was buzzing hard enough already)
-A small Kir, which was served to everyone in honor of a member who died recently (and whose favorite drink it was)
-A small glass of port because I've been wanting port ever since the Wine Kitchen didn't have it
-NO vegetable side dishes because the only options were buttery mashed potatoes and creamed spinach :-(
-NO dessert, even though they sat a chocolate lava cake (and ice cream in an "almond nougat basket") down in front of me.  I just watched the ice cream melt....

 Oh my, and I now realize I had a glass of sparkling rosé before I even went to dinner!

Guilty

 Looking back, I'm no longer surprised that I didn't eat all that much  because I definitely filled up most of my stomach space with alcohol :-/  Oh well, I wasn't paying and I didn't have to drive or be responsible for kids the next day.

My other random snacks for the day:

My hand looks like a horrible bruised crab claw

I wrote the beginning of this blog post the day it happened, and I am finishing it up now because #1 I stopped being able to blog while on vacation thanks to running out of memory on Google, then on our iCloud, wifi not being friendly and myriad other reasons and #2 because I obviously passed out the minute I got back to the room.  I will say that I did not ever suffer a hangover though, despite my not-so-great drinking habits during this trip.  Perhaps it would have been better if I had though, maybe it would've stopped me from continuing to drink my weight in alcohol each day.  I don't normally do this...I guess I was using drinks as my "treat" since I was eating well all the rest of the time.