Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Home Again
OK, so I didn't blog when I was in PR. I barely had time to check my work email, as a matter of fact. Between our president's retirement ceremonies and new product demonstrations, our sessions were very LONG. And, given free time, I opted to bask on the beach. Can you blame me?

The trip was off to a shaky start, as we had horrible weather in Cleveland. All the rain we got the night before decided to flash freeze, and then it snowed about 6 inches. Worst driving ever. Our flight was not delayed, according to the departures screen, but we did sit on the tarmac for 90 minutes while they de-iced our plane twice, refueled, and plowed runways. But that just made the 85 degree weather in PR all the more enjoyable.

The resort was very nice, although honestly so expensive I probably would not choose to vacation there. Our rooms were $239 a night, and that was our special group discounted rate--their open rate was more like $499-$799 a night. The breakfast buffets were $20 plus tip for eggs and sausage. That's per person. The meals were so-so--with the exception of Othello's where the appetizers were very good--wine was terrible, and the cleaning staff liked to rumble down the tile hallways at about 6:30am, seemingly unaware that their loud conversations and laughing might disturb sleeping guests. And no Stoli Orange. Anywhere.

Don't Cry for Me
There were a couple of very memorable details, however. I was a little disappointed that the resort did not sit directly on the beach, until I learned that they had their own little private island accessible by water taxi. That satisfied my beachly needs. And the spa. The spa was pretty awesome. I had a 25 minute "Golden Door Massage" by a very able certified massage therapist. Before the massage, they have you shower in these fantastic three-head, variable temperature showers, and you can use all of their fantastic products. Then you can jump in the hot tub with cascading waterfalls, or take a sauna. After the massage, they escort you to the tea room where you can recuperate from your massage (it lowers your blood pressure pretty significantly; some people feel a bit wifty afterwards). Then you can jump in the hot tub again or enjoy a sauna, and shower, etc. They had these fantastic turkish bath robes. I wanted to buy one, but they only offered it as part of their $400 "ultimate spa kit". I should have taken a bigger bag. Oh well.

Back in the Burgh
I got back from PR Friday night, and stopped off at the brewery to see Rick. I was pooped, though, and crashed back at home around 10:30. Saturday morning I was up and packing for Pittsburgh, where I spent the afternoon and evening with my family. My grandma turned 80, and we took her out to a very nice dinner at The Grand Concourse. I drank Manhattans. Afterwards we went to Ray & Joanne's for b-day cake from Moio's, the same bakery that did my wedding cake, and ice cream. I fell asleep on the couch.

50 lb Weekend
Sunday morning it was home again to Cleveland, packing breaded chicken breasts and gruykupus (not sure if that's the spelling or not, but it's Serbian sauerkraut, navy bean and kielbasa soup) courtesy Grandma. I had a lot of TiVo to catch up on. And lots of laying around on the couch. Rick mentioned that he accepted a dinner invitation for that evening, which I was a little miffed by, until I found out we were going to Whitey's. They have the best burgers there. Their chili burger is served in a bowl, completely drowned in the savory stuff. O-rings and fries you'd "slap your mama" for. And a decent beer selection balancing the quality (GLBC!) with the quanity (Strohs). I stuffed myself like a fois grois-bound goose.

So it's back to groat clusters and the treadmill for me this week. Rick hooked the TiVo up in the back room so I can watch Oprah while I work out. Rick is awesome!

There will be more pics on the site tonight, promise. Oop! Here they are!!

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