Sea Salt and Pepa: Vacation!

Today is my first day back from vacation and let me tell you...I am not happy about it. This vacation was absolutely ah-mazing. Barely describable. It was probably one of the least relaxing vacations I've ever been on, but, in its non-relaxing state, I ended up coming back more mellow than I have from beach vacations.

For those of you who don't remember...you should. Just kidding! I went with my mum to Tucson, Arizona, for a girls weekend! We started off the weekend at the Ritz-Carlton at Dove Mountain. Now let me tell you, this resort was absolutely amazing. I've never had such good service, even at other Ritz's! There we did fun things like sit at the pool when we got in around 3:00, a wine tasting, dinner at their golf club, a hike and a cardio class that kicked our butt...and a mani/pedi and massage to make us forget how much we hurt.

After two nights, we moved to Miraval, a destination spa. I'm already planning my trip back--it was SO MUCH FUN. This is where it was not relaxing and yet the most relaxing vacation ever. I went to about six fitness classes a day, was in bed by 9:00 and up by 6:00, and I cannot wait until I get to do it again. The classes I went to included a meditation class, restorative yoga, "power, punch and plie", a bosu-circuit class, a boot camp, everything! I HIGHLY recommend everyone who can go to a destination spa like Miraval or Canyon Ranch--they really jump start you into having a healthier lifestyle. All of the food are under a certain amount of calories (depending on which meal it is), a smoothie bar offers snacks for in between, and the whole atmosphere was of people really focused on wellness. In addition, each guest gets a credit to the spa each day! While there I got a prickly pear scrub (and bought all of the stuff to do at home, that's how amazing it was) and an aloe vera wrap.

Some select picturas from my trip are below! I'll post more about the wonderful food tomorrow.

By far my favorite part of the trip, the desert tightrope challenge. That cable I'm walking on is 30 ft. in the air (which we climbed to on a telephone pole) and the only way to move across is to use the swinging ropes...which were affected by things like, you know, the wind whipping through the canyon we did this in. I went first in our group and the experience was absolutely amazing. If anyone ever goes to miraval, you MUST do a challenge--there are tons of options!

Dinner at the chef's table, which included a full tour of the Miraval kitchen, including a pantry that boasted $50-60 thousand dollars worth of ingredients. Bonkers!