Quick trip to SoCal

Today I woke up early to head down to Southern California to visit my friend and have a girl’s day at the spa.  She decided not to have a formal baby shower, but rather a small group of girls for relaxing day.  Yes, please!  I never really realized that I’m such a germaphobe.  The spa was pretty darn cool, but because I don’t like feet or stepping in wet spots, I was really hesitant to take my shoes off.  I know, I’m a weirdo and it made me feel like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.   It’s funny because my friend knew that I was particular about things since we used to work together and I would tell her of such things, but I don’t think that she’d ever seen my OCD in its full glory.   I did, however, get my first facial.  It was pretty awesome.  I have really sensitive skin and most new things make me break out.  I did break out a little after the facial, but my skin felt really nice and seemed a little bit brighter.  I’d be willing to do another facial, but I love my massages.

For lunch I had an awesome cheesy spinach calzone that was fit for two.  I really should have shared with another one of the girls because she got one also.  We didn’t realize that it would be bigger than our heads.  It had to at least be the twelve inches long.  It was huge and I could only eat half.

After a nice, relaxing day at the spa and its 19 awesome pools, we headed back to the hotel to veg.  As if we needed to veg after a day of lounging.  But, veg we did until it was time to go to dinner.  I’m not really familiar with the Southern California area or freeways anymore, but I had been to the Mission Inn in Riverside a couple times while I was at UCR.   We really weren’t finding any good places for a nice dinner when we were planning the trip so I suggested that we make the drive inland to have dinner at the Inn.  The spa we were at was in Corona, CA so we weren’t really super close to Los Angeles and Riverside was actually a little bit closer than heading back into the big city.

For dinner we all ended up getting the same thing; filet mignon.  It wasn’t half bad, but it wasn’t anything I’d write home about.  We were also a little disappointed by the service and appetizers.  While the ambiance was really cute and the Inn itself was gorgeous, the food left us all a little unsatisfied.  My filet was cooked well, but the seasoning was standard and didn’t have the oompf that you would hope for from a good cut of meat.  And the appetizers, oh the appetizers.  The shrimp cocktail was really pretty to look at, but the shrimp was severely overcooked and the meatloaf muffins we got were just that. Meatloaf shaped like muffins.  I’m sorry to say that I don’t think I would recommend the Mission Inn Restaurant for dinner.  There are a few other restaurants at the Inn, but we went to their main one.  When I was in college I thought that their food was really good.  Either their food quality has changed or my palette has.  Maybe a little bit of both.

If only weekends were three days.  My trip to see my friend was way too short because I needed to get home to prepare for the week ahead.  It was great seeing her again in person rather than chatting online, something we do daily, but seeing her bright, smiling face takes the cake.