The Freshour's

Friday, September 26, 2008

GO BEAVS !!!

What can I say? For those that watched the game, it was simply awesome. Just to watch (from Georgia) the OSU Beavers play football on TV here is a treat in and of itself, because as you know the PAC-10 conference is not so popular in the south. I'm pretty sure that Jess was the only person in the state of Georgia that was wearing orange during the game last night (minus deer hunters). I'm also pretty sure that since she stayed up until 1:00am to watch it, waking up the next morning @ 5:30am and working 12 hours today will be a little painful. It was a great game and the perfect reason for me to do a little online shopping to purchase an OSU hat!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Alva Park (in pictures)

Welcome to Alva Park "Mr Freshour" ... our laptop

Domo arigato ... in Kimono's ... ready for the spa

Enjoying champagne on the bedroom lanai

The "Smart" car in action after finally finding a spot to park

The view from our daytrip to Tossa de Mar

Alva Park (in words)

Well, after 8 days of hanging out in Barcelona we are now being treated like rock stars at our current hotel called Alva Park (www.alvapark.com), in Lloret de Mar, Spain (pronounced yo-ret). This hotel is easily the nicest place that either of us have stayed at. We have a view of the beach on our wonderful lanai(s)...ya, there's two.

When we first walked in to the room they just kept opening up doors and pointing out various remote control gadgets and features of the suite. The office for instance has a Playstation 3 and a laptop with "Mr. Freshour" typed onto the desktop screen. I also have my own Alva Park business cards and stationary since I'm obviously that important. Anyways, after the hostess finally left us (mouths gaping), another lady came right in and brought us fresh strawberries w/ cream to go with the french champagne that was just waiting to be opened in the mini-bar area.

After we picked up our jaws off the floor and had some strawberries and champagne, we threw on our suits and walked outside to the beach. We laid out (in reserved lounge chairs w/ umbrellas and Evian water spritzers) and did some snorkeling. Two hours later it was time to head in and enjoy some of the other surprises Alva Park had to offer.

Next we were off to the spa/fitness area. I had to throw in the "fitness" portion not because we worked out there, but because I think it's noteworthy to point out that all the fitness bikes, treadmills, and elliptical machines has built in 20" LCD TV's on them! I think the term "spa", to me, has always been synonymous with simply a hot tub. This spa had one of those, and also a separate Turkish steam bath room, ice room, and sauna room. After sitting in the steam bath it was great to grab the small ice pellets and put them all over your body to cool off.

Probably the best part of the hotel which is near the spa is called the "Indian Princess Bath". It's decorations are themed accordingly. It is a saltwater calm pool with relaxing Indian music playing both inside the room and underwater. To refresh from the ever changing colors of the salty water you just pull a rope at the edge of the pool and the ceiling begins to rain freshwater on you for about 1 minute. Oh ya, the best part of the whole deal was the fact that Jess made me wear a huge white Kimono from our room to the spa area. It was classic.

Following the spa we both went to the in-house Molton Brown Spa. There we each had an hour long deep tissue massage. This was definitely the most relaxing part of the trip so far. After the massage was over they sat you up on the table/bed and there was a fresh cup of raspberry sorbet to have while you woke up. The whole experience was one of those things that was long overdue for both Jess and I after the 15 month deployment.

We decided that after spending a fortune on massages a light dinner at the poolside "Lanai" bar would be sensible. It was tasty, just like everything we've eaten in Spain. After dinner we came back up to the room and found a bottle of Merlot from Spain sitting on the office desk compliments of hotel.

Today (day 2 ... also the last full day here in Lloret de Mar) we woke up and had an espresso and then it was out the door. We took a courtesy "Smart" car from the hotel for 3 hours and visited the town of Tossa de Mar. Another unbelievably beautiful coastal beach town built into the rocky hillside. The drive in our miniature car was great and we didn't even wreck it, even though the drivers here seem a bit crazy. If you hesitate for one second, cars will cut right in front of you while scooter pass you on both sides.

It's been a great time here in Spain and we have about 2 more full days in Barcelona following our departure from our current location. It will be nice to get back home and settle into an actual house finally. I still feel a bit like a nomad but it's finally coming to an end. This trip has been incredible and we both would highly recommend Spain to anybody who is looking to relax but also be a little adventurous as well.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Espana

Here is Spain from our view thus far. If any of the pictures/captions looks interesting just search on the internet and you can find out all about it. This is mostly for "extreme blogstalkers". We're not talking about the "novice stalkers" like most of my friends. More like the mom's and that kind of people :)

Last night Jess and I went for dinner and a more exclusive tour from some local friends, and forgot to bring our camera (more like Jess reccomended it and I said "nah, we won't need it") oh well...let's just say we didn't feel like a tourist for those 6 hours we hung out with them and it was amazing. We went from 8pm to 2pm (which is not uncommon) and lot's of wine and local catalunya food, wine and dessert with all the history behind it followed by a scenic drive to the tallest point in Barcelona which overlooked the entire city. This was truly incredible. Anyways, Jess is still in bed recovering and it's time for desayuno (breakfast)...

* PLUS CHECK OUT THE SPAIN (IN WORDS) BELOW ALL THE PICS.