I had the BEST weekend! On Saturday, I drove up to Hershey, PA to spend the weekend doing spa stuff with my sister. The Hershey Hotel has a chocolate spa! Yes, chocolate. I smelled so yummy at various points it was all I could do not to lick myself.

The spa is just so nice and relaxing. Upon check in, you are taken to the ladies' locker room, given sandals and a comfy robe, and shown around the facilities.

On Saturday, I had an hour-long massage and the therapist took some extra time to try and work out the kinks in my neck and upper back. After that, I had the Chocolate Immersion treatment. The treatment involves being scrubbed down with a moisterizer-based scrub which had ground up cocoa beans in it; then that is rinsed off and then you are covered in a cocoa mud solution, wrapped in plastic, a thermal blanket, and a wool blanket and left alone to relax in a darkened room. After about thirty minutes (during which I could NOT turn off my brain to relax at all), I was unwrapped, rinsed off, and lotioned up. It was weird but really nice. I smelled absolutely marvelous after that.

We had a light dinner, and my sister and her sister-in-law hit the sack. Seeing it was only 10PM and I'm not only a grown-up but a night owl, this wasn't going to cut it for me. So first I took a walk around the hotel's garden. They have two really big koi ponds and when I walked past, the fish would swim along - they probably were thinking FOOD! But their little bodies looked like tiny souls in the River Styx. The cold got to me after a bit, so I headed in to the bar and had not one but two chocolate martinis. Wicked and tasty. By now, my sister had woken up and when I wasn't in the room, called my cell phone so I headed upstairs. It was around midnight by then. We ordered cookies and milk from room service, and then went to bed.

Up at 6ish, we were dismayed that although the room was rather lovely and full of complimentary things, there was NOT a coffee pot! Not only that, but there wasn't any place to get a complimentary cup of coffee. For almost $300 a night for the room, you'd think they could come up off of a complimentary continental breakfast. Thankfully the spa opened at 8:30am and we headed there for some coffee and muffins (which they have all day along with fruit and tea in their quiet rooms where you wait between spa treatments).

After my muffin and several cups of coffee, I was called to have my Sweet Feet pedicure. My first pedicure ever and man, it was great! The chair had a special whirlpool soaking tub where I was told to relax for a few minutes. The therapist was really nice and very gentle with my ticklish feet! First she filed and trimmed my toenails, the entire foot and lower leg was exfoliated with a sugar scrub. That was rinsed off and the cocoa mud solution was painted all over my feet. After that sat for a few minutes, it was rinsed off and then lotion was massaged into my feet and lower legs. I would have been okay with just that, but no! Then these little plastic bag slippers with melted paraffin in them were put over my feet (smelled of lavendar - very nice) and that was covered with terry cloth booties. I sat for about 10 minutes or so until that was removed, and I got my toenails painted in a really pretty purple. I never paint my toes and knew Catherine would get a kick out of it, so I choose her favorite color.

After that we headed back to our room to get ready for the brunch buffet. Wow! If I wasn't impressed just by the beautiful circular dining room, then the food just blew me out of the water. I had a little of everything - tried to eat like it was a tapas restaurant and I took little tastes of things: grilled duck breast over a mixed greens salad, mushroom salad polenta sandwiches, shrimp, oysters, crab claws, prime rib, and desserts! I felt horrid in that my sister woke up ill and couldn't keep any food down but I wasn't going to pass up eating because she wasn't.

After lunch, I had a facial. It was so wonderfully relaxing.

The two days made me feel so soft, smooth, and refreshed. I can't wait til next year!