The Ladies' Retreat and more!

Hi Everyone! Well, I made it to the Ladies' Retreat and back. I went with my sister Bev and her daughter Bethany. Also coming along for fun was little Nathen, Bethany's little 7week-old baby boy! He is such a good baby! He slept all night! Hallelujah! And did we ever have a time! So, we were able to get a handicap-accessible room. Thankfully. BUT it was clear down at the end of the hallway, next to the fire escape/stairs. So in case of a fire, what was I suppposed to do? Maybe they could just throw me over the stairwell and we'd hope for the best? *smile* Oh and we were on the 14th floor BUT our room was lovely, I must say and we did have a great view!

So, we get to our room, rest for a bit, get ready for service and head off to get a bite of supper. It was heading for 7pm by this time. We knew we were going to be running late because Bethany and Bev both had to work until 5pm. Anywayyyy, we go down to the foodcourt, have a nice, relaxing meal, then head for the ladies' service, but we couldn't find it. It's usually in the Regency Ballroom but there was absolutely nothing going on there, so we headed for the front desk again and found out that it was in the convention center. Great. BUT not only was it in the convention center. It was at the very teetotal end of the convention center. Thank goodness I had my walker. Bethany had not brought a stroller for little Nathen so we put him and his carrier up on my walker and started off. Oh my word. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't mind walking. I push myself many times to walk because I know it is good for me, but this was REALLY a walk. I know there is probably a good reason why it was so far away but had we known, we might have stayed somewhere else, although that probably wouldn't have helped either because a friend of mine stayed in a hotel near the end of the convention center but found that the outside doors were locked and they had to walk allllllll the way up to the lobby of the Hyatt and walk the entire distance back to the Terrace Conference room. The service was wonderful, the booths and so on were enjoyable, we saw alot of friends and acquaintances. But we decided to head back to our room a little early. Soooooooo, we head off BACK this humongously long conference center. Welllll, there was this kindly gentleman who was a custodian there. He came over to us to peek in at little Nathen and we chatted a bit. I asked him if he lived nearby and he said yes, that he lived just a couple of blocks away, to which we laughed and said he was probably closer to the conference room than we were! He reminded me of Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy. He was so sweet. So we get about halfway up this first long hallway, though it is much, much larger than a hallway, and there are these three massage chairs, so we decide to sit down and treat ourselves to a chair massage. So we insert a dollar apiece and let me tell ya, it was heaven! We are sitting there ohhhhhing and ahhhhhing and moaning and groaning (we toned it down after a bit as we realized how we might sound to passersby LOL though if I remember correctly, there weren't any!) as this chair does its wonders on our backs and necks and this kind gentleman (see above) gets to where we are, sees us and just shakes his head slowly and chuckles. We tell him that we figured we'd take us a rest and that perhaps the massage would help us through the rest of our trek. I did feel quite invigorated after the massage! It was great! I'll finish this post later 'cause right now, I have to catch a quick Sunday afternoon nap!!! *smile*