I was ready for a break from the real world, so Thursday I got my workout gear together and made my way over to Caesar’s Palace where I could relax the day away at Qua Baths and Spa.
Upon entering the gymnasium, it appeared that everyone had decided this would be a good day for a workout. It was packed!! Qua had upgraded some of its equipment which I felt had been a bit overdue. When I worked out there in October, I did battle with an exercise bike with an attitude problem. In the last 5 minutes of my “ride”, the machine suddenly cranked itself to the maximum tension level and I felt like I was pedaling through glue. However, I’m proud to say that I did win that battle of man vs. machine.
This time around there were no malfunctions and I did a much harder workout than normal to test my fitness and was quite pleased with how well I did. I grabbed a banana and headed back into the spa to begin the long process of cooling down. After utilizing the Roman Baths, I took a long rest on one of the heated chairs and actually began to feel a little philosophical.
I was composing ideas for a few future articles and then I began to reflect on this most recent journey. While I was having fun, I realized that I was missing one key element and that was my friends. This trip just wasn’t quite the same without the banter I normally shared with my traveling companions. And that’s when I realized just how much I’ve changed over the years.
At one point in my life, I was kind of a loner. At the time, I almost seemed to prefer it that way. Once I entered college that slowly began to change. I began to get more involved in things. I joined an honor society and even served in all of the offices at one point or another. It helped me to open up and blossom.
Theatre helped me still more. I was able to meet more people, socialize more often, have an outlet for my creativity, and gained confidence as my abilities as a performer increased. Without knowing it, I stopped being a loner somewhere along the line. I’m more comfortable being me. Heck, at one point I wouldn’t have dreamed of sharing my thoughts like this. Now I relish it whenever I can sit at my keyboard and share a review with you, recount an amazing adventure, or even share a humorous misadventure.
Yes, I can still have fun my own. But the addition of friends on the journey always makes the fun exponentially better.
At about that point, I came out of my philosophical meanderings and began enjoying the arctic room, inhalation room, and steam bath.
At 3pm, I was called in for my massage. This time around I went back to basics and had a traditional Swedish massage and I think it was just what the doctor prescribed. I enjoyed 90 minutes of peaceful bliss as Gayle Allen expertly worked out my kinks and soothed my sore muscles. As always, I felt I could be squeegeed off the floor when the massage was completed.
I returned to the Rio and went to enjoy the Seafood Buffet. As always the food was top notch. Aside from their enjoying their amazing Seafood Gumbo, they were serving up a delicious blackened tilapia which you should try if you ever enjoy a meal there. After walking my meal off, I headed back to my room for a quiet evening.
Short of any surprises, this brings an end to my Vegas tales. Now I only need to figure out how to occupy myself today. I had been hoping that my friend, Mat, would join me on this trip, so I booked a really late flight home to essentially squeeze an extra day out of this trip. Since that didn’t happen, I now need to find a way to spend about 7 hours of time after I check out of the hotel at 11am. I may explore the other end of the Strip, hang out at the pool for a while, or simply meander.
While I work out this dilemma, I bid you a fond farewell and look forward to when I write you again.
Chris' Corner 