The Sanctuary

I won a night at The Sanctuary because on my 35th birthday Linz, Julie, Rachel and I went to "Sunday's in Paradise", music and fun on the lawn, so James and I stayed there on June 5th and Ben had his first sleepover at Auntie Lindsey and Uncle Dan's house, with Aaron and Jack. It was so nice for us to get away, one of the first things James said when he sprawled out on the bed in our Suite was "Ahhhh, no one is jumping on me". We had quite a laugh when we were settling in, grabbing a beer and a drink, cutting up some meats, cheese and crackers and enjoying the view of the gorgeous mountains off in the distance and James looked at me and said "Hey, guess what I hear?" and we said in unison "Silence". Ahhh, silence. We were welcomed very graciously with a handwritten welcome letter, a lovely bottle of Pinot Noir and an assortment of cheeses, crackers, nuts and fruits, what a way to make your "special" guests feel like royalty! After settling in we went for a swim in the largest infinity pool in Arizona, talked, laughed and enjoyed each others company. After our swim we went back to the room and enjoyed the dinner we picked up from CPK, I had 2 free meals so we got James' favorite, Kung Pao with Shrimp and I had Mahi Mahi with Veggies, we watched an amazing Sunset and had a great night's sleep. The next morning I woke up on the early side, any light in a bedroom wakes me up, made me appreciate my bedroom at home. In fact, staying at the resort was a real treat but the painted brick walls, not too nice artwork, ugly sectional, bath products that had a strange smell and some other little idiosyncrasies made me appreciate my beautiful home even more. I enjoyed the view and the space but calling The Sanctuary the #1 resort in the list of top 50 in the Country doesn't seem very accurate to me. When I went to pick up Benjamin at Lindsey's house in the morning they followed me back to the Resort and we enjoyed a few hours at the pool, which was a fun-filled day with our boys but getting service was like pulling teeth, I'm always curious why people think snottiness acceptable behavior, those servers must not care about making money. All in all, I am grateful to have had some time alone and have such wonderful friends to care for our boy, as Lindsey pointed out, I shouldn't complain about the FREE accommodations. :-)