I found a list of Travel & Leisure’s Top 25 Hotel Spas in the continental US and Canada, as I browsed their October issue–just noting what cool places I will not be going to in the foreseeable future. Why did they include Canada in the parameters when no Canadian hotel spa made the list? To rub it in? (a little spa joke)
Hard to miss that five of the 25 hotel spas are in Arizona–four in Scottsdale and one in Phoenix:

Fairmont Scottsdale
The Phoenician
Camelback Inn
Desert Ridge Resort & Spa
Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North

(Don’t let the names fool you. the Phoenician is in Scottsdale and it’s the Desert Ridge Resort that is in Phoenix.) Arizona has 20% of the best hotel spas on 3% of the United States land area. Why haven’t I been there yet?!
The American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin ranks #5. Wisconsin’s pride and joy, you may only know the name Kohler because it is etched into your bathroom fixtures. I know Kohler because their Sunday brunch is etched in my brain.
Don’t we all deserve a spa weekend?

G and I spent four days in Paris in May last year, traveling via London. After returning home, I lost my Paris photos in a laptop disintegration. My chagrin over losing the pictures kept me from posting this journal.
I kept thinking the pictures might resurface. They must be on one of the digital camera discs, I thought. But how many times can I check the discs as if I don’t remember what’s not on them? How I did I back up all the digital photos from my gasping computer and miss only the Paris folder? Were the Paris photos on that one bad CD? Should I have really thrown that bad CD out?
Pondering these questions, I ignored the journal itself for months. At one point, I thought the journal might be a computer casualty too. (My laptop died three times during this period.)
Coming ’round to the conclusion that I was lucky to have the words still, I reread and edited the journal. The missing pictures flooded back into my imagination as I worked on the journal. I’m sorry the images of the trip are only in my head.
But here are the words to our four days in Paris.

We take a second look at London. Loved it the first time around, loved it even more the second.

Read my London Journal for the details.

I finally finished all the bookings for our May trip to London and Paris. Gene and I will fly in and out of London, spending two nights in London then taking the Eurostar to Paris. The London hotel looks a little dubious, but its near the Tottenham Underground where we will take a Beatles walking tour Sunday morning. An organized tour is not usually our cup o’ joe, but time will be short. We were sorry we didn’t get to Abbey Road last fall, so we’ll just get it done, man.
In Paris, we will stay at the Mercure-something, something-Landon, near the Gare du Nord and six or eight blocks from Brian’s hotel. Seems okay–three stars on Hotel.com. I put a lot of internet research into the selection, but you never really know til you get there.

October 1, 2006–After a long day in multiple train stations, we arrive in Nice tired and hungry, with no expectations. We find summer lingering around for one last blast. Read the full story.