Back to the Real World!!

I have returned to the real world after my whirlwind trip!  It was a great 36 hours but, it was also nice to come home to my family, just wish the Santa Monica weather could have been packed in my luggage!  I'll give you a bit of a run-down of the get-away!

I left Calgary Thursday around noon and got into LA at about 3pm.  I flew First Class and what great treatment I got!  It's really too bad the airline personnel don't treat every passenger the same.  We got to board first, we had real glasses & mugs, real plates and silverware for the meal.  Yes, that's correct, we had a MEAL on the flight!  Our snack was mixed nuts (almonds and cashews) and then strawberry cheesecake for dessert!  It was a nice treat.  My luggage was the first onto the carousel when I arrived in LA and my driver(a wonderful lady named Marina) took me to the FitOrbit head office.

I finally got to meet Hayley, we had been exchanging emails since I won the contest, and she gave me my itinerary for the next day.  I had Thursday evening to myself to do what I wanted.(if you guessed I went shopping, you guessed correctly!!)  After the stop at FitOrbit head office, I headed to the hotel where they didn't have a reservation for me. (The one downfall when all the details are left in someone else's hands, LOL!)  Luckily, they had lots of rooms for the night so they put me into an ocean view room!  Once that was all settled, Marina took me over to the pedestrian mall (the 3rd Street Promenade).  I did a lot of window shopping and people watching and checked out the new mall in the area called Santa Monica Place.  It was a nice evening and the weather was perfect.  After that I headed back to the hotel and had supper sitting out by the pool.  It was a great day!

Friday started early - breakfast arrived at 6:30, shower and then Marina picked me up at 7:45.  We headed to "The Gym on Nemo" where I had my workout with celebrity trainer Holly Perkins.  The gym is quite exclusive with lots of celebrities as members.  (There were none there while I was working out, imagine my sad face!!)  Holly was amazing and worked me out for about an hour and a half.  She sent me home with a workout that I can easily continue to do at home so, I'll keep you posted with the progress.  When we win the lottery I'm going to get myself a membership to that gym so Holly can be my personal trainer, she was so GREAT!!

The next part of the trip was lunch with Jake Steinfeld, he's the founder of FitOrbit.  He is famous for Body by Jake products, Exercise TV and he is the owner of the professional outdoor lacrosse league.  We went to an Italian Restaurant that was so good!  It is a bit of a celebrity hang-out, John Mayer was there for lunch, it was fun to people watch and have Jake point out the important people.  He is such a funny, down-to-earth guy and it was a very enjoyable lunch.  I was a bit nervous to meet him but, he makes you feel like you've known him forever when you're with him!

After lunch it was time to start heading home.  Marina took me on a bit of a tour of Venice Beach, Malibu and Marina Del Ray so it was nice to see a bit of the sights and then it was back to the airport.  Got checked in and through security with LOTS of time to spare.  Had a quick supper and just relaxed with some magazines.  We had a bit of a delay out of LA, we had no pilots, and we made our connection in San Francisco by only a couple of minutes.  (It kind of felt like we were trying to get to the Pit Stop on Amazing Race!)

I arrived back in Calgary at about 12:30am and again had my luggage come first off the plane but, then had a bit of a delay for customs to go through my luggage.  (Guess they thought I was smuggling liquor or tobacco, LOL!!)  Got home just after 1 am and have never been happier to be home with my family.

It was such a great experience and I feel very lucky to have been the Grand Prize winner (apparently there were over 100,000 people who entered the contest).  It was a treat to get the night away, thanks to my wonderful husband who stayed home to parent.  The weather was gorgeous and it was hard coming back to the -30 weather but, not hard to come back to the family!!  Now, I'm back to my real world but, I have some wonderful memories of my few hours of being a VIP! 

Hope everyone is having a great week!