Monday, November 28, 2011 - Move/Rest/Massage Day

Slept late and didn’t check out of the room until 11:30 (after a great free breakfast, of course!), then headed across the street to Target, 1) to see if they had a Kindle Touch that I want to buy (they didn’t, so I’ll have to order one direct from Amazon), and 2) do a little more shopping for things we’ll need in the coming days. We then toured around Alexandria to get our bearings around Old Town, to check out parking and walking and where everything was. We even took a ride down to a park near the river that I found had a fenced in "dog park" in it, but it was very disappointing, little more than a patch of gravel, though there were a few other folks and dogs there when we arrived. Our dogs ran around a bit, but they really don’t get the "romp with other dogs" thing, so we left after about 30 minutes. Found an ice cream parlor where we had our usual ice cream lunch, then finally headed to the hotel to check in. Hubby had already talked to the valet on our first pass, so we were all set to check in with the dogs, and learned where the van would be parked, since that would act as their "crate" when we were at work. Turns out to be in the basement, which was perfect. Got settled into a small but comfy room, then I headed out to the spa to get a deep tissue sports massage that I had previously arranged. The last one I had in Atlanta had been wonderful, really helped my out-of-whack shoulder, and I had made a lot of progress since then, so I was hoping this would almost finish it off. Loved the steam room, that helped a lot, though the massage itself wasn’t as good as Melody’s at Bliss in Atlanta. She tried, but just never got to the real root of the problem. A few more minutes in the steam room and I headed up to the room, where Hubby awaited me with a glass of red wine he had picked up at the Managers Reception in the lobby earlier. Relaxed for the evening as we prepared for the job tomorrow.