| My First Spa | |
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I toyed with the idea of squeezing a spa trip into a vacation a few years ago. Maine has a number of spa resorts and day spas and is the home of The Natural Body Bar. But it was a family vacation, and I decided against it. We started our 11 hour car ride Friday afternoon after getting home from work. I slept through the New York and Connecticut traffic and took the wheel in Vermont. The night sky was clear and the stars were thick and bright all the way down to the tree-fringed mountain silhouettes on the horizon. At 2am, with Led Zeppelin keeping me awake, I saw the fifth shooting star in as many minutes. I thought about where we were going - a place where, summer after summer for over 30 years, I have gone to relax, unwind, de-stress, rejuvenate, and get in touch with myself and nature. I was slow to make the connection, but these are the same goals that I have when I visit a spa. Maine is where I imagine myself when my favorite relaxation tape says, "picture yourself in your favorite place." I was on my way to my original spa - my parents’ cabin on Rangeley Lake. |
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I made the decision then to take special note of "spa moments" in the coming week both at the cabin and during our day trip to the coast. I would do the opposite of sensory deprivation. I would fine tune my senses to all that my surroundings had to offer, and I would be specially mindful of them in my private moments. I won’t bore you with all the minute details of my trip, but here are some of the most notable impressions made on my senses: The "aromatherapy" of pine, damp woods, and sea air. |
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The "old age" music - the haunting call of a loon calling across the lake late at night and the far off reply, the gentle lapping of the lake against its rocky shore, and the thunder of cascading water at Angel Falls, Maine’s highest waterfall. |
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The gentle warmth of the sun "massaging" my skin as I sunbathed on the dock and the "cold water plunge pool" of the lake that made me gasp and my heart race. |
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The "spa cuisine" of tart/sweet wild blueberries, delightful wild raspberries and delicious grilled landlocked salmon (full of healthy Omega-3 fatty acid) and lake trout. |
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The
sights I just don’t have the privilege to view anywhere else
(the setting is as important as the subject) - deer, moose,
quail, fox, red squirrels, hummingbirds, hawks, and flowers. On
one of my daily walks, I decided to take a picture of all the
wild flowers I could find. After a quarter mile, I gave up. There
were just too many - most of which I never noticed before. Some of them are
pictured on the left.
As I wrote this article during the car ride home, I decided that I was successful in achieving my "spa" goals. The only change I would have made was to take massage oil and books along to make it even more spa-like. I was determined to continue this awareness when I got home. Surely somewhere beneath the roar of the traffic and urban presence of the city in which I lived, there were remains of the area’s natural state. It was time I got in touch with them. It was sure to make me appreciate where I lived a lot more. The spa is where you make it.
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Spas In Northern New England • Day Spas in Maine
• Spa Resorts in Maine
• Day Spas in New Hampshire
• Spa Resorts in New Hampshire
• Day Spas in Vermont
• Spa Resorts in Vermont
My favorite places in Northern New England • Smalls Falls
• Rangeley Regional Information
• Coalition - RRIC
• Rangeley Maine USA
• Rangeley Lakes Chamber of Commerce
• The Maine Tourism Web
• Franconia Notch State Park, NH
• Brattleboro, VTShopping in Northern New England
Animals of Northern New England Photos copyright 1998, Julie Register
Licensed to About.com
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