Evensong Spa

Laura and I channeled our inner divas and went to the Evensong Spa in Green Lake a few weeks ago.

At breakfast

Sorry for the wretchedly dark photo. The sunny landscape wasn't doing us any photographic favors, but it, plus the bare trees and the snowy lake, made for a lovely view.

Labyrinth

This time, I didn't walk the labyrinth, but L. did. It seems a little cheesy, but it really is very soothing. And the bank of windows affords a lovely view of the surrounding landscape.

Evensong Spa exterior at dusk

After checking in, L. and I vegged and read magazines in the relaxation room. Some of those magazines came home with me...because that's how I roll. The one annoyance in the relaxation room this time was that the music was not relaxing. It was some sort of musaky stuff.

Then we had a light lunch in the cafe. The cafe menu is fairly basic. I was hoping they would've switched it up a little since my last visit, but it was not to be so. It's a very traditional menu and could use an update. They have three predictable appetizers (bruschetta, shrimp cocktail, and a cheese and fruit plate), a soup of the day,  three salads (Caesar, Evensong, and Cobb), standard sandwiches and wraps (e.g., turkey and ham club), desserts, and drinks. L. had the Cobb salad (fine, nothing extraordinary), and I chose the chicken and avocado wrap (filling, but not anything special).

 

Relaxation room with fireplace

Cafe

For services, I had the deep therapy massage, and Laura opted for a pedicure and the inner journey massage. Last time, I had a pedicure, and let me say that it's worth it just for the sheer joy of occupying the chair. It trumped all other massage chairs in that it gave a notable massage up and down your entire spine, rather than just vibrating lightly. Plus, you're wrapped in a fluffy robe, and my stylist gave me a heated neck wrap. I slumped in the chair, claiming I wasn't leaving. ;) And the pedicure was done well and of a high quality. (It lasted longer than most.)

Instead of walking the labyrinth, I spent most of my remaining time lounging in the eucalyptus steam room, which I love. My few quibbles with it is that you have to hold the button down forever to generate steam and the eucalyptus scent comes from people misting a very diluted eucalyptus solution into the air with a plastic spray bottle. The effect is a bit cheap for a high-end spa.

Bloody mary

Ok, I know a bagel breakfast sandwich isn't extraordinarily, but compared to the inedible dinner the night before, it was delightful. Here's the skinny: After our spa day, we were very tired. (Who knew spa-ing could be so exhausting? In my case, it might've also been that I essentially drove to Green Lake twice....but that is a another story. Thanks to her phone's navigation system, L. also took the scenic route. Thank goddess I left early.)

Bagel sandwich

Back to our appalling dinner. Since we were so tired, we decided to indulge in room service. I called the room service line a few times and received no response, so I called the front desk. The person at the desk routed me to the bar. The guy at the bar rather haplessly tried to take our order, but didn't even know if we could have drinks delivered to our room. He passed us on to someone else. After being shuttled back and forth multiple times, we ordered the wild mushroom and arugula pizza, buffalo wings, two glasses of wine, and some sort of chocolate tart.

So: The buffalo wings were soggy, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what they are supposed to be. L. was v. disappointed. As for the pizza, the wild mushroom label was quite a stretch. They seemed like nothing more than cremini or button mushrooms. The arugula consisted of shriveled, dry shreds. They must've put it on at the beginning of the cooking process. Even the sauce was uninteresting, and the crust tasted like a bunch of Saltine crackers had been pasted together. And I don't mean it tasted like a cracker crust. The wine was fine, and the tart didn't arrive at all.