caftans for everyone!

if you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know how beloved my dear friend weezermonkey is.  and for her birthday this year, our circle of friends decided to surprise her with a super fun staycation at the fabulous langham hotel in pasadena.  it took a pretty good amount of coordinating, but we managed to pull it all together - securing rooms, choosing and reserving a restaurant for dinner, making goody bags, booking a spa treatment for the birthday girl. we settled on a “white lotus” theme for the whole weekend, and had a blast with putting all of the details together.

the langham is such a beautiful place to visit. 

there was a bit of a mad scramble to get everyone checked in and then keep the guest of honor occupied so that all of the decorations and goodies were placed in her room.  lilcee and i were roommates for the weekend, and our room was spacious and lovely.

once everything was in place, we gathered in her room and then finally let her in.  while she’d figured out where we were headed as we drove through pasadena, i think she was still pretty surprised by most of it.

and then there was some time to rest and relax a little before meeting back at the lobby to head out for dinner.  we love a good group photo:

our destination:  koreatown for some good KBBQ and then an old favorite - karaoke at rosen.

the next morning, a few of us got up early to get our sweat on - some weight training at the hotel gym and then a free yoga class in the adjoining studio.

 

and then it was time to meet up with WM and take her over to the spa for her massage.

it also happened to be easter sunday, so there were cute little bunny paw prints all over the resort leading to the restaurant for brunch and outside to the egg hunt that was being set up on the hotel grounds.

we had placed orders for breakfast ahead of time, and after scoping out the resort for the best location to gather and enjoy our meal together, we ended up in a very familiar spot - the very same space that the hub had booked my amazing surprise party for my 50th.  because there was no bar service at that hour, we basically had the space to ourselves. oh, and yes - we all wore caftans.  it was meant to be part of our white lotus theme, but those things are so comfy that i’m pretty sure they’ll make another appearance at a future GTG.

dailygluttony and dapotato had brought some fancy snacks to share - gourmet potato chips that we slathered with crème fraiche and caviar.  mmmmmm.

and then we had time for one more group photo before we had to head back to our rooms, pack up and check out.

it was a beautiful weekend celebrating our dear friend, and we loved it so much that we vowed to make it an annual event.  it would be awesome to make it happen more often, but coordinating  schedules is damn near impossible.  and hopefully next time, we’ll be able to get everyone all together.  we’ll see.