Pictures from last year showed up on my Facebook account yesterday. Since it is more fun to do a quick post and not finish up my last week in Argentina I am going to cheat and recap this day.
While Steve, Shelley and Steve T were out on the slopes I had a lovely massage in the village. As you recall, or might not recall I was diagnosed with a blood clot last February after our trip to Chile and Ecuador. I was put on a blood thinner and told no skiing. The doctors were worried that someone might crash into me and I would suffer a massive bleed. The anti coagulant that I am on doesn’t have a quick action reversing mechanism, so I need to be careful. The drug has better side effects than those with reversals, and as with anything you weigh your choices and pick your battles.
Back to my massage. As expected I did lots of research. Did I want to have my massage at a spa at one of the big hotels? Then I could probably sit in a gorgeous waiting room, pre and post massage and see if I could spy any celebrities in the waiting room. However all those celebs would have their massages back in their rooms or have a private entrance and no one would know that they were there. I elected to go to Yelp and read reviews. Sunshine had great reviews, people especially liked her massage on the floor and the upside down swing cradle massage. Of course I was so there at the idea of an upside down swing cradle massage. I couldn’t wait for this adventure!
So the day before I hopped on the bus, to make sure I could find the massage studio. It was easily found. I spent a lot of time during our stay on the bus. Everyone else was skiing, so I was left to read and window shop. Vail has a free shuttle along Main Street. It was fun to hop on and off.
I arrived at Sunshine’s studio. Sunshine is of course not her name. I can’t remember what it actually is, but no matter. I filled out the forms in the waiting room and we were soon off to her studio. Room one has room to change your clothes, and she has products there to purchase. Room two has one big padded mat on the floor and a swinging harness. Sunshine must have had a cradle of some sort for my head as I usually am quite uncomfortable lying on the floor without one. At one point during the massage I was wondering if someone else was helping her as it felt like I had four body parts pushing my shoulders. I finally figured it out, she was using her feet to push my shoulders while using her arms on my back. You can’t get that action when you are lying on the table!
Sunshine never did put me in the gravity swing. I had mentioned to her that I have low blood pressure and faint easily. She was afraid that I might faint if I was inverted. It’s one thing to totally relax and fall asleep during a massage, it’s something else when the client passes out! Anyway, it was a great massage. I look forward to going back someday. 
Shelley has a visitor photo shelf of all her friends who have stayed with them. We got a friendly pedestrian to take our picture on the way to dinner. Don’t you love my jacket? We got it back home in a ski shop in Queensbury when Steve was trying to get his boots fixed, prior to my blood clot. I saw this jacket and said “I want this!”. It has matching red pants with silver zippers also. Steve is always complaining that he can’t find me when we get separated. I figured he would be able to find me with this jacket! Plus it looked upscale enough if we ever went to stay at Vail with Steve and Shelley. I hadn’t skied in years, but since Steve was having so much fun skiing with his retired old fart club I might have fun skiing mid week when prices were low, and crowds few. I did in fact ski with Steve once and also one day with the retired old male ski farts.
The jacket and pants were definitely upscale enough for Vail as I saw the pants and jackets for sale at several places in Vail. In fact I saw another woman wearing my jacket, but her pants were a little bit different. Seems she got a pair of basic red pants and not the more expensive pants with the silver zippers that I got. She was not happy that I noticed her pants were not the real thing!
We had dinner at an Austrian restaurant called Amrisi. Steve had soup in a pot with bread. 
The soup was bouillon with pancake strips. It was almost as good as one from our friend Stella. Stella makes the best soups. Sometime I want to pretend that I am sick so she will make me soup!
Steve and Shelley and Lisa and Mike both got the Cesar salad and shared it. To me this looks like a regular salad with a Cesar dressing. I’m not from Austria, so what do I know about Austrian Cesar Salads? 
I had lamb chops with a side salad for my entree. 
Lisa had the quiche with another side salad. That Lisa is a really healthy eater. She runs, has an organic farm and an apiary. I got confused for a minute and almost typed aviary. If you don’t know what an apiary is-well then go look it up. It’s always important to expand our vocabulary. Just don’t get stung if you do so! Ha Ha Ha!
Steve T was in the mood for spaghetti. He promised the waiter he was under ten so he could order the spaghetti bolognese from the kid’s menu. 
My Steve ordered the potato pancakes and smoked salmon. I don’t think you would be allowed to serve food this way in New York. I think the wood is too hard to keep clean.
For dessert Steve and I shared the Black Forest cake. I didn’t want him to get it as I thought it would be heavy. It was in fact delicious. 
Steve and Shelley had the deep fried apples. They were very sweet. 
Mike and Lisa shared the apple strudel. I love apple strudel but only if it is made with stretch dough. Most places use phyllo dough. It’s much easier to make apple strudel with phyllo dough.I still haven’t learned how to make stretch dough from my Mom. As Mom is 95, it probably won’t happen. I am too lazy to learn, and Mom isn’t as strong as she used to be. 
Now for the really fun part of the evening. Besides Shelley’s sexy shoulders of course. On the menu was an after dinner liqueur called Zirbenschnapps. It is schnapps made from the tender branches of fir trees. It is presented in a little ski boot. It is not available in stores. I looked online for it, I thought it would make a great gift for Steve and Shelley. 
Steve looked a bit doubtful about the whole thing. 
In fact he looked quite disturbed. Shelly was all “Let’s go do this!”
Mike really liked it. I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t keep the camera straight. Lisa made a yucky face. Lisa didn’t get her picture taken, she may or may not have slipped me a twenty to destroy all evidence. 
Here is the picture of the little boot by the time it got to me. It was so cute. I wonder how many people tried to steal the boot glass. We didn’t.
Steve wanted my taste testing to be well documented.
Here I am with my finger cocked! I am such an etiquette expert!
All done! I always laugh with my eyes partially shut. You can tell Steve took the picture, the back ground is in focus, and I am not! Well that’s all from our evening at Amrisi in Vail. I hope to finish up Argentina soon!
Fun being “featured” in your blog post! Thanks for reminding me about this fun evening and how yummy the quiche was.