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Menage a Trois- The OC & Power of Three

Spas, Rides, Art & Shopping, Food & Drink

by Lisa Sonne

Good things come in threes, they say, and, that was true of my trip to the coastal OC (Orange County) for the good life of southern California. I relished three spa treatments, three water rides, and three art experiences, between enjoying another OC three -- shopping, food, and drink. The “OCeanfront” is now a branded destination of coastal luxuries in Huntington Beach, Newport, Laguna Beach, and Dana Point—all tourist nuggets of West Coast gold between San Diego and Los Angeles.

At any turn, “pleasure” was with my husband and me – making for a memorable ménage á trois on a long weekend getaway. With the wonderful Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort as our beachhead, we launched into “trio con brio” fun.

WATER RIDES TO CHILL OR THRILL

SIP, SLIP, & DIP

One of the classic OC boat rides is the “Duffy Boat,” a boxy, easy-to-drive motorboat, good for partying or puttering along like a smooth golf cart on the water. Instead of looking at greens, though, you can gander the whites of yachts and the tony earth tones of bay-front mansions. If you are staying at the iconic Balboa Bay Club & Resort, you can motor away, and sip and slip to the dip -- sip champagne while you slip past John Wayne’s old house or Kobe Bryant’s newer one, as the sun dips from day to night. Or later, visit the club’s interior near “First Cabin” dining for some sipping, slipping, and dipping on the dance floor to the live music of romantic tunes from the 40s and 50s.

MARINE LIFE

If you want to sit back while you seek the wildlife of nature, you can hop on the OCean Adventure, a new, wonderfully-equipped, 63-foot catamaran leaving Dana Point Harbor to enjoy seagulls, pelicans, seals, and sea lions in the harbor, or dolphins and whales (seasonal) in the open seas.

The friendly staff can serve you or educate you, depending on your interests. I had dear friends who lived in the area meet us, and it was a great reunion outing. There are plenty of outdoor and indoor spaces aboard this relaxing joy-ride with marine riches.

Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching offers other venues, too. Locals say Dana Point was named after the writer Richard Henry Dana, who claimed in his book, Two Years Before the Mast, that “this is the only romantic spot on the coast.” We enjoyed finding many others, too.

SURFER FUN

Ah, and then for the ultimate ride in “Surf City, USA,” aka Huntington Beach, you can take a beginner’s surf lesson and catch a break. I joined a Toes on the Nose surf session with coaches Dane Hesse and Sean Coyne and tried to “hang ten,” while my husband was hanging out under a cabana with a “beach butler” for his R & R. My nose and toes were in the surf often, as I fell off my foam core board, but I did have some brief moments of cowabugna standing glory and hours of fun.

For a hot time, practice on the sand helps you with technique warm-up, and a thin wet suit that’s provided takes any chill off the water.

ART TRINITY

Orange County is rich with performing arts and musical venues, but painting was the cultural pull of this trip.

GALLERIES

Laguna Beach is renowned for its art galleries and the Sawdust Art Festival.

Gallery-strolling is a peak pastime here. I thoroughly enjoyed an inspiring afternoon of walking in and out of creative places with pieces by artists ranging from the famous to the emerging. Artists and gallery owners are often very accessible. In one gallery, I was captivated by an original Chagall, painted when the artist was 90.

ART LESSON

I thoroughly enjoyed a humbling and liberating chance to try watercolors myself, in a workshop offered by the Laguna Outreach for Community Arts. Talented painters in the area help you explore your own talents using the sea as a muse. They show you how to blend colors, use actual salt for effects, and think about the proportions of a given space. You leave with some personal artworks and a watercolor journal for future inspiration.

(Contact information is at the end of the article.)

COLOR ME ORANGE

The “Orange,” or Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), welcomes you to enjoy all colors of the spectrum in 20th century and contemporary art, with paintings, sculptures, and video exhibits. Future plans call for the museum to move and join the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, which already is already home to the Segerstrom Concert Hall, the South Coast Repertory Theater, and an arts plaza with a Richard Serra sculpture. The Orange is a great way to get out of the sun for a bit and see some manmade light and color. It also touts a unique satellite gallery of digital and internet art, called the Orange Lounge, which is based in the South Coast Plaza Shopping Resort.

First Class Shopping

The OC may have as many miles of window-shopping as it does beaches. Each community has its own strolls, from the galleries of Laguna to the surf shops of Huntington Beach. Some of the marinas have their own shopping villages, and most of the hotels have beckoning gift shops. For most counties, this would be more than enough, but OC also has two of the great consumer gathering spots of the nation:

SOUTH COAST PLAZA

The South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa bills itself as “The Ultimate Shopping Resort” and is a destination in itself, with 40 restaurants and 280 boutiques at one of the world’s highest densities of brand stores. Last year, 23 million visitors spent over 1.5 billion dollars there. I tried blending a scent at the fragrant Jo Malone and loved checking out watches with meteorites and pink gold at the only Rolex outlet in the United States. Fashionistas, technophiles, foodies, and shopoholics can all feed their fixes in comfort at the OC’s Plaza.

FASHION ISLAND

Fashion Island sports views of the Pacific, a carousel, and a zenful koi pond outside. Inside, it offers a full-service concierge to help with the 200 stores and the calendar of seasonal events. People-watching there is a fashion show itself. Famous brands to original boutiques make this a consumer haven.

I didn’t explore all 1.3 million square feet of the center, but I did run my fingers through sheets that are 1,200-plied at Between the Sheets and used the multi-storied Barnes and Noble as an edu-taining stair master, before sitting outside in a lovely breeze and watching a parade of people with packages behind me and cute kids at the koi pond in front of me.

Spa Trio

I wonder if OC has more spas than any other county in the U.S.? I tried one-a-day at three of the wonderful hotels along the coast and wished I had more days! The spas can be enjoyed by non-hotel guests as a pampering complement to visiting the hotels’ restaurants and exploring the facilities for future trips.

ISLAND

The “Traveler Recovery Massage” at the Island Hotel and Spa in Newport Beach was a soothing way to decompress from the stresses of travel. The 90-minute massage designed by Spa Associate Marianne Cerami is aimed for the business traveler, but works well for transitioning to an active vacation, too. “We start with warming the upper back to undo all the tightness in your shoulders,” she smiled, then went on to describe how cooling comforts were used on the lower body to undo the water retention and swollenness that long air flights induce.

I was quite relaxed and clear-minded by the time I was gently escorted to the “relaxation room,” where I was brought plump strawberries in little tuxedo suits of white and dark chocolate. They were a tasty reminder of the first-class touches the hotel and its restaurant and cocktail lounge offer.

ST.REGIS

The Spa Gaucin is embedded in the architectural beauty of the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort, which is perched above nature’s beauty, the Pacific Ocean, and claims to be California’s only five-star, five-diamond resort. The spa treatments integrate the Mediterranean influences and include wine, olive, and grape seed oils, which were also three of the flavors integrated into a scrumptious meal presented artfully with the hotel’s outdoor dining.

At the spa, I choose a signature “Coastal Stone” treatment, which combines the popular therapy of placing smooth, heated, basalt stones in key places and using them as massage tools to thermally kneed out knots. My talented massage therapist, Yolanda, intuitively used combinations of Swedish strokes and customized pressure on key energy points to “improve circulation and calm the nervous system.” The relaxing and effective session also included olive leaf oil massages of my hands and feet. This really made the getaway feel like a vacation!

Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa

The spa facilities here are a healthy complement to the stand-out salad bar lunch. Dozens of completed salad offerings were lined up with an appealing range of mix and match ingredients--- all leading toward a chef who would cook fish and meat the way you want it to complete your edible creation.

I would have gone back for more, but I had a Stone Massage treatment lined up. I relaxed under the soothing voice and strong hands of Dave, who assured me that the stones would draw toxins out of my body. The time went too quickly, but the pleasure was lengthened by a wonderful eucalyptus sauna, and then a lovely float and soak in the outdoor saline pool that is just for spa guests. I left feeling refreshed, not chlorinated, and as the day continued I felt even healthier.

Our home-base for all these OC sensual threes was the Waterfront Beach Resort, a Hilton Hotel, right on the famous PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) in Huntington Beach, now officially trademarked as Surf City, USA. The service, setting, and amenities were all wonderful. Dogs are allowed, too, which made poodle-petting part of one of my elevator rides.

After full days of activities, the plush seats on the suites’ wrap-around balcony were a welcome comfort. On one part of the porch, we could see the outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, and on the other side, we could watch the car culture below on PCH, with campfires out on the beach beyond. By day, we also had a view of the Huntington Beach pier and surfers in the distance. The breezes and vistas of the corner suite’s wrap-around balcony were more tempting to me than anything on the two large flat-screen TVs in the spacious suite. We could eat fresh fruits, from papaya to pineapple, outside by the pool with ocean views at Shades, or have the hotel pack up a picnic for the beach.

The food and drink that was served up, fueled the threesomes of spa, art, and water rides and matched the OC range, from simple and fun to lavish and rich. Try cocktails with the sweeping views of a mosaic pool and the prosaic sea at a crown jewel, the Montage Laguna Beach Resort. Then go up the coast a bit and feel like you are suspended above the waves, with the balcony settings over the beach and the floating taste sensations of coastal cuisine at Splashes restaurant. Listening to real surf, you can enjoy surf and turf fare at the Surf and Sand Resort. A trifecta win.

Eat fresh, light, desirable foods that can lower your cholesterol and raise your health, with Priscilla Willis, restaurant chef of The Californian, at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa. Further south, breakfasts at the Hyatt Regency in Newport Beach or the Laguna Cliffs Resort are great ways to start days for exploring the OCeanfront scene.

To glimpse into the opulent future, dine deliciously at the Pelican Grill and take a look at the Resort at Pelican Hill, opening in stages. Planners are challenging themselves to outdo all other coastal resorts -- combining the best of California lifestyle luxuries and Italian elegance, from the imported plantings to the Coliseum pool, with its 136-feet diameter and a million glass mosaic tiles.

The OC threes were good- the spas, art, & water rides as well as the shopping, food and drink- and it looks like there is more to come in the future.

Lisa Sonne www.WorldTouristBureau.com has articles on Travel Lady featuring other water front destinations too: Hawaii, Guam, Singapore, Mombassa, Manhattan, Oxnard and the Channel Islands in California. and article © Lisa Sonne