A very fun date day!

Part of Dan's birthday present was to go to a Korean Spa together. Well it turns out the spa I got him a pass for was a women's only spa! Thankfully they refunded our money and we found a place that was more traditional and allowed men and women in the co-ed area.

If you aren't familiar with Korean Spas, it's definitely a different experience than you might think. This is not to get your hair or nails done, it's meant to rejuvenate your whole body and mind. You start off in separate areas where clothing is, I'll say optional. It's optional in the states, but in Korea you wouldn't see anyone in clothes there, it's just not done. My first time in a Korean spa was in Korea, and it was definitely a culture shock and an uncomfortable at first, but eye-opening experience. It's actually really nice when you can get past the weirdness that we hype up in our minds and just 'be'. You can get to a point of just appreciating your body for what it is and how God makes us all so different yet all so amazing. I am in terrible shape right now, but I never felt judged or ashamed.

So in the first area, you shower real good so you're super clean. Then you can pay for a full body scrub and be the cleanest you've ever been in your life. I did this in Korea, but opted not to this time around. Then after you shower you can enter the saunas and various pools/spas. This location had a steam sauna, dry sauna, hot pool, warm pool and cold pool. The idea is to flush out the toxins and impurities in your body by getting your body temperature up and then when you're ready to leave you get in the cold pool to close all those pores and regulate your body temp again. We spent about an hour apart in our separate spa areas. I enjoyed moving from area to area and just relaxing my very tired body. It felt great.

After our time apart we put on our little shorts and t-shirts that they give us (pink for me and blue for Dan!) and met on a different level. This level had 4 rooms where you do more meditation and purifying. Here's a picture of Dan and me in the Himalayan Salt room. You know those salt lamps? This whole room is made of that! The bricks are salt, underneath our towels are salt rocks, and there was a heater surrounded by more bricks. It was so relaxing just laying in there for as long as we wanted. We chatted and Dan listened to a book for awhile.

The other rooms were a jewel room where the walls were completely covered in amethyst, an ice room, and a clay room. Sadly, the last two rooms were closed. I think if those rooms had been open I'd be ready to come back here a lot more often. But we really only spent time in the salt room and cooled off in the lounge area. If anyone ever wants to join me, let's do it! It's so refreshing and great!

After sweating everything out at the spa we were hungry! It's not surprising that there were lots of Korean restaurants in this area of town. It's probably a good thing we don't live closer, or we'd never eat anywhere else! Here we are at a good ol' Korean BBQ place! It never fails to be sooooo good! If we go back we're going to go in the basement of this place and get Korean Fried Chicken!

While we were eating that delicious dinner, we joked that the one thing that would make this night perfect would be to have some Bing-su for dessert. It's a VERY finely shaved ice topped with fruit, ice cream, sweetened condensed milk and other yummy embellishments. It was a pipe dream because we've never been able to find it in the United States.

until....

Now! They have it literally down the street from the Korean Spa we went to! (This was all in the town of Federal Way, btw) While it wasn't AS amazing as in Korea, it came pretty darn close! And it wasn't necessarily a Korean restaurant either. The place was called Cafe Noir and they had a wide assortment of food, treats and drinks! 

This is definitely a 2-3 person dessert!

I even made a little video of it so you could see the texture of the shaved ice. This is not like Bahama Bucks or that type of flavored ice. It's as if someone shaved vanilla dip n dots or something. You just have to experience it sometime!

I'm not sure what it is about having a Korean day like this that is just so much fun. I'm glad we can do all this just about an hour away from where we live! Go Washington! (To be fair Dan says the Korean Spa in Dallas is much much better, but it was never close enough for him and I to go together, he just went when he was traveling)