Girl’s Weekend.  It’s just three days and two nights, but we talk about it all year – what we saw, what we ate, who said what.  It’s our time together, our time for ourselves.  It’s Girl’s Weekend.

My  best friend’s cousin organized the first one three years ago.  Friends from home, a college roommate, my best friend and I.  We were thrilled.  ‘Someone invited us!’, we said, broad smiles on our faces.  Dates were set, reservations made.  We decided on a midpoint  – a wellness spa with massages, facials, and gluten-free food.  We brought our own snacks and bottles of wine.

That road trip became our routine for the next two years – off in the morning, stop at Harry and David’s for pepper salami, lunch at Bob Evans.  Then on to the spa.   Hours on the road to talk about work, friends, and life in general.   Fall color, truck stops, and winding roads on the way to the spa.

The first year eight of us came.  Instant friends, we arrived and walked to the lodge for dinner.  Meal over, we walked to our rooms, saying our meal was delicious and filling.  Five minutes later, in the door and up the stairs we attacked the pepper salami, cheese, chips, cookies, cakes and chocolate we’d brought.  So much for gluten-free.  Wine in hand, we talked and laughed telling the stories women tell when it’s ‘just the girls’.  Laughing until tears rolled down our cheeks.

The weekend disappeared and we talked about next year – a cruise, Las Vegas, Cape Cod.  But the year passed and we were back at the wellness spa.   Just three of us this year – my best friend, myself and her cousin sharing a room.  Our talk grew closer.  We watched TV and ate cheese, crackers and sausage in between spa treatments, meals and sharing our lives.   Hours and hours of laughing, listening and learning about each other.

This year?  Our third and last year at the spa; three of us again.  The spa will close and re-open as a rehab center.   We had our last walk in the woods, the last treatments at the spa.   More closeness, more sharing, more stories, more snacks.  The best Girl’s Weekend yet.

We’re thinking about Las Vegas and the Bellagio next; maybe a weekend cruise to Bermuda. Wherever we go, Girl’s Weekend is about being together – talking, eating, laughing.  No excuses, no apologies and ‘just us girls’ for a time that’s more special each year.

Do you go on a Girl’s Weekend?  Where do you go and what do you do?  Tell us – we’d like to hear!