Much needed break ...

So this weekend marked the ANNUAL Ritz Girls weekend ~ every July, a group of girls heads to a different Ritz Carlton Resort. We stay on Club Level to enjoy all that it offers (4 presentations of food each day, unlimited drinks (of all kinds) and pretty much treat you like royalty) - it's wonderful.

We headed down Friday morning and were there before lunch ended! We decided to grab a quick bite and then head down to the beach. Naples is beautiful - and CLEAN!

This is a view of the resort from the beach .....

This was our bellman, Court ~ he was from Atlanta and ABSOLUTELY adorable. We tipped him extra to grab us some more Bulgari soaps and lotions.

This was as we entered the property - we literally all squealed like school girls!

The beach from our room -- this looks like a postcard, doesn't it? The weather was like this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! The water was so warm ... it was great.

Shawn - this one is for you. This dude was walking around with all his jewelry on, denim shorts and that dress shirt. I could have died. He was puffing cigars. He kept yelling out to the 'beach waiter' and when he didn't come fast enough, he'd say "YOU'RE KILLING ME" - but in this weird accent -- so needless to say, that was ONE of the quotes of the weekend!

I surprised each girl with a cute little gift bag I made before we left! It had an embroidered towel in it that said "Ritz 2009", a cup from Swoozies that said "OH CABANA BOY, I'll take another!", gum, lotion, ocean scented sachet, and a sample set of body stuff from Arbonne. They LOVED it and I LOVED doing it for them!

Our first night there -- taken on the balcony of our room.

The sunset ....

This was just a SAMPLING of the desserts we had each night. This was vanilla marscapone with these little crunchy chocolate things, topped with what I kept calling a "chocolate boat filled with caramel" and a HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOW .... OMG!!! I had 2!

Out final goodbye to the Ritz -- this is the fountain at the entrance and we all had on our "Ritz Chix" shirts ... so cute.
A great time was had by everyone, although we were missing a few girls. I think we have voted and we will be going back here next year. It's not a bad drive and quite frankly, they ENCOURAGED us to have fun. We got in SERIOUS trouble last year in Sarasota ... for being too loud. Like, the Manager of the whole hotel had to come speak with us on MORE than one occasion, but I digress ..... not this year.

Until next year -- viva la Ritz!