August, 2014 – Eau Palm Beach and AquaNuts

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Dipping my toes in the water while in a swinging chair – at the Self-Centered Garden.

Mommy Moments

Oh Palm Beach, Eau Palm Beach!  And AquaNuts Kids’ Camp too!

By Krista Martinelli

On a delightful day, just before school began again, my kids and I visited the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. Since this is “Mommy Moments,” let me first tell you about their awesome kids’ camp AquaNuts and then I’ll tell you about my experience at the Spa.

AquaNuts is an all-day camp, offered at Eau Palm Beach in Manalapan and it offers a great variety of fun activities for children. It’s located next to the pirate ship at the pool level of the resort. When you walk into the AquaNuts facility, you are struck by the underwater theme – including a treasure chest of dress-up clothes, a rock climbing sea wall and a Grotto of gaming consoles. The staff person who manages AquaNuts, Carolina, is excellent at making each child feel warm and welcome right away when they enter AquaNuts.

Fun at AquaNuts Kids' Camp
Fun at AquaNuts Kids’ Camp

There’s a music mixing room where you can experience being a DJ (my kids loved that!), the Coast Beauty Salon where girls can pamper themselves or get their hair braided, a Build-a-Bear area, a sandcastle stage, and a pull-down screen with a projector for movies. Someone with a wonderful imagination designed the AquaNuts area, and my kids loved it!

They also had a chance to swim in the ocean and in the beautiful Eau Palm Beach pool, supervised by staff.  The staff assisted them in putting on sunscreen, so they were all prepared. Out at sea, they can enjoy surfing and paddle boarding, or just splashing in the waves. I could see how excited they were when I dropped them off for a day at AquaNuts.  So excited that they didn’t notice when I said, “Goodbye!  I’m going to the spa.” And of course I was happy to know that they were so happy, while I was going to enjoy the spa.

The Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa is a beautiful, five-star place to stay, and the spa is a great place for rest and relaxation. In fact, I had just recently spent a day at PGA National’s Spa, which I had considered to be the best of the best – until I visited Eau Palm Beach. I was truly in awe of the facilities and the warmth of the staff at Eau Palm Beach’s spa. I enjoyed a one-hour foot massage in a cabana on the beach, thanks to a lovely massage therapist named Lori.  Before heading out, she encouraged me to throw a coin into their wishing well and make a wish for the day. She offered me champagne, lemonade, flavored water, a salted caramel cupcake. We were off to a good start!

Lori, a wonderful massage therapist, at Eau Palm Beach
Lori, a wonderful massage therapist, at Eau Palm Beach

The salt-water foot massage was amazing.  And it might sound funny, but if you’re ever on your death bed, and you can have one part of your body massaged, I would recommend choosing your feet.  A good foot massage seems to cure the whole body.

She finished off the foot massage with a citrus cream with a delightful scent, followed by a finishing body mist. You can mix scents til your heart’s content with their Scrub and Polish bar, creating the perfect foot cream and spray customized for you. I took home a cute souvenir bag of citrus-scented foot scrub, foot cream and body spray. I’ve been using the products in the evenings, and the scent brings me right back to the spa.

When it was over, I headed back to the spa to enjoy the facility, which includes many different areas for relaxation. They invite you to “pause” in their Self-Centered Garden with dipping pools, hanging chairs, waterfall bench and cabanas.  So I did.  I paused.  And hung out in one of the hanging chairs with my feet dipping in the water.

The Self-Centered Garden at Eau Palm Beach
The Self-Centered Garden at Eau Palm Beach

I also enjoyed the ultimate Eau Bath, a candle-lit hot tub with a waterfall falling into the middle of it.  Lots of time to just breathe in and relax the muscles.

My massage therapist Lori recommended using their conditioner in the shower, wrapping my hair in a towel and then spending some time in the steam room – to really condition my hair well.  So I did.  The steam room is fun, with a disco ball, to add a little flair. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously here,” says PR Manager Nick Gold, explaining the occasional rubber ducks that you’ll find in the wishing well and around the spa.  It’s this feeling of levity that they want you to take home and remember.

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Feeling hungry?  You can order a beautiful lunch from the spa.  And you don’t have to get out of your provided cozy bathrobe and flip flops for it. They will wheel a lunch tray right out to you in the garden, wherever you’d like to sit and dine.  I had the pappardelle with spring vegetables. It was perfect and perfectly yummy!

I lounged. Read magazines. Showered. Got in the hot tub. Had a cupcake. Had some more champagne. Lounged in those hanging chairs in the garden again. All part of a hard day’s work of getting totally relaxed!

View from the pool at Eau Palm Beach
View from the pool at Eau Palm Beach

Of course, when I picked up the kids, they weren’t quite ready to go.  They wanted to stay a little longer.  I felt the same way.  We’ll be back.

Read my poem about that beautiful day…underPoem of the Month.”

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Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa

888-306-4894

AquaNuts Kids

561-540-4833

100 South Ocean Boulevard
Manalapan, FL 33462

Krista Martinelli is the mother of two children and the editor of AroundWellington.com. She enjoys tennis, activities with her kids, eating cupcakes and drinking champagne.