President's Club 2015 Awards Trip

So we went on Thomas's work President's Club awards trip. 

What's that, you ask? Well it's an exclusive, all-expenses paid, no holds barred, amazing vacation. Thomas's company takes their top sales people each year along with their company presidents and a small group of chosen employees, referred to as the "President's Picks". President's Picks are extra special because they are not sales people and aren't able to win the trip by meeting goals and making numbers, they are hand picked from the thousands of employees as someone who really stands out and is doing a great job. Thomas is not in sales and therefore, was one of the coveted President's Picks from 2015. I still remember the day in January when he found out he won and called me. People were hugging and congratulating him in the background and he and I were both speechless. We were both shocked and extremely excited and I was (and am) so PROUD of him! Since that night, we were counting down the days to this awesome trip.

The night he found out he won -
holding the logo'ed champagne bottle they gave him!

As soon as we found out that Thomas won and got the dates of the trip, we called Fifi and Jerry to see if they would come stay at our house to keep the boys and we got MaSha to mark her calendar as well. We are incredibly lucky to have family willing to help us out in these instances. We felt like 3:3 was a good ratio and knew that the boys would love being around Fifi, Jerry and MaSha while we were gone.

Everything about this trip was well planned and top notch! This is a first class kind of trip and therefore, we got to ride in first class on the plane. Woot woot! The leg room compared to coach is amazing!

Enjoying our first class seats!

Airplane selfie

The destination was Half Moon Bay, CA, which is near San Francisco. This was not the original destination. Initially, we were going to Puerto Rico, but with the Zika outbreak, they felt it was a safer and better choice to go somewhere else. And we didn't just go to Half Moon Bay, we went to the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay! Not only did we get to fly first class and stay at the Ritz, we were given a very generous room credit to be used for any food or drinks that we wanted at the hotel while we were there. We also got daily gifts dropped off in our rooms. Some of the gifts were hand picked for us and different from other people's gifts. Every detail was perfect. Seriously, when in life do you get to stay at such a nice resort and not have to worry about spending a penny on anything you could possibly want? It was unreal. 

Here was our "home away from home" for a few days, the Ritz Carlton. Side note: I could get used to saying that. ;)

Front Entrance

Bathroom

Hotel Room

View from our window, overlooking the ocean lawn.
I loved looking out!

Back of the hotel

So pretty

We arrived mid day on Thursday, May 12. When we got to the hotel, we walked around to get acquainted with the hotel and the grounds. First we went to the Hospitality Suite, which was manned by the group event planners. Inside the suite, there was beer, wine, mini bottles, waters, soft drinks, all sorts of snacks and other goodies. Pretty much anything you would want, you could get from the hospitality suite, It was also kind of a meeting place where people would just hang out and you could meet up with other people in our group. The suite was located in a primetime spot with a patio and fire pit that looked right out on the ocean lawn (the main courtyard area of the hotel). Outside, surrounding the ocean lawn, there were several of these huge fire pits with adirondack chairs all around, overlooking the golf course, the cliffs and the Pacific ocean. It was so beautiful!

Fire pit surrounding the ocean lawn

Just arrived!

Gorgeous scenery
Kind of looks like Scotland, right?

We walked down to the beach for a few minutes as well. It was pretty chilly (not like our beaches here) but not so cold that we couldn't enjoy it.

Beach selfie

Smoochers

Beautiful beach

After a relaxing afternoon, we went back to our room to get ready for the first evening event of the trip. There was a party and dinner on the ocean lawn. It was definitely on the chilly side, but luckily there were heaters as well as pashminas draped over the chairs for us ladies to have an extra layer on to try to keep warm.

My honey and me

Wine tasting with the Ritz sommelier

A bagpiper came through and played for us

After a delicious dinner, there was an amazing s'mores display waiting for us for dessert. They had all sorts of chocolates - Ghirardelli squares, Reese's cups, Hershey's cookies n cream, etc, etc. To go along with it, they had homemade marshmallows in vanilla, mint and banana flavors. My favorite s'more was with a Reese's cup and the banana marshmallow. So yum! Everyone got their s'mores choices and sat around the various fire pits roasting marshmallows, drinking and talking. This part of the evening, when everyone was just gathered around the fire pits, was one of my favorite memories of the whole trip. It was just so laid back and some of the guys were getting going telling stories and cracking us all up. There were some legit comedians in this group and who doesn't love just laughing by a fire while eating s'mores?!?! We were still on east coast time and it was so late at this point, probably 10 PM (which would be 1 AM East Coast time), but no one wanted to go in because we were just having a blast and feeling so thankful to be there.

Roasting our marshmallows

S'mores time!

The Bakers

Personalization goes a long way. When we got back to our hotel room that night after the fire pits, we had rose petals on our bed and this chilled bottle of champagne waiting on us in celebration of our anniversary (May 16). We also got a note wishing us a happy anniversary when we checked in to the Ritz. These extras mean so much.

Champs for the anny

The next day, Friday, we went on the City of San Francisco tour that we signed up for. It left pretty early in the morning and we had a drive to get to the city of a bit over an hour. We went first to a lookout area for a photo opp.

Sheilah and Buck - some of our faves!

Thomas and me
Yes, we were matchy matchy. These
jackets were given to us as our first
room drop gift.

The Bay

The city of San Francisco

Next stop: the Golden Gate Bridge. We really lucked out with having such a clear day. Some days the fog is so bad that you can't see the bridge. That Friday was really clear and perfect. I was so glad!

The Golden Gate Bridge!!!!

Obligatory bridge pic :)

Tourists!
That's Alcatraz way back behind us

The next place we went was China Town.

Feels like you're in China

We went to this tiny little Fortune Cookie Factory

We watched the cookies being made.
This guy and the lady behind him would take them off
of the machine, put in a paper fortune, fold them up,
and then set them up to dry.
Very interesting!!!
And no, he wasn't wearing gloves. :(

Thomas in China Town.

China Town was a great place to get some inexpensive souvenirs. Everything at the Ritz was pricey (as I'm sure you can imagine), so we were glad that we had a chance to buy the boys some t-shirts for a very good price!

The last stop on the tour was to Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Wharf. Our guide gave us several hours to eat lunch, walk around, explore the area, shop, and the like.

Crazy crab statue

Lunch at Pier 39

Thomas with a trolley

We had to walk over to Ghirardelli

Yesssssss

Man candy!!!

CRABS!

Fisherman's Wharf sign

The sea lions at Pier 39
There were so many of them!

I loved watching these guys! They were seriously
entertaining. We didn't discover them until right before
we had to meet back at the bus, but if we had seen them
earlier, I could have spent hours just sitting there
watching them. They were funny!

On our way out of the city, we drove by the San Francisco City Hall. Very pretty!

City Hall

After the tour, we were pretty much exhausted. I woke up around 4 AM on Friday morning, since my body was still on East Coast time, and after a full day of touring and walking around, I was pooped. And the tour got back late in the afternoon so we pretty much had to run straight to our room to get ready for our dinner that evening. It was a busy day!

We had dinner plans with a group of 12 people at Sam's Chowder house. This was such a fun dinner, and we both got a second wind from being tired, since it was a cool restaurant and great group!

Thomas and me in the Ritz lobby - ready for dinner!

Sam's Chowder House

Fun dinner group

Oysters on the half shell

Beautiful scene during sunset at Sam's

My love

Anybody want some crab?

This was seriously my dinner - ha!

Robby - this guy cracks me up!

Fun on the bus ride back to the hotel!

After cocktails and dinner at the restaurant, Tony hooked up his phone to the bus speakers and we were jamming out and singing on the way back to the hotel. After all this fun, we just had to go to the hotel bar for a drink or two before calling it a night. We didn't stay too long and were both just about to fall asleep standing up, but had some fun conversations and good drinks after we got back.

On Saturday, we got room service for breakfast. Yep, that's pretty awesome.

Thomas was ready to dig in!

For the day on Saturday, Thomas signed up for golf and I signed up for the spa. I know you're surprised about my choice. NOT! After a busy, full day on Friday, I was glad to have a more relaxing day planned for Saturday. I was a little bit sad that this was going to be our last day, but kept trying to keep that thought at bay.

All spiffed up for his tee time

Beautiful scene on the Ritz golf course

Thomas's foursome included Buck, Tony and David - great group!

I got a massage at the spa, then went to the hot tub, steam room and sauna. Might as well take advantage of all of amenities, while you can! Am I right?!?!?! After all that, I was pretty hungry and Thomas wasn't done golfing yet. I went to the restaurant to get some lunch and saw Liz and Suiti, who invited me to sit at their table and eat with them. I was (secretly) glad that I didn't have to eat by myself and it was so sweet of them to include me! Heather Sternberg came up later in the same situation and she ended up joining us, too!

After I got done with lunch, Thomas was finally finished golfing and so we met up in the hospitality suite. I was missing him while we were apart. We sat there hanging out at the hospitality suite patio with other President's Club attendees, enjoyed the sun being out and the warmth we'd been missing since we'd been there, and got to watch a wedding being set up and beginning on the ocean lawn.

So glad to see my main man!
Post golf and spa: reunited and it feels so good!

Random wedding we partially watched

That afternoon was so chill and we loved just sitting out there chilling, so we stayed and watched the wedding until the very last moment we could and then had to majorly rush up to our room and get ready in a hurry for the last evening event of the trip. Thirty minutes to get ready - not too bad!!

Waiting on the buses for dinner

The last dinner was for the entire group and we went to a local restaurant called La Costanera.

Gorgeous setting for the restaurant

President's Club 2015 official picture

Silly pic of whole group!

Beautiful restaurant and delicious dinner

It's just so pretty

Sunset at La Costanera

After dinner was over, the night wasn't quite done. The events team surprised us with a DJ and karaoke on the bottom floor of the restaurant. There's nothing like dancing and singing to send the trip out with a bang!

Me, Brittany and Courtney

Karaoke time!

Thomas, JP, Robby, Eric B (aka Wes Bray hahaha) and Eric C

That was such an incredibly fun night. I may have sang (or attempted to sing) a few songs during karaoke and definitely danced! We stayed until the end and got on the very last bus possible. I just didn't want the night, and the trip, to end!

Sunday, we packed up our things, and caught the shuttle to the airport with our assigned group. But the good news is that our trip didn't end here. We were definitely missing the boys by this point, but wanted to take advantage of being out on the West Coast and the comped flights to extend our vacation. Stay tuned for my next post about the rest of our awesome journey.

As for President's Club, it was amazing. It was completely a once in a lifetime trip! It was a glimpse for us to see "how the other half lives", and it was simply incredible. I can't say enough about the team that put the work into planning this. Every single thing was thought through and was so classy and just perfect. The bad thing is that if you're chosen as a "President's Pick", you can't be chosen again. This means we can't ever go back to President's Club again....unless you're either a) a President of one of the business units or b) a sales rep that wins. Presidents and spouses go each and every year and sales reps can go every year that they hit the metrics needed to win. So, the gist of this is that I told Thomas he has 2 years to figure this thing out. He can either get promoted (several levels) up to be a President, or he can switch to sales and max out his goals to earn a spot. Those are his only options. I. MUST. GO. BACK. In all seriousness though, I hope that there will be an opportunity at some point to attend this trip again, because it really was that good. I was so incredibly proud of Thomas for him to win this prestigious honor and both of us were so very grateful to be there.