When I got married, my girlfriends hired a male and female cowboy stripper to do a pony ride around my living room with Hank Williams honky-tonking in the background.  Yee-hawww, WTF? So awkward. Afterward, we went and got shit-faced at Stones Place and then played poker until dawn. Five years ago, that was our idea of a really fun night: booze, nakedness and a nightcap at 4AM with an arrival home at 6AM. Well folks, things have changed. Some of us are pregnant, the 6AM home time sounds more like a nightmare than a good night, and our idea of quality time together just looks different.

We debated doing a wild night for our lovely bride-to-be, but since we see each other so sparingly and hail from coast to coast, we really wanted to use our 24 hours together in the best way possible. So, we swapped a wild night on the town for a surprise slumber at The Park Hyatt.

We decorated the room with pink balloons, roses, champagne and a naked Barbie doll styled to look like our guest of honour. An old Polaroid was slapped on Suite 1404 to mark our territory. The concierge delivered us an ice bucket, sparkling water and glasses. We turned on the iPod and shrieked SURPRISE when she entered the room. Before opening up gifts of lacy undergarments, we watched her emotionally tear up flipping through the pages of a book we had made that chronicled every horrid haircut one could imagine. I thought I had ripped up every photo of when I tried to emulate Sinead O’Connor, apparently not. 

After some champers and an impromptu game of ‘remember this?’, ‘remember that!?’ we set out for a dinner at Sotto Sotto and capped the evening off with a nightcap at The Hyatt rooftop bar. 

We whispered like teenagers deep into the night and arose in the morning to breakfast in bed. But that’s not all! Following our continental, we put on our flip-flops and waltzed downstairs to The Stillwater Spa for a pedicure accompanied by lattes and a stack of gossipy glossies.

I think in our span of 12 awake hours together we covered just about every topic and caught up on almost everything in one another’s lives. 

It was truly special, and by the time we rolled our suitcases into the main lobby, our voices started to crack and we held back tears over long hugs.

Yeah, yeah – make fun of us as lame, over-dramatic girls, but truth be told, it was the best winter weekend I think I’ve ever had! 

Right now The Park Hyatt has three very cool staycation options:
Pamper at the Park includes a Stillwater option, Culture at the Park gives you access to either the Royal Ontario Museum or Art Gallery of Ontario and Romance at the Park will have you sipping champagne bedside and keeping the sheets warm until 2PM the next day.