Platinum Bryan

This past December, I was lucky to finally get the chance to stay at the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay.  Usually, the place is ridiculously expensive, but thankfully, for my fiancee’s birthday, I was able to use points plus cash to reserve a night in a fire pit terrace room.  Using points was a big way to soften the blow to my wallet.

The drive up to the property was beautiful.  As with other Ritz-Carlton properties where I’ve visited, check-in was easy, seamless, and professional.  We also got a glass of wine upon arrival.  It was the inali Pinot Noir from Atsina Cellars in the Russian River Valley, which was excellent.  I ended up ordering a bottle through room service later on.

The room itself, like other Ritz Carlton rooms, was gorgeous.  There was nothing too big about the fire pit terrace room (it was not a suite).  That said, it was very well taken care of and had nice, calm colors.  It definitely had the seafarer vibe.  And because it was my fiancee’s birthday, they added some balloons for a nice touch!

 

 

 

The room decorations were standard Ritz-Carlton, from the nice, soft bed to the bathroom look.  The main draw of the room was without a doubt, the view and the fire pit.

The view from the room was spectacular!  You could clearly see the ocean and the cliffs, and you could just walk right outside to them.  The fire pit was great.  My main regret is that we actually didn’t get to use it that much.

As we didn’t have too much daylight left after checking in (it was December, after all), we decided to explore the grounds outside.  There was a bagpiper, but he was finishing up as we had started to explore.  The grounds, however, were absolutely beautiful!

There were fantastic views of the property, the ocean, the nearby golf course, and the cliffs.  I only wish there had been more daylight.  Luckily though, it was at least a sunny evening.

After exploring the hotel grounds during daylight, we went back to the room to freshen up a bit before dinner.  For dinner, I decided to treat my love to a nice dinner at Pasta Moon.  It was a short drive in downtown Half Moon Bay.  The food and pasta were delicious (and my fiancee loved the mussel appetizer), but the cocktails were what really stood out.  I noticed one on the menu called ‘Atticus Finch’. It looked similar to a Manhattan (my favorite cocktail), and since it was named after one of my favorite book characters, I felt the need to try it.  I’m glad I did.  It was quite tasty!

The next day, we awoke just in time to have some breakfast at Navio.  Again, the service was second to none, just like the rest of the hotel.  I would definitely love to come back here for dinner someday.

After breakfast, we decided to explore the grounds a bit more.  We walked down to the beach south of the hotel.  We walked right along the ocean and got some great pics.  It was a picture perfect birthday weekend for my girl.

After checkout we decided to do one more iconic Half Moon Bay thing.  On the drive back to San Francisco, we stopped by for an afternoon snack at Sam’s Chowder House.  We had some of their famous New England clam chowder and some delicious calamari.  It was definitely worth the stop.

And that was our quick twenty four hours in Half Moon Bay

So I recently decided to try a new subscription box around lifestyle items.  This box is called SprezzaBox.  I had seem some Facebook ads and have been curious about this one for some time.  I went to their site and saw a discount code, so I decided to try it.  I had also considered Gentleman’s Box (and now I’m getting bombarded by their ads on Facebook), but I didn’t like the fact that you had to call them to cancel (vs. you can do it easily online with SprezzaBox).  For now, I’m just sticking with SprezzaBox, but that may change in the future.

This box is called ‘The Lexington’.  I’m not sure where it gets its name from, but I must say, I was pretty impressed with my first box.

Like many other subscription boxes, this one comes with card stock with item descriptions.  This box came with the following:

1. Twillory Necktie
2. SPREZZA Tie Clip
3. Salt + Dapper Pocket Square
4. Standard Shirt Collar Stays
5. Basic Outfitter Socks
6. Steak & Scotch Lint Bruch

Upon opening the box, the presentation was very nice, and the item quality was very impressive too.

Twillory Necktie

This is a very nice gray tie.  It’s of a great width and length, and it’s of very high quality.  I can’t wait to get the chance to wear this one as it will look well with a lot of my dress shirts.

SPREZZA Tie Clip

This is a nice tie clip, but it’s nothing too special.  It’s pretty generic compared to most tie clips I’ve seem out there.

Salt + Dapper Pocket Square

This is a very nice pocket square with some nice colors and design.  It matches the blue and gray color scheme of the rest of the box.  Hopefully I’ll get the chance to use this.

Standard Shirt Collar Stays

These are some very heavy duty collar stays in an excellent leather package.  It’s great for travel, and I love metal collar stays over plastic due to their strength.

Basic Outfitter Socks

These are some great socks.  They’re thick, and nice and warm.  I only wish we had a few more months of winter so that I could wear them more.

Steak & Scotch Lint Brush

This is a nice quality lint brush.  Aside from the coloring and the cool name, there’s nothing extraordinary about it though.

All in all , I was actually quite impressed with my first SprezzaBox.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I’ll definitely be keeping my subscription for now.

Ok, so back to some blogposting.  Now that I have a new job and some time, hopefully I can get several posts up in a week.  At least this post and the next one will be lifestyle posts.  Today, I’m going to give a quick review of my February 2018 BirchBox Man.  For those who don’t know, Birchbox Man is a monthly subscription service for $10 a month (used to be $20/month) that sends you sample sizes of different grooming or lifestyle products.  I had cancelled my subscription a while back to cut my costs, but not that they’ve lowered the prices, I’ve decided to try them again.

Each box usually comes with five items, and this month was no exception.  They always print the items and a description on  a nice piece of card stock.

This month, the five items were:

1. Billy Jealousy Gold Standard All Over Wash
2. Clinique for Men Face Scrub
3. DTRT Smooth Start Shaving Cream
4. Hims Multivitamins
5. Oribe Silver Pearl Eau De Parfum

Billy Jealousy All Over Wash

Billy Jealousy is a common brand for Birchbox.  In face, I feel like every box has at least one or two Billy Jealousy products.  Most of the time, I have not been too impressed with them.  In many cases, I also don’t like the smell.  This one does seem a bit different though.  With the papaya extract, it smells quite nice, and the fact that it works for hands, body, hair, and face is a big plus.  I washed my hands with it.  No special feeling, but I do like the fresh smell.

Clinique for Men Face Scrub

I washed my face with this.  The beads were really tiny, much smaller than I’ve seen in other face scrubs.  It just felt ok right after I washed my face, but a few minutes later, my face felt really nice and soft.  I’ll have to wait and see on this one.

DTRT Shaving Cream

This one just didn’t do it for me.  I’m used to more thick gels, and I had to use nearly half the sample tube to cover my face for a shave.  And when I actually shaved, it clumped up in the razor.  It felt good on my skin both during and after, but with the amount of product I’d have to use, I think there are better options.

Hims Multi-vitamins

These are some interesting multi-vitamins.  They taste great for sure, but when you look in the nutritional info, the main thing they have is biotin (supposedly good for hair and nails).  I’ll have to wait and see if I notice any difference after using the sample pack if I should get some more.  Regardless, I’d still have to take my regular multi-vitamins if I got these.

Oribe Silver Pearl

This is a great smelling fragrance (I only wish they put it in a mini-spray bottle).  It’s got a strong, but not too sensual scent.  That said, at $105 for a full size, it’s a bit too expensive in my opinion.  Thus, I probably won’t buy more after I use up the sample.

Summary

In summary, I’ll have to wait a bit longer for how these $10 boxes go, but I’m keeping my subscription for now.