Perhaps you saw a sneak peek of our day at the Terranea Resort in my 30th birthday post. Today I’ve got a whole report for you.

Last Friday I drove down to Palos Verdes with my friends Grace and Tamar for a day of lounging by the pool. Grace had called ahead to find out that the Terranea Spa offers a $60 day pass for non-visitors. While checking in we discover this deal is only offered Monday through Thursday, but they aren’t busy and kindly let us purchase passes anyway… so call ahead if you’d like to go over the weekend.

Upon arrival, we promptly change into swim suits and camp out by the pool, overlooking the ocean:

And we order two bottles of wine.

After an hour or two, I tear myself away from the lounge chair and go for a stroll with my camera.

I love the attention paid to details around the resort — like the white decals on this fireplace and refreshing, fruit-infused water available throughout the spa.

Here’s the grand entrance where we dropped off our car (free valet parking for spa guests).

Chairs are set up on this cliff overlooking the ocean. What a gorgeous spot for a wedding.

This view looks back towards Abalone Cove, where my sister and I have explored a few times.

After spending an hour in the hot tub, we shower and change for dinner. And then lounge by the fire pit.

We rush over to the western edge of the resort for sunset.

And then it’s back to the fire pit… this time for a little photo shoot.

Grace and Tamar take turns posing, giving directions to each other… “Now look surprised! … Now contemplative! …”

Around 8pm we head to Catalina Kitchen, one of eight restaurants on the property. Today is Tamar’s 30th birthday and this place offers a free surf and turf dinner on your special day.

(The restaurant looks empty because I snapped these photos at the end of the night, but it’s quite busy around dinner hour.)

We are a little early for our reservation so we grab cocktails at Bashi, an upscale sushi place next door. By now more friends have arrived to join us for dinner.

While walking to our seats at Catalina Kitchen, we pass by their seafood buffet.. and we’re hooked.

It’s $55 per person for this buffet and I can’t imagine a better place to overload on seafood. There’s lobster bisque, clam chowder, jumbo shrimp, oysters, crab cakes, snow crab legs, salmon, lobster mac ‘n cheese, and a sushi bar. PLUS they serve prime rib and sides like Brussels sprouts with bacon. I’m in heaven.

So is the birthday girl! While Tamar has ordered the surf and turf, our waiter allows us to bring her whatever she wants from the buffet.

They deliver a giant plate of snow crab legs to our table along with individual cups of drawn butter.

Oh, did I mention the dessert bar?

Not only are there a half-dozen bars to try (the lemon and tiramisu are my favorites), but they also serve ice cream with about 15 different toppings to pick from. I’m in love with the homemade caramel sauce… in fact, my ice cream is more like caramel soup by the time I finish pouring.

It may come as no surprise to you that I have zero self-restraint at buffets. By the end of the evening we are all full to the point of feeling borderline ill! But a good kind of ill, the kind that involves crab legs and caramel sauce…

Between stuffing our faces, we enjoy a fun night of conversation. I love these ladies!

I snap a few shots as we leave Catalina Kitchen.

This is the hotel pool, different from the spa pool where we spent the afternoon.

One last shot of our group:

Many thanks to Tamar for inviting us to celebrate her birthday! She generously treated us with a gift certificate she received from work. This was such a memorable day!