westcoastprairiegirl

Make up…Done.  Hair…Done.  Slip on Dress.  Strap on heels.  Ready to head back to another place.  Another time.  Another era.

As we walk into the grand room, we are surrounded with an endless sea of tables covered in white linen and sparkling silverware.  In the middle is an empty dance floor, and at the end of it is an array of instruments, microphones and lighting sitting silently, patiently waiting to be used.

Around the dance floor are small, round cocktail tables with a lamp on each, giving a romantic glow to the place settings set for two.  Larger tables fill the rest of the room but it’s these romantic tables for two that set the mood.

We are led and seated at one of these round tables.  Our chairs are facing the dance floor.  It’s like our own little world with the other couples sitting at the other cocktail tables looking in, onto the dance floor.  We have THE seats of the house as each person snuggles in close to their significant other, sipping wine and sharing desserts.

And then the band starts to play.

We are taken back into time.  Couples waltzing, twirling, gliding past our table on the dance floor.  These couples just leave their meals and get up and dance.  Their food, taking second place as the music pulls them in.  As the song ends, they head back to their table to take another fork full of their dinner, only to be called away again by the next song.  Romantic songs.  Songs from years past.  Taking everyone back to their younger years.

These couples have danced together for years.  You can tell.  One couple is singled out as they are celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary.  They slowly make their way up to the dance floor.  And everyone is lost in the romance of it all as they watch this couple dance and share smiling glances at each other.  I’m sure these songs they’ve danced to a hundred times over.  But the ambiance of the room, the dance floor, the band, the music and the small cocktail tables with glowing lights take them back to another time, another era.  I’m sure many memories were flowing through the room that night.

And as Armando and I got on the dance floor, we danced these songs for the first time together.  Missing a beat here and there. Stepping on feet.  Counting.  One-One.  One-Two-One. Until we started to fall in sync. Not like the couples with years of experience twirling around us so effortlessly, but like a couple who’s just starting to embark on their journey.

Maybe years from now, we will head back to The Copper Room at the Harrison Hot Springs Resort where we spent this great evening this past weekend.  And with experience and memories under our belts, we too will glide across the dance floor together.