BoomerGirl Diary

According to Mapquest, the Westin Crown Center, one of two ritzy hotels in Hallmark Cards' 85-acre entertainment complex, is only 39 miles from my house. But the 18th floor suite where I recently staged a girlfriends getaway seemed like a whole different planet.

As I pointed out in my book "Girlfriend Getaways: You Go, Girl, and I'll Go, Too," “a weekend with room service can do wonders for your state of mind.”

Getting away, after all, simply means getting away from the normal routine. A girlfriend getaway is more than taking a trip or booking a plane reservation. It's about making a life, about throwing out ho-hum ruts and lifeless rituals. A girlfriend getaway, above all, leads you to a different way of thinking.

And, boy, did I think differently while gazing out over the Kansas City skyline from a luxury suite that was probably bigger than my home. Let's examine a Crown Center suite in terms of the four components of a successful G.G. (girlfriend getaway). What? You don't recall the four components of every successful G.G. I present for your review:

A place to talk. This is the most important component. We girls absolutely must have a suitable place to discuss everything from George Clooney's backside to the latest diet.

A place to gawk. So what if we're married? Good scenery (aka cute guys) is vital to every G.G.

A place to rock. It's not that we're going to be out partying every night (hey, if component 1 is rated high enough, we may never have to leave the room), but it's essential that the “party” option be present should we choose to dance or to imbibe.

A place to dock. Just long enough to get pampered. We work hard the other 51 weeks of the years, so every good G.G. should have a place to steam or get massaged.

Now for the Westin rating.

1. A place to talk. **** (four stars) Eventually, when our mouths came back to life after being agape for a good 20 minutes, (as I mentioned earlier the views were stunning and the amenities in a suite this size took a while to check out), the Liberty Suite was the absolute perfect place to talk. The table easily seated eight, there were comfy couches for us to paint our nails on and the giant bed, what the Westin calls a Heavenly bed, had plenty of room for all of us to sit on in our pajamas. Take listerol. Your throat may get sore.

2. A place to gawk. *** (three stars) Okay, so most of our gawking revolved around the jaw-dropping cityscapes winking at us from our 100 yards of glass windows. But hey, even Brad Pitt would be in stiff competition with these views. We could see Liberty Memorial and the Eternal Flame of Inspiration, the Missouri River, Union Station, second only to Grand Central in terms of size, the Henry Bloch fountain that dances with 232-jets, downtown Kansas City in all its neon glory and the grassy knoll where I'm sure the guys were drop dead gorgeous even though they looked like ants from where we were standing.

3. A place to rock. **** (four stars) Let's just say the Westin has an attached shopping center with every from of retail imbibement known to woman. And that's just the day-time possibilities. At night, guests can choose between movie theaters, live theaters (there are two in Crown Center and at least one in the adjoining Union Station), live jazz and lots of places to get a live drink.

4. A place to dock **** (four stars) The 60-foot waterfall in the five-story Westin lobby was our first clue that we weren't staying in some ordinary dive. No, the Westin that has a well-deserved AAA four diamond rating features such amenities as glass elevators, fascinating artwork, an indoor-outdoor pool, a recently renovated health club and glass-enclosed links that take you all over the complex.