Charlie - June, 2011
Sea Mountain Inn Trip Report – June, 2011
I call this a “mini trip report” because we only spent
one day at Sea Mountain
OK, about SMI. As you may have read in other postings or trip reports, it’s
not much to look at from the outside and oddly, it is in a residential
neighborhood. However, on the inside, it is a very nice place. It’s almost
as if you walk into a different world when you ring the bell, give them your
name (you must have a reservation in advance, even for day and night passes)
and walk onto the property. You’re greeted by Dewey or his wife (the owners)
and brought into the office to check in and sign the membership form ($40
membership good for six months). You are immediately given margaritas which
are very good by the way, and they are just the first of many you will be
offered during your stay. After the paperwork is completed, Dewey gives you
a tour of the property and introduces you to everyone around the pool; not
individually, but in the form of an announcement. We were introduced as C
and G (actually used our names, of course) from
We got a day/night pass which was good from 10:30am until 2:00am and
included lunch and snacks and soft drinks throughout the day as well as
margaritas and Dewey's famous “pour in your mouth” shots of variously
colored concoctions of undescribed ingredients (but all of which were very
tasty). Cost was, I believe, $139 per couple, but I understand it’s $179 on
holiday weekends. However, beware the long distance shot from the
pressurized squirter (think bug or weed repellent sprayer). I got one of
those and I guess I forgot to use my tongue to block my throat and Dewey
made a direct hit to my lungs and I almost drowned! I’ll pass on that one
next time. Many people bring their own booze/beer/mixers that they prefer to
drink and coolers are welcome. Lunch consisted of delicious fried chicken
and various salads. Most people ordered from the take out menu for dinner
(you pay for your order when it arrives, but the all female staff – except
for Dewey – take the orders and call them in for you). We got a pizza which
was surprisingly good considering we were in the middle of the desert as far
away from New York, the undisputed capital of pizza (with all due respect to
you Chicago deep dishers), as you can get.
Now for the good stuff. PDA’s are everywhere and encouraged. There is a very
definite Lifestyle slant to SMI, much more so than Hedo, but you can still
enjoy yourself if you are not Lifestylers as long as you don’t mind being
surrounded by people who are. Of course, “no means no” as it does in all
lifestyle environments. The vibe is very Hedo-like (especially in the pool)
in that you feel the complete freedom you feel at Hedo, everyone is naked
and everyone is having a good time. We found the people to be open and
friendly, but perhaps not as much so as at Hedo. There also seemed to be
more “cliquieness” than at Hedo, but in fairness this is based on one day’s
experience and I’m sure, like Hedo, the vibe varies based on who’s there on
any given day. We also didn’t see the full array of body types you see at
Hedo. The SMI people that were there on Saturday, at least, were on average,
in better shape than the average Hedo guest. Ages ranged from 20’s to 60’s
with the majority being in their 30’s, which is younger than us, but we
didn’t feel at all out of place. All in all it was a great time and a good
DIF breaker. With Hedo being 5 out of 5 stars, we'd give it 4 stars. We’ll
go back, but next time we might not do the day/night pass because we didn’t
make it to anywhere near 2:00am. That’s a long, long day and without a room
of your own to go back to, perhaps take a little nap or just have some alone
time we found it to be too long for us. I don’t know if they have a pass
that starts later in the day and goes into the evening. The day pass goes
from 10:30am to 5:30pm and many there seemed to have that pass as the crowd
thinned out considerably after 5:30. Ideal would be a pass that goes from
2:00 or 3:00pm to 2:00am, but I don’t know if there is such a thing. I
suppose you could do the day/night pass and just get there later, but most
of the pool fun seemed to take place between about noon and 4:00pm.
Since we didn’t stay there, I can’t say much about the rooms but we did see
a couple of them from the outside when doors were open and they looked very
nice.
This would be a terrific place for Southern CA (and even Arizona) Hedo folks
to meet for a “sorta Hedo weekend/meet N greet” and I think I’ll try to put
something like that together on the board for perhaps September to see if
there’s enough interest. Of course, in this case, the 10:30am to 2:00am pass
would probably be great since we will all have things in common and some of
us will even know each other from Hedo. This report turned out to be longer
than I had planned for it to be. We’d be happy to answer any questions; just
PM us.