If you have followed our articles for any time at all, you know that we enjoy covering new attractions for children and families. This particular one is really for the parents, but hey, parents need love too.

Furthermore, if you have followed our articles recently you will likely notice that we enjoy covering old haunts that have recently renovated. As a fifth-generation northern Nevadan, I appreciate these articles probably more than most others do, which is why I take particular pride writing this one.

As dads – and as men broadly – we often get overlooked in many ways. The male/female gender binary affects us just as much as it does the women, and one of those ways is how we typically relax, unwind, de-stress, and indulge in self care. Men usually gravitate to things like playing sports, shooting guns, fishing, hiking, brewing beer, fixing cars, woodworking, and, for lack of a better term, “tinkering.”

And it’s not that our female counterparts avoid these things (well, perhaps my wife does – LOVE YOU, BABE!), but they do other stuff and most of it includes something that rhymes with “spa day.”

Okay, it’s spa day.

Why don’t men do this? From my view as a professional family therapist, I think it is simply because we like to move, compete, or create for our relaxation. Women can just sit and be still, which is just simply something we have yet to master fully. But you can practice it. As any good behaviorist will tell you: you get good at that which you practice. And I believe that practicing sitting still and learning to be tranquil is a good thing.

This is where the new Spa at Silver Legacy makes its entrance into this piece. In May of 2018, Silver Legacy hotel administration decided that the existing facilities no longer served the needs of its clients and instead of sprucing up the place with some new curtains, they chose to gut the entire fourth floor and convert the whole thing into a 21,000 square-foot spa facility, complete with two TVs in the men’s locker room, including one over the men’s-only hot tub.

Now that’s cool dad stuff. But that’s not why you’re reading.

If you are a dad and have never had a spa day, please consider it. Some of us have had the privilege of sitting in a brine room outfitted entirely with pink himalayan sea salt bricks and come out the other side feeling quite refreshed. Some of us have had massages, cold water baths, pedicures, facials, and even couples treatments with our significant others. But none of us have had the experience constructed from scratch at this particular spa.

Spa manager (and facility visionaire) George Powell-Lopez was imported from out of state with an impeccable history of working at the most elite spa resorts in the country. He aims to recruit and retain only the best and most talented staff whom he can train to deliver the five-star experience that is a reflection of his own passion.

“I could fill my staff tomorrow,” he said, indicating the desire to work at the new spa, “But I want the people to be five-star because that matters. I would rather hire someone fresh and new (out of massage school) so I can train them into what I want them to be here.”

For local geeks like me, George took the time to incorporate not only local Reno/Tahoe motifs, such as forestscapes, but the hotel intentionally sought to work with local chemists from the University of Nevada and local apothecary, Sorella, to create one-of-a-kind scents from Nevada’s indigenous flora. The smell in the men’s locker room alone is worth the trip. To boot, The Spa at Silver Legacy offers an organic, four-step men’s line called OM4 that I got to sample and it is fantastic.

Of course if you’re still not sold and really, really can’t sit still for a massage or facial, there’s always the gym, dry sauna, steam room, and of course, the two flat screens with DirecTV subscriptions so you can watch MLB Network. Being fair, the gym is quite nice with all rubberized equipment and the treadmills have the latest app-driven technology (hello, YouTube). The weights area is an entirely different room from the cardio, so the grunting people don’t have to see the panting people, and vice versa, which I think is nice.

Check out the website for packages and bookings. I would highly suggest that we dads step out of the traditional norm for what constitutes a day of relaxation and instead of being unhealthy downstairs at the sports book, drinking cocktails and angrily shouting at the TV (not that I’d know), perhaps consider heading to the fourth floor and inhaling brine and sipping a Davidson’s fair trade tea. Or if tea is not your thing, maybe have a Ferrari-Carano Siena in the hot tub. Heck, if you want to get really loose, invite the missus for a couple’s day.

No matter what, we need to embrace the softer side of our dad-ness. For ourselves, and for our families.