At the center of every thriving community, is a space where people can join together. Whether it be in good times or bad, people need a place to go in the face of both the challenges and the small and large victories of life. It is important to have space to gather and decompress from the worries of the world. A space one can associate with feelings of peace and joy. Cloud 9 Foot Spa is one such place.
One of the very first Cloud 9 Foot Spas opened in the small town of Half Moon Bay, California, where I grew up and have come back to live in my young adult years. Our local community is small and it is always exciting to find new things to do in town. I remember when Cloud 9 first opened, I was only in middle school but it quickly became a favorite place to go. Some of my fondest memories growing up involved going to the spa.
Cloud 9 is a place we can go for special occasions, hard days, dates, and socialization.
The spa is a family friendly place for all ages. I remember spending my thirteenth birthday at Cloud 9 with both my mother and my grandmother. Three generations of women celebrating a special day with the treat that is Cloud 9’s beloved foot massages, something that became a tradition for us.
These foot massages became popular around town because they are so much more than just a foot massage, it is a foot soak, a head rub, and a body massage all in one. It became such a favored social occasion because of Cloud 9’s open floor plan that allows guests to enjoy their services side by side with their loved ones. I have special memories of spending the day at Cloud 9 with my girlfriends and their older sisters, enjoying the experience side by side. It is also common to see entire families come in around the holidays to spend some quality time together. My brother and father have joined my mother and I many times over the years.
Cloud 9 also became a safe landing pad as I have recently returned back to Half Moon Bay in transition to the next chapter of life. I have now been able to enjoy working at the front desk of the spa as a receptionist.
The team at Cloud 9 is composed of wonderful people who have been nothing but supportive to me and our local community, often contributing to local organizations for our youth and supporting growth for all of our staff members. Working here as well as being a loyal guest over the past eleven years has shown me just how much Cloud 9 matters to our community and visitors alike. I have met new and familiar faces. People visiting town for a mini vacation, locals winding down from their work weeks, couples meeting their significant others for a date night, young children experiencing their first massages alongside family, birthday celebrations, anniversaries, retirement, wedding parties, soon to be mothers, the list goes on.
I have also witnessed how Cloud 9 has provided others with a soft landing pad; sisters mourning a loved one who had recently passed, cancer survivors hoping to reconnect with their bodies, heartbroken individuals moving through break ups and life changes. Cloud 9 has been a place of zero prejudice for both the grieving and the joyful, where all are welcome to be and take a restful pause from daily life. We offer a personal connection to each of our guests, therapists build relationships with their clients and at the front desk we get to know each person coming in. This intimate aspect of the spa creates trust as we do our best to meet the needs of every person who comes in and set an atmosphere that allows everyone to leave feeling a little bit lighter. It has been an honor and a privilege to witness and get to know the many people who walk in and out of Cloud 9 Foot Spa’s doors each and every day. So many different stories of lived experience able to commune in one central place, thank you Cloud 9.
Julia Nauman- Half Moon Bay
