Spa

The Daily News would like to thank the magical hands at Bernard's Salon and Spa for providing hair and makeup services for the Sexy Singles. A special shout-out also goes to the staff at MB & Associates for their coordination assistance. What would we do without our Sexy Singles team? This year's photo shoot had a City to Shore theme. We photographed the Sexy Singles at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.

BEDFORD, Pa. - You expect, when you're getting services in a classic spa, to be able to step into a steam room, a pool, a hot tub, maybe a pair of spa slippers. In Bedford Springs, you also step into history. Not that you go to a spa for a historic encounter - you go for a rub, not to rub elbows with spa guests of the past. But Bedford Springs, about a 3 1/2-hour drive west from Philadelphia, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, is as much about the past as it is about its restoration to a new, serene present.

The wooden planks that served as sidewalks were lifted off the mud and piled by the road. The poles and tarp that sheltered the TV room were broken down, revealing a huge Zenith with a cable hookup. And common areas, littered with the cumulative debris from hundreds of residents over several years, were raked clean. Camden's Tent City, a homeless encampment on an I-676 exit ramp that has become a source of fascination for reporters and donors - and a dilemma for government and social service agencies - prepared to shut down Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters Wednesday to six spa companies, including one based in King of Prussia, for making false and misleading statements about drugs they contended could eliminate fat. In a procedure known variously as lipodissolve, mesotherapy, lipozap, lipotherapy, or injection lipolysis, patients receive a series of injections meant to "dissolve and permanently remove small pockets of fat from various parts...

Not content with being the top-grossing casino in the state, Parx wants to grow again - just three months after opening a bigger $250 million gambling hall in Bensalem. The casino is embarking on a multiphase expansion over the next three to five years at a cost of $100 million - with the potential to add $200 million more - depending on the size of a hotel, spa, and showroom, according to Bob Green, chairman of Greenwood Racing Inc., which owns Parx. He said the expansions could create an additional 1,000 jobs over that time.

A salon for couples' massages with private shower. Life-coaching sessions in low-lit rooms with cushy chairs. A lineup of services to make clients' skin appear younger and their bodies thinner. This isn't a retreat resort. It's the new face of luxury at the nonprofit Virtua Health system's recently opened Health and Wellness Center, on Hurffville-Cross Keys Road in Washington Township. Designers of the center's $3.5 million spa, called vir t?, "spared nothing," said Ralph Cioffi, general manager of the spa, a joint venture of the hospital system and the Star Group marketing firm.

Lisa Leeper was not hard at work. Instead, the admissions coordinator at a long-term rehab center relaxed in a comfy swivel chair at Bernard's Salon & Day Spa in Marlton while a hairstylist straightened her black locks with a hot iron. Then, she moved a couple of stations over for a French manicure. Not a bad way for Leeper, 39, to spend a workday afternoon. After all, the Mount Laurel woman deserved to be pampered. For a year of work well done, this was her bonus: a few hours of being fussed over.

Settle in and have your achy muscles caressed. Breathe fragrant aromas of eucalyptus, lavender, sandalwood or grapefruit. Listen to Bach, Beethoven or cool jazz, and melt away stress in a steam shower. You know you want to pamper yourself, and now there's no need to travel to an exotic location. You can create a luxe bath/personal spa right at home. Just as thread counts determine a bed sheet's degree of luxury, the number of jets and nozzles have become the deciding factors in upgrading shower and tub features.

You're sitting on the edge of a swimming pool so blue, you imagine you're in the Caribbean. The vivid flowers and aquatic plantings surrounding this pool are so spectacular, they rival those found near Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Now, you close your eyes and savor a meal so satisfying you'd swear you were in Paris. All this after a pedicure so perfect, a facial so cleansing and a massage so soothing, you think maybe you've just died and gone to . . . Atlantic City?

Wallace Township doesn't have a grocery store, a gas station, or even a traffic signal. A semi-rural outpost wedged between Routes 100 and 322, the area used to be a haven for mill workers, manor houses and gentlemen farmers. In recent years, the township in Northwest Chester County has remained an island of relative calm in the midst of the development boom affecting its neighbors in Upper Uwchlan and East Brandywine. From 2000 to 2006, Wallace's population grew from 3,245 to 3,432 according to the US Census, a change of six percent.