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“Looking back on things now it’s kind of
amazing because with COVID — if I had a
big salon it would have been incredibly dif-
ficult to get through this time,” she said.
The salon now has minimal furniture to
prevent having places to touch and collect
germs, and make the space easier to adjust
to capacity limits. They have increased their
cleaning and sanitization schedule.
Chadwick credits the salon’s survival
through historic moments to the support of
their customers.
“It’s kind of amazing that we have
forged these relationships with our cli-
ents that through the recession and through
this pandemic, they are still here for us and
we are here for them. It really speaks to
the connections that are made in a salon,”
Chadwick said.
RiversZen Yoga
Since the first set of coronavirus pan-
demic closures in March, Peggy and Dave
Stevens, co-owners of RiversZen Yoga,
have offered virtual yoga classes.
“Overnight — over the weekend as a
matter of fact — all of a sudden we were an
online business,” Peggy Stevens said.
The couple had already had done some
research on hosting virtual classes so they
were able to quickly adapt. They were in a
unique position, having two business loca-
tions in two different states. The business
mostly stayed online because changing
restrictions and capacity rules.
Over time, some clients, even folks who
she thought would never go online, grew
to really love the online yoga instruction,
Peggy Stevens said.
The Stevens’ started RiversZen Yoga in
2012. Their techniques stem from Ki-hara,
a resistance stretching technique that sup-
ports the body’s longterm mobility.
“We are not the normal yoga studio,”
Peggy Stevens said. “We came to it from
how we healed our body.”
Over the years, they added therapy balls
and a technique called voodoo floss, which
helps reduce inflammation from injuries.
Their daughter, Kimberley Gibbs, also
became a trainer.
“We focus on breath, hydration, nutri-
tion, motion and sleep. Those five pieces
all go together and are the key to less pain,”
Peggy Stevens said.
People are slowly coming back to
in-person classes at the RiversZen studios,
Peggy Stevens said. They are able to allow
up to five people in Astoria location and
seven people in Ilwaco, Washington. They
have not had to change their cleaning regi-
mens much because they have always been
focused on maintaining a hygienic space.
The biggest change to the business has been
Jackey Habermann, left, and Stacie Habermann pose during a shift at Adrift Spa.
the shift toward online classes, which they
are excited to continue long-term.
“We will very clearly continue to be
online — that won’t change,” Peggy Ste-
vens said. “There really isn’t any reason,
for a lot of the things that we do, that we
can’t do them on Zoom.”
Adrift Hotel + Spa
Adrift Hotel + Spa in Long Beach,
Washington has seen an increase in patron-
age, thanks to the reopening of lodging in
Pacific County, said Kacia Lessnau, the
hotel’s chief commercial officer.
“The pendulum has swung from not
being able to have access to those services
for a while, to now that we are offering
them … it’s definitely being taken advan-
tage of, by locals and people here vacation-
ing,” she said.
From March through May of 2020,
things looked very different at the hotel and
spa. There was hardly anyone there, she
said. Though they were seeing hard times,
they found another way to keep bringing
in some revenue while helping the com-
munity: Adrift Distillers hand sanitizer.
Lessnau’s husband, Matt, helped navigate
the local community to offer the sanitizer to
places like schools and firefighters.
“He just got scrappy and contacted the
different school boards once they started
talking about school going back in session,”
Kacia Lessnau said. “We provided quite a
bit of sanitizer. At the beginning there, it
was this rare-seeming commodity.”
The pandemic hitting was unfortunate
timing for the spa itself, which was newly
renovated and has a co-located sauna and
saltwater pool. As primarily an amenity for
hotel guests, the lack of hotel guests meant
a lack of spa guests too. The spa’s massage
therapists and estheticians are independent
contractors and lost revenue they would
have made.
Now, with that pendulum swinging and
people feeling more comfortable to travel,
the spa is recovering well — the massage
therapists are fairly booked, she said. She
sees a greater appreciation for these health
experiences in everyone, now that we have
experienced life without them.
“In general, there’s this apprecia-
tion for things that we took for granted
before, maybe? And an increased appreci-
ation for your own health and wellness,”
Kacia Lessnau said. “I do think that peo-
ple are going to be more intentional about
those experiences — coming to the coast
and wanting to be outside and experience
nature, and feel like they can get a great
massage at the end of the day and sit down
at a restaurant if they want.”
THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021 // 13