My husband and I recently celebrated three years of marriage. Our anniversary was May 31st, to be exact. One thing that I love about us is that we are not big on gifts. Instead of buying things for each other on occasions like this we prefer to have adventures. We'd rather spend our money on little trips or outings that can give us wonderful memories for years to come. This time around, we spent three nights in Idyllwild, Ca. We stayed in a lovely, rustic cabin at
Silver Pines Lodge. We loved everything about our stay. The nights got cold enough for us to take advantage of our fun fireplace. We even made s'mores one night! It was midweek so we got an excellent deal and pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. We stayed in the Owl's Nest. When they pick a theme, they stick to it! There were owls everywhere in the room and guess whoo whoo loved it? We did! The owner, Chris, was very helpful and very clearly loves running the place.
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| Delicious breakfast on our porch. |
We had our own little porch with a great view of Strawberry Creek right down the hill. There was a koi pond right down our steps and food left out so that we could feed them... which we did... several times. One afternoon we even ate our lunch beside the koi as we played a game of scrabble. We had our own little kitchen and brought most of our food with us. We brought much more food than we could possibly eat (a Robertson family tradition, I am beginning to believe). We still have a bit of the food we purchased for that trip in our fridge right now. We ate VERY well.
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| This just kinda cracked me up... and made me REALLY want to climb those steps. |
It was SOOO quiet up there. Several times we sat in our cabin just listening. You could hear birds and the creek but that was about it. I was so glad that our cabin was so far from the main road of the town. Far enough that you couldn't hear the cars but close enough to walk to. Perfect.
The one night that we did go out was on the evening of our actual anniversary. We ate at
Cafe Aroma. It was spectacular. The place was pretty full on a random Tuesday night. There was live music inside but we sat outside so we could enjoy the music and each other at the same time. The owner was very friendly and very French... I don't mean that in any sort of negative way, he just had a very strong accent. He made his way around chatting with all of the different groups. Many he knew well and were clearly locals or fairly regular visitors to the small mountain town. It was a very relaxed atmosphere. The kind of place that makes you want to stay... or at least go back over and over again so that you can become a regular, too. And that feeling hits you before you even begin to enjoy your meal... the food was some of the best I've had... SO TASTY! Blake and I are already really wanting to go back even if only to have another of the night's salad special that we enjoyed. Yum.
Since we were in such a nice, beautiful mountain town we did make it out to do some exploring. We followed directions that we found in an informational binder in our cabin to find a spot where Native Americans had drawn on some gigantic rocks. That was fun to discover. We also used our wonderful, hand held GPS to go geocaching. It was wonderful to tromp around outside but never have to get in a car to reach "nature".
Right down the hill from our cabin was Strawberry Creek and this darling deck and table. We only climbed down there once but it was lovely and I am sure we'd spend more time there the next time we visit.
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| Blake with Idy, the Idyllwild monster. |
During the very last moments on our anniversay Blake turned on his phone to set an alarm for the next morning (otherwise we'd probably sleep through check out). He had gotten a couple text messages about a design contest he had entered with some classmates several weeks before. He had forgotten that the results had been posted. Of course, he became very curious and had to get dressed so he could run over to the lodge steps so he could have a strong enough internet connection to check the results. As if our day couldn't get any better, he found out that his group WON first place! It was an international competition and (besides the fact that the cash prize is pretty great) he has a new line on his resume! I am so proud of him!
The next day, on our way home, we stopped at the
March Field Air Museum. It was nearly empty and it was fun to hear Blake rattle off information about planes without reading the information provided. Boys sure do like planes. Blake especially likes B-17s and the one that they have at March Field was being worked on and behind a bunch of caution tape and a sign telling visitors to stay put. We were standing right at the tape, trying to take a picture, when one of the guys working on the plane invited us over.
So we got our up close and personal look at it and even got some fun pictures of it being worked on. Blake was very happy and when he's happy I am, too. After that we took another step towards perfecting the day with an In-N-Out stop and then made the remaining journey back to Long Beach.
It was an amazing "weeklet" (we kept on calling it a weekend even though it wasn't so we had to come up with another word for it). I can't believe that another year has already gone by. Marrying Blake was the best thing that I have ever done and I am so happy that he chose me. I am nothing but excited when I think about our future and all of the possibilities stretching out in front of us. I am the luckiest girl in the world.
Over all, the day was splendid but we both felt that we enjoy the games in San Diego (Vista, CA) a bit more. Nothing against the Orange County Fair Grounds, but the park in Vista is so nice and allows for not just sheep dog demonstrations but actual sheep herding competition. So much fun to watch. The OC fair grounds did have a fun barn area with lots of cute baby animals and a great garden area which reminded me just how much I want a back yard! One exciting souvenir that I took home from the day was my very own Clan Donnachaidh t-shirt. I married a Robertson and am officially in! (3 years and counting!) 
