Palm Trees and Beaches (Part II: The Anniversary)

And now…without further ado…the extremely anticipated (I’m just guessing here), long awaited (which is totally my fault) Part II of our vacation! Woohoo!

I have to start by telling you about a sweet anniversary gift from Taylor. In the weeks leading up to our trip, I made a mental note to stop by Susie Cakes, the bakery where Taylor and I had our wedding cake made. It’s close to Malibu so I figured we’d definitely be able to pop in and have a cupcake and remember how yummy our cake was. We managed to add a stop to the bakery into our schedule but we were short on time so we were in a bit of a rush. We walked in and as I’m admiring their beautiful display of cupcakes, one of the bakers hands us a cake box. I look at Taylor, thoroughly confused, and he just smiles as the woman opens the box. The cake's design and colors were a replica of the top tier of our wedding cake (this one included a sweet second anniversary message on the top)!! My wonderfully sneaky husband had sent the bakery a picture of our wedding cake and preordered one to be ready for us when we got there! I was stunned!! We brought the cake with us for the rest of the trip and made sure to have a piece on our anniversary! And it was ever bit as delicious as we thought it would be.

Our anniversary vacation officially began when we checked in to our hotel: the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. We mentioned to the concierge that we were celebrating our anniversary and after he got the low down on how long we’d been married and where we were from, he handed us our keycard and vouchers for free drinks and an appetizer at the hotel restaurant as well as free coffee at the Starbucks in the hotel lobby. We were pretty happy at this point and made our way over to the elevators. We got on and went to press the 19th-floor button…and couldn’t find it. We both did a double take: 16, 17, 18, PH. Oooooookayy! Penthouse it was! That was definitely a fun moment.

After getting our stuff settled and taking in the view, we headed to Santa Monica for the most awesome massages ever. Burke Williams is by far my most favorite spa in the world. It’s a little on the pricey side, but totally worth it, especially if you’ve got a good excuse to go. Like an anniversary. The best part of the spa is that it’s designed for people to make it a whole afternoon event instead of just an hour or so for your treatment. You get a plushy robe, slippers, and a locker when you check in and then are free to roam around the spa. There are separate men’s and women’s areas connected with each locker room. I’m not 100% sure what’s in the men’s side, but the women’s side has two different hot tubs (a “quiet” one and a “social” one), a steam room and a sauna. There are fresh stacks of towels everywhere: regular fluffy towels, towels soaked in icy water if you need to cool your face, and aromatherapy towels. There’s a little sitting area with fresh fruit, spa water, and tea, and next to that there are two large rooms with huge mirrors where you can get ready when you’re leaving the spa (which are of course stocked with every type of lotion, hair product, and styling tool you can imagine). Then you get to the common areas: there is a quiet reading room with huge recliners, a massive living room with oversized couches (and of course the same spa drinks and munchies), and then two outside patio areas where you can sit and overlook 3^rd Street in Santa Monica from behind a few well placed shrubs. It’s a heavenly experience.

Sunday evening decided to use our voucher at the hotel restaurant for a quick appetizer before we met up with friends for dinner. Our timing was perfect and we got to watch the Mavs play the first part of their final game against the Miami Heat. The crowd around us was totally fired up watching the game – it was great! We got to the restaurant (Father’s Office) right in time to see Dallas win the game and the championship! Father’s Office is really more of a gastro-pub which means they have awesome food and lots of different kinds of specialty beer. Their “Father’s Office Burger” might be my favorite food in the whole world. It’s a burger with caramelized onion, Gruyere cheese, and arugula on a French roll. So. Good. Pair that with their sweet potato fries? Nom nom nom!

Monday morning we spend a little time relaxing and then began our journey up the coast to Santa Barbara. My favorite thing about Santa Barbara is all the palm trees….they’re everywhere!! I wish we had this many palm trees in Dallas :)

Our hotel was right across from the beach:

After checking in we set out to do a little wine tasting. The first three pictures are at Foley Vineyards and the last one is at Dierberg/Star Lane:

We got back with enough time for a few pictures on the beach before dinner...

For dinner we decided to try out a seafood place called The Hungry Cat.  We got a little adventurous and went for the massive seafood platter! Yum!

Tuesday we continued our drive up the coast towards Paso Robles and spent the day driving around beautiful wine country. The landscape really surprised both of us…we knew what we’d be driving through vineyards and mountains but we didn’t really expect just how agricultural the area would be. The tasting rooms on the various properties were gorgeous of course but as soon as you drove away you were back in the countryside on a dirt road. It was fun to see all the land and how many miles of vineyards there were!

Tuesday night we checked into a cute little hotel in San Louis Obispo called Apple Farm Inn. Can you guess the theme??

Wednesday we had a leisurely drive back down the cost as we headed to LAX for our flight home. We made one last stop in Malibu for dinner at Cholada – one of our favorite Thai restaurants.

It's so crazy to think that this was us two whole years ago:

It feels like just yesterday :)