When Hubby Dear and I got married, we decided that we will celebrate each anniversary by taking a vacation. Be it for a day or 2. But it has to be some place away from home and work. And off course there are other times in the year when we would take a vacation without any occasion but this one around the anniversary should be made special.
Now I have been lucky to have a long weekend around our anniversary. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we can go every time considering Hubby works on projects which have their implementations mostly on long weekends and holidays. On our first anniversary hubby was not much keen on going out of town and it took much convincing and emotional blackmailing from me and our friends to get him to delegate some of his work and agree to go out. We went along with our friends (also a couple) who had already planned to go Skiing that weekend. I know it doesn’t sound romantic at all, but it didn’t matter to me if other friends were with us or not as long as we were going out somewhere away from Hubby’s work.
For the second anniversary though, we planned it much in advance. We spent hours narrowing down the place and then some more selecting the best hotel with the best view. But Hubby made some more plans without my knowledge. And boy I was impressed. He rented a convertible instead of taking our own car. We selected a more scenic winding route compared to a boring direct interstate highway to reach our destination. Although we have been through that route many times, we still stopped at different vista points along the way to take pictures. It was a different experience driving along that scenic route in a convertible. The hotel we booked turned out really good because it had a beach access and since it was bordered by a cliff on both sides, it felt like a private beach.
This year of our third we went to location that is not really famous as a tourist spot and not openly talked about, but I feel it is a perfect place for a romantic getaway. The best part was the view from our room. We had booked a room in a bed and breakfast, which was right on the edge of a lake and our room had huge French doors with glasses which opened in a balcony from where you could see nothing but the lake and the mountains surrounding it. It was spectacular. We didn’t bother to close the blinds as we went to bed coz I like being woken up by the bright sunlight hitting my face in the morning. But we kept an alarm to make sure we wake up early to catch a glimpse of the beautiful sunrise among the mountains. And we were not at all disappointed.
Now I get a blissful satisfaction by getting up early and enjoying my morning coffee or tea sitting in the balcony watching the nature wake up too. And I am happy Hubby shares the same feeling. On weekdays I rarely get time to have coffee or tea. Just manage to gulp the cereals before leaving for work. But weekends I try to wake up early and we did that even on this one. Didn’t feel the desire to lay in the cosy bed coz the weekend was too precious to waste sleeping.
Later we went to a state historic park which used to be a ranch. It is amazing how they have preserved the remains of this house which was once home to some family that inhibited this ranch. It felt spooky going in there, but it was much closer to the parking lot and I felt comfortable with Hubby by my side.
We walked for almost 2 hours along the trails which took us though meadows and trees.
It started raining later during the day and we spent rest of the day holed up in our room, watching the clouds that made the mountains look hazy and rain pouring all over the place. We spent the rest of the evening watching movies and talking endlessly about stuff that I don’t even remember now. We did not stress ourselves with planning what places to go or things to do as we do on most trips to places of touristic nature. We had all the time to do anything and nothing to do there. So we just spent our time sitting in the balcony gazing at the lake and the ducks playing in the water, watching the various boats cruising in the lake, taking strolls in the evening along the banks of the lake and in the downtown area. And did I mention there was a hot tub Jacuzzi in the balcony that could fit 4. There is no better way of relaxing than a hot bath with hot water jets melting the aches in your body, all while gazing at the stars above in the moonlight.
On our way back we passed though this national forest where it had snowed the night before when it rained everywhere else. There was snow along the road side and the trees were still covered with snow which fell on our windshield and on us as Hubby opened the moon roof of our car to click some pictures. I had to actually pull over at a turnout to wear my jacket as Hubby continued his photographing spree.
And these are some pictures I had clicked on our way up there.
I love these flowers which grow all over California mostly along the highways on hills making them look like rivers of gold. For a long time I was thinking they are called California Poppy. But when I searched for their name to put in this post I found that Poppies are orange in color. These are either Coreopsis or Monolopia, I am not sure.
A good vacation is the one makes you forget your routine life and keeps you longing for more after it is over. Done with the birthdays and valentines day and anniversary and the vacation. Nothing much to look forward to at this point. So I will keep looking at these pictures over and over again till some other interesting event in my life.
Lovely pictures !
me: Thanks Renu. And welcome to my blog.
hey gr8 pics..this place looks like quite romantic.. close to nature…
Belated Happy Anniversary 🙂
me: Thank You 🙂
Blissful! Blissful!
This looks so serene and romantic.
oh gosh this is beautiful. almost makes me want to move back home or at least california!!!
jacuzzi on balcony … dayumn i want that!!!! 😦 i am so glad u had a relaxing time. totally deserving. everything looks picture perfect. god bless u both with more such weekends of love, romance and serenity. 🙂
me:Thank you !! And whats stopping you? come over to california 🙂
Those pictures are sooo beautiful!!! Belated happy anniversary… sounds like an awesome one! And many more to come!
me: Thank You and Amen 🙂
gorgeous photos! i don’t think you you stated where it was you vacationed. it does look beautiful though… anywhere near Tahoe? 🙂
me: thanks donnalou !! These are at clearlake CA, not Tahoe 🙂
[…] the face to let them know it is none of their bluhdee business. March: – In March, we took a short vacation on a lake house. This was also to celebrate our wedding anniversary. April: – I dont have any […]