They offered us a sweet gift of watching our kids overnight so that we could have a little anniversary getaway. John and I reminisced our anniversaries and all but two of our anniversaries have involved some sort of a getaway, if even an overnight! I guess we were smart to pick New Year's Eve as our wedding date - it puts everyone in a festive mood and incurs celebration wherever one is!!
So 48 hours in advance, I was able to find a "reasonable" hotel rate for New Year's Eve. We stayed at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel. It was lovely! But first, before we checked in, we stopped at the Lodge at Torrey Pines (golf course) and sat on their back porch and had a cocktail. I've always wanted to check this hotel out and this was the perfect afternoon. We had a great seat, under the heat lamps (it was in the mid 60's at this point!). We had some good people watching, a beautiful view and crystal blue skies.
After exploring the Lodge, we went into the village of La Jolla and walked around a bit. I was able to pop into a few shops and spend a Christmas gift card. Then at 5:30 we thought we'd try to find a place where we might be able to walk into for dinner ( on New Year's Eve I remind you - without reservations) I went on Yelp.com and found an italian restaurant that got great reviews. We walked over and they were just opening up. John was scoffing at me saying that there is no way we'll get in. I asked them if we might be able to eat dinner there and they said they had one table that was not reserved and we needed to be done by 6:30. We said we could do it!! We had the most delicious 5 course dinner. It was like yummy, old fashioned Italian food. The courses were small, but so very tasty! I had bruschetta, caesar salad, penne vodka, parmesan crusted chicken and Christmas coconut cake for dessert. Oh my goodness the cake was delicious!!!!!!!!!!!
After dinner we zipped over to the hotel. We got a welcome glass of champagne and had quite a hunt to find our room. Eventually we did. I had requested a quiet room because I'm so sensitive to noise and John was making fun of me the whole search because he said that they had put us way far away and hidden down several hallways. The architecture of the building was spanish style and so pretty. The room was gorgeous and serene.
We had a food credit with our stay so we splurged and had breakfast in bed. What a treat!
Sad to say good bye to the Christmas decorations, but it is time!
I'm ready for the fresh start of the New Year! What a pretty setting.
We're thankful for our 11 years. We continue to hear about marriages crumbling and all of the sadness that goes along with that. There are a lot of sad people and broken marriages all over. The Lord has been so very gracious to us. Our path isn't easy by any stretch. But as I think over our last year and different things that we have encountered, the Lord has been faithful and we have endured the difficulties. We feel so very blessed and are thankful.
That is all - thankful.
