Valentine's Trip 2015

I wanted to go ahead and recap Valentine's Day on here not only for yall but because I love to be able to look back at days in my life on this blog and remember the good times. 

It's safe to say we definitely went all out for Valentines this year!

In years past we have NEVER done anything remotely like this.  We got together when we were basically young kids, hubby wasn't even 20 years old.  So I have seen much cheaper Valentine's in our 11 (almost 12) years together!

Usually we end up going out to dinner and to a movie.  Sometimes we don't even get to celebrate on the actual day due to hubby being out of town working.  He is pretty good about getting me flowers and chocolate I will say :) But one of my favorite Valentine's days was a few years ago when we had steak and shrimp at home and watched Saving Private Ryan (super romantic right?!).

But let's just say this year is super different than any others in the past and Jacob worked a LOT last year so our time together is precious.  I wanted this year to be special and so did he.  I suggested we go out of town, he wanted to be a tourist in our own city so that is what we did!  We live about 30-40 minutes from Charlotte so we booked a (very expensive) night at the Marriott City Center.

I really wish I would have planned this ahead better! I waited until the last minute to get dinner reservations and if I had researched more I would have gotten us tickets to the Phantom of the Opera at the Belk Theatre!  They had a symphony and another play going on close to downtown as well but they were all sold out or not working with our time schedule. 

So let's start at the beginning shall we?

Of course every valentines day starts with a little tift over breakfast.  Ha! 

We went to Cracker barrel to eat.  Long wait and I was not in the mood to stay in the warm store with tons of people crowding around me.  We went to Ihop.  Wait as well with people everywhere inside.  We decided to go to bojangles.  We were starving and snippy due to horrible drivers in traffic so breakfast was not the most romantic thing HA!

We went to the Target at the Metropolitan (a shopping center) on our way to uptown (which is downtown, we are weird here in Charlotte) and then we went to the hotel to see if we could check in early.  Much to our surprise, we could! 

We got a city view room as requested and the nice guy at check in even gave us complimentary parking in the garage (18.00 savings!) which was super awesome of him!  Plus they had delicious little fancy chocolates at the desk for us to grab. 

Y'all.  The beds were heaven.  I am not kidding, best hotel bed I have ever slept in.  Soft down comforter, the pillows were wonderful, soft mattress; not too firm not too soft.  JUST right. 

 

So we decided to go out and explore a bit!  Now, I don't know why it has never really occurred to me but in the center city area there is no retail shops.  SO weird!  I was highly disappointed we had no where to shop or even browse! Ha!!

 

But we walked around a lot and just enjoyed being together.  We checked out the Epicenter which is fairly new.  It is seriously overrated though.  They have a Studio Movie Grill where you can watch movies and eat and drink if you wish.  They have some bars, which I don't do, and a ton of restaurants.  Meh.  Once again no shopping.  We ended up eating at a Japanese "fast food" type place and our food took forever to come out.  It wasn't even that good and cost like 20.00. 

 

Later we went back to the hotel and relaxed a bit and decided we should do the Carriage rides that they give around the city.  It was 25.00 for two people for 20 minutes!  The cheap person in me told Jacob that was ridiculous and he agreed but we were sick of walking and this was the most entertaining thing they were offering ha.  It was quite romantic I must say!  I was glad we did it and spent the money. 

 

 

After that we got Starbucks.  I got a raspberry mocha and it came with a cookie.  Jacob got the same.

 

We walked around outside some more, exploring our city!

 

We found the restaurant that we had reservations at later that night.  It was very close to our hotel which was nice!  Yall it was so cold!

And I noticed at the Belk Theatre that Dirty Dancing is coming in June!  I HAVE to go see this!

So we went back to the hotel and I took a relaxing bubble bath with some aromatherapy suds Bestie had given me for Valentines, thanks Bestie!

 

Hubby had been quite secretive all day.  The night before he had brought me home a present but no flowers which surprised me because he pretty much always gets me flowers.  But still I was happy!  It was a cute little bear, starbucks k cups, and chocolate!

 

 

He knows the way to my heart haha! 

 

So while I am bathing he leaves to go downstairs, comes back up acting even weirder making sure I am still in the tub lol.  I get out of the bath and there is a beautiful vase of flowers with chocolate truffles! He even upgraded the vase to a mason jar vase he said, he is so sweet!  He had them delivered to the hotel and apparently they had been downstairs since 11am! He had been asking since right after check in so he was a tad annoyed that no one bothered to let him know. Lol. 

 

But they were beautiful and I was so happy!  I have never gotten flowers delivered!

 

 

Our dinner reservation was at 9:30 and so I got myself ready and had to take some selfies haha. 

 

 

After gaining all this weight it is a rare thing for me to feel pretty anymore. And typing this I am realizing how sad and true it is! 

Anyways we got dressed and entered a wind that can only be compared to the Wizard of Oz!  WOOSH! All my beautiful curls.  I grabbed hubby back inside and made him take a pic with me in case my hair got all messed up later LOL!

 

We so fancy!

 

Ha!

 

Our reservations were at Luce and I was going out on a limb here.  No one recommended it that I knew and I had never heard of it but it was fantastic Italian cuisine!  The manager was our server and he was wonderful the entire time and I felt like a princess there!  It was a very expensive meal but the experience was worth every penny!

 

 

I got the gnocchi pasta with a meat sauce and Jacob got the Mare (which was pasta and a whole lot of seafood).  We also got Caesar salads and it came with delicious bread and a little dish of cantellini bean mixture.  For desert we had a crème brulee to share! Amazing!

 

 

And last I will leave you with a picture of our beautiful queen city lit up at night time.  This was the Duke Energy building lit up pink!

It was such a romantic little trip.  The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel which was included in the package for free (normally 17.00 a person!) and it was incredibly delicious! 

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day...this has been my favorite day all year, so far! :)