Happy Valentine's Day to Us

I can't get the smile off my face, but its cool - there's no need. It tells the world that I'm happy. I had a most excellent Valentine's weekend. Chris woke me on Thursday with a heart shaped box of chocolates and a card - very sweet. I got out of work early that day to get ingredients to make a very tasty lasagna for us that night and gave chocolates and cards to both Chris and Chelsea. It was a really great night.

Friday after work we headed downtown in the rain to meet with Chris's brother & sister-in-law Rob & Noelle and their group of friends for Rob's birthday, (2/15th) at Warren's. It was fun. We talked with some high school teachers and learned a lot about what high school is like now but from the perspective of the teachers. It was great.

Saturday morning we packed and headed east. I had only just learned where we were going - google told me. Chris gave me some hints about where we might stay so I googled it and got Lake Charles, LA - my first trip Gambling! I was so very excited that I couldn't contain myself so I told him that I knew. He wasn't too upset about his spoiled surprise and we even played a few hands of black jack so he could teach me the game. We should have played more cuz I sucked at it - but I'm getting ahead of my story.

We drove to Orange, TX - that part was still a surprise - I had no idea that we were staying there. It was the cutest little bed & breakfast place with a beautiful tub for two. There were fresh cut flowers in the room for us offering a fragrance to the dressing room area.

All we did was leave our bags and get dressed for dinner and the casinos. We found a cute little restaurant in Lake Charles on a quaint old-fashioned looking street where the stores are all connected. It was called Luna Bar and Grill - they were having happy hour and we arrived just in time - right before the throng of people lining the bar and filling the doorway eying us for our table. I had the maple and pecan glazed salmon with grilled veggies and Chris had grilled chicken smothered in crawfish and a tasty sauce - oh and we ate some out of this world crab dip for an appetizer. I had to hold Chris down so he wouldn't lift the plate to his mouth and lick it for the remains. Had we been at home I would have fought him for the pleasure though. Its all a matter of location.

Full and happy we made our way to L’Auberge du lac. We circled the whole place looking for a black jack table for less than $25/hand - no luck so we hit the slots. By the way, that's funny: no luck so we hit the slots. sorry, I just tickled myself. Anyway. Finding two seats next to each other and a waitress nearby Chris and I each inserted a $20 bill. Mine lasted about 45 minutes - up and down it went till it reached it's ultimate demise. During that time Chris's lost $60. So what do we do? Chris then put $50 on a roulette table and lost that before the drinks arrived. Of course, we stood there waiting for them. At that point Chris had had enough of du lac and we switched to the Isle of Capri. Chris says that's where capri pants come from... but I digress. He found a seat at a $10 black jack table and within 30 minutes won back everything he had lost at du lac plus everything he had spent. He was even for the trip including food. Then he gave his seat to me. I proceeded to immediately lose $40 I actually still don't know what happened - one minute I had $40 in my hand an then there was a lot of cards and then -poof- Chris asked me if I wanted another $20 - he was handing it to me. I was like, "what happened?" I couldn't even follow the game. After I lost his $20, we got up and went to play slots again where I lost money until the final push of the button when I told myself to stop and leave with my last $22 in my pocket.

The rest of the night totally made up for it though. Back at the B&B I ran us a nice bubble bath and Chris corked a bottle of wine. We had a tray of crackers and cheese and a lovely Merlot.

Sigh ~ I can't tell you the rest.

We had breakfast in bed of spinach quiche, yogurt, fruit, and bread with strong tea and orange juice. I highly recommend the Madison House in Orange, TX - it made for quite an awesome little weekend getaway.

On the way home Chris took me to
Pleasure Island
to play 18-holes of disc golf. Let me tell you how much fun that was! It was a beautiful course surrounded by water and tugboats guiding massive tanker ships into the Port. There was one hole that was past a huge growth of reeds where Chris threw one of his favorite frisbees. You'll see some close up shots of what it looked like in the reeds if you go thru the slideshow at the end of this post. It was pretty cool. The reeds just snapped when you walked on them so it was easy to forge a path. I found the frisbee too so I got to be the heroine of the day.

Here are some photos of the trip.

P.S. ~ Rhonda stayed with Chelsea for us to take this trip and she cleaned my desk off where I had my biodegradable cup. (I know! Still sitting there but I haven't had a chance to get to Chris's back yard to drop it yet.) Anyways, she threw it away ignorant of the fact that it was a project so now we don't get to watch it decompose.

Gotta end this post with LOVE.