Saturday, February 13, 2016
Ross set the alarm early (5:30a) and was really eager to get the day started. He told me to sleep in a little bit so he could get the car packed (what a sweetheart!). So, I snoozed until 6am when I got up and got ready and went downstairs for an already hot cup of coffee waiting for me (with Stevia and cinnamon of course!).
We jumped into the car and started our drive up to Santa Barbara. Ross had this Saturday all planned out. We luckily had a 3day weekend and were absolutely going to take full advantage of our time off! Earlier in the week, I had told him no funny business for Valentine’s Day. It’s one of the “holidays” I dread… for 2 reasons: 1) it’s incredibly over-commercialized and beats fear into men to woo their significant others. Boo Hallmark holiday! 2) It makes me sad bc my dad used to give me a single stem rose from our rose bush in front of our Abilene house and tell me I was beautiful and his lil girl.
So, we’re driving along and we’re listening to the radio and there was a Bruno Mars song that came on. Ross wondered how he came up with that name Bruno Mars. And then he joked and said we were going to name our first born Biff Jupiter. We both busted out laughing! (That man brings a smile and laughter to me always!). Well, around 10am, we get to our first destination in Santa Barbara… the botanical garden. But first, we had a little snack from the cooler that Ross packed — guac (my fave!), chips, and an ice cold Cali Creamin’ (fave!). Say no more, this man knows me to a T! After a snack, we enter the grounds and tour the garden. They have a beautiful redwoods section (did he know that?). We had talked about going up to Nor Cal to do some hiking amongst the redwoods in the Redwood National Park — but this would do bc it was so close to home! What a creative and wonderful idea! They also had a Japanese tea ceremony that we watched. Even though we were in Japan for two weeks, we didn’t get a chance to see one!
After the hike, we headed to the Mission in Santa Barbara to check out some history. It was a gorgeous area with a beautiful vast lawn area to layout and enjoy the Cali sun. After our own walking tour of the mission, we picked out a spot on the lawn and laid out a yummy picnic that Ross had gathered up and packed into the cooler. Some bbq chicken, roasted beets, humus, veggies, and guac and an ice cold Allagash Curieux was heaven!
After lunch, we packed up and headed out to a winery that came highly recommended from his friend Jason, who is a sommalier. In fact, he was showing us his awesome skills down at some wineries in Valle de Guadalupe (Mexico). We did a tasting and quite honestly, I loved almost every single one we tried (and that’s rare for me!).
Now we were starting to get a lil hungry again..so we decided to hit up the famous La Super-Rica Taqueria. It was a delightful treat of amazing and authentic Mexican food. We overstuffed ourselves, but it was worth it. 🙂
So after being ridiculously full, we needed to walk. And where better to walk than to a brewery? In fact, Ross researched and found out that Telegraph Brewing Co. specializes in Belgians – one of our fave types of beers! We opted for the tasters and definitely realized we had to take some growlers home!
Then we headed down to the wharf area. It was starting to get late (4:30p) and I wanted to get checked in so we could walk out to the pier and watch the sunset. So, we did just that. It was a beautiful evening — people were out and having a great time. The surf was big and we watched the surfers for awhile…Ross was teaching me all kinds of things about that surf spot and the waves. (I love this man!). While we were watching the surfers, Ross got his foot pooped on by a big ol fat albatross sitting on top of a light post. He was at least 3 feet away, but the splat from his poo was so massive that it sprayed Ross’ foot and flip flop. 🙂 We walked a bit along the boardwalk/sidewalk. Santa Barbara is an incredibly stunning place!!
Lastly, it was time for dinner. We loved The Stonehouse when we went there the first time [After only 1 month of dating, we took a road trip to Santa Barbara and Ross booked this restaurant. We had such a great time and dining experience…and after we ate, we walked around the grounds and came upon an archway that was beautiful. We both had a bit of an emotional and just really magical feeling there!]. I was ecstatic that we could get reservations for dinner on Valentine’s weekend (I figured it would all be booked out!). We purposefully got there an hour early (although our Uber driver really had a tough time finding the place, despite Google Maps) and wanted to walk around the grounds. I suggest some champagne since we could walk around the gardens with alcohol. So, we ordered up our bevies and then took a beautiful walk along the property. It was beautifully lit with tasteful dim lights, tree lights, and little pops of red denoting V Day. A powerful Santa Ana was raging that day — despite it being chilly in the mountains, the wind was warm and forceful. We finally get to a lil garden terrace area with small wooden seating benches with a pergola-type overhead decor. We were looking out into the night with the lights and the garden itself…. when Ross starts talking to me about our relationship. The rest is history — as much as I want to say I remember what he said initially… all I can remember is that he started to tear up and get emotional. I started to wipe his joyful tears. His love was so strong and it engulfed me completely. I was surprised, but I knew this day was coming. He is the only man I can imagine spending the rest of my life with in complete happiness, honesty, love, and friendship. He got down on one knee…and asked me the question every girl wants to be asked. Will you marry me? My answer: Yes, yes, yes, a million times over. I would’ve waited an entire lifetime for you. We kissed and held each other for a quick minute before he slipped a beautiful ring on my finger. It was beautiful. Ginormous!! Classy, elegant. He was the man I had dreamed of and he was offering his heart, love, and devotion. I am a freakin’ lucky girl!
After our ooooo’s and aaaaaaaah’s with the ring (the sparkle was crazy brilliant even in the dark night!), I asked him a million questions on how he hid it from me and where and how my mom and aunt were in on it. Sneaky lil devil! We headed off to dinner and when we got seated, there were a dozen red roses in a vase at our table. Initially, I thought it was part of the VDay dinner decor, but then I looked around and our table was the only one. He is such a thoughtful man!
Slideshow from engagement weekend
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