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To celebrate our first year of marriage, Matthew and I spent the weekend in Half Moon Bay, which is only about an hour from home. I have no idea why we never thought of going there before. The city is right on the coast of California and has some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.
We stayed at the Ritz Carlton and from the moment we pulled up to the gates, it felt like a fairy tale. The property is so beautiful!! I guess I don't stay at fancy hotels enough or something, but I was totally floored by their customer service. Everyone was so pleasant and took great care of us... I don't think we opened any door or lifted a thing on our own during our entire stay!
Confession: Before Matthew even proposed, I secretly wanted to get married at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay. I even made an appointment to view the premises by myself and told all my close girlfriends that I found the perfect place to get married but wouldn't divulge any details lest they "steal" my spot (yeah, I'm crazy)... Obviously we didn't marry there, but I am more than happy with how our wedding turned out. Maybe we'll have our wedding renewals there one day....
Our room had a fire pit which was perfect for the cold summer weather on the coast. I think the warmest it was all weekend was 55 degrees!!!
Vino definitely helped in keeping me warm!
We had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Navio, and it was by far the best dinner I've had since our honeymoon!
Pan-seared scallops over some sort of delicious bread pudding thing... Sorry, I'm not a foodie so I don't really know all the cool foodie terms :) So sad we only had one each... I probably could eat 20 of them!
I ordered the Crispy Skin Loch Duart Salmon and everything just seemed to melt in my mouth with goodness. Matthew ordered the New York steak, which I took a picture of... but he was being silly and flipped-off the camera (sometimes he acts like he's 12), so I didn't think I should post the picture here. He seemed to enjoy his meal, but I was too busy nom-noming away and having taste bud explosions in my mouth to notice what he was doing on the other side of the table.
The best profiteroles ever for dessert with complimentary chocolates.
We had a late dinner and I was pretty tired from the long week, so I took a nice relaxing bubble bath in our room. I stupidly didn't bring any books, so I was reading off of my iPhone while in the tub... I was SO scared I was going to drop that thing that I gripped my phone with both hands the whole time. Yeah, not so relaxing...
Matthew surprised me with by booking a segway tour along the coast. I rode a segway around San Francisco once for a work event and didn't crash, so I was feeling pretty confident about my skills.
The views were stunning:
(We couldn't get a good shoot, but if you look closely someone had written "Life is Good" in the sand)
Who knew standing on a machine making oh-so-slight shifts with your body weight would make you so tired!?! We were pooped after riding on the segways, so we spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hotel... but not before munching on the most delectable Crispy Fritto Misto:
The next day, on our actual anniversary, we decided to have lunch at our Rehearsal Dinner location:
They seated us at the exact same table we sat at a year and a day before. When we first discovered the restaurant in Feb '09, we sat at that same table, too. Coincidence? I say it's kismet.
Rehearsal Dinner 8/7/09 - photo by 5footperspective
Sooo... we didn't save the top of our wedding cake because we left for our honeymoon the next day and I didn't really have time to wrap it up so that it was freezer-ready. However, I love the idea of it, so on the way home we made a pit stop at our wedding cake vendor and bought a cake in one of our wedding cake flavors, Almond Pound Cake with Raspberry something filling:
Thanks, 
Thank you so much,