Love Birds
Hey everyone! I have just returned from a lovely mini-vacation with my husband at the awesome Madonna Inn, a themed hotel off the 101 freeway in San Luis Obispo. Matt got me a night in the Love Birds room for our first wedding anniversary in August, along with a signature massage at the Madonna Inn Spa. As a christmas present for him, I got him a massage – so we ended up getting a couples massage to end our awesome mini vacation. Ahhhh.
Avila Beach
On our way to the Madonna Inn, we stopped at the lovely Avila Beach to walk the pier and explore. It was about 65 degrees and kids were splashing in the waves while the ocean breeze cleared our minds as we strolled along the pier. After our walk, we stopped into a little candy shop and bought one of my personal favorites, salt water taffy!
Salt water Taffy
After Avila we checked into the delightfully gaudy and tacky, yet somehow charmingly cute Madonna Inn. The Love Birds room had awesome parrot wallpaper, a fainting couch and floral and bird nest vine light fixtures.
Love Birds at Madonna Inn
My personal favorite part of the room was the bathroom – decked out with a heated toilet and bidet and rock shower! Let me tell you – a heated toilet seat has made its way to the list of “things I want in my dream house when I’m rich”. Nothing like toasty buns!
Heated Potty!
In true Matt and Alyssa fashion, we decided to blow off plans for a fancy dinner in favor of an American nostalgic classic – DRIVE IN MOVIES!!!!!! We drove past it on the way to our hotel and I freaked out, because I haven’t been to the drive ins in years, and Matt had never been! We stopped by Trader Joe’s and loaded up on our picnic dinner of sourdough baguette, cheese, salami, olive tapenade, chocolate berries, orangina, popcorn, wine and cupcakes. It was quite a spread and gave me quite a tummy ache, but that’s a story for Wednesday’s blog re: over indulgence. Can you believe it was a total of $17.50 for two people to see two movies with a bag of large popcorn? UNREAL! Movies here are $11.75 a piece!
Goodies
The first movie was Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and I know why they’re called Mission Impossible – because watching them all the way through is impossible. I made it about half way before the cheesy action scenes did me in and I caught up on Words with Friends. Best part about a drive in movie? You can text, talk, stretch, snort or harass your movie-mate as much as you want, because you’re in the comfort of your own car! After Ghost Protocol, the awesome vintage snack song came on for a brief intermission and then “We Bought a Zoo” started. We Bought a Zoo isn’t movie of the year or anything, but it was cute and charming and had a fun storyline.
My lovebird
After the movies we went back to the Madonna, where I climbed into the nest (comfy king bed) and conked out. In the morning, we woke up for our couples massage, had a blissful rub down, and then had an AMAZZZZZZING breakfast the Madonna Inn Copper Cafe. I seriously have not had a biscuit so incredible in… a long time. They were fluffy and sweet, topped with a drizzle of honey butter, and their smoked bacon reminded me of home (Hi Dad!).
Copper Cafe Breakfast
After breakfast, our full bellies and blissed-out bodies piled into the stinky car (smelled like olives, popcorn and salami) and drove back to our smoggy valley home. All in all it was a beautiful, relaxing weekend. It’s so important to shake things up every once in awhile and get a break from things like laundry, grocery shopping, Facebook and Twitter. I feel refreshed and revived and ready for the new week (and ready to start tracking – our first Weight Watchers meeting is FINALLY on Thursday!).
If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo – it was awesome! Did you have a great weekend, too?
