Broken Bow Getaway in Pictures

Raise your hand if you love getaway weekends with friends?! (raises and waves both hands)

Back in December, Rusty was getting the itch to getaway with our sweet friends for a long weekend in the woods. After coordination of schedules and location research, we marked our calendars for a weekend in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.

Before we planned this trip I had never heard of Broken Bow. In fact, not many people I knew had heard of it. It was a decent distance for all of us to drive and the amenities were so fun!

We arrived on Thursday and spent our days drinking coffee, watching March Madness, eating delicious meals, time on the water, playing board games (ha!), sitting around the campfire and making such wonderful memories. This group of people are very special to Rusty and I. The guys have been best friends since a young age and continued their friendships. And lucky for me I get friendships out of the deal with all their sweet wives.

We made a pact to do this once a year. A long weekend, with no littles and lots of mimosas. Sounds good. Right?

In my next life I am having a cabin in the woods with cabin motif. It is settled.

Places we ate:
Abendigos: This was one of two places that came highly recommended to us and I see why! It was so good and the atmosphere was perfect! We enjoyed specialty drinks, a good patio and live music. I dined on the pork chop with a cabbage slaw and drank champagne muddled with mint, raspberries and lime. For some reason the reviews for this place are bad (and quite comical too) but we had a great time!

Grateful Head Pizza Oven: So good. So good. So good! This was the other place that was recommend to check off our must eat at list and it did not disappoint. We got a wide spread: salad, wings and three kinds of pizza. Go here. We really enjoyed everything about this place.

House of Burgers and Blues: It was pretty good. I got a bleu cheese burger but wasn't that impressed. Their fried pickles and house chips were delicious. We bellied up to the bar for dinner, drinks and basketball. We liked the vibe!

Places we drank:
Girls Gone Wine: Oddly enough a co-worker of mine has a family member that is co-owner of this joint. I cannot recommend it enough. Free wine sampling, a great patio and the shopping was great too!

Beavers Bend Brewery: I thought it was good but everyone else thought it was kind of blah. All beer taste the same to me but others who really knew their beers didn't care for it. It did have a rustic feel, live music and baggo out back.

Things we did:
Broken Bow Lake: Apparently Broken Bow is known for their Sasquatch sightings. People really get into it and their stories are hysterical. One we read even includes the lake. The guys went fishing each morning but on Saturday the weather was so good to us so we all spent a few hours on the pebbled beach. It was beyond relaxing and very, very pretty!

Watch Shaun back down the driveway: While everyone reading this won't get this, our group will. This is just for them. :)

Thrift shops: We spent Friday morning driving around and stopping at various thrift shops. While known of us bought anything we had such a great time!

Cabin: Our cabin had such great amenities like a hot tub, a campfire area and a great wrap around porch. We spent a lot of time here just relaxing and taking it easy. We booked through Beaver Bend Adventures and really enjoyed their customer service!

I cannot say enough good things about this trip. From the food to the time being adults (no kids! love you Skip and Clara) to the charm of the town, we enjoyed it but really it is all about the people you are with. Thankful, really, really thankful!

Monterey in Pictures

I promised three posts last week and only got to two but HEY (!!!) that is better than none like the last 6 months. :)

Can we address the sunshine? The constant sunshine in these photos of Monterey is my favorite. Sunshine on my face and the sound of the ocean, ah. It makes me happy reminiscing and typing these words.

I have a handful of posts coming with restaurants, our lodging and what all we did but I thought pictures upon pictures were needed first. I really did fall in love with this city and the kind people. Of course, we learned a handful of lessons too.

Lessons from Monterey: California in the winter is cold. People told us this but I refused to take/keep up with a big coat so it got left behind. I was freezing anytime the sun wasn't directly shinning on me.

Health + green. Don't get me wrong. You can find clam chowder full of cream and dishes of fish soaked in butter but for the most part everyone in Monterey is a health nut. I love the influence. The night we arrived the downtown had two blocks blocked off for food trucks and a farmers market. The produce still had dirt on it and I was all jealous of fresh goodies. I was still getting over a sinus infection so I stopped by a fresh pressed juice booth and grabbed a bottle of juice full of goodness and ginger. Give me the burn and all the ginger. I seriously love ginger.

They also walk everywhere or bike. Trader Joe's is a shrine in their bustling downtown. Also no bag are sold to tote off your groceries. You paid to get a plastic sack. Everyone had their tote bags handy. Little things like that were principles in New Braunfels but not all that much in El Dorado. In fact, I used our reusable sacks at Walmart when we first moved here and had the cashier yell over to another person, point at me, point at the bags and then they both burst into laughter. Not sure the joke that I missed.

Their seafood comes from the ocean that was over your shoulder. I could stick my feet in the water while eating the food that came from it. It was perfect. We tried everything but my absolute favorite was the truffle crawfish mac' n cheese with fontina, parmesan, crawfish and white truffle oil. It was so rich and delicious and I did take one sip of R's restaurant brew, Buzzlight beer.

The Monterey Plaza Hotel Spa is first class, top of the line, perfect, never wanted to leave. R and I were very fortunate in that his business trip started our last day in Monterey. The company that was hosting the soiree scheduled massages for Rusty and I. We have both had massages from spa's to other hotels and this was hands down the best service I have ever had. I changed into a fresh robe, had fresh fruit and water, spent over an hour getting rubbed down and took the longest hot shower of my life. Their spa has a sun deck and hot tubs on the roof of their hotel that overlooked the ocean. It was magnificent and the lady who massaged R is retiring to Hot Springs (in Arkansas) soon.