Weekend & Birthday Recap

Oh my goodness I had the BEST birthday!  Thank you so all of my wonderful friends & family (especially my husband) for making me feel so loved.  I am truly blessed!

My sister surprised me with these little goodies by TORY BURCH (OMG I'm in love)...my coworkers took great care of me with a cake and loads of flowers...my family was too generous...25 of our loving friends joined us for a Mexican fiesta at our favorite cantina, MARIAS...and my parents topped it off with a GORGEOUS oil painting of the spot Mr. R and I got married---I am one lucky girl!!!

As you know from Thursday's post (HERE), Mr. R took me on an amazing weekend stay-cation toTHE SANCTUARY HOTEL on Kiawah.  It was unbelievable.  

We got out to KI about 4pm and checked into our ridiculous ocean front suite.  It was about 1200 sq ft (i.e. 3/4 the size of our house!) with 2 full baths, foyer, separate living area, HUGE master bedroom and 3 balconies.  The hotel was so sweet and sent us champagne and chocolate covered strawberries upon arrival.

After gawking at the room for awhile, we went and got massages and the SANCTUARY SPA.  If you have not been, I strongly recommend it.  Then we ate a really yummy sushi dinner at the OCEAN ROOM.  We had the mushroom, ocean tempura, sunrise and spicy tuna rolls.  They took extremely good care of us and surprised me with a little birthday dessert!  It is a cake that has literally 24 layers!  THEN we got back to the room there was a beautiful rose petal turn down!  I mean...over the top amazing!

Saturday morning Mr. R let me sleep in (thank goodness) but he was up at the crack of dawn and captured the stunning sunrise from our balcony.  

It was beautiful on Saturday.  So after eating too much at the breakfast buffet at JASMINE PORCH, we took a walk around the grounds, relaxed in the room, watched some ACC basketball and then were lucky enough to join Captain Mike Frees on a DOLPHIN ENCOUNTER (on the new MISS VALERIE!) along the Kiawah River (where I was constantly checking the score of the UNC/NC State game, NC State was ROBBED!).  The dolphins were active, woohoo!

Saturday night we were treated to *multiple* drinks at the Lobby Bar (Mr. R sampled MULTIPLE bourbons & I had champagne cosmos).  Then enjoyed dinner at Jasmine Porch.  The brought out a fried green tomato amuse bouche.  Then Mr. R had BBQ Pork Belly Appetizer and a special rib eye for dinner.  I had a cheese plate and then the filet with horseradish mashed potatoes.  They also kept us well filled on a Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon.  It was GOOD.  THEN I was surprised again with key lime pie and flourless chocolate torte for my birthday.  Seriously we could hardly waddle out of the restaurant.

Sadly Sunday we had to leave.  However we were granted a 3pm checkout which gave us basically the whole day to relax some more.  We ordered breakfast to the room (Mr. R had shrimp & grits, I had pancakes with grits, eggs & bacon and LOTS of coffee).  We were able to eat it over looking the balcony in the warm sun and then catch the first half of the ACC Final game.  Mr. R is a huge FSU fan so we were thrilled with a Seminoles win!  Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend & day.  Thank you to my wonderful loving husband!  Now...time to work all of the food off!