Typically I have cooked a big special dinner for Valentine's day free of healthy dishes and low calorie desserts. This year we did something a little different...
When I started at my current job I got a gift card to a nice restaurant in town. I decided to save it for Valentine's day and that was a part of our fun weekend!
So we started by checking in at the Mayo Hotel in downtown Tulsa. It was a famous hotel to the celebrities back in the 20s and for several decades. It started to lose popularity and eventually went into disrepair and out of business. (More can be found out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayo_Hotel
The rooms were SO nice and really huge.
Mmmm.... hotel robes, so nice. Too bad they probably cost over $100 if you decide to take one.
Mini bar... where are the goodness lives. Locked up. Boo.
Entry way to the room. The photos on the left are old black and whites of huge parties in the ballroom from the 20s. So glam.
Bathroom vanity. Beautiful sink vessel and the carpet in the room was a lovely houndstooth. But why do they feel the need for the lit magnifying mirror on the left of the counter? Aren't I here to get away from my stress and worries. Plus, I probably didn't bring a tweezers.
Nice TV and fun little orange chair. I don't think we could incorporate it into our house but I still think its great.
King size bed with matching light fixtures on each side. I am hoping to incorporate two of those into our room at home. I love the pillow in the middle of the bed with the old historic Mayo logo. Love.
Modern style desk. Pretty no frills but the style of the room didn't need a big clunky piece of furniture that probably won't get used much.
Another chair, this one was more comfy while someone waited on someone else to finish getting ready before our dinner. Okay fine, I was the one getting ready and Chad was waiting but still, he said it was comfy.
After we checked in and got our stuff settled we proceeded on with our cocktail and dinner plans. I goofed so our dinner reservations weren't until 8:30 so we started out with drinks at
LXI Wine Bar. Chad had his typical gin and tonic and I had one of their signature martinis. It was a Raspberry Rosemary something and actually really good. I'm usually pretty adventurous but for some reason I was a little afraid of rosemary in my drink. Even though there was a sprig floating as a decoration in the drink I really couldn't taste it at all. We also got a small cheese plate to keep us from starving until dinner.
Once it was finally dinner time we found our seats at
McGills and ordered. A couple got engaged in the booth behind us while we were there and it was really sweet (everyone now: AWWW!). I can't handle the super heavy meals at restaurants like that one so I just got crabcakes and caprese salad (LOVE). Chad of course got a steak.
My darling husband has been to restaurants like this one quite a bit for work and learned a good lesson long ago. A co-worker told him that his wife used to get jealous of the nice dinners and late night networking and he finally learned the secret after a while. The key is to order a fancy dessert at dinner and then box it up and bring it home. That way, she might not like the late nights but will know there will be a delicious cheesecake or bread pudding waiting in the fridge in the morning. Sounds fabulous to me!
Anyway, when we got back to the hotel that night we considered going to the
hotel bar to check it out (after all, I have to get all my fancy treats in during a holiday) but decided to call it a night.
Luckily our church has started 5p mass so we didn't have to get up early that day. We were very near the
Cathedral downtown so we could have gone to 12p mass if we wanted. I made reservations for brunch so we went down to the
Palace Cafe which is near my
work and I have wanted to try for a while. It was pretty good and I ordered the migas...and I knew it was a dish with eggs in it but it was a little too eggy for me. And I like eggs... but not scrambled eggs. And this was too much scrambled eggs and not enough mexican ingredients added to it. Anyway, still good.
Oh, also... Lord I love coffee and the Mayo Hotel is home of Topeca Coffee which is one of the few "seed-to-cup" family owned coffee companies. It is seriously delicious and they've actually started selling it in the grocery stores (more about THAT in another post) recently. I was thrilled to order my nice Americano straight from the coffee house on a cold snowy morning.
Daisy stayed with one of Chad's co-workers for the night so we wouldn't have to worry about her so it was nice to get her back on Sunday and finish up the weekend with good snuggly family time!
I may have to figure out whether we'll go back to our traditional "Big Dinner Valentine's" or try this new "Night on the Town" routine!
I hope you all had a LOVELY Valentine's weekend.
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