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"Valentine, Can we go for a Walk?"

That was the line on a Valentine's Day card that Moses got in the mail from one of our friend's doggies. It was so cute!

VALENTINE'S DAY - It's one of those holidays people either hate or they love. I have to say, I like the holiday much better now that I have found my knight in shining armor. Honestly, Valentine's Day has never been one of my favorite holidays like Halloween, the 4th of July or Christmas. I could pretty much take it or leave it but since it does come around and I have such a cool hubby I don't mind celebrating it with the rest of the world. People always say it's overpriced and they can celebrate love anytime but how many times do you go out for romantic dinners on your own? Anyhoo, it's probably one of 4 times in a year that I can count on a special present from hubby (Christmas, Birthday and Anniversary being the others) and gosh darn it, I like to see what he gets me! I was most excited this year when Moses came running toward me with a purple box in his mouth. I think he forgot the box was for me and started to chew on it! hehehe After pulling it from his mouth I opened the present to find some beautiful amber earrings!! I don't have too many pairs of earrings and I especially love the ones my hubby gets me. In fact I wore my Tiffany earrings that he gave me until they broke! Later in the day he gave me two more purple boxes which contained an amber necklace and an amber ring. Both super gorgeous!

That was Saturday the day before Valentine's. On Sunday, we decided to take Moses to Huntington Beach. We don't get to see Mo a lot during the week so on the weekend we love to spend time with Mo. So instead of going away we stayed home and found something to do with our beloved Mo. Hubby found this cool restaurant (The Park Bench) that allows dogs. They even had items on the menu you could order for your dog. After some tasty burgers we headed to the beach.



We had a great time at the beach. It's so much fun to watch Moses run in the water! The beach is always so very calming. It was so nice to spend the afternoon in the warm sun after a month of rain! Whenever I go, my worries always disappear. After the beach we came home and rest and later got all dolled up to go to dinner.



A few week's ago when we went to a Laker game we tried Trader Vic's, a tiki style restaurant right outside the Staples Center at LA Live. We had such a great time at the bar we thought we would try the original restaurant at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The last time I had been at the Beverly Hilton was for a New Year's Eve party several years ago. The one amazing thing about the Beverly Hilton is the dreamy pool. I was hoping I would get to see it again.



We valet the car and went inside. We didn't know what to expect. When we got to the restaurant the hostess asked us if we preferred to have the special Valentine's Prix Fix meal or eat from the limited menu. Seeing that the prix fix menu had a lot of seafood on it we chose the limited menu. The lady sat us inside in a fancy dining room which didn't seem very tiki-ish at all. At first glance we were both disappointed. Another lady came to pour us a glass of water. We must have been looking around weird because the hostess came back to us and asked us if we preferred to sit outside. After explaining the difference (because there seemed to be two different menus and two different named areas) we decided to vacate our seats in the fancy dining room and go outside to a more relaxed tiki-ish area.


We were seated at a table located by that dreamy pool I remembered. Playing over our heads were old surf videos. They were being projected on the side of the hotel. Along with some palm trees and tropical orange tables and a Tiki style bar this new arrangement was much more what we were going for.



A waiter came up to us and even though the host seemed a little annoyed by our change of seats the waiter didn't mind at all.
He was very nice. He handed us the legendary drink menu which immediately took us back to an enlightened Hawaiian state (a place we are always trying to get to!). We browsed the menu which was a lot smaller than the Trader Vic's at LA LIVE. Sadly they didn't have any drinks with flames :( (sorry Babe).




I decided to order a scorpion and the hubby ordered the famous Mai Tai. After we received our tropical and mighty powerful drinks we tried to decided on appetizers. The hubby chose a duck appetizer and I chose these chow chow beef stick things. We ended up with a lot of meat to roast over a volcano fire pit thing they placed on our table!



A couple of drinks in (see picture below). We received our entrees. The hubby ordered a beef tenderloin and I ordered chicken linguini. I am not sure the limited menu actually represented the food I saw on the website??? The whole "there is two restaurants with two menus but we are really one restaurant" confused me. Our food was tasty but not very polynesian as one would think a tiki restaurant would be. Oh well, they had damn good drinks so who cares, right?



The hub and I enjoyed a great dinner with very interesting conversation. After dinner we vacated our table to some award show nominees. Apparently, there was an awards show at the Beverly Hilton that night and all the people who attended decided to get a drink at the bar afterward. I am not sure if it was me in a drunken state but the statues the people were holding as awards were the weirdest looking things I have ever seen! The hub and I had fun trying to guess which award show the people had attended by the clothes they were wearing and the weird statues we kept getting glimpses of.

Anyhow, we walked over to some lounge chairs that lined the dreamy pool and sat down. We snuggled up close and watched the surfing videos for a while. Being by the pool was enchanting and I daydreamed what it would be like to have such a pool in my backyard. If only I could have jumped in the pool and gone for a dip!







The night ended with a LMAO moment. We were at the valet and the hubby and I were watching all these fancy cars come through. He said to me, "If they bring me the wrong car I am going to steal it." "Oh really?" I thought. All of the sudden I see our Honda Insight drive up and I see this couple who had come from the awards ceremony get into our car. I tell on of the valet guys "Hey, that is my car. That is my dog blanket in the back seat!" The guy looked at me like I was crazy. Meanwhile, the hubby is talking to another valet who is helping the guy who is trying to steal our car into the front seat of our car. After a moment (the moment being after the guy who got in our car, realizing we don't have a navigational unit :) ) the couple realize that they are in the wrong car get out and apologize. The hubby and I get in the car and begin to laugh uncontrollably. Out of all the fancy smancy cars in the valet station these two people mixed up our car with theirs?? All we could imagine was that they must own a Prius and got our car mixed up with theirs? Here hubby was going to steal a porsche or something and someone ended up trying to steal our car! The irony was so funny.

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