Big Surprise! Big Sur!

So I wake up on our anniversary and totally oblivious walk right past my first anniversary gift. I walked into our kitchen where I find the hubby cooking breakfast and he asks if I found my gift. I said no and return to the bedroom door to find a necklace tapped to the ceiling part of the door. Hanging off the necklace was a sign that said happy anniversary. On closer inspection there was also a key attached to the necklace. I take the key to the kitchen and ask the hubby what I do next. He said "You already walked past the second thing" and told me to sit at the breakfast table. So I do and that is when I see this homemade box with four compartments and four locks. The key from the necklace opens one of the compartments. Inside the compartment was matching earrings to the necklace and a letter that said to pack my bags cuz we were heading to Big Sur! While i have never stayed in Big Sur I have driven through it and it was a memorable drive because we were almost out of gas and in the middle of no where. Well, you think we would have learned but once again we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere with the gas light on. This time though we had a gps. When we plugged it in it said we had 24 miles to go. We had already been driving on e when the light came on so we felt for sure we were going to get stuck. It was 1AM when we rolled into Big Sur and boy was there a lot of praying going on. I felt for sure we had rolled in on fumes! The hub had reserved a cabin for us at Glen Oaks Motel. A motel! I thought. The last motel I stayed at I swore never to motel it up again. Well, it turned out were weren't staying at the motel section but rather in a cabin. What I didn't know about the cabin and the motel was that they were recently remodeled and quite swanky. When I opened the door to the cabin I was quite surprised to find Pottery Barn and West Elm staring me right in the face. I look at those catalogs all the time and knew exactly what items came from what store. There was a glorious king size bed to sprawl out on. The other awesome item was the gas fireplace. I fell in love with it!! After taking everything in we went to bed. The next day we explored all of Big Sur and all it had to offer. I opened up the other three compartments of the wooden box. The other compartments included a hike, going to the spa with hippes (which didn't work out) and my "china" gift." OUr day included hiking in State Parks, stopping from place to place, shopping, going to galleries, eating at eclectic restaurants and stopping at the general store to get snacks to go with game hour (playing Yatzee in the cabin). We had a glorious day. I think we both felt like we could quit our jobs and live there forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Going to Big Sur is what life is all about. It's a happy, relaxing and peaceful place. We watched the locals and wondered how we could become like them. Sunday we drove along the coast and stopped at various towns. It was such a nice getaway. Now I dream of getting away to my cabin in the woods. Can't wait to go back!