So I took Friday afternoon off, the better to get away and get started on the fun without the hassles of traffic or darkness. We headed north this time. Normally both of us would have preferred finding a warm spot to run away to, but we re-visited a place that has become one of our get-away spots - Logan.
I know, you are thinking, what is in Logan?? Well, the Anniversary Inn mostly. We stayed in the Bridal Suite on our wedding night and ever since then we have been getting gift certificates to the Anniversary Inn as a Christmas gift from Dave's kids. I guess they figure it is a slam dunk winner of an idea since our anniversary is Jan 9th, shortly after Christmas.
What really makes it a slam dunk winner of a gift is that Anniversary Inn always has a 3 day sale in December where you can book any room, at any of their locations, for any time during the upcoming year at the lowest room rate they offer - $150. This means their top rooms, which go for $300 a night can be had for a mere $100 out of pocket to us. It makes a perfect fit for the cheapskates that we are. :)
So this year during their sale we booked one of their most expensive suites, Nefertiti's Court. We decided to book it for President's day weekend and combine anniversary & valentine's together. What an awesome room! We've decided it's our favorite so far (we've stayed in 4 different rooms so far). It was huge. Dave estimated 900 sq. feet. It had a sitting room that had painted walls with a scene of desert sand, pyramids and the sphinx and fake palm trees. It also had another area that had a small reflecting pond, a small dining table and small refrigerator. This area also had the walls painted to make you feel you were in Egypt, but this was had a waterway. I'm assuming you are supposed to think of the Nile. They decorated the inside front door and frame with hieroglyphics made to look like they were carved in stone. They had a huge wall mural at the head of the bed that looked like an Egyptian painting. They also had a floor to cieling mirror that had paintings on both sides of the underworld gods, you know the ones with the black dog heads? There were no outside windows so it felt like you were inside an Egyptian pyramid, very secluded. Of course the normal amenities were included - large jetted tub, separate shower (oh, but this one had an overhead shower that came staight down on top of you as well as showerheads coming out of the side walls so it shoots water at you from all angles - I found it very relaxing), large king size bed with the memory foam mattress (so very comfortable!) and a very large screen TV on the wall at the foot of the bed. It had a bizillion channels available, as well as music channels. Cheesecake is left in the refrigerator and breakfast comes with the room (delivered to your door at the time you indicate the night before). Check out the room on their website http://www.anniversaryinn.com/logan. Choose Nefertiti's Court.
Here are some of the photos we took. Haven't downloaded very many of them yet. But the website should give you a good idea of how luxurious the room was.
What a cheesy pose, don't you think?
After the temple we went to dinner at Maddox - one of the finest steak houses we know of. The steak just melts in your mouth. I think they grow their own cattle locally. Dave loves their mashed potatoes and since it was a Friday, they served clam chowder that was extremely good. We splurged and had a slice of raspberry cream pie that was heavenly. I think they grow their own raspberries up there as well. We got there early and beat the evening rush, which left a lot of the evening left to enjoy.
We took our laptop because one of the things we wanted to do was explore the senior mission options listed on the lds.org website and get a better idea what steps we need to take to apply and submit papers. We are getting jazzed about becoming senior missionaries. Do you know they let you submit papers up to 9 months before you go? We could start working on things now!! Yikes! (Side note: I saw the dentist this week, and have appts. set to take care of my dental work. Now Dave needs to get busy on his medical issues).
Saturday we shopped and shopped. We were on a quest for as much fake greenery we could find to help out Darci for her wedding reception at the end of March. We are hitting up all the deseret industries we can. We hit the jackpot. Our car was jammed packed with fake trees and plants by the time we got back to Pleasant Grove. We also were on a quest for items to finish up the master bath (which by the way looks even more awesome and is almost completed. I will post more photos once it is all done). We found a very unique item to use as a necklace holder. I'm pretty sure no one will ever have a duplicate, but it seems to be doing a fine job in a minimal space.
We had hoped to go to Crystal Hot Springs as well, but it was mid afternoon before we made it there and man, was it crowded. It was standing room only in the pools, and they are quite large. We have never seen it that busy. We decided to pass on that activity, but we were disappointed. That is one of the highlights for any trip up north.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time away together. It is nice to be married to someone you enjoy being with.
Monday, we took our snowmobiles out for the second time. This time we had both of them up and running and we invited Charlie & Cathy to come. We went back up to Daniel's summit and I enjoyed this outing more than the first one. I drove the snowmobile more and I got up the nerve to go off the groomed trails and go up the mountainside at a very steep location. It took all the nerve I could muster. Dave drove us up and over. But when we got to the other side I was amazed! There was an open meadow area with lots of room to ride and other hills you could go up and down. What a fun spot. Snowmobiling may just get me to eventually like snow and cold some day.
