A Valentine's Day for the Birds

 For our first married Valentine's Day, we did something unique. We went bird-watching with our friend Bryce, who's an experienced bird-watching hobbyist. We were trying to find owls (my favorite animal, as many of you know), along with any rare(ish) birds that we might see. It was a cold, fun adventure, and we both learned a lot. I'm definitely gonna get more into bird-watching as I get older! 😃

We saw a hawk eating something way far off in a snowy field. This picture was taken through a telescope lens with the camera lens pressed up to it.

We also saw eagles, including young eagles like this one who still have their brown feathers.

It was nice to get back in the car between bird-watching stops!

We went to Plum Island, where I'd never been before.

A frigid tundra by the sea

We were looking for snowy owls in the nearby trees and over the fields and dunes. They're sometimes spotted here in the winter.

David is in the background, Bryce is in the foreground, and I'm at the top of a tower (where, ironically, there was a dead bird).

We stopped one more time at a spot where we'd looked for snowy owls a little earlier. This time, Bryce found one with his scope! It was so unforgettably awesome to see it in the wild! It was very distant and hard to see (it blended right in with the snow), but we saw it through his scope! We got some okay-ish pictures with the cell phone camera pressed up to the scope lens. 

Do you see it!? 😄 It's right in the center.

Here's a close-up. You can see why it's nearly impossible to see it at a far distance with the naked eye.

It was awesome!

On the way home, we stopped at a park, where we saw mallard ducks (I love their colors!)...

...and a beautiful forest, where, way up high in one of the trees, was a barred owl. It was too hard to get a picture of, but it was really neat to be able to see it.

A couple of hours later...

Early that evening, we went out for a romantic dinner at one of my favorite places, The Wayside Inn. We ate in my favorite room in one of my favorite spots, right by a front window and the fire. (What can I say, the day was full of favorites!)

We didn't get any of the above specials and we each got prime rib instead. It was perfectly cooked and DELICIOUS!

And then a dee-lish chocolate mousse dessert to finish things off.

David had made some heart-shaped frosted sugar cookies that he brought back from his trip to Montana, and they were...delicious (I'm not using a thesaurus, okay? 😆).

It was a sweet and memorable first married Valentine's Day together. I'm looking forward to many more V-Days with David in the future! 💕

Mazatlan Randoms + Adios!

 Here are the randoms of Mazatlan. 😄

This picture would be better and more flattering (of me) if it were taken from a higher, looking-down angle. I'm trying to train David to do this.

An iguana! They're fun to spot.

This was my breakfast almost every morning. Just like at home, but with Spanish labels.

As previously mentioned, this happened a few hours away during our stay in Mexico. Fortunately, we weren't affected. 

This flavor of Tostitos was delicious! I'd never had it before. I wish they were sold in the States!

Shirley Temple, one of my favorite drinks

A delicious cheese appetizer that we got at every dinner:

Look at that stretchy cheese! 😋

Pretty shells we found on the beach. I'm going to try to keep being crafty and glue them onto a picture frame.

I liked these striped glasses in the kitchen.

Adiós, Mazatlán! I took this picture from the plane before lift-off.

More plane views of Mazatlan, these ones prettier. 

Mementos and keepsakes from the trip, plus the books I read:

I came home with these owls, plus an owl Mazatlan magnet, which was already on the fridge (I forgot to take a picture of it).

Things for Sam:

We came home to big piles of snow! How lovely.

I'm happy to report that on this first international plane trip together, David and I travel well together. Phew! One never knows. I hope we'll return to Mazatlan again in the future; it was a wonderful trip, and it's a beautiful place!

Mazatlan: I Got Crafty + The Villa and Resort

 I don't usually get crafty on vacations (or much at all), but thanks to my more artistically-minded husband, I did in Mazatlan! The resort had an outdoor seaside paint-your-own pottery studio. You pick a piece, paint it, and then they touch it up and glaze it, and you pick it up the next day. It was really fun! I of course chose an owl, and David did a Patrick Star for Sam.

And here are our masterpieces, once they were touched up and glazed, and indeed masterpieces:

The villa was really nice, and so was the resort that it was at. It was a three-bedroom, three-bathroom with plenty of space and a private pool and hot tub. I posted a few pictures of it already in this post, but here are a few more.

The front of the villa:

Front entrance:

The back of the villa:

Needless to say, we spent a lot of time relaxing back here!

The pool water was heated, and it felt so good. I don't enjoy swimming in cold water, so it was perfect.

Reading and napping; these are a few of my favorite things. 😄

Our room:

Some pictures around the resort:

Front entrance

We didn't use these pools since we had our own, but they were very nice, and they had a great view of the ocean.

It was a dreamy place to stay!