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! 💕
