our fake maui...

Ed and I went to Maui as a graduation trip gift to ourselves after he took the Bar exam. It was relaxing, beautiful, wonderful and overall a total blast. We always want to go back, but stick firm to our policy to visit more places before we do. Plus it's pretty pricey. However, this weekend, we found what we deemed as our fake Maui during our six-year anniversary last minute weekend getaway.

We have both been feeling the stress and strain of work and life. Last year our anniversary was less than stellar, just a total bust, for a variety of reasons. This year, we decided we wanted to celebrate our anniversary in style for a bajillion reasons. We wanted a place that wasn't too far away, but that would be relaxing and low key.

Being near water and nature is ideal for us, we'll pick that over a city any day. We knew of a place called Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake so I gave the lodge (lodge is a bit of an understatement) a call on chance, told them it was last minute and our anniversary, and we were in luck. The resort totally hooked us up, they had an amazing room waiting for us! Sweet.

Ed and I agreed, this was by far the most incredible weekend trip we have ever taken together. We had an amazing amount of fun in this beautiful part of the country. It's why we deemed it our fake Maui. We decided that in the future when we need to get away, when we can't handle real life another second, we will head to fake Maui... because it's cheaper and faster than the real thing!

We had a full day on Saturday, and took lots of pictures. Below are just the pictures of Friday night (we arrived pretty late) and Saturday morning. More to come on the rest of it later (empty promises... i hear you saying it now).

*this was waiting for us when we arrived, they even gave us a card. if i actually liked cake, i'm sure it would have been delightful, instead ed had the dirty work of eating the whole thing*

*our room, the doors leading out to the balcony, it was delightful*

*ed on the walk to brek*

*nature on our walk to brek*

*ed eagerly awaiting his biscuits and gravy, the boy doesn't mess around, if there are b&g in the vicinity, you better get the heck out of the way, he will take you down in order to get them*

*waiting for some delicious (and it was) brek at one of the restaurants, i had a brekkie sandwich with eggs, bacon, and cheese, and some hash on the side*

*some nature on our walk back from brek*

*this was our 'lodge.' our room was on the top floor, and the third balcony over (the one not covered by the tree)*

*and this is where we spent the rest of our morning, hanging out in these rocking chairs (there were two) on our balcony reading, talking and enjoying the view*