My Snowy Valentine

It felt like Charlie and I were driving through a winter wonderland on the way to Mount Pleasant for our Valentine's Day weekend.

It was the most snow I think I have ever seen outside of Colorado and the Merc held up like a champ. The 7 hour drive was a little stressful especially when you see cars swerving off the road because of the ice!

But we did make it and Mr. Toby wasn't the only one thrilled to be finally out of the car!

Toby resembled a large snow bunny playing in the snow. It's funny how he blends in with his surroundings because of his white/"apricot" coat. What can I say he's a natural hunter in his camo...Toby the Chameleon!

Since there was about 8 inches of snow on the ground Toby had plenty of room to make barrel dives for about 20 minutes...

...and then I noticed the snow starting to clump up on his little legs and knew it was time to shower off and get warmToby: "Aaawww, Mom! Just a little longer!"

The glassed-in shower made giving Toby a bath SO much better...for me atleast. It's amazing how much his behavior improves when there's no obvious avenue of escape.

The big Valentine's day surprise was a visit to the Historical town of Jefferson just 45 minutes away from Mount Pleasant. The neat things about little towns like Jefferson is everything is considered haunted! Too bad we were just a day late for the ghost tour...

On our last visit with our friends Kati and Adam I saw this awesome old hotel and (you guessed it) Charlie booked us a room for the night.

Some famous people who have stayed at the Excelsior House areUlysses S. Grant, Oscar Wilde, Rutherford B. Hayes and Lady Bird Johnson. We even got to see their signatures in old guest books that are on display.

Our room was one of the originally constructed rooms and had a little entry way into the bedroom.

I was loving the Victorian wall paper and the big claw foot tub.

Our rom was called the SLEIGH BEDROOM#103...I'm guessing because of the bed

I printed off some fun Valentine notes and decorated our room while Charlie was getting ready for dinner.

Another surprise, Mr. Ebenezer the Clydesdale greeted us outside of the hotel to escort us to dinner! It was a chilly but wonderful tour of the Jefferson bed and breakfast houses. Many of them were just beautiful all lit up at night with their lace curtain windows.

To get an idea of just how cold it really was...our tour guides had on snow skiing gear!



We ate a wonderful dinner at the Stillwater Inn. The building is a 1890's Victorian house with several little cottages behind the restaurant where guests can spend the night.



The tables were actually old Singer sewing machines painted robin's egg blue with a marble table top.
We had so much fun eating and talking...

Needless to say a good time was had by all!

It was so cold walking to our car from the restaurant that Charlie swaddled me up (arms and all) in the pink blanket we brought for the carriage ride. Along the walk there was as a particularly muddy patch on the sidewalk so Charlie, being the gentleman that he is, went to scoop me up to carry me over the mud. What he wasn't expecting was the slippery fabric of the pink blanket made catching a grip difficult. I slipped through his arms and ended up with my feet over my head. The fact I was laughing hysterically didn’t help him get me right side up either. I wasn’t much help since my arms were wrapped in the blanket. Here are two positives about this little event:
1. The blanket kept my dress from flying up over my head.
2. He caught the very back of the blanket right before I hit the ground.
Life is much more enjoyable when I can see the lighter side of things. I guess it’s like the quote “Angles can fly because they take themselves lightly”. Sometimes my perspective can make my heart sink like a rock but that night we were blessed with laughter!

The next day Charlie and I explored the town a little more...

I learned this fountain was originally built forhorses, people and dogs. The two larges basins were for the horses, the smaller basin for the people and at the very bottom was a troth for the pups.

Charlie even found a few treasures!
Luckily the only things we brought home were these pictures.
Since the hotel had a "no pets" poilicy Mrs. Lloyd kept The Tobles for us and then brought him to us in Jefferson.

It was a weekend to remember and I felt like the most special woman in the world!