Anniversary

Ryan's been telling me for years that no matter what day we get married, we'd have to keep our anniversary on January 30th.  There was no capacity in his brain to remember another date.  I didn't particularly love that idea, until it took us 10 years to get married.  And after that, there was no way in hell I was going to take those 10 years away and start counting over.  So, even though we married on November 7, 2008, we actually celebrate our anniversary on January 30th.

Our anniversaries are always good - most of the time simple, but good.  Which, for many who know me, beats the crap out of Valentine's Day two weeks later (yeah, I'm a hater).  Yesterday was not exception - it was a great day! 

First things first - the sun was out in full force!  Sun, I missed you.  I can see you're out again today, and I know you're hibernating again come tomorrow.  Japantown sells chi chi dango, a type of mochi, at the Shuei-Do Manju Shop.  Ryan introduced me to mochi a couple weeks into dating - America was introduced a few years ago in the form of Mochi Ice Cream, which is now found at Trader Joe's.  The chi chi dango is the mochi part of mochi ice cream.  It comes in different flavors, formed in a square, and (needless to say) I've been obsessed with it for about 10 years and 9 months. They only sell it on Friday and Saturday, so we thought it would be a perfect thing to go get on our anniversary.  We went kind of late - almost 1 pm - and typically they are sold out by then.  Lucky us - they had a good amount left.  Score!

We then went to a crepe place across the street, which has awesome crepes.  I had a turkey, cucumber, lettuce and artichoke spread crepe.  I'm 99.5% convinced the artichoke spread was the artichoke-jalepeno spread sold at Costco.  Which I LOVE.  If you haven't had it yet - go buy some.  It made the crepe perfect.  The crepe shop also sells Hawaiian style shaved ice.  Shaved ice is on every corner in Hawaii, and I have absolutely no idea why it is not insanely popular here.  Because I LOVE it.  It topped off a great lunch.  Ryan started laughing because he said it never ceases to amaze him how much pleasure I get out of eating shaved ice.

I'm still nursing a cold, so a two hour nap was in order.  Afterward, we went over the hill to Santa Cruz to look at the surf and have dinner.  I looked up a place called Lillian's Italian Kitchen, which had great reviews.  Had to be good - my nonni's name is Lillian.  Must've been great, because at 6:30 there had to be no less than 20 people waiting for a seat outside it's tiny quarters.  On the way to Santa Cruz, there was an accident northbound (opposite direction) that resulted in a parking lot on 17 N that spanned 10 miles.  We knew we couldn't go back over the hill anytime soon. 

We went to the Capitola village, which houses my favorite candy of all time - salt water taffy.  Not just any salt water taffy.  This taffy is gooooooood and in every possible flavor.  I honestly haven't met a flavor I don't like.  As you can tell, I have a sweet tooth and we were acting like it was my birthday, getting all my favorite things.  In my defense, Ryan really likes seeing me happy.  Well, you'd think it was my freaking birthday, because the store was having taffy "rotation" problems, meaning that some of the taffy were rotated incorrectly and possibly a bit sticky or hard.  So, the owner asked us to try every flavor before buying it.  Ummm, yes please?!?!  I get to try all this taffy for free?!  Pinch me.

The rest of night was moderately uneventful.  We ate at Margaritaville, because Mexican food sounded good and there was no wait.  Margaritaville is okay.  Not amazing.  We shared fajitas, which were good.  Upon getting home, Ryan wanted to go take pictures of the moon & sky.  I tried but it was so dang cold outside and he sent my whiny butt home.  I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 for four hours.  We know how to party.

A lot of great things yesterday, and an awesome way to celebrate 11 years together!