THE BEST VALENTINE

This year's Valentines Day celebration included no flowers, jewels or candy, and yet it was one of our best ever. First we drove over to San Marcos for this...

couple's mani-pedis! Now that was a hoot.

Next stop was a browse through favorite funky shop Paper Bear, just off the square, followed by  lunch at the Root Cellar Cafe, which is just across the street.

The Root Cellar is actually in the cellar of one of the historic buildings in downtown San Marcos.

We both opted for the Cellar Burger, with pesto, provolone, and roasted tomato, on the most delicious ciabatta bun. Hoowee! That pesto was mighty tasty -- in fact, we were still tasting the garlic hours later.

After a nice little afternoon nap back at home, we cleaned up and headed over to Austin. Our destination was a cozy little French bistro called Chez Nous, down near the Convention Center, which we'd talked about trying for years, but never got around to. Hubby said they wouldn't take reservations, but we were clever and got there at least 20 minutes before they even opened, so we'd be first in line.

Then again, maybe not!

The restaurant is quite small, only holding about 50 people, so we didn't make it into the first seating. Fortunately, they've been doing this for years, and had worked out a system. They put our name and cell phone number on their waiting list, then told us to go have fun on 6th St., right around the corner, and they would call us when our name was about to come up.

We ended up stopping in at Maggie Mae's, and enjoyed a drink and some people-watching, whilst listening to an amazing John-Mayer-Sound-Alike.

Looking Out Onto 6th Street

Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Chez Nous.

We both started with escargots, but instead of being served in the usual garlic butter, they were served in a creamy sauce atop a pillowy brioche.

For the main course I opted for the scallops...

while hubby, of course, went for the filet de boeuf.

It was so delicious, it actually made him moan, and my hubby is not a moaner! (that would be me)

The only downside was that we ended up being too full to even share a dessert. Which turned out to be an upside, since our parking meter was completely out of minutes by the time we made it back there, and skipping dessert probably saved us from a costly parking ticket.

We made up for it the next by treating ourselves to a mini Blizzard at DQ, to celebrate the last of a string of warm, sunny days, before the next cold front blows in.

It was indeed a Happy Valentine's Day!