Forbes Island ~ Where it all began….

Happy Friday everyone!!!  I am so glad you all enjoyed the Guest Posters ~ I LOVE being able to share sites for some of my favorite people and it allowed me to back away from the computer to enjoy The Husband’s Birthday celebration!

Thanks for all the comments about My BIG SECRET and on my weight loss.  I am pretty sure I took that loss away this week, but, I weighed in backwards this week & told everyone I didn’t want to know my results.  I will check them NEXT week after I have had an entire week back on track.

I have so many FUN things to share with you all so I am going to recap our trip in TWO posts (if I can be short/concise!) starting with where it all began……

The ONLY thing I had told The Husband was that he had to be ready by 5 on Friday night to head out for a “special” dinner to celebrate his birthday.  I told him since it was the BIG 4-0 that we had to go somewhere special.

I totally teased him as we got in the car and he was trying to guess all the way to San Francisco all the places we could go.  It was pretty funny because I totally played along with his ideas….

Maybe I just pulled out the Fast Trak (what we used to get across the bridge) for fun….

Maybe we are heading in the other direction toward your favorite casino

Or, maybe, just maybe, we are heading to Pier 39……

It wasn’t until we got to the Ferry Boat for Forbes Island that he was like OMG ~ are we really going here?!?!

I pondered putting the phone you call the boat driver on down and saying just kidding

When you get on the boat, The Captain (who happens to be the OWNER!) has everyone sit evenly on the boat so it doesn’t tip over. 

A short ride later and you are on the “Lighthouse” that is on it’s own “Island” in the San Francisco Bay ~ SO COOL!

Since we had a little extra time we walked around the light house…..I LOVE how he looks like an excited little kid in this picture.

It’s a bit of a hike to get to the top of the Light House, but, the view makes it worth it.

You get a 360 peripheral view of the San Francisco Bay, Alcratraz and the Piers.

It is really neat inside of the light house.  It is built like the inside of a ship and is the perfect setting quaint, romantic dinner.

We sat next to the fireplace at this cute table.

The room is lit by only canteen lights and these Light House Lamps!

One of my FAVORITE things about The Husband is he likes to try everything like me ~ we decided to share everything we ordered so we could try it all.

We started off with warm, toasty sour dough bread….their butter is homemade and topped with black sea salt.  Ummm, we inhaled it!

I am pretty sure I want to start putting sea salt on my bread now…it literally melts into the butter, yet, you can totally taste it.

Our appetizer was JUMBO Tiger Prawns in a Tarragon Garlic Wine Sauce.

The shrimp were HUGE and cooked to perfection…you could taste the butter, garlic, tarragon and lemon.

I picked the Soup Du Jour ~ Butternut Squash Soup for my starter.

It was broth based, yet, super decadent/creamy and more savory than sweet.  It totally made me want to re-create it.

He picked the Fresh Baby Green Salad with Belgian Endives

Vine Ripened Tomatoes, Citrus Wedges & Balsamic Vinaigrette

…..isn’t the presentation beautiful?

My entrée ~ French Country Style Chicken

Roasted Gratinée Chicken & Vegetable Medley in White Wine Crème Fraîche Sauce

I think my FAVORITE part of this dish were the creamy garlic mashed potatoes and perfectly crisp veggies.  They both absorbed the rich wine sauce.

You all knew he was going to pick steak, right?!

Classic Filet Mignon

Truffled Bordelaise Demi-Glace, Gem Potatoes, Broccoli & Shitake Mushroom Puff

The steak was so tender is literally melted in your mouth with each bite.  My favorite part was definitely the Broccoli & Shitake Mushroom Puff (the square) ~ it was light and fluffy like a frittata, yet, creamy and tasted like the toasted Parmesan Almond Crisps I make.

They remembered it was his birthday when I booked our reservation over a month ago and this showed up at our table!

Chocolate Hazelnut Mouse with a chocolate cookie crust! Think Nutella…..WOW!

I definitely think we NEED to make a trip back just so I can take pictures of the bathroom ~ it’s sooooo cool ~ it’s the Captain’s Toilet.  I am pretty sure they would’ve thought I was weird if I went back to take pictures of that

On our way out, I snapped a few more pictures just as the sun was setting….

If you are ever in San Francisco ~ VISIT FORBES ISLAND ~ How often do you get to dine in a lighthouse on it’s own island?! Not to mention ~ their food is phenomenal!

When we got into the car I told The Husband I was going to use the navigator on my phone to get us out of the city because it knows “ways’ around the traffic

It was SO HARD to not keep laughing when he was like, turn, here, no, turn here….I think the lady on your navigator is wrong.

Finally, when we got on the freeway going towards South San Francisco he was like, you NEED to turn around….I had to fess up and say, ohhhh, ummm, ok, there, might be just ONE MORE romantic stop…..

Tons of questions from him….where are we going?

Me….You will see……

Him….the ONLY thing out this way is the airport and a poker room, but, since we are going to Lake Tahoe tomorrow we are not going to play poker, right?

Me…..um, not sure…….You will see….

When we got off the freeway at the airport exit…….

HIM ~ OMG ~ we are going to the airport?!

THE BEST PART ~ Are we flying to Reno? That doesn’t make sense, it only takes us 3 hours to drive…..

I LOVE it at this part and started LMAO……

I told him, he is just going to have to figure it out………

From this point on, I WISH I brought the video camera…..he was just hilarious ~ guessing…..

Las Vegas…..No, wait, it’s a late night flight so that means we are going to the East Coast….Atlantic City…..

Me ~ maybe…..I can’t tell you   

Then, as we got on the shuttle ~ there were two guys who he was telling the story and they were all guessing……

I NEVER told him….but, made sure I told them after he got off ~ they all thought it was pretty cool…..

He was practically having an anxiety attack as we were standing in line to drop our bags (I checked us in online), so I handed him our boarding passes…..

HIM ~ NO WAY!!! WE ARE GOING TO ATLANTIS?! WE ARE NOT….You are totally kidding right?

ME ~ NOPE…..For the next 5 hours, every time I looked over at him, he kept smiling…..

Asking me who knew….who played along…..(Like Tracey who he invited to go to Tahoe with us ~ so hard to keep a straight face, but, we all did!)

Then, it clicked…..he was like…..oh, so we are not going to Lake Tahoe.

SO FUNNY!

For the next day, every time I looked over at him he just had a BIG cheesy grin saying I can’t believe you did this

Q’s

Have you ever pulled up a BIG surprise for someone?  If so, we all wanna know

We are off to dinner at Flemming’s Steakhouse! See you all tomorrow for our Atlantis Recap!

Night all!