Mother knows best...

My mom is such a sweetheart and really wanted to give J-Dawg and I a special and fun weekend. She was completely fine with me taking him to the Alan Jackson concert instead of her. Because the concert was very far away, she purchased us a hotel room so that we could use the hotel shuttle. Her best laid plans didn't quite turn out as we hoped, and trying to situate everything was becoming quite frustrating. This was the first time J-Dawg saw me mad, and although he was getting frustrated also, he tried keeping his cool for my sake. 

After hours of driving through 5 o'clock traffic with construction, we reached what we thought was the hotel, only to find it was in a complete other location. Once we arrived to the actual hotel, we realized how far away from the concert it was. We then learned there was no shuttle to and from the concert. The hotel room was incredibly elegant (and very expensive). Although I was grateful that my mom had done this for us, we felt horrible about the cost, and even worse that our "get-away" was making us want to go back home. 

We drove for miles out to the concert that was being held at the Santa Ana Star Center. After a long and frustrating night, we both took deep breaths and realized we needed to stop and enjoy the night. Some guy opened for Alan Jackson and neither of us were very impressed. Then we waited for the headliner... and waited... and waited... and waited some more. It was about an hour between the opening act and when Alan Jackson actually came on. People were getting up and leaving. 

But once he arrived, he put on a wonderful show. He wasn't promoting a new album, so he sang tons of his classics. Being in love with AJ since elementary school, I knew all of his songs and it brought back lots of memories. J-Dawg was really enjoying himself also. Country isn't big in Europe, but since he moved to the States, he had definitely come to love it. All our worries were forgotten that night, as his arm was wrapped around me and we sang along to "Tall, Tall Trees". 

We enjoyed the rest of the concert and then went back to the hotel. We stepped outside and realized how beautiful the view from the balcony was. J-Dawg had packed a bottle of wine (we both love wine and that has become our thing is to go shopping for a bottle of wine together, and then on our date nights, open it and share a glass) and we drank it sitting outside on the balcony, looking at the stars. "Okay mom," I thought, "you did good." 


We then wandered around the ginormous hotel, and checked out all the amenities. Three pools, what?! Unfortunately, it was too late and all were closed. The scenery was beautiful, and because the hotel was on tribal land, everything was very Native American (including this ginormous pottery waterfall). 

The next morning before leaving, we decided to soak up the landscape, and enjoy some time on the balcony before check out. The hotel truly was amazing, and J-Dawg and I felt as if we got the Honeymoon treatment as guests. 


What do you know, mom was right...