Three Years of Bliss

Although this post is fairly late, Alisa and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary a few days early - July 23rd and 24th. To this day, I still can't believe she said "yes," and marrying Alisa is and always will be the best move I ever made. As a kid, I always knew a few things about my life and my future: I'd always love my family, I'd never be an engineer (ok, I was wrong about that one), I'd have my friends for life, and so on. More to the point, I always knew I'd find the one for me. I just never in my wildest dreams expected the one for me to be someone like Alisa. Luck rabbit to say the least. Well, the photo above is from 2007 or, in anniversary terms, year 0. Before I talk about the most recent celebration of year three, a little review of the two years gone by.

That first year brought the incredible news that we were pregnant. On our first anniversary, my mom Coni hand delivered flowers as a surprise to Alisa at work. I had planned a "date night" complete with an invitation designed using the same style and theme as our actual wedding programs and theme. Finally, we enjoyed a wonderful, and pleasantly private, Vietnamese dinner at Ana Mandara in San Francisco. The food was very good but it was the ambiance and romantic settings that truly allowed us to enjoy our very first wedding anniversary.

Our second year was celebrated with the babysitting help of our dear friends Hedda & Leonard. A cute cake, a cute night, and a little bit of a surprise as I tried to give Alisa a break and actually plan the night myself. With me in charge, we headed for the closest stakehouse: Porterhouse in San Mateo. Alisa said it best in her post at the time, "it was nice to go out on a date together, sans diaper bag." Haha, very nice babe... I put together a video card that showed all the photographs we had taken of Alisa's growing belly during pregnancy - it was really cute although toward the end Alisa certainly felt otherwise! Of course by now, we'd been raising Lucas for 7 months and you know what? We were tired! We celebrated, but I think our greatest gift to each other was a pass on an ornate celebration in favor of a low key indulgence in our favorite food, just a little bottle or two of wine, and some much needed rest. Good lookin' out babe, good lookin' out.

And here we are. Number three. By this point in our marriage, Lucas is one and a half years old and there is no question that raising him rules our world. (This is by no means a complaint, we love the little monster and wouldn't have our world run any other way.) However this is also no question that it is still our world, lit day after day by the light of our love. Although we strive now to lavish Lucas with the love and devotion that will form a foundation on which we can begin to build, through discipline and example, a fine young man, I believe firmly the single most important example we will ever set will be our own relationship. So, on to the celebration!

Our Celebration

We met at my office at 5pm and headed through the Market Street madness toward the Parc 55 Hotel where we were staying the night. Driving through the bustle of downtown San Francisco, feeling the electricity in the air, the pulse of the city, all brought a slight smile to our faces as vague memories of our downtown days danced in our heads. After checking in to the hotel we headed a few doors down to Puccini & Pinetti for a couple glasses of happy hour wine and a bit of people watching as the sun began to set on the city. We hit up a bit of downtown shopping then adjourned to our hotel room to get ready for what was to be an incredible meal at the french bistro, Chapeau!.

As pictured above, there were roses and cupcakes decorating the bed, lit by afternoon light coming in the window with our fabulous view. Alisa enjoyed a candle lit, rose petal bath and then got ready while I watched and reminisced. One of the fondest memories I have of dating Alisa was the simple pleasure of watching her get ready in the morning. She'd sit, cross-legged on the floor of her apartment in San Jose, in front of her mirror, straightening her hair and putting on makeup. I would watch her and think, holy crap she's hot.

We finally headed of to dinner, where the photo above was taken, at Chapeau!. Dinner was wonderful - a decadent french meal of various proteins bathed in buttery sauces. We ever so slowly enjoyed the foie gras and salmon tartare first courses. The second courses of seared scallops and pan roasted halibut were divine. And finally, the main courses of duck breast and tenderloin of beef reminded us why we love food so much, and why the meticulous mastery of the most essential dishes is what makes great french food one of the greatest arts in the world. Stuffed and silly with wine and the pleasure of a great meal together, we made our way back to the hotel, past all the bars we thought for sure we'd go to, and straight to bed to get cozy together and drift off to a blissful end to a perfect anniversary.