Elson and I wanted to make Valentine's Day special this year. We were planning on celebrating both our one year anniversary of engagement and Valentine's on the same day. So we chose the Saturday before and went to the small town of Chelsea Michigan.

First of all we slept in and relaxed in the morning. We exchanged gifts as soon as we woke up. I gave Elson a breakfast in bed gift basket filled with pancake mix, cookies, syrup and even a heart shaped pancake maker. Elson gave me a teddy bear that says "Hug Me" and a card that reads, "It's Valentine's day and I need someone bad..." (then on the inside)..."Are you bad?" I thought that was so cute. He also gave me an FM transmitter for my new ipod that he got me for Christmas.

By the time we rolled out of bed we were really hungry so we made some chocolate chip, heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and then got ready for our day out on the town.

When we first got to Chelsea we walked passed the clock tower to a couple of little shops that were on the outer edge of downtown. There we found a little boutique called the Pink Turtle which had some home made glass jewelry, and fancy skirts and shirts. I modeled a couple of hand knit hats for Elson and he thought they made me look like I was an actress out of the 20's. I also tried on a pair of designer golf gloves, but we all know that I don't play enough golf to spend $30 on one pair of pretty gloves. My favorite part of the Pink Turtle was trying on the headbands they had. I thought some of them looked relatively decent on me, but we ended up not buying anything there.

We then moved on to a place called "Gourmet Chocolate Cafe" It's a cute little hometown place with the town museum attached. We walked in and began to look at the wall full of fliers with things to do in town when we heard "Elson!" Apparently one of the teachers from Howell Schools owns the little shoppe and runs the museum for the town. So, we stood there and talked to Tom for a while and he mentioned a few places to go and check out while we were there.

Tom told us about the Teddy Bear Factory. It's not a far walk at all from where he is, and they house the largest real teddy bear. The bear is 7 feet tall and has a big cardboard box in his tummy and a sledding saucer it his head. He is also stuffed with some plastic bags, but his paws are actually stuffed with real teddy bear stuffing. They had all kinds of teddy bears there. They even have clothes for them and you can personalize a shirt for your bear. One of the coolest things is they have a new grizzly bear and there was a naming contest. If you wrote down a name that they like the best, then you get to win one of the big grizzly bears. Elson's name was Clark W. Grizzly. I chose Danali for the name of the national park in Alaska where most grizzly bears are found in North America.

For the rest of the day we spent it looking at shoppes and walking around the town. There were some very nice art galleries that we checked out as well. I like to look at all of the pottery because I am in a ceramics class and I like to see what people can do. I saw a couple of styles and techniques that I would like to try this week in my class. Elson's favorite was this painting of the side of an aluminum barn with trees and shadows and everything. It looked so realistic.

To end the day we went on a horse and carriage ride for Valentine's day. We showed up a little late though. We thought that they were meeting in front of the Common Grill in downtown Chelsea, but they said the Chelsea Grill which was about a mile down the road. So we hopped in the car and made our way to the right grill to have our ride. It was very romantic. A little chilly, both of us had freezing toes, but it was still very enjoyable for Valentine's.

The very last thing we did in Chelsea was go to the Common Grill in down town. It is a very nice restaurant that gets super busy on the weekends. They had the most delicious bread. It was soft and chewy and a little salty, a little peppery and a little garlicky. Elson ordered a wild mushroom and chicken cantalloni and I ordered a grilled chicken salad with honey bacon dressing, apples and pecans. Elson's entree tastes scrumptious, and that's saying a lot for me because I usually don't like mushrooms, but the way all the flavors blended I couldn't taste the mushrooms at all.

For dessert we ordered a Coconut Cream Tart. It was wonderful. We still have some in the fridge. We had to bring it home because it tastes so good that you can't finish it. It is so rich, and even though it is a cream tart, it wasn't too creamy where it sits heavy in your stomach. It was just perfect.

So all in all, we had a wonderful day in Chelsea Michigan and had a very happy Valentine's day.

Definitely a place we have to take Gramma to when she comes down. I think she'll love it!

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We wish you all had a Happy Valentine's Day! :-)