For our anniversary this year, we chose to do a "staycation" to save money for home improvements. Priceline is awesome when it comes to getting killer mid-week deals on nicer hotels. We spent two nights at Kona Kai on Shelter Island.



The view from our balconey was very nice. I knew I would be shooting some night shots of those boats, and we were to have a luau on the private beach in a couple days.

We did have constant visitors to the patio who didn't really care how close I got to them, as long as I stayed behind glass.



Our nighttime entertainment constisted of taking a cab to El Camino to see Gilbert Castellanos's jazz jam, where I drank enough Tecate tallboys to give myself the hiccups for the rest of the night. When we woke up the next morning, it was the three year anniversary of our wedding.

For the first time ever, we didn't plan anything for the day, just going with the flow and seeing what happens. Breakfast at Broken Yolk Cafe in PB didn't happen until noon.



Did you know that you can get pomegranate mimosas at Broken Yolk? Well you can!



I had the Huevos Divorcados, or "Divorced Eggs". Two sunnyside up eggs served on a corn tortilla with a tomatillo sauce and a red salsa, each covering their own egg. I ordered this dish just to be ironic, and I paid for it with wicked heartburn later. It was not worth the joke.

After breakfast, we drove to the sugar shack at Winansea beach- a place we've always talked about going to for romantic images.



I'll spare you the kissy photos, unless you click through to go to the full gallery.



No girl can rock a Hostile Pullover like my girl.



For dinner, we had the Summer Sunset Menu at Island Prime on Shelter Island. At $40 a person for three courses, it was a frugal way to sample the food at this upscale restaurant.



We started with delicious cocktails and a gorgeous view of the bay and boats.



After a few minutes at the table, we were served warm popovers with herbed butter. they were very light, since they were hollow inside, leaving nothing but a light, flaky outer crust.



Heather had the lobster bisque, and I had the BLT Wedge salad.





The lobster bisque was very creamy and had a very fresh flavor. The salad was exactly what you'd expect. For the main course, Heather had the filet and I had the cedar planked salmon.





My salmon was served with a black linguini in chipotle cream sauce and cucumber salsa. I've cooked just as good a salmon steak on my grill and the salsa seemed like it was just diced cucumber and onion. The linguini was tasty, just a little too much after such a heavy breakfast backlash. We each had a spoonful of dessert, a wonderful brownie with peanut butter ice cream and carmelized bananas, before getting the rest wrapped up for devouring an hour later at the hotel.

The second half will be posted later.