Happy Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, I want to share some of my favorite romantic sentiments and love quotes. Also below I'm posting some of the most romantic images of Scotland. Please let me know which is your favorite.

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it rekindles the great.

-- Comte DeBussy-Rabutin

Sunset over Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye

That love is all there is is all we know of love.

-- Emily Dickinson

Rose in the gardens at Crathes Castle.

 "Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense."

- Mark Overby

Flowers in the park at Broadford Bay

 Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.

-- Chinmoy

Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most romantic views in Scotland.

 "Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

- William Shakespeare

Flowers in the gardens of Dunvegan Castle.

 Thou art to me a delicious torment.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

A lovely tree in the gardens at Armadale Castle, Isle of Skye.

 To laugh often and love much... to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one's self... this is to have succeeded.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Honeysuckle and a beautiful view of the sea at Armadale Castle.

 Love is what makes two people sit in the middle of a bench when there is plenty of room at both ends.

- Anonymous

Bench in the gardens at Crathes Castle.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
Judy Garland

Ceannabeinne Beach, near Durness

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. 

--Lao Tzu

I hope you're having a wonderful Valentine's Day and spending it with someone you love!

Vonda

www.vondasinclair.com

Most Romantic Getaways

Maui, Hawaii – the essence of romance, right? But it’s really a restaurant I’m focusing on. The Swan Court at the Hyatt Regency on Kaanapali Beach. Doesn’t that just sound romantic? My husband and I ate here when we were youngsters and it was so special and romantic, we never forgot it. The restaurant was a big splurge then, and there was no way we could have actually stayed at the hotel. Though we dreamed…Then, lucky us, we have lots of frequent flier miles. So last summer we returned to Maui for a family vacation, stayed at the Hyatt and, with more than a little trepidation, returned to the restaurant. Sometimes things don’t seem as special the second time around. But the Swan Court more than fulfilled our expectations. It was even lovelier than what you see in the picture.

As for the Hyatt itself, the lobby is rated #2 on all of Maui and it deserves the rating. (I think the Four Seasons is #1.) It’s a huge tropical space open to the outdoors. Quite unique. The hotel rooms are standard and the Kaanapali Beach itself mediocre (sad to say with a name like that), but the Hyatt is at the end of a string of hotels lining the beach with lots of restaurants and shops so there is plenty to do. At night, the whole stretch is supremely romantic with the ocean on one side, and twinkling lights and happy vacationers cuddling on the other.

Another favorite romantic getaway is the Hunstrete House near Bath, England.
A true country manor turned hotel, it is a quintessentially British country house type experience. The rooms are huge and furnished with beautiful antiques, the grounds spectacular, and the food wonderful. I almost felt like someone might curtsey to me! It’s very quiet, secluded and, well, romantic!

Finally, one of the most romantic experiences I ever had with my husband was dining at a mom and pop restaurant by the ocean on the way to the Florida Keys. It was called MacDonalds, which I only remember because it’s a family name of mine. We stopped when the endless drive to the Keys finally defeated us. We were starving. They brought us out to a deck right on the water, which swayed and murmured all around us, black as the night. The stars shone overhead. Candles flickered in the breeze. They served us plastic baskets of pink shrimp (which my husband determined were steamed in beer). We peeled the shrimp ourselves. Not a fancy place according to most definitions. But we both remember it as one of the most romantic experiences of our lives together. A perfect, starry night on the water with good food.

Which proves that serendipity, and the person you’re with, rather than money, is the key to the most romantic events!

What is your most romantic getaway? I’m always looking for good ideas!

And don’t forget to join the blog to win a chance at a gift basket Nicole is giving away this month!

To get you in the mood for Valentine's Day...

My husband decided spur of the moment last weekend that we should take a little trip for Valentine's Day this weekend. Woohoo! Sounds like fun! With impulsive, romantic getaways like this it isn't important how much it costs or how far removed. The excursion might simply be to a place you've never been before, even if only a few miles away. This might be a place of natural beauty, a lovely landscape or someplace with lots of activities and nightlife. Whatever your preference. It's *your* romantic mini vacation, so do whatever you enjoy. Don't cook (unless you really love to). Eat at restaurants with good food. Sleep in. Take nice long showers or baths (with your significant other!) Stock the mini fridge with your favorite beverages and snacks. If you can allow yourself, splurge on at least one rich, sinful dessert. (Recipe below if you're in the mood to bake together.) You might even want to watch a feel-good, romantic movie with your sweetheart.

Now, to get you in a romantic mood...

13 of my favorite Love quotes:

"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."

"It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone... but it takes a lifetime to forget someone."

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more." Erica Jong in How to Save Your Own Life (1977)

"Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter." T.S. Eliot

My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it. I never felt my mind repose upon anything with complete and undistracted enjoyment- upon no person but you. When you are in the room my thoughts never fly out of window: you always concentrate my whole senses." John Keats (Letters to Fanny)


"There is no greater wonder than the way the face and character of a woman fit so perfectly in a man's mind, and stay there, and he could never tell you why. It just seems it was the thing he most wanted." Robert Louis Stevenson

"When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." Robert Fulghum

Real love stories never have endings." Richard Bach

"Love is just an abbreviation for everything we have ever wanted to say about that one person who truly means something to us, all wrapped up in a tiny four-letter box." Anonymous

"Love is much like a wild rose; beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense." Mark A. Overby

"It has been wisely said that we cannot really love anybody at whom we never laugh." Agnes Repplier

"When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life." Greg Anderson

The world moves for love; it kneels before it in awe". Edward Walker, in The Village

My favorite romantic books are too numerous to name so how about...

A list of my favorite romantic movies:
Dirty Dancing
Ever After
The Lake House
Casanova
Ghost
Sense and Sensibility
Pretty Woman
The New World
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Rob Roy
What Women Want

Pride and Prejudice


Now for a rich Valentine's treat:

Better-Than-Sex Chocolate Cake

1 package chocolate butter cake mix
1 3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 eggs
3/4 cup chopped pecans
½ cup oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 8-ounce carton sour cream

Remove a spoonful of cake mix to coat chocolate chips and nuts; set aside.
Combine cake mix, eggs, oil, water, vanilla, pudding mix and sour cream.
Beat well four minutes with electric mixer. Fold in coated chips and nuts.
Pour into greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 - 55
minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Remove from pan after completely cooled.

Frosting

1 stick margarine or butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 cups 10X powdered sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

Melt margarine or butter in saucepan. Add brown sugar. Cook, stirring
constantly, until bubbly. Add the evaporated milk, stirring until smooth.
Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar, blending until of spreading
consistency. Frost cake.


I wish you and that special person a Happy Valentine's Day!

What is your favorite love quote, your favorite romantic movie, or your favorite sinful dessert recipe? Or if you prefer, tell me where you went for a romantic getaway.

Vonda Sinclair www.vondasinclair.com