Kasey's Kitchen: Love and Luxury Found in Laguna Beach

Photo Credit: Montagelagunabeach.com

If you are following my Instagram account, there's a good chance you were flooded by pictures last weekend of gorgeous seascapes, yummy food, and a few pics of me and The Mr. That's because last weekend we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I seriously cannot believe how quickly the time flies! It feels like just yesterday I was shimmying my way into my Vera Wang gown and walking down that chandelier lined aisle to marry my Prince Charming... ok, that was super sappy, sorry.

Anyway! Last weekend The Mr. totally surprised me with a weekend getaway to Laguna Beach, mind you I had no idea where we were going when I got in the car. My only hints were that the weekend would be "Lilly Pulitzer Appropriate", most likely the nicest place we've ever stayed and that he had to pull some major connections to make it happen.

We started our journey and at every turn my suspicions grew [have I mentioned I HATE surprises]. Finally when we hit Newport Beach, I figured out that we were en route to the Laguna Beach area.
After driving through the main stretch, we made our way up into the residential area and turned on to Montage Road... not realizing what that meant. We pulled up the driveway of what looked like a secluded bungalow and was instantly greeted by the friendly valet attendants of Montage Laguna Beach. They asked if we were checking in, to which The Mr. said yes and gave our last name. Within minutes a front desk associate was by our car to escort us into the hotel, got us all checked in and even walked us to our room herself.

Photo Credit: Startle.com

Once we got to our room, there was a chilled bottle of Champagne waiting there for us (we had mentioned it was our anniversary not even 5 minutes before and she has already arranged for it to be in the room!) and a delicious little cheese plate arrived shortly after.

The pool and view at The Montage... #nofilter :-)

We took some time to enjoy the resort, walked the beach, and finally put our toes into the Pacific Ocean after living on the West Coast for almost two years. Appalling, I know.

Dipping our toes into the Pacific Ocean! And yes, The Mr. has horrible tan lines!

We freshened up and headed into town for dinner (the Montage has complimentary chauffeured Mercedes SUVs for guests... I mean, come on now!). We ate at Alessa on Forest Street. We knew it had to be good by all the stellar reviews on Yelp and the fact that our driver's first words when we said where we were going were "Oh! Yum!".

We waited about 15 minutes for a table (they don't take reservations) but they called my cell when our table was ready so we could walk around all the cute little shops. Loved not being confined to the "beeper radius" like most restaurants. We sat down and were quickly greeted by our server Kori, who shared with us the specials and her favorite dishes. We decided to start with the fresh buratta (for me) and the fried mozzarella (for The Mr.) which was out of this world... I'm a sucker for buratta. For our entrees, The Mr. stuck with his standard, Chicken Parm while I opted for the Limoncello Homemade Pasta with Diver Scallops and Prawns. Holy moly was it good! Like I wish I could have eaten the whole plate, good! There will be more about this dish in a future post... I promise :-)

Fried Mozzarella, Fresh Buratta, Chicken Parm and Limoncello Pasta!

The following day we woke up and it was a bit overcast so we decided to head into town to visit the gallery of our favorite artist, Wyland. If you're not familiar with his work, it is incredible! He paints underwater scenes of marine life. If you've ever been to a major city and have seen a giant whale mural on a building, that's him!
The Laguna Beach gallery is actually his home, so there was a good chance if we hung around long enough, we may get to meet him! We grabbed a few lattes and hung out on the back patio for a bit, but no luck. Guess we'll have to try another time. At least the cookies were yummy!

Lattes and cookies at The Wyland Gallery

After a long day of puttering around and a yummy dinner of Prime Rib and Paella at Rock N' Fish, we decided to head back to the resort early to enjoy the pool and the fire pit. They have a gorgeous fire pit on the front lawn where you can order a s'mores kit and roast the night away! I mean how adorable is that little lunchbox it comes in!

S'mores and slippers! Who could ask for more!?

Needless to say, we had a picture perfect weekend! What a way to celebrate our first year of marriage. If this is a glimpse of what forever is going to be like, then I'm one lucky lady!