Just a week and a half after we returned from our trip to New England, it was time to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. Already!

As a wedding gift, our friends, Kristi and Jared, had sent us a gift certificate for The Elephant Walk Bed & Breakfast in Stillwater. What a fun excuse to head to other side of the cities and splurge on their best room!

The B&B hosts travel to Bali every winter for months at a time, and this B&B is full of the gorgeous evidence. It was fun to look around and see something new and different in each nook and cranny.

I only wish we could’ve stayed longer, it was such a perfect place. It was within decent walking distance to downtown Stillwater, had two different aquariums (indoors and out — I bet those guys get overfed), the rooftop balcony was decorated with potted vegetable plants, and the bed was like sleeping in a cloud. I really enjoyed it.

Backyard view from our balcony — husband pictured for scale.

Not pictured: the cheese plate! It would’ve been enough to enjoy with a couple more people.

For dinner, we visited a relatively new addition to the downtown area, LoLo (“locally owned, locally operated”). We ordered all of the duck bacon things, and if we ever go back we’ll order all of the duck bacon things again.

I was trying to capture what a hoppin’ joint it was — and really not terribly huge.

Yeah, that’s bacon in my tacos.

We tried to walk it all off after dinner, so of course we paused for obligatory lift bridge photos.

… and back to LoLo for dessert! Yeah, I think we can safely say we liked it a lot.

In the morning at the B&B, a four-course homemade breakfast is served. I woke up a little earlier to drink some coffee, enjoy the balcony, and befriend a squirrel.

Before leaving town and heading home, we spent additional time wandering through the antique stores in downtown Stillwater. Notice the author name on that book? I thought it was funny! Jason noted ‘no relation.’

We also grabbed a slice of cake from the best cake bakery in the metro, Buttercream. We did have a cake from Buttercream at our small wedding reception, which was the closest thing to a wedding cake that we got. So I figured that getting a slice to eat on our first anniversary was the closest I could come to that tradition, too. (Also, yum! I could eat this cake every day.)

Thank you again, Kristi and Jared. We had a really nice celebration because of your gift!