Sweet Sixteen
I'd drop this behind a cut, but I'm posting from the office (SHHHH!!!!!) and don't have a client downloaded. Deal.
Our anniversary was actually on the 9th, but we go away together on the weekend closest, generally. So Thursday night, we packed and got ready to leave, but trying to mediate a fight between Steven and Kelsey gave me a major headache. It also made me forget half the stuff I wanted to bring. Idjit.
Part of my trip planning this time allowed for some work on Steven's DeLorme challenge. DeLorme makes maps/atlases, and has one for each state. The center page of these divides your state into numbered rectangles, each number corresponding to a page in the atlast where you then have a close-up map. The idea is to get 1 cache on each page for your state, and my plan would help Steven get 7 more pages. He is idly working on this for fun, but we know people who took their entire allotted vacation time for the year and did the whole thing last summer. Addicted much?
Anyhow, we left Friday morning and Steven dropped me off at work. I worked til 11:30 while he dinked around Cary, geocaching. We headed down 70 to Goldsboro and stopped for lunch at Logan's. We love Logan's; especially the peanuts in the buckets. =) However, the normally sort-of-slick floor had enough peanut oil on it that, combined with 103 temps, it was treacherous. So yeah, we all know what comes next. I was on my way back from the restroom and my cane slid one way and I slid the other. I was mortified, but holy hell, I was also in pain. I wrenched the knee a bit, but the brace did a decent job of holding it together. But I also bruised my hip and jarred my back, shoulder, and wrist. Not happy. The manager was very nice, filled out an accident report and comped us our lunch. Unnecessary, but very sweet of her. It's not like I would or could sue because I was "sore."
The rest of the trek into New Bern was relatively uneventful. We hit geocaches as we wandered down hwy 70, and talked about all sorts of stuff. It was so nice to just have a few hours of uninterrupted time together. We got into New Bern and found that our B&B was one of the oldest in the city. Cool! Some of the doorknobs and moldings were the originals, so it was really neat to just look at the house. Steven wanted to do this multi-cache around, but it really required walking, and that just was not going to happen for me. (Especially not after falling.) So I chilled out in our room and read for a bit while Steven went and got the stages. He came back literally soaked to the skin so he showered while I put the clue answers into the coordinates for the final cache stage. Then I put some water and shampoo in the bathtub and soaked his clothes. I wasn't trying to wash them completely, but I also didn't want them raosting in the car all weekend; YUCK.
As I sat on the bed getting the caching coordinates, talking to Steven, the room suddenly dimmed as if a couple of the lights in the overhead light fixture had burned out. We both looked up, but it wasn't even on. Just a side table lamp. Turns out, the sky went black just that fast!! A storm was coming, and it was coming hard. Within seconds, it was sheeting, torrential rain. I was very glad he wasn't out walking in that mess. However, between the heat and that storm, our horse drawn carriage tour of the historic district was cancelled. I was mildly disappointed, but I'd rather preserve the wellbeing of the horse. It wasn't -that- important. We went to dinner at The Chelsea, and man, it was phenomenal. The waitstaff was fantastic, and the food was too. Best seafood bisque I've ever had, hands down. Steven had a steak, but I wanted to try something a little different. They had a dish they called "The Cheesecake." It was a wedge of a "cake" made from vermicelli pasta, chorizo sausage, and cheese, blended and baked, topped/surrounded by a lobster sauce with shrimp, scallops, and diced tomato. Wow. Just wow. Delicious.
When we got back to the inn, dessert was waiting for us in our room. It was thin layer of chocolate cake with vanilla cream in between, covered in chocolate. Remember when you were a kid and ate the swiss cake rolls? My family called them Yodels, Steven's called them Ho-Hos, I think. Anyhow, this was like a flat, round version of that. And it was heavenly. We shared that while we watched a bit of an old movie, and then went to bed.
Breakfast was fun; we had a couple from Denver come sit with us, so it was nice to just chat and start the day slowly. The food was good, and the weather was overcast, but not rainy, and cooler than Friday. I'd hoped to get a lot of pictures this weekend, but circumstance didn't quite cooperate. The waterfront quite a bit of construction going on, and the weather just didn't look promising. No problem; we'll go back. We headed off ins earch of the final stage of that multi-cache, and had a bit of trouble getting to the park that housed it. It didn't help that the coordinates were a bit off too, so it took quite a while. I read while Steven tromped through the woods hunting, and cursed my ill-preparedness with the camera when a massive dragonfly in a startling shade of blue landed on my knee!
We wandered further down 70 into Beautfort for another cache-page, and then popped into Morehead to DQ for a snack. Steven went over to Fort Macon to do another cache page (virtual, of course) and I went into Wings for towels. (One of several things I forgot, duh.) Then we headed out 24 towards Jacksonville to hit another page and run into rte 17. The Beirut Memorial was our sto for that page, and I took a few good pics there. I even took a close up of this massive spider, which I considered a huge feat. I am petrified of spiders; especially big, nasty looking, juicy ones like this. *shudder* As Steven hunted the cache, I stalked a dragonfly, but to no avail. I had to be satisfied with a bumblee close up and the spider.
The trip down 17 was nice; we wandered into Surf City to get 2 more caches, one of which was in a park. As we hunted inconspicuously, an older gentleman wandered up to us and said, "So. Didja find it yet?" lol Geocachers come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. That's the beauty of it, right? =) We looked together, and I found it, so we chatted as we signed the log and replaced it. Turns out the 2nd cache was one he was doing too, so as we pulled into the parking lot, there he was. We gave cover as he came and talked to us through the window just like we were chatting tourists; we all signed the log, and then we hit the beach. This is what -I- was waiting for! :) The ocean was warm enough to welcome, but cool enough to feel so good after the sticky humditiy of the day. The surf was rough, and I had a really hard time getting in and back from the breakers. But lounging in the water was so worth it. We got out and headed to the car; walking on the sand caused me a lot of pain, so I was slow. A few raindrop splashed down, but nothing really came of it til we were in the car again, and even then, it was just a sprinkle.
Wilmington is one of our favorite places to go, so it was a nice, welcome feeling coming back into the city. It's cool when you start to know your way around. We found the inn with no problem, but when we came in, the innkeeper's mom (who was visiting and actually took the reservation) had written it down wrong! She wrote us down for Friday night, and so they thought we just never showed up. It was all fine, we got our room, and headed upstairs to shower so we could go to dinner. We went to a teppenyaki place and had a blast, hit a cache just for fun, and went back to the inn. When we got there, Steven had gone upstairs, and I was sitting on the bottom of the stairs chatting with the innkeeper and her mom. Leeann said, "We made 4 cupcakes for him, one for each decade, with a candle." I was more than a bit confused, but said, "Uh, ok. That's nice." The little girl who was also staying there with her family said, "Why are there candles on those?" Leeann said, "Well, those are for Steven's birthday, honey, it's his 40th birthday." I looked back and forth and said, "Wait, you mean my Steven? He's not going to be 40 for a few more years yet." Poor Leeann. For whatever reason, her mom got the idea that this was Steven's 40th birthday weekend, and they made cupcakes for him! I called Steven downstairs, and we all laughed over it, but it was just so funny to see the confusion reign.
Sunday morning showed us very clearly why we prefer bed and breakfast inns to hotels when we're travelling as a couple. We were standing in the kitchen with Leeann and her mom, and said that we'd pondered the beach, but didn't want to drive back home without showering, and knew we couldn't make it back by 11am checkout. She waved her hand and told us that there was no one checking in that day, so as far as she was concerned, we could stay as long as we liked. Wow. So we went to Wrightsville and played in the ocean once again, came back to the inn for a shower, and headed out. Steven got stumped on a couple of the caches he needed for another page, so we were much later getting back than we'd hoped, but it was still so nice to just be with him.
We talked about everything and anything. We settled on paint colors for the downstairs of the new house, we decided where we're going to retire (Keys), we talked about college stuff for the kids, all of it. We talked about how our childhoods shaped who we are, and how our past has not held us down like it could've. Communication is so important to both of us, and it was renewed all over again yesterday. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful marriage.
Sweet Sixteen...and it gets sweeter every day.
Our anniversary was actually on the 9th, but we go away together on the weekend closest, generally. So Thursday night, we packed and got ready to leave, but trying to mediate a fight between Steven and Kelsey gave me a major headache. It also made me forget half the stuff I wanted to bring. Idjit.
Part of my trip planning this time allowed for some work on Steven's DeLorme challenge. DeLorme makes maps/atlases, and has one for each state. The center page of these divides your state into numbered rectangles, each number corresponding to a page in the atlast where you then have a close-up map. The idea is to get 1 cache on each page for your state, and my plan would help Steven get 7 more pages. He is idly working on this for fun, but we know people who took their entire allotted vacation time for the year and did the whole thing last summer. Addicted much?
Anyhow, we left Friday morning and Steven dropped me off at work. I worked til 11:30 while he dinked around Cary, geocaching. We headed down 70 to Goldsboro and stopped for lunch at Logan's. We love Logan's; especially the peanuts in the buckets. =) However, the normally sort-of-slick floor had enough peanut oil on it that, combined with 103 temps, it was treacherous. So yeah, we all know what comes next. I was on my way back from the restroom and my cane slid one way and I slid the other. I was mortified, but holy hell, I was also in pain. I wrenched the knee a bit, but the brace did a decent job of holding it together. But I also bruised my hip and jarred my back, shoulder, and wrist. Not happy. The manager was very nice, filled out an accident report and comped us our lunch. Unnecessary, but very sweet of her. It's not like I would or could sue because I was "sore."
The rest of the trek into New Bern was relatively uneventful. We hit geocaches as we wandered down hwy 70, and talked about all sorts of stuff. It was so nice to just have a few hours of uninterrupted time together. We got into New Bern and found that our B&B was one of the oldest in the city. Cool! Some of the doorknobs and moldings were the originals, so it was really neat to just look at the house. Steven wanted to do this multi-cache around, but it really required walking, and that just was not going to happen for me. (Especially not after falling.) So I chilled out in our room and read for a bit while Steven went and got the stages. He came back literally soaked to the skin so he showered while I put the clue answers into the coordinates for the final cache stage. Then I put some water and shampoo in the bathtub and soaked his clothes. I wasn't trying to wash them completely, but I also didn't want them raosting in the car all weekend; YUCK.
As I sat on the bed getting the caching coordinates, talking to Steven, the room suddenly dimmed as if a couple of the lights in the overhead light fixture had burned out. We both looked up, but it wasn't even on. Just a side table lamp. Turns out, the sky went black just that fast!! A storm was coming, and it was coming hard. Within seconds, it was sheeting, torrential rain. I was very glad he wasn't out walking in that mess. However, between the heat and that storm, our horse drawn carriage tour of the historic district was cancelled. I was mildly disappointed, but I'd rather preserve the wellbeing of the horse. It wasn't -that- important. We went to dinner at The Chelsea, and man, it was phenomenal. The waitstaff was fantastic, and the food was too. Best seafood bisque I've ever had, hands down. Steven had a steak, but I wanted to try something a little different. They had a dish they called "The Cheesecake." It was a wedge of a "cake" made from vermicelli pasta, chorizo sausage, and cheese, blended and baked, topped/surrounded by a lobster sauce with shrimp, scallops, and diced tomato. Wow. Just wow. Delicious.
When we got back to the inn, dessert was waiting for us in our room. It was thin layer of chocolate cake with vanilla cream in between, covered in chocolate. Remember when you were a kid and ate the swiss cake rolls? My family called them Yodels, Steven's called them Ho-Hos, I think. Anyhow, this was like a flat, round version of that. And it was heavenly. We shared that while we watched a bit of an old movie, and then went to bed.
Breakfast was fun; we had a couple from Denver come sit with us, so it was nice to just chat and start the day slowly. The food was good, and the weather was overcast, but not rainy, and cooler than Friday. I'd hoped to get a lot of pictures this weekend, but circumstance didn't quite cooperate. The waterfront quite a bit of construction going on, and the weather just didn't look promising. No problem; we'll go back. We headed off ins earch of the final stage of that multi-cache, and had a bit of trouble getting to the park that housed it. It didn't help that the coordinates were a bit off too, so it took quite a while. I read while Steven tromped through the woods hunting, and cursed my ill-preparedness with the camera when a massive dragonfly in a startling shade of blue landed on my knee!
We wandered further down 70 into Beautfort for another cache-page, and then popped into Morehead to DQ for a snack. Steven went over to Fort Macon to do another cache page (virtual, of course) and I went into Wings for towels. (One of several things I forgot, duh.) Then we headed out 24 towards Jacksonville to hit another page and run into rte 17. The Beirut Memorial was our sto for that page, and I took a few good pics there. I even took a close up of this massive spider, which I considered a huge feat. I am petrified of spiders; especially big, nasty looking, juicy ones like this. *shudder* As Steven hunted the cache, I stalked a dragonfly, but to no avail. I had to be satisfied with a bumblee close up and the spider.
The trip down 17 was nice; we wandered into Surf City to get 2 more caches, one of which was in a park. As we hunted inconspicuously, an older gentleman wandered up to us and said, "So. Didja find it yet?" lol Geocachers come in all shapes, sizes, and ages. That's the beauty of it, right? =) We looked together, and I found it, so we chatted as we signed the log and replaced it. Turns out the 2nd cache was one he was doing too, so as we pulled into the parking lot, there he was. We gave cover as he came and talked to us through the window just like we were chatting tourists; we all signed the log, and then we hit the beach. This is what -I- was waiting for! :) The ocean was warm enough to welcome, but cool enough to feel so good after the sticky humditiy of the day. The surf was rough, and I had a really hard time getting in and back from the breakers. But lounging in the water was so worth it. We got out and headed to the car; walking on the sand caused me a lot of pain, so I was slow. A few raindrop splashed down, but nothing really came of it til we were in the car again, and even then, it was just a sprinkle.
Wilmington is one of our favorite places to go, so it was a nice, welcome feeling coming back into the city. It's cool when you start to know your way around. We found the inn with no problem, but when we came in, the innkeeper's mom (who was visiting and actually took the reservation) had written it down wrong! She wrote us down for Friday night, and so they thought we just never showed up. It was all fine, we got our room, and headed upstairs to shower so we could go to dinner. We went to a teppenyaki place and had a blast, hit a cache just for fun, and went back to the inn. When we got there, Steven had gone upstairs, and I was sitting on the bottom of the stairs chatting with the innkeeper and her mom. Leeann said, "We made 4 cupcakes for him, one for each decade, with a candle." I was more than a bit confused, but said, "Uh, ok. That's nice." The little girl who was also staying there with her family said, "Why are there candles on those?" Leeann said, "Well, those are for Steven's birthday, honey, it's his 40th birthday." I looked back and forth and said, "Wait, you mean my Steven? He's not going to be 40 for a few more years yet." Poor Leeann. For whatever reason, her mom got the idea that this was Steven's 40th birthday weekend, and they made cupcakes for him! I called Steven downstairs, and we all laughed over it, but it was just so funny to see the confusion reign.
Sunday morning showed us very clearly why we prefer bed and breakfast inns to hotels when we're travelling as a couple. We were standing in the kitchen with Leeann and her mom, and said that we'd pondered the beach, but didn't want to drive back home without showering, and knew we couldn't make it back by 11am checkout. She waved her hand and told us that there was no one checking in that day, so as far as she was concerned, we could stay as long as we liked. Wow. So we went to Wrightsville and played in the ocean once again, came back to the inn for a shower, and headed out. Steven got stumped on a couple of the caches he needed for another page, so we were much later getting back than we'd hoped, but it was still so nice to just be with him.
We talked about everything and anything. We settled on paint colors for the downstairs of the new house, we decided where we're going to retire (Keys), we talked about college stuff for the kids, all of it. We talked about how our childhoods shaped who we are, and how our past has not held us down like it could've. Communication is so important to both of us, and it was renewed all over again yesterday. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful marriage.
Sweet Sixteen...and it gets sweeter every day.