Originally our 10th wedding anniversary was much more elaborate. We were to drive down to the coast where we first said our I-Do's in the trees by the ocean. Six hours each way, with our dog, in a crappy overpriced "cheap" motel (cheap meaning $120 for one night on a skeezy mattress in a postage-stamp sized room just to be near the ocean where our dog would be equally miserable and in a room clearly reserved for pet owners if ya know what I mean, as everything else was $250-400…for one night. what the living fuck y'all with hotel prices and their bullshit 'resort fees' not to mention $50 a night pet fees for him to sleep on a hard floor and not even get a bowl to drink from…ugh). With the plans we have for our real life, doing this because of this one day just seemed...
Nuts.
Kind of like when we got married, it just ultimately seemed crazy to blow our budget for one day. To have to pay nearly a thousand bucks in gas, food and lodging, not to mention having someone care for the ducks and ultimately wish we were just in our backyard having a cocktail being US...
So we did it differently. We kept it green - and saved green. My husband took 5 PTO days off work (our first holiday since 2019) and we kept it local. I found a lake for us to go hike around with the dog who was in heaven amongst the big trees. We went to a little crepe place north of us for anniversary brekkie where the fella making them acknowledged our special day right in the sauce. We hopped in our hybrid C-Max and drove across the border for the day and strolled around a botanic garden, pointing out the plants we recognized and muttering how far more awesome and serene the Melbourne Botanic and Portland Japanese Gardens are compared to the loud, 'cruise ship' vibe of this particular one. We visited our favorite nurseries and found the perfect dwarf willows to plant in front of the freestanding deck I built over winter in the back garden. We spent some serious time in the kitchen, from mixing Pisco 'chinita' blueberry cocktails to my husband's amazing cornmeal crusted Wild Alaskan salmon (thanks Iliamna!) with orzo & veg, to my insanely delish rhubarb vanilla pie (thanks to homegrown rhubarb, homemade organic vanilla and a crust made from leaf lard from the good folks raising pastured pigs at nearby Skagit River Ranch and beautiful organic pastry flour from the mill in town), to our favorite meal of all time, homemade BBQ chicken pizza on the smoker (the co-op north of us carries pastured local chicken and I make a pretty mean BBQ sauce that beats the heck out of that processed bottled stuff in the stores...). We took bike rides through the neighborhood. We slept in and stayed up late and watched movies and silly game shows. We played tug of war with the dog and took our ducks on snail hunts in the alley (their favorite game ever). We slow danced in the living room as the golden hour sun cascaded through our front window and we made homemade cards reminding each other of our love. And we took a few selfie snapshot (my love's idea) to document this moment in time and to look back and how we've evolved. The addition of gray hairs and new lines on faces but a whole lot of history created, a whole lot of lessons learned, and a whole lot more to come as we find our way through this crazy world...together.
We didn't buy expensive things we didn't need. We didn't burn up or burn out for one night simply because it was The Place We Got Hitched. It will be there, we will go again someday, when we can do it right and on our terms. We didn't blow our green ethos out the window and we remembered what was most important. Time. Nature. Peace.
And of course...love.
then now
"Suppose I say summer, write the word "hummingbird," put it in an envelope, take it down the hill to the box. When you open my letter you will recall those days and how much, just how much, I love you." ~ Raymond Carver
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