An Interesting Twist

My husband and I just celebrated 17 years together last weekend. We usually go out to eat or go out for coffee. This year, I wanted to do something a bit different. When my husband asked what I'd like to do to celebrate, I asked him if he'd like to just plan something and surprise me. That just made his day. :) He'd booked a cabin for two nights in South Louisiana. We only just recommitted to getting away more often, even if it's just a quiet drive down the backroads. In a way, I guess you could say that was our New Year's resolution, though we don't usually do that. Anyway, we were so excited about the trip. We planned everything out and got a sitter for both nights and all was in place. Until my husband started having trouble driving b/c of pain. I won't go into the details but we had to call the fellow that runs the cabin/camp and let him know we probably wouldn't make it. However, because it was short notice he still wanted to charge us the full price if he couldn't rent the cabin out. He was able to rent it out on the Friday night but not on the Saturday night. We still sent the kids to the sitters on Friday and took that day for shopping and dining. We came home tired but with some wonderful purchases. My contribution to our 17th Anniversary was for us to list 5 attributes we appreciated in each other. Then we had to list 5 things we would like to see happen, goals we'd like to achieve in our life together. Then we had to purchase small, inexpensive items that reminded us of those things. We put them together on a memory chain that we hang in our car so that we can see it often and remember those things we appreciate in each other and those goals we are working toward. Best part about it was that he told me my idea was a good one. :) So after we made the memory charm, we got a call from the sitter. One of our girls wasn't feeling too good. We ended up having to get the girls from the sitter. We decided if our daughter was feeling better in the morning, we'd all go to the cabin, anyway.

It was a good decision. Cajun Cabins was such a peaceful place. Everything was so beautifully kept, from the lawns, to every little detail in the cabin. Sitting by the bayou and watching the ducks swimming around was so calming. We were a little surprised to find we had to provide our own breakfast but all in all, we were satisfied with our stay.

When we left, we decided to take a different route home. I'm so glad we did! We got to take the girls to the Tobasco plant where all the Tobasco is made. The only sad thing was that the plant isn't working on Sunday. You can only view the factory at a standstill and watch the history lesson movie. But the girls really enjoyed it. We'll go back on a weekday sometime so they can see the Tobasco actually getting bottled.

We did get to view the Jungle Gardens of Avery Island and see the Buddha. It's still as beautiful as when I saw it all as a kid. When we do take the girls back, we'll also visit my favorite plantation home, Shadows on the Teche. I hope that some of you, my readers, will see something interesting here and decide to pass by sometime. ('Pass by' is what we sometimes say for 'visit' here in Louisiana.) There's a lot to see and do here!

And in conclusion, I thought I'd share a photo of the memory charm we made.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Laugh a lot!