In honor of our three-year wedding anniversary, Luke and I drove to Merrillville last weekend to drop off the kids with his parents and enjoy some one-on-one time together. Even though things are getting easier at home (Nathan has four weeks of sleeping through the night under his belt, holla!), life is still crazy busy for us, and most of our energies are funneled into changing diapers, washing dishes, folding laundry, or some other maintenance-related activity. We weren't gone twenty-four hours, but oh, my gosh, we SO needed this.
Our destination: New Buffalo, Michigan, and the surrounding wine trail. Since we didn't want to spend the whole day parked in front of a bar, we decided to hang out at the Round Barn Winery, where for five dollars you can sample five traditional wines, one dessert wine, and one house vodka. Luke and I have never been regular drinkers, but we do enjoy wine and also hella-cheap activities for the older-than-two crowd, so this was a perfect way to kill two birds with one stone. We bought a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon to take back to our hotel room that night. Neither one of us tried the vodka--I sampled a second dessert wine (note to self: not a fan of dessert wines), while Luke traded his vodka and his dessert wine for beer.
I'm not an idiot who fake drinks out of paper bags but I play one on the Internet!
Afterwards, we drove into town and spent some time at the New Buffalo City Beach, just talking as we strolled along the lakeshore.
It's only been through my relationship with Luke that I've grown to love the beach, and since a lot of our vacations have been beach-centered, it makes sense that I think of it as "our" place, no matter where we are.
After making a quick pitstop at our hotel to change clothes, we went to dinner at Timothy's Restaurant at Gordon Beach Inn. It was a pricier meal than we originally planned on, but there was a fireplace in the dining room and no high chairs to be found. Worth every penny.
Part of the reason we felt comfortable having such a fancy dinner was that our hotel room was free. Luke had leftover reward points saved from his last job, so he used them to snag a reservation at a Fairfield Inn that had only been open eight weeks. I really loved the decor and took silly pictures of the carpet in the hallway to adequately capture the memory.
After dinner we grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the hotel, where we watched The Suze Orman Show and the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and then turned off the TV to drink our wine and talk and talk and talk. We were up by 6:30 a.m. the next morning, so eager were we to get back to our babies, even though they were in perfectly wonderful hands and probably wouldn't have minded a little more play time with Grandma and Grandpa Dunscombe.
This trip will live in my memory as one of my favorites. It was the perfect amount of time to be away--long enough to recharge the marital battery, but not so long that missing the kids affected our ability to have a good time. It was so nice to just hang out with each other like we used to. We won't be doing it every weekend, but we have talked about making it a point to get out, just the two of us, every month or so. We're even trying to institute a weekly date night at home, though we have yet to actually follow through on that one. To be fair, Tuesday was the Billy Joel/Elton John concert, and while we had to miss the finale in order to relieve our baby-sitter, we did spend a good portion of Elton's "Levon" performance looking at pictures of the kids on Luke's cell phone. That counts as quality time when you're parents, right?
Happy (belated) anniversary, honey.
Please tell me you got ice cream at Oink's - that place is the BEST!
Posted by: ClassyFabSarah | May 23, 2009 at 07:37 AM
Happy anniversary! I'm so glad you guys had this time together. Sounds like a great trip.
Posted by: Jen L. | May 23, 2009 at 08:00 AM
Sounds like you had a wonderful time! Sean and I are hoping to do something similar in October.
Posted by: Bren | May 23, 2009 at 12:51 PM
I actually had the opportunity to dine at Timothy's this past January when my firm had their annual retreat in the Union Pier/New Buffalo area. Liked it, although it is a tad expensive. And Happy Anniversary!
Posted by: Don | May 23, 2009 at 06:55 PM
A way nice idea of a weekend in Michigan. I think that that is a plan to try myself with grandma.
Posted by: daddyd | May 24, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Awesome...you were in my neck of the woods. :) We live in Kzoo Michigan and our FAVORITE winery is Round Barn (I actually grew up in Baroda!). LOVE IT. Next time, you also have to make it to Tabor Hill, too. :) Just down the road from Round Barn.
Posted by: Mel | May 25, 2009 at 05:01 PM
We had a wonderful time with the sweet children so this was a great weekend for us too.
Posted by: Grandma Molly | May 26, 2009 at 07:06 AM
Charlie and I love the wine trail and have planned a week in New Buffalo just to enjoy the wine, the beach, the dunes, each other... Last October we went to Round Barn for a tasting and I found myself standing at the bar completely surrounded by people who had either graduated from SJC or had parents who graduated from SJC. They asked me tons of questions, toasted SJC, laughed, cried...I should turn in my receipts as work related expenses.
Posted by: Kendra | May 26, 2009 at 08:31 AM
What a great way to celebrate an anniversary!
Levon is my least favorite of Elton's songs so I think it was a very appropriate time to spend looking at pictures.
Posted by: Mrs. Higrens | May 26, 2009 at 08:56 AM
What a lovely low-key anniversary celebration! Glad you and Luke can get away to take little trips like that, they're lifesavers!
Posted by: Parsing Nonsense | May 26, 2009 at 04:52 PM
Happy Anniversary and good for you for getting away. We are always trying to figure out how to get away and not spend too much time traveling Sometimes we just go downtown, to dinner and to stay in a hotel, even though we are literally one mile away! It's hard to remember that you are a couple, too, as well as parenting partners, good for you!
Posted by: Joanne | May 27, 2009 at 08:12 PM
It looks like the perfect vacation! How fun! Next weekend Edgar and I are headed up to Baltimore to celebrate our one year anniversary. I can't wait! We are staying at a B&B, which is a total splurge, but hopefully will be worth it. One year is a big deal, right?!! :-) Happy anniversary to you and Luke.
Posted by: Lindsey | May 29, 2009 at 07:20 PM