This is my favorite wedding pic. So casual, simple, fun. After having been wed in front of 350-plus guests, only to have the union go belly up in two years, I decided that my second wedding would be anything but that. So I got an off-the-rack(!) Vera Wang number, D got his from Brooks Brothers, picked up our rings then jetted off to Vegas!
Fast forward today, a day before our anniversary. Technically, we got married on the 31st, but we always celebrate it on the 30th, day after D’s birthday. We were out in the patio, having coffee, enjoying this view.
Me: hey, tomorrow is our anniversary since we signed stuffs to stay together. Shouldn’t we be out celebrating or something?
D: Sure. We need to go out and buy mustard anyway. We can go after we hike, weather is perfect.
Me: Oh. I was thinking of walking around Main St. and see if can get anniversary stuffs, that’s still hiking….
When a man will look you in the eye and agree that shopping is the same as hiking, he’s a keeper.
We were so sick of the left-over food in the house so we decided to have brunch at Peach-Tree Restaurant. They have awesome salads.
Properly nourished and caffeinated, we headed for shopping and hunted for mustard.
Das Peach Haus is a farm house from the 1800 that has been converted to a tasting room and B and B, since the owners have established Fischer and Wieser Specialty Foods. They specialize in high-end condiments, rubs, marinades, jellies, etc.
Like every adventure we have at places like these, we always end up with more unexpected but delightful things. It’s all about the set-up really. They have an array of opened jars for you to taste, you like it, drop ’em in your bag, then get swipin’.
Clearly, we got more mustard than what we originally planned for. But wait…aren’t those bottles of wine? They have wine too??? Of course they do. They feature selections from Oberhof Wine Cellars. The honey wine is to die for. It’s made of a variety of flowers and honey. They have their own version of gluhwein too. Naturally, I added this to my haul.
As I got back from the restroom, leaving D to pay for the haul, I realized that he is still in the counter, chatting up the 85 year old lady. Turns out, she’s related to a family also named Naples, who just moved into the area. This is Frederciksburg in a nutshell. It’s slow, laid-back, no one is in hurry, people will chat you up for hours. Back in Houston, I would have thrown a fit for taking too much time to check-out my stuffs. I had to take a deep breath and smile, remembering that this is why we love it here. There is more to life than just being in and out in 20 minutes.
Finally, we’re in Main Street to do some shopping. We were thinking of getting anniversary boots. Unfortunately, our favorite store Headquarters Hat, had no new inventory on their Lucchese. Bummer. True to our “hiking” plans, we continued towards the end of the street till we reached Linens n More. Here I found the most adorable apron.
We came back home, planning to just light a fire and open a bottle when Beans saw us and asked why we weren’t heading out for celebratory dinner. “You had anniversary lunch???” He was judge-y, I’m telling you. Although I think he just really wants us out of the house because his Aunt Ginger and Uncle Steve gave him an electronic drum set for Christmas and he can’t play it out loud when we’re at home. Smart boy.
So we drove to Cabernet Grill, to grab some quick celebratory dinner. Turned out to be a good thing. They had new stuffs on the menu.
This is a long post because it has been a long day….But if there’s anything we learned about staying married is that it DOES require a lot of time and hardwork. The Beatles sang it well, “the love you give is the love you get”. We both never dreamed that we would have a second chance, but here we are, happy with our second marriages. This may be the anniversary of the day we “legalized” our union, but the truth is, even without those papers, we still would have CHOSEN to be together.
