Twenty Years Ago..

Monday the sun was out again and the wind was a steady 20 mph.  Waves were breaking against the Howard Frankland bridge on our way over to Michelle's for work this morning.  Even at 5 pm there was a stiff breeze.  After dinner we decided what we were going to do on Tuesday. 

It was our 20th anniversary.  I'm not sure if you know our story, but here is an abbreviated version.  I moved after my divorce with my two children, Michelle (14) and Tristan (4) to Raleigh, NC in August 1991.  Michelle was to start high school and Tristan Kindergarten.  The first week of school, Michelle made a friend, Mandy.  After discussing their situation of 'kids of divorced parents', they cooked up a meeting between me and Mandy's dad, Gary.  Little did the girls know that it was kismet, because we fell in love that day.   Eight months later we were married and have been in love every day since.  [Funny footnote.  We had made plane reservations for the evening after our wedding.  A week before that date, the airline called and changed our flight to the day before.  We scrambled to change EVERYTHING and succeeded except for one thing.  We had had our rings engraved with our wedding date and Gary's could be re-engraved with the correct date, but mine could not, so we each have different wedding dates on our rings.] 

We wanted to have some fun today, so we chose to play at Universal Studios probably for the last time before we leave. 

Gary's eyes are still bothering him because of brightness, but he is seeing clearer just yesterday.  There was not a cloud in the sky on our hour drive on Rte. 4.  We walked the park all the way around the Studios after our Cinnabon and coffee break.  We enjoy people watching and try to guess where in the world they're from and their relationships.  Lunch was near the River Ride in Jurassic Park where it's fun to sit at a table outside and watch people get splashed as the boat falls down 85 feet into the river and sprays water at least 40 feet all around.  It's the unsuspecting guests that are the funniest to watch. 

We made our way over to Adventure Island and walked to the back to Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey.  During the 20 minute line wait, it snowed on us, pictures talked to us and Harry, Hermoine and Ron warned us about the future.  It was the only ride we went on, but it was worth it.  I'm always screaming with my eyes shut in the photos that are taken during the ride - ridiculous.

We left Universal and stopped by the Disney Marketplace for some dessert.  It was a mere 15,000 calories, I'm sure, but worth every bite. 

Espresso Escape Sundae - YUM!

Disney Marketplace - only 222 days till Xmas!

We did walk a couple miles after that, and arrived home around 5:45.  It's seven thirty now, and I'm still not hungry.

One of the stops on our honeymoon was the island of Tortola.  Pusser's is the Royal British Navy's Rum factory located there, and they had a store and rum tasting going on.  We bought a bottle of rum and never opened it until now.  Here's Gary with the dusty bottle about to partake.  Cheers!  Here's to another 20 years!