I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest...
I celebrated my one year wedding anniversary on the 20th of this month and am just now getting around to talking to you about it.
I started planning our little get-away about a month out. I decided that in order to save money I would keep us close. So, I started researching hotels, events, places of interest, etc...
Mandy and I have different interests, which was one of the first things I realized about our marriage- I've actually been paying attention to her wants and needs. Ha ha. But, really.
The first part of her celebration was an hour long deep-tissue massage at The Power of Touch in Jacksonville, NC. The staff there is fantastic and accommodating. They typically close up shop for lunch at 1 p.m., but stayed open later so I could stop by and pay for Mandy's massage so all she had to do was show up and relax.
I settled on the Hilton Riverside in Wilmington, NC. This hotel overlooks the inter coastal water way, the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge and the majestic USS North Carolina, the decommissioned battleship that bears this great state's name.
The Riverview is a block from Front St. the epicenter of downtown/historic Wilmington and a place the wiffle and I frequent often. There are a ton of bars and little boutiques to pass the time in on a beautiful weekend. The main advantage of this location is 1) we could both drink and stumble back to the room, 2) during the day we didn't need to drive anywhere, just walk to all the shops and eateries.
Here is a cheat sheet to a couple of our favorite places in the downtown.
Back to our room-the rooms are typically $275.00 a night for a king suite. I made the reservation online with my military ID and had a reservation for a room for $93. I was pretty excited about that, but the fine print snuck up on me, the actual room was to be determined upon our arrival to the hotel. Which wasn't a big deal, but it's our anniversary. Not just any room is going to work.
I called the day prior to our check-in and asked the nice lady at the front desk what I would have to do to guarantee we would check-in to a no kidding river-view king suite. I did mention it was our first anniversary, she found my reservation and told me that for $10 bucks she'd give me the room we got. So, for $103 we rolled into a $275 room.
Our dinner was a bit of an ordeal, because I wanted to take her to a sweet place, with nice ambiance and a place we hadn't been before. I shopped around online until I found The Oceanic .
This place was awesome! It's three stories tall, situated at the very tip of Wrightsville Beach. They have a pier that juts out into the ocean and sits a good number of people. A bar is positioned at the end of the pier right out on the water. It's such a beautiful area. I'm going to recommend the Mahi Mahi, blackened with Cajun spices. But, get whatever you want...
It might not look like this is that spectacular of a plan. It's easy to see it worked out pretty well, but I did it all for less than 3 bills. But, the money is only a perk. The real reason it was an awesome weekend was because we are both really busy people. I've got school 4 days a week, plus work, Mandy has work and the gym in the afternoon, I've been getting up at 5 a.m. and going to the gym. We see each other for seconds in the morning and then a couple of 'I love you' text messages throughout the day until about 9 p.m. By then we're pooped. We cook dinner, hit the hay at around 10 or 11p.m. That's Monday-Thursday. Heavy.
I molded this weekend around relaxation and enjoying sometime together. When we checked into our hotel we put our stuff up and walked around downtown, bought some cigars and had a beer and enjoyed being married. We walked along the boardwalk talking, laughing, smoking and meandered back to the hotel. We jumped into the shower CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED.
You're welcome. WINK*
The rest of the events are boring to you...yup...I'm making that call.
I want to mention a couple of things I've learned after having been married now, for a year.
1) It's refreshing to be in love with my best friend.
2) None of the insecurities that plague bf/gf relationships are an issue now.
3) Mandy is smarter than me and I'm ok with that.
4) Mandy is afraid of common sense. I ok with that too, because it makes me feel smarter sometimes.
5) Our future is uncertain and that's fine because it's our future together.
6) Selfishness kills marriages. I'll give you a guess why our's is ok...yup. No Selfishness.
Good luck to the married folk reading this. To the men- always put her first. To the ladies- always put him first.
Thanks for Reading,
WP
P.S. There are a ton of links in this post. Feel free to use them. You're welcome.
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