A Month of Fundays: Day 16 – Celebrating My Wedding Anniversary by Taking Time for Tea

Perhaps I should explain the idea of the mini-break in August is to celebrate our wedding anniversary – August 16th. I have a horrible (read: super-fantastic awesome) husband who wants to go somewhere every year, just us, to celebrate. Really, I don’t know how I cope with him sometimes. Last year we did a similar road trip, but headed to The Apostle Islands in Wisconsin, then straight through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Mackinac Island and finally down to Door County, WI. We met a couple celebrating their 45th anniversary on Mackinac last year and the woman pulled me aside to give me some advice:

Keep a journal, or at least a list, of where you go on your anniversary trips. Write in it each year and then remember to read through it after your entry for that year.

Well, you’ve probably figured out how I feel about journaling by now. Of course, I haven’t actually started said journal because I also have strong feelings about procrastination, but here’s a perfect place to record honeymoon and the first three anniversary mini-breaks. I’ll put them in a journal at some point. Promise.

A List of Trips:
2008 – Honeymoon: Land and sea Disney World trip included 4 nights in the parks and 3 nights aboard a Disney cruise ship in the Bahamas. It was hurricane season, but we lucked out with the hurricane/tropical storm occurring during our land stay and beautiful blue, calm seas during the cruise.

2009 – A long weekend in Chicago by Millennium Park and The Art Institute.

2010 – The road trip I mentioned above through WI and Michigan.

2011 – Another road trip. Well, last year was fun so why not. Also, in the many years Chris has resided in America, he hasn’t seen much of it; mostly stemming from my constant need to travel outside of the US. But since my husband is actually interested in seeing the country he’s chosen to live in, USA travel is on the agenda. Oh, and his passport expired at the end of July. It takes a really long time to get a new one when you don’t reside in the country it’s issued in. A really long time.

So here we are, anniversary mini-break, hiking to a waterfall and lazily wasting time. We began with a two mile hike into Jay Cooke State Park over the swinging bridge, to a waterfall and beyond. I’m not sure what we chatted about, but we walked and talked and enjoyed each other and our surroundings and set precedence. The rest of the mini-break could be coined: “Waterfalls of MN”.

After the day’s morning hike, we decided to go to Grand Marais and poke around with the tourist collective. I don’t know what else to call the meandering tourists who inevitably congregate in Grand Marais during their North Shore trip. You will congregate like the seagulls on the shazam (I don’t know the actual name of the bank, but “shazam” was printed on the ATM receipt) bank – the only building I could see with poky, anti-seagull structures on the roof. It’s unavoidable; you can’t fight it; just give in, drive down Highway 61 to Grand Marais and join your peers. We walked into a bunch of shops, skipped rocks on the lake, perused Drury Lane Bookstore, visited the artist colony – looked at pottery, jewelry and quilts, then debated where to eat lunch: Sven & Ole’s or The Angry Trout. In the end it was too late for lunch and we wound up at Chez Jude for Afternoon Tea.

I would like to blame this on the British man, but I can find tea anywhere; even Grand Marais, MN. If you would like to hear me expound on tea and why I love it so, go here.

While we were sitting on the porch of Chez Jude sipping tea and eating an amazing scone with even more amazing homemade lemon curd, it dawned on me that afternoon tea is an anniversary trip tradition. We’ve made a tradition without realizing it! No seriously, on our honeymoon we had tea at The Grand Floridian in WDW, the next year we had tea at The Drake in Chicago, and last year we had tea at The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island (That’s right, they don’t have cars but they do have afternoon tea).

Apparently I’m a 60-year-old English woman from 1955. Who says reincarnation doesn’t exist?! So yes; thankfully I married Chris who doesn’t mind the occasional tea outing. And also that I have friends like Tera and Megan who love it as much as I do. And also that I have friends like Matt, Mara, Shane and now Anna who willingly partake in tea rituals and the cornucopia of yumminess when we travel.

Back to our anniversary and the afternoon tea at Chez Jude in Grand Marais; well, I feel I’ve used awesome a little too much during the month of funday blogs, but that’s exactly what it was: AWESOME! After the mouthwatering scones came a delightful turkey cranberry concoction on a cibatta roll, followed by a delectable chocolate cake and a luscious lemon cake.

I hope you find time for a nice cuppa today – or a scone, or tiny sandwiches, or even a cup of coffee with a friend or two. We don’t take enough time to sit down and actually hear our friends and family – or be heard, for that matter. Yes, it turns out my fun activity for today is active listening. Apparently you just can’t take the customer service trainer out of me.

Picture: Tea pot, coffee cup, afternoon tea table setting, who you’re sharing this extra bit of time with.

Song: Chris and I had a string quartet at our wedding and I made them play two contemporary songs. Or, I found sheet music for them so they could play two songs during the recessional. We’re going with those today: Enya’s “Wild Child” and U2’s “Beautiful Day”.

Tomorrow: Discovering Waterfalls by Day and Searching Stars by Night