Tenth Anniversary Trip

We celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary this week with a mini-roadtrip to southwestern Wisconsin. We stayed at a bed and breakfast for two nights, hiked at beautiful Devil’s Lake State Park and Parfrey’s Glen, downhill skied at Devil’s Head, read good books, watched Endeavour, and made a brief stop to explore Madison and peek at the Wisconsin state capitol building. Grandma and Grandpa held down the fort at home despite sick kids with high fevers and we returned home to a house full of beautiful flower bouquets from relatives. We also made our selfie quota for the year, as you can see below.

The pictures don’t do Devil’s Lake justice – the cliffs in the first few photos stand 500 feet above that frozen lake. Photos also cannot convey the agonizing freezing wind blasting off the lake but luckily our faces went numb after a couple of minutes. We remembered to wear our neck gaiters and ski goggles for the rest of the day.

Devil’s Head Ski Area. Small, but perfect for a day’s skiing with beautiful long-range views over southwestern Wisconsin. Although the resort infrastructure looks like it hasn’t been updated since the ’70s the lifts and runs are in great shape. I’d planned to bring my own skis and boots from my teens, but when I dug them out of my parents’ barn I found them full of mouse nests. Rentals, then, and new liners someday for the ski boots!

Parfrey’s Glen State Natural Area. We turned back part way when the gorge trail led over thin ice dotted with large gaps where previous hikers had fallen through. There’s being adventurous and then there’s just being stupid…

We spent our honeymoon downhill and cross country skiing, tubing, snowshoeing, and hiking in the Colorado mountains. We laughed during this anniversary trip when, in addition to unintentionally choosing similar activities, we stopped for sub sandwiches on our way home and without thinking ordered the same Italian sandwich we discovered at the Denver airport on our way to our honeymoon location. A day later we, again without meaning to, had the same cake we used for our wedding cake after ordering it for a relative’s birthday. Thankfully we did not repeat the honeymoon interaction with a large mother moose and her calf blocking us from our car in Rocky Mountain National Park. Forget about bears, moose are the real winter threat. They’re grouchy, built like boulders, and don’t hibernate.

(I loved the detail on that dress. My veil was made from my mother’s wedding veil, cut down. The poor bridesmaids had to struggle with a not-very-helpful regency dress pattern. Sorry ladies! If I had it to do over again I’d have just sent you all out to pick a sensible dress in a coordinating color.)

Life’s had its ups and downs but we both agree, looking back, that marriage just keeps getting better. We were happy at our wedding, but the years of hard work, love, parenting, and teamwork continue to build into deeper and deeper love, respect, and friendship. Multiple states, multiple jobs, deployment, four kids, many adventures, hundreds of hikes, and I’d marry this man again in a heartbeat.