15th Anniversary

My wife and I celebrated our 15th anniversary by taking a 24-hour overnight trip. This was the first time we were both away from our kids in 8 years, back when we only had one child (who was only about five months) to attend an out-of-town wedding. I hope that those of you with kids who have family nearby feel fortunate to have loved ones be able to watch them.

The plan was to stay at a resort not too far from home. Before we could check in, though, we went to lunch. Outside of going to the Leesburg Corner Outlets, I had never spent any time in Leesburg since I moved to Northern Virginia in 2001. The downtown area is pretty cool with a bunch of restaurants and shops. They also have my dream restaurant, Bites Wine & Grilled Cheese Bar, a grilled cheese place that also serves alcohol (if you couldn't figure this out by the name). We need more of these!

I love independent bookstores. Powell’s in Portland is amazing, and one of my favorite places to go to when I lived in Columbus was Book Loft. Leesburg also has a cool bookstore called Books and Other Found Things I have no idea how staff can find any individual book, but I purchased a book called "The Daddy Book" for my kids. Okay, it was for me, but to read to my kids. They also had some unique hard-cover books such as "Brave New World" and an autographed copy of "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. I have no idea what the going rate for this would be, so $475 could be reasonable or even a bargain. (I did not buy this book).

Other than exploring historic Leesburg, we spent most of the time exploring the resort (they don’t like it when you try to walk on the golf cart path or try to crash a wedding) and doing a lot of eating. We went to a really good place for dinner, and I already wrote about them tremendous brunch at the resort.

While we were away, I tried to avoid reality as much as I could, knowing that it would be there when we got home. Still, just by having my phone on and flipping around to different TV stations, you couldn't miss coverage and news about mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. I shared my thoughts on mass shootings after the massacre at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last year, and, as expected, nothing has changed. It really would be nice if something did.

I don't want to end this post on a sad note, so I'll include some pictures of the trip below. I also kind of wonder if my wife would have still married me if she knew I would write a blog during nearly the entirety of our marriage!