Forty-Three And Counting…

showing (with our fingers) that we’re celebrating #43

Wow! Has it really already been four days since Ed and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary? I guess time flies when you’re having fun… Actually, time flies when you’re not having fun, too. I can testify to that, after too many days spent canning vegetables!

Anyway, I wanted to document, on my blog, how Ed and I spent our special day–in case I forget!  These days, it seems, I’ve forgotten about as much as I remember, and by this time, next year, I may not have a clue what we did, so here goes…

Ed and I woke up early on our anniversary, June 18. We both knew the garden would just have to be put on hold for the day, because it was our day to celebrate! We exchanged our cards and gifts, then decided, at the last minute, we’d pack up and head to the beach, after all.

Originally, we’d planned to post pone our trip to St. Simon’s Island due to the heat wave we’ve been experiencing, but, suddenly, it just seemed like the right thing to do. Heat wave or no heat wave, we were going to St. Simon’s Island! By nine o’clock we had ourselves and all of the animals fed, had our things (for the day) packed, and were on our way.  (I’m so glad we went, because the relentless heat wave is still with us!)

Upon arriving on the island, the first thing we noticed was another [older] couple sitting under our favorite tree! Oh, no! We’ve made dozens of visits to SSI, and we’d never encountered this problem before. Fortunately, the tree is large, so we picked a spot to the far left of the couple and set out our chairs. As it happened, the couple left just about an hour after we arrived, and we had the tree all to ourselves for the rest of our visit.

Ed and I took our camera and tripod with us, and did our traditional anniversary photo session, too. (A tradition we started, about five years ago, was holding up fingers to show how many years of marriage we’re celebrating) We took our anniversary pictures in the park, on the same bench we used last year.  After the first three or four pictures, we discovered the camera lens had fogged up, so we had to start all over, once the lens cleared. At one point, two men came driving up in a golf cart, and stopped short, just seconds before driving through one of our pictures in progress! We laughed. Believe it or not, we eventually got some good shots!

We ate Southern Soul Bar-be-que sandwiches for lunch, and, as usual, they were delicious. If you ever visit St. Simon’s Island (near Brunswick, Ga.), and are a fan of bar-be-que, I highly recommend Southern Soul! The place isn’t much to look at (it’s a converted gas station), but the food is so good!

The ‘walking man’ (from last year) was still out and about The Village.  He started walking just before noon, and was still walking at 3 o’clock–in temperatures over 100 degrees!  His clothes were totally soaked, from perspiration, after the first hour or so.  I can’t help but wonder why he always walks through the hottest part of the day.  Ed remarked how quickly he must wear out a pair of walking shoes…

Temperatures reached 101 degrees, after lunch, but a nice ocean breeze was blowing, most of the time, so it didn’t feel that hot–until we left The Village! The ride home was pretty warm. Thank goodness for car air conditioning–and, believe me, it was working overtime, that day!

Of course, our anniversary would not have been complete without our traditional meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken, so we stopped in Jesup, for an early supper, on the way home. Us and one more couple were the only ones in the entire place, so it was a quiet and pleasant meal. Ed remarked, “This (the chicken) is almost as good as it was 43 years ago!” We didn’t get our meal for free, like we did on our wedding night, but we did get the senior citizen’s discount 🙂 Sometimes, growing older has its privileges.  Ha!

the last picture we took

We made it home, safe and sound, with no car problems, which is always a good thing!  My back even cooperated and didn’t give me too much trouble during the ride.

It was an awesome day, at an awesome place, spent with an awesome guy.  I couldn’t have asked for more.