Let's Celebrate!!

20 years ago today on a Saturday at 32nd Naval Station in San Diego, Eric & I met at an outdoor concert featuring Kenny Loggins. I was volunteering at the concert since it was being put on by MWR (who I worked for) and Eric was there to meet up with some gals he and his friend met at the enlisted sports bar the night before. Eric's friend didn't get up to go with him and he never found those reservists. BUT~ I was bound and determined to meet at guy at the concert that day...and I did!! I sent someone over to introduce is and the rest is history!!

Here we are that first week we met.Here is a recent pic of us.

We had a short courtship and many family members were skeptical about us getting married so quickly. We got a lot of advise to wait...but we didn't. I know the odds were against us from the beginning, but today kicks off our year long celebration of 20 years together. We are very much in love & lust...lol and I am very proud of us!

To mark 20 years, we've decided to take a big trip. We started the discussion on where we were going to go back in June when we passed the 19 year mark. We've had Costa Rica, Hawaii, China, and Europe on our list. Since we have TONS of frequent flier miles we started looking at our flying options. We lived in Hawaii 1990-94 and went back and visited 8 years later. 2010 would be 8 years after we were last there and thought that going to Maui would be nice. After looking at flight options and talking with an flight agent that handles the FF miles, we've realized that finding flights are going to be next to impossible for the dates we want. She said that flying in Sept or May is the best time to use miles...to go anywhere. We went to Hawaii in May 2002 on miles, but we cannot take the boys out of school in May this time. So we were back to the drawing board and came up with the idea of going to Alaska. So after a few months of discussing, we have decided to purchase a motorhome and drive to Alaska. We will be gone about a month or so. The plan is to drive all the way up using the Al-Can Highway and then float back down on the Alaska Marine Highway and drive across I90 to get home.

We've been spending a lot of time on CraigsList and eBay looking for a motorhome. Most of the good possibilities have been in the Chicago area. The good deals seem to get snatched up right away and we've just not been ready to purchase. We have 8 months before we leave, but we know that better deals can be found on used motorhomes in the fall. People don't want to keep paying for storage and are just ready for change. We have gone and taken a look at a few, including one locally that we really like. We want to purchase it, but have discovered a few 'issues' that must be fixed first. Meanwhile, we will keep looking. My father-in-law (who lives 3 hours away) owns land and will allow us to park our RV for FREE! Yea!! We will need to do some practicing camping in before our big trip. The HS youth trip for church is supposed to be June 6-12, so we will be leaving for Alaska on June 13th or 14th...which is actually after our anniversary. But who says a celebration has to be one day?? We will be celebrating here over the next 9 months!!