This past weekend, my husband and I did something we’ve
never done: after two and a half years
of marriage, we took a vacation without the child. Really, he even went on our honeymoon with
us, so this was all new territory.
So I did what any woman who has never gone away alone with
her husband would do, I Googled “best romantic getaways” and, alas, one of the
things I ran across was a bed and breakfast within driving distance, on Amelia
Island in Florida. It was a historic
mansion built in the 1800’s, grew their own organic herbs and veggies on
property that they used in their food, in the historic district of the island,
near the beach, offered a romance package, and, well, they had a wine social
every evening at 5:00. In other words,
my idea of heaven. It was perfect. For me.
Downside, it was a complete non-smoking property and my husband enjoys
his cigars in the evening. I did my duty
and found some other places….the beach, Savannah, St. Augustine, and gave my
husband all the details, including the non-smoking bit of info, though I knew
that could be a deal breaker on my choice.
And so we decided on Lido Key, on the beach, in a large
chain hotel. Luckily that only lasted
about 5 minutes, because I have an amazing husband who knew what my heart was
set on. I made the reservations at the
Fairbanks House before I even took a shower the following morning, romance
package included of course!
Friday, we headed out on our journey, arriving about 4 hours
later at our destination. It was a
beautiful day, sunny but not too humid, a perfect beginning to our
weekend. We entered the wonderfully
restored home, cheery and clean but with all those Victorian era touches and décor
that transport you to a different time.
Teresa came out and greeted us, and went and got the key for our room,
which was actually the attic of one of the three cottages adjacent to the main
house. Our cottage was previously the
home of the caretaker of the estate. As
she was ready to walk us out, Bill, her husband, reminded her it was 4:00, time
to get ready for the 5:00 hors d’oeuvre and cocktails, and so he walked us to
our room. The cottage had a private
porch for our use, with a cat sleeping next to one of the chairs. I felt right at home.
We entered to a beautiful room, with chocolate covered
strawberries and a bottle of wine waiting on the counter, a large king bed, and
a two-room bathroom which was half the size of our entire suite, containing a
huge Jacuzzi tub and Victorian sofa in the first room, and the regular bathroom
with shower in the second.
We decided to just hang out in the room for a while, after
the long drive, and then attend the 5:00 social hour. In the meantime, we read the guide to the
property, which was written very humorously and was quite entertaining in
itself. I did inform my husband he could
smoke his cigar, he would just need to stand on the public sidewalk, and we
found that we did have wi-fi, the network was named after the Beatles, and the
password was one of their songs….you could guess it or if you gave up you could
ask. My husband insisted on guessing,
and, well, we still don’t know the password.
There are a LOT of Beatles songs.
The social hour was well worth our time. That night only two other couples attended
(there are 12 rooms at the B&B), but we had a great conversation. You had your choice of beers, wines, and soft drinks, and Teresa had made Florentine
toast points, Italian sausage in puff pastry, and cheese and crackers with
raspberry chipotle sauce. I believe I
gained 5 pounds in that hour alone.
After dinner, we walked the two blocks to the historic
downtown area. We walked around the
shops, one of which I now have memorized after my husband looked at a pair of
shoes at least 4 times in our weekend there.
He did not buy them, but upon coming home he immediately looked them up
on the internet. Yeah, I’m not the show
person in this house! We looked for
somewhere to eat and found a restaurant a block or so off the beaten path, Cafe
Karibo, with an outdoor patio and musicians.
They were busy, full, and had a wait, but for the table directly in
front of the band. We took it, and
enjoyed some great food and entertainment.
After dinner, my husband bought me a unique necklace I liked in one of
the shops, I believe in his campaign to prove he is the most romantic of the
two of us. (Actually, he is, I’m Miss
Practicality, but it’s fun to compete, so don’t tell him I said so.)
Both of us are not anything close to morning people, but we
decided to turn in early so we could enjoy breakfast at the house the next
morning, served only from 8-9:30. Coffee,
juice, fruit, quiche, scones, sausage were on the menu for the day. We didn’t
need lunch later.
After breakfast we walked to the marina downtown, and
watched two pods of dolphins swimming very near shore, went in some more shops,
including the aforementioned shoe store, ate ice cream and chocolate covered
pretzels, and of course in one store I had to buy a book on the hauntings and
ghost stories of the area. I read the
entire book while we sat in a cigar lounge (I did my research ahead of time, I
take care of my husband!) that afternoon and wrote down all places in walking
distance from our accommodations, which was most of them. It was probably at this point that my husband
proved he is the most romantic of the two of us (but, shhh, that is still a
secret) because he did not visibly let on that it was a little annoying that
the ghost hunting became my obsession for the rest of the day. Upon returning from the cigar lounge, we did hang
out in the room a bit, but then the tour was on and I made him walk with me to
all the haunted spots within a few blocks, with plans to visit a few more after
dinner as they were near the restaurant we would be eating at that evening.
(For my dear friend Rita, that blog is coming next!)
We returned in time for the social hour, um, of course as
there was wine, and met some more couples.
In our conversations, we found that two of the women, who had never met,
were from the same tiny town in New York and that one of the men was at the
Baseball Hall of Fame the same day we were this past summer. And, believe it or not, that I’m not the only
one who found the place by Googling “best romantic getaways!” Such a small
world! I really am not actually usually
a small-talk, social type of person, but I really enjoyed the social
hours. It didn’t hurt that we had some
wonderful homemade corn and black bean salsa with chips and baked brie with
raspberry chipotle sauce to go along with it.
Part of our romance package was a voucher to use for dinner
at a one of the local restaurants, and we ate at David’s, a steak house, for
which our hosts had made reservations for us and even informed them of my food
allergies. It was a nice atmosphere, great
steak, and they finished off by giving us chocolate covered strawberries. After dinner we looked at the remaining
haunted locations on my list, and returned to the room, where there were
homemade cookies waiting for us. Yep, I
think I gained another 8-9 pounds that day!
We went out and sat on our porch, and when I posted a few
haunted pictures on Facebook, a friend reminded me of my Ghost Radar App. Yep, I had gone all these places and
forgotten to use it, so my poor husband had to watch me play with that for the
next few hours!
We slept in the next morning and missed breakfast, though we
both wondered what we may have missed out on.
And we both had a wonderful time, and are already thinking about our
next adult-only getaway. Maybe even to
the same place, but this time in the main house.
It’s not only a wonderful thing to spend time alone with
your spouse, it is necessary. That’s why
they have wine. And it’s even better
served with great food at a great place.
