Romance in Two Backpacks and a Cooler

After twenty years of marriage, my husband and I wanted to do something special to celebrate our anniversary this year.  Now that the girls are old enough (18, 16, and 9) to survive without us for a few days, we decided it was time for a romantic getaway for two.  Being the planner in the relationship, my husband took on the task of painstakingly researching our options and presented me with two viable choices. 

The first was a beautiful bed and breakfast in a nearby city that was advertised like this:  "Our elegant and luxurious accomodations provide a lovely atmosphere for celebrating your honeymoon, special anniversary, or just spending some much-needed time away for just the two of you. That's us!!
Spend two nights with that special someone in your choice of room. In addition, receive:
•Personalized Welcome Card  Gee thanks...
•Two tickets to Tryon Palace (valid for two days)  That's nice...but been there, done that...
•A beautiful horse drawn carriage with pick up from The Aerie and, after a tour of Historic    downtown New Bern, it will deliver to your paid dinner at The Chelsea Restaurant  Now we're talking!!
•Ensuite champagne  There we go.
•Fresh flower arrangement to take home
•The Aerie's keepsake etched-glass ornament   That's nice.
Partake in our evening wine and hors d'oeuvres and daily breakfast with your choice of three hot entrees in our candlelit dining room."  Yum

For a small additional fee we could add to this package:  "...ultimate in relaxation with a couples full body massage administered by our nationally certified massage therapists in the privacy of your suite. Massages are sixty minutes in duration and are given simultaneously. Refresh yourselves with champagne or a non-alcoholic sparkling cider during your treatments. If you prefer, our staff will place your beverage in your room for your enjoyment upon your return from dinner."  Ohhh...yeahhh...

The second choice he presented to me was a cabin on a remote beach on the nearby coast and was advertised like this: "There are twenty units with a sleeping capacity of six (6) bunk-bed style. Each unit has a hot water heater, individual propane heating system, lighting fixtures, a combination sleeping-eating area with ceiling fans, table, chairs, a kitchen with cabinets, oven/stove combination and a private bath. Each unit is approximately 500 sq. ft. Visitors need to provide their own linens, bedding and cookware.

Duplex cabins share porches and decks."  Hmmm...

Well, for us it was a no-brainer!!!  I called the next day and made reservations for a that cabin on the beach.  Bunk beds and all! 

The next step was finding a way to get there.  The island could only be accessed by ferry and only four-wheel drive vehicles could get around on the sandy island.  We had neither.  I checked out more websites and found a ferry that would get us over there and let us park our mini van for the week.  Great!  The website for this ferry also advised bringing only two backpacks and one cooler. 

How do you pack a three day, three night romantic get away into two backpacks and a cooler?!?

It helped that we are a military family.  We have learned with enough planning and thought you can pack a whole houseful into a pick up truck and a van if you have to.

We discussed this new...challenge...and decided that we would each choose and night, we set a price limit and we were to plan a romantic evening.  For me, this was a challenge in packing skills.  For my husband it was a contest to outdo me.   

We read everything we could about the cabins, looked at the pictures posted on the website and had a pretty good idea going in what rearranging and accessories would be needed to change this rustic fishing cabin...

 ...into a somewhat romantic oasis for two and we packed those items first. 

We did some pre-planning and pre-cooking and then sealed our meals using my handy-dandy "Seal-a-Meal" and that saved room in the cooler.  All that was left was the romance.


I must say, I thought I did a pretty good job with my dinner of shrimp and veggies, Sutter Home 4-pack of wine in plastic bottles, votive candles, ipod music, and cheesecake for desert.  I gave Jeff a chain for the engraved pocketwatch I had given him on our first anniversary. 

Still, my husband way outdid me again this year.

After "planting" a note in a bottle (we were the only ones on the entire beach while we were there), he sent me out in search of two perfect shells.  When I returned with my note and the shells (which he used for candle holders), he had covered the table with rose petals, he had the laptop set up to play Angel by Aerosmith as the background to a powerpoint presentation our oldest helped him put together with pictures of us.  We ate lobster tails, cheese, pepperoni, oysters and crackers and a mini cake for dessert.   He too had thought to get the Sutter Home wine 4-pack.  This was especially impressive because he doesn't drink wine.  He researched what kind of wine to drink with lobster.  He also researched and found that the traditional 20th wedding anniversary gift is emeralds and he gave me an emerald ring and matching earrings. 

I later found out that while I was trying to hunt down a 6-pack of those plastic wine glasses you can get for New Year's Eve, he was convincing the owner of our local party supply store to open a bag of twelve and sell him two plastic wine glasses.  While I was content to eat granola bars for breakfast to save room in our cooler, he was talking to the butcher at the grocery store about what kind of meat packs well in coolers and don't necessarily have to be kept cool.  He even wrapped two bottles of iced coffee so I could have that indulgence each morning for breakfast.  These little things more than the gifts made this trip romantic for me.

We enjoyed the rest of the week fishing, walking on the beach, looking for shells and relaxing.  Who says you need to spend a lot of money or have a lot of fluff to be romantic? 

We managed to pack three romantic days and three romantic nights into two backpacks and a cooler.