Our Getaway

This past weekend was by far one of the most special weekends ever for both me and Brandon. In some ways, it was so much like the old days for us and, in some ways, it’s all part of what feels like a whole new beginning.

If there is one thing that Brandon absolutely loves to do, it is to plan surprises. And ever since his accident where he broke his heel and I was caring for him, he has been saying he wanted to do something special for me after I did so much to take care of him. For me, the caring part was easy, but for Brandon, he wanted to do something big.

So for the past couple of months, he has been planning this surprise for me. I only knew to keep this weekend open, and I only learned on Wednesday where we were leaving to go to on Thursday.

The big destination reveal was that we were going to Massachusetts. That alone was very surprising. I couldn’t think of why exactly he chose the area, other than I had recently shared that visiting the far Northeast was a bucket list item for me. Once I knew we were staying in a small historic coastal town, that checked off both our lists as we both love visiting small historic places. It’s a pastime we’ve shared since we first started dating.

But the surprises just kept coming. On Friday morning he revealed to me that that night we would be attending the concert of two of my all-time favorite performers—Lucinda Williams and Ray LaMontagne. Both of them, on stage, on this one night. The venue was a small historic theater that has been beautifully restored.

I couldn’t believe it. I have been listening to Lucinda Williams since the late 90s and introduced Brandon to her music as well. Since then, she has been the background music to nights when we’d drive around just talking and dreaming as well as countless miles of long road trips. And Ray LaMontagne has been a favorite of ours for years; his music has become the soundtrack to our date nights and his are the songs that make us reach out and take the other’s hand.

So here we are.

In some ways, we are still the young couple who would drive around with Lucinda Williams on repeat while we’d look at old houses in old historic neighborhoods, and we’d dream of the day we had a historic home of our own filled with kids.

In some ways, we are much older and have become the couple who sits on the porch of our own historic home, sipping coffee in the afternoon, watching the kids play, waiting for the older ones to arrive back home, with Ray LaMontagne on shuffle in the background.

And we are grateful for both—who we were and who we have become. And this weekend we got to celebrate both—the kids who fell in love and the couple who has worked to keep it going strong.