As our anniversary was approaching, we were on the hunt for a fun way to celebrate. Eleven years is (literally) an odd one, from a numerical standpoint but also a celebratory one. Ten is a biggie, twelve is a carton of eggs, but 11 is just kinda…well, eleven-y.
Eventually, we decided on a weekend getaway to Iowa. Admittedly, this sounds a bit odd, but our friends in La Crosse go to Dubuque often and rave about it. I know a few other folks who sings its praises, as well. What’s in Dubuque, you ask? Well, there’s the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, plus it’s in close proximity to the Field of Dreams movie site. But really, our friends just like to hang out downtown, drinking and eating. Which would probably be the biggest draw for us, too. Dubuque it was! I booked a two-night stay in a B&B and everything.
But then, as the big day drew closer, I questioned whether this anniversary was huge-deal worthy. Plus, we both have separate trips planned the end of this month, so saving money seemed more prudent than seeing a lot of corn (which we have plenty of here anyway). I no longer book non-refundable rooms, so we cancelled the reservation and decided to stick closer to home instead. Don’t get me wrong: we would have had a blast in Dubuque and are still planning a getaway there next year. But we knew we would have just as much fun with a low-key celebration that wouldn’t drain our bank account.
Yesterday was the big day. Because the weather is being an asshole and acting like it’s mid-summer (I want cool, crisp days, not 88-degree bullshit), we decided to go kayaking. Last year, we did a group kayak trip down the Bark River – which was fun except for the Annoying Guy Drinking Beer. This time was much better ’cause it was just the two of us.
(And beer. But we weren’t annoying about it.)
The weather was warm, the trees are just beginning to put on their fall wardrobes, and we saw so. many. birds. Lots of blue herons, who were not happy that we were intruding on their sanctuary. Even a bald eagle in a tree. What we did not see were other paddlers: there wasn’t a single other kayaker the whole three hours it took us to paddle from our launch site at Burnt Village County Park to the Rock River in downtown Fort. This struck us as odd, but the reason why became clear approximately two-thirds of the way through.
The river has dropped significantly since we’re now weirdly heading toward another drought unless we get rain soon, and at one point, a fallen tree blocked the way. It was passable, but barely; we had to muscle our way through a big patch of thick and smelly green algae and duckweed that I ended up getting all over me. Annoying AF, but what are you going to do? An hour later we reached our debarkation point.
After showering and scrubbing off all that gunk, we drove downtown for the second part of our celebration. We’d planned on going barhopping, but had such a good time at our local ol[””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””’p
(Laverne just stepped onto the keyboard. She says hi!)
As I was saying before being rudely interrupted by a cat, we’d planned on going barhopping, but had such a good time at our local Irish pub, we just parked our asses at the bar and didn’t budge for the next four hours. Chatted with the bartenders and fellow patrons, ate cheese curds and a mighty tasty Reuben, drank gin rickeys (me) and Bud Light (her). It was a great time actually, and we both agreed that it was a very MarTar way to celebrate our anniversary. Who needs Iowa when you’ve got Paddy Coughlin’s?!
Afterwards, we stopped at Frostie Freeze for soft serve ice cream cones. It really was a perfect day! And a tiring one, because I basically zonked out on my recliner super early.
Can’t wait to see what our egg carton anniversary brings!
Mark My Words 
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