Our Anniversary weekend...

On August 8, 2008 I did the smartest thing I've ever done, and made Silverfox my wife:

Yes, we celebrated a wonderful year of wedded bliss over the weekend by getting away from our everyday lives for a while. I had been trying to plan the perfect weekend for a few months now, but had my options severely limited last month when we found out that one of Silverfoxes oldest and dearest friends was getting married on August 8th as well. I grumbled a bit when I found out, but I also knew full well that missing the Fisher wedding simply was not an option. The other happy (copycats) couple were getting hitched out on the Mississippi Gulf coast, and so I spent a week researching my options for a romantic weekend before settling on a great package deal from the Isle casino/resort...

Relaxation Package

• Two nights double occupancy
• Romantic Couple Massage
• Garden tub suite
• Dinner for two at Farraddays’^® (the Isle's high end resturant)
  
• $25 IslePlay^® per person
• Turndown service nightly
• Late check-out, 2:00pm

Of course, I had a few questions, but I was already planning on a spa day for us, and a really nice dinner one night so it sounded like a winner to me. I found out that the "Garden tub suite" meant that there was a Jacuzzi in the room, which would have cost 400 bucks for two nights (which we would need anyway because of the wedding). The package was a little over 500. I told the lady on the phone that she had me at "Jacuzzi".

Getting to our Weekend was a bit of a task... suffice it to say that both cars broke down and one of the deadbeat Dads bailed on our babysitting arrangements the morning we were gonna leave. I had backup plans for most of the stuff that went wrong that morning, but both cars? Was someone trying to tell me something?

After getting to the hotel an hour later than I intended, we saw our room and it was all good:
Yes, that is tropical floral print on the curtains, which was the theme in the hotel. I joked with Silverfox that I could have worn one of my gaudier hawaiian shirts as camouflage.

Below, we see the same room... now with more sexy:
I would like to take this opportunity to point out to the world that my wife is a babe. She has also lost a good deal of weight since we got married... I say it's because being married to me is good for the soul, but she says it's because her activity level went up after she returned to work following her back surgery last year.

I'm the one that's right here, but don't tell her that...

We dressed for dinner (it still sounds strange to me saying that... dressing for dinner just usually means putting on pants to me) and went down to sit in Farradday's bar for a few drinks. We were surprised to find out that an old friend of ours from the sci-fi convention scene was the bartender, and her husband was a waiter at the restaurant! Needless to say we had a few very strong drinks and an excellent bottle of wine (thanks for the recommendation, Mike & Kristie!). Here's Silverfox after our meal... she looks so happy:

The whole Farraddays experience was the great unknown on our trip when I booked it, as I know from experience that casino restaurants... even the high end ones... can be a little institutional sometimes. I am happy to report that this was not the case with Farraddays. The food was outstanding, and better than half of the top of the line steak houses in New Orleans.

On our way back to the room, Silverfox spotted a slot machine she just had to play... but got carded at the casino entrance. Sadly, we had left her ID back in our room, but a slightly tipsy Silverfox was blushing at having been assumed to be under 21. (Well, after the "was that guard blind!?!" rant that is...)

Upon our return to the room we put up the "do not disturb" sign for a while... (that's a gentleman's code, folks) But were surprised again when the front desk called, complaining that they were trying to deliver us champagne, but their policy forbade them from knocking on a "do not disturb" door. I was surprised at the idea that someone had sent us champagne, but it turns out that it was all a part of the package (Note that it's not on the list above). Complimentary Champagne as if from nowhere... this weekend was turning out to be much the awesome...

The next morning, Silverfox got to that slot machine, and used our "Freeplay bucks":
By the time she was done, we were up by about 30 bucks. We had just enough time to get to our couples massage, which got both of us super relaxed and ready for the wedding.

If you are part of a couple and have never done the couples spa day thing... do it. You will not regret it, trust me... it was a highlight of the weekend for both of us. I would have liked to have gotten us the full treatment with wraps and facials and such, but we did have a wedding to get to:
Jason and Sarah are one of the few couples that I would be proud to share my anniversary date with... they are a true geek couple through and through... they even managed to sneak "Princess Bride" and "Doctor Who" music into a Roman Catholic ceremony, and thusly should be an inspiration to geeks everywhere. Furthermore, their wedding cake toppers were Action Figures of The Doctor and Rose Tyler:
We also ran into many more of our friends from the convention scene at the wedding... Silverfox remarked to me more than once that the weekend felt like going to a con because of the people we saw and hung out with.

Here we are with big Tony at the reception:
We spent that night at the hotel as well... enjoying the chocolates from the turndown service and each other's company... the next morning I asked Silverfox if there was anything I could have done to make the weekend better, and she grinned at me.

"There is one thing..." She said, pulling out her iPhone. She put our song ("at last" by Etta James) on the MP3 player, and we slow danced to it there in the room. It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful weekend, and I got really choked up over it... This past year has been amazing. I love my wife.

Yep... smartest thing I've ever done.