2-Year Anniversary Trip

How could two years go by so fast? Just when I thought that one year went by fast. But here’s to many more together.

Kane and I have been married for two years now and many things have happened during just those two years. We moved out of our apartment, bought a house, enjoyed being homeowners by fixing things, taking road trips, planning and planning, struggled with fertility, got more involved with our church and much more! It’s been such a great journey with it’s ups and downs but very enjoyable.

For our 2-year anniversary trip we originally wanted to go down to Kentucky and make a trip to see the Ark Encounter, which is a large interpretation of Noah’s Ark. But things fell through with timing and scheduling with work. So, we only had a couple of days to enjoy our anniversary together. We wrote down different options and decided to stay in Iowa, drew out of a hat and the winner was…Dubuque.

Me being the planner that I am, looked up different things to do in Dubuque, restaurants, bookstores, coffee shops, fun activities, etc. I also created an itinerary…If you knew me very well you wouldn’t think anything less.

We left on the 21st of August after Kane’s slow pitch games and headed to Dubuque. We checked into our hotel, grabbed some dinner that was right next door to our hotel, had a couple of drinks back at the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

The next day, which was our actually anniversary date, we woke up and headed to a coffee shop, Charlotte’s Coffee House. It was such a cute coffee shop, but I will say…it was kind of spendy for what we got, but the breakfast and coffee was delicious. I got a peanut butter, banana, warm granola and honey toast with an iced coffee (basic). Kane got a bacon, avocado and jalapeño toast with a peanut butter iced coffee (typical Kane with his peanut butter). Overall, it was really good and I highly recommend it to anyone. I would stop there again when in the area.

After breakfast we went and played mini golf before it got too hot and too busy (even though it was a Monday…) It’s been tradition that we play mini golf on our anniversary. After our wedding when we took a trip to Galena, we played mini golf, played mini golf last year in St. Louis (before we both got sick with something..LOL!) and now it was time this year to play mini golf. I will say that Kane is getting better ;)

After mini golf, we went to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. When we walked in the guy taking admission was super awesome, gave us a map and guided us to where we should go first and what to check out. We went through the aquarium first, watched turtles, different types of fish, a HUGE alligator, sting rays, and my favorite…sea otters. I swear I probably watched those for 20 minutes and kept going back. I felt like such a giddy little kid. Sea otters are extremely entertaining. Good thing the aquarium didn’t have benches in front of the sea otters because I probably wouldn’t have left. After the sea otters we went to the river museum, went on a couple of steam boats (not moving…just for display and touring). I think we spent about 2 hours at the museum and aquarium which meant that it was time for lunch just at a local restaurant across the river.

With much walking around and our bellies full, we went back to the hotel, relaxed and I may or may have not fallen asleep before our dinner reservations. A nice restaurant was recommended to us called L. May Eatery. Before we left for Dubuque, I made a dinner reservation (because you never know!). When the host sat us, he asked what the special occasion was. We told him it was our 2-year wedding anniversary and walked off smiling and told us to enjoy our evening together. After our waitress took our drink orders, she brought back two complimentary glasses of champagne and told us that she heard it was our wedding anniversary. How sweet of the restaurant. The menu was small but I’m pretty sure you’d leave satisfied afterwards, at least we did.

We ended up getting a honeycomb appetizer which was whipped goat cheese, fig jam, honeycomb and some toasted/baked bread. We shared our entrée which was a chicken penne…very light, which is what we needed. I felt like I needed to be rolled out after dinner. It was super good and I highly recommend it! The staff is amazing and so is the food.

You may have asked yourself, “why didn’t you guys get dessert?” That’s a good question. You know how on your 1 year wedding anniversary you’re supposed to have a piece of your wedding cake?…well, last year, Kane and I totally forgot about it—plus we were in St. Louis. So we decided to bring it to our trip this year.

When we got back to the hotel, it’s been tradition that we slow dance to our first dance, “From the Ground Up” by Dan + Shay. So, yes, we slow danced in our hotel room to that song and then had a piece of our wedding cake. Not going to lie, it was still good and the end result was blue mouths!

The following day was our last day for our trip. We gathered our stuff, checked out of the hotel and went to main street in Dubuque. We stopped at a coffee shop for a small breakfast and of course an iced coffee. We enjoyed our time sitting there and talking about how much fun we’ve had on our anniversary trip.

Right across the street was a bookstore that one of my sister’s friend’s mom owns called River Lights Bookstore. Unfortunately, she wasn’t there but it was still nice to browse, talk to the lovely ladies who were working and buying a book. Next door was one of my favorite spots, Freddy’s Popcorn. Of course we had to stop and get a couple bags of popcorn!

After a lovely morning with coffee, books and popcorn (oooohhhh, 3 of my favorite things in life), we were on our way to Dyersville. If you are from Iowa and know baseball, you know exactly why we were going to Dyersville. The Field of Dreams.

Kane was in his prime environment. If you all know, Kane is a huge baseball fan, Cardinals to be exact. And when I first met him I wasn’t a fan of baseball… thought it was the most boring sport ever. Well, he’s created a monster. I am now a huge baseball fan and a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan. So going to the Field of Dreams was also exciting to me. We weren’t able to go to the professional field because they were doing construction over there but we were able to go on the field that the movie was filmed on. We went into the gift shop and Kane got a pretty cool shirt. Did we take a tour of the house? No, we didn’t. But maybe some other time we will. Then it was time to head back home…back to reality.

Even though we didn’t take a HUGE trip for our anniversary, it was still very enjoyable to get away with Kane and to celebrate each other. Two years together doesn’t seem like two years. We’ve been through a lot, good and bad but at the end of the day we are so grateful and blessed to have each other. Kane is my best friend, my cheerleader, my teammate, my forever.

Here’s to many more with you, babe!!