From E to V: traveling

Monday, December 31, 2012

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary

Wedding photo credited to Carden's Photography

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on October 29th. Much like our honeymoon, my DH surprised me with our trip location and plans. For our honeymoon, I didn't find out where we were headed until the end of our reception. For our first anniversary, I didn't find out until about 20 minutes into our car ride there!

Since we were unable to go with our original plan of Amsterdam/Belgium because of less available vacation time for my husband, he wanted to plan a weekend fairly close by involving some of our favorite things: hiking, good food and wine (to be fair, DH prefers whiskey haha). He chose New Paltz, NY for its proximity to good hiking, as well as a picturesque location and good food, beer and wine.

Celebrating our anniversary at Lombardi's with champagne compliments of the B&B owners!

Downtown New Paltz at dusk

Enjoying the amazing beer selection at Bacchus

Tasty beer and a fun time at the Gilded Otter

We stayed at a bed and breakfast, Mountain Meadows, which was delightful. Although our room wasn't fancy, it was very comfortable (and quite large). The homemade breakfast every day was incredible (baked spinach eggs, homemade applesauce with fresh cinnamon whipped creme, homemade muffins, etc.) and the owners were extremely friendly. We really enjoyed the fireplace, hot tub and genuine advice about where to go and what to do in the area.

Mountain Meadows B&B

View of the Shawangunk Mountains from near the B&B

We went hiking in the Shawangunk Mountains, completing a hike between 8-9 miles around Mohonk Preserve. It was GORGEOUS! Highly recommended for hikers and well-known for excellent rock climbing.

Starting our hike

Lake Mohonk

One year!

I LOVE Fall!!!

Amazing rock formations

We made it all the way to Lake Awosting!

We also visited some tasty restaurants as well as two wineries on the Shawangunk Wine Trail--Robibero Family Winery and Whitecliff Vineyards. We had a great time at both wineries and enjoyed wine at both places. Whitecliff has been in business for a longer time and I personally enjoyed their wine the most. Tasting at both wineries was very personalized and we got a lot of individual attention--we were really the only visitors at either winery with Hurricane Sandy expected to hit the next day (which, unfortunately, it did). From Robibero we brought home 87 South and 87 North and from Whitecliff we brought home Red Trail and Traminette (especially tasty!).

Robibero Winery

Whitecliff Vineyard

We had snow on our wedding day (unusual here in October) and our actual 1st wedding anniversary was the day Hurricane Sandy hit so we left early that morning in order to beat the storm. The weather on both days has served as a reminder of how blessed we are as a couple. We had a beautiful wedding and despite losing power for a week during Hurricane Sandy, we fared much better than many of our east-coast neighbors, some of whom are still without a place to call home. (Please consider donating to the Red Cross to help those still in desperate need of assistance!) Marriage is an adventure, and we consider ourselves pretty lucky! Here's to many more adventures!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Our Trip to New Orleans: ELCA Youth Gathering, Citizens with the Saints, July 2012

In a continuation of my photo dump from July 2012, I wanted to touch on the trip my DH and I took to New Orleans. Shortly before our wedding, the pastor of our church e-mailed me to ask if I would act as the third chaperone during a mission trip/youth gathering in New Orleans in July. He said I was the first person they thought of when deciding to ask an additional chaperone to attend (yes, I was shocked by this!). I was pretty harried at the time and said "sure" but only if my soon-to-be husband could come as well. My pastor said "yes" and like that, I was suddenly about to be in charge of a bunch of teenagers when I often feel like one myself!

Suffice it to say, my husband and I both agree this trip was life-changing. Along with with our pastor, our friend C, the hubby and I ~~herded~~ chaperoned 17 (yes, seventeen) kids ages 14-17 from the Main Line to New Orleans. We learned so much during this trip--patience (something I don't have ~~any~~ much of and God definitely used this trip to test it/develop it), a little about the culture and feel of New Orleans, grace, the mission of the Lutheran Church, and a bit about what it's like to be a teenager in the Twitter/Facebook age.

The theme of the youth gathering was "Citizens with the Saints" and it was eye-opening. We were invited to come to New Orleans and I believe there were about 33,000 teenagers from all around the U.S. (not counting the chaperones) and the city and people of New Orleans were incredibly gracious hosts to our massive crowd. The gathering centered around service projects (ours was cleaning up LaFreniere Park) and various activities to open the eyes of the attendees to be more accepting and loving of our peers. The speakers at the gathering were absolutely amazing and proof you don't have to look or act a certain way to identify yourself as a Christian. I loved this message and it really spoke to the teenagers from our church as well. I was particularly impressed with Nadia Bolz-Weber and Shane Claiborne and their messages of acceptance and Christ's love.

I kept up a live Facebook page during the gathering so our generous church family who helped raise the funds to send 21 of us to New Orleans could follow along. I think I took a couple hundred photos, and I wanted to share some for posterity. In light of privacy of our chaperonees, here are some photos of our trip: