Jaunt

Recently, I've complained about being stuck at home, with the cloud of treatment and invasion of side-effects hanging over me. I've talked about my desire to pack my car and drive away, to explore parts unknown or simply get out of Dodge.

Well, Michael and I did that this weekend with a little holiday jaunt. It was only one night. It was only Niagara Falls, two and a half hours away. But it was away, without the kids.

It was tiring and relaxing. We walked down to the falls and got sprayed with the freezing-cold mist. Then we had to walk back up to the hotel level, which involves a hill with quite an incline. At least it was a huge incline for my poor out-of-shape legs. I'm also probably near my lowest red blood cell counts, which means less oxygen for my muscles. Let's just say, it was a challenge and, despite the cold, I was dripping sweat by the time we got back up to the street.

We discovered (for about the third time), we are not gamblers/slot machine people. We blew $5 (I know, I know, not a lot) in about three minutes and I hated every minute of it. Michael couldn't stand the sounds in the casino and we high-tailed it out of there pretty darn quickly.

The whole trip was good deal because we bought a package from one of those discount travel sites (TravelZoo) that included money towards dinner and breakfast in the chi chi restaurant in the hotel (Of course, the amount only covered one entree for dinner; but it did cover both buffet breakfasts.) We also got casino and tourist attraction shuttle tickets, two lovely winery tours and money towards the spa (which we didn't use).

We had a beautiful view of the horseshoe falls from our window on the 15th floor and, as a result, got to enjoy the light show that shines on the cascading water. Unfortunately, because of high winds on Saturday night, the nightly firework show was cancelled. We would have had a stellar vantage point.

All the activity left me exhausted. I even needed a little nap in the hotel room yesterday morning while Michael strolled through Niagara Falls. Then bedtime came quite early for me last night, when I fell asleep reading my book. But it was worth getting away with the love of my life.

Speaking of him, it's his birthday today and I want to wish him happy 49th birthday here on my blog. I know many people cringe at that number, saying, "Oh, it's my last birthday." I have the exact opposite view. Yay! Michael is 49 and I look forward to enjoying every day with him until he turns 50, 60, 70 years old. It's just a number, the years of experience you have under your belt. The number of hours, days and months you can enjoy life with the ones you love.

Happy birthday, my gorgeous husband.

Tina