Take me back to there



Us at Outer Banks, before miniature golf.

 It's been a week since Rich, Gun'r and I got back from a week at Nags Head in the Outer Banks, NC. There are really no words to describe how wonderful that week was. It has been a very long time since we have gone a real vacation. I mean when you go away for a whole week, away from everything, and just relax. I cannot tell you how badly I needed it and it fulfilled every wish I had.

We planned to take Gun'r since Lauren works some crazy hours and she and Gun'r are working on coming to an agreement that they like each other. Long story, but Lauren is somewhat afraid of Gun'r, rightly so. He has, let's say, been a bit growly with her. Only her. We can't figure it out. We need Cesar, the Dog Whisperer. Not knowing how Gun would travel on long distances, our plan was to put him in his crate in the back of the van so we all could have a peaceful ride, in our own space, without a worry in the world. Well, thanks to a Smart Car that pulled out in front of me two days before we were leaving, we had to take Rich's car. My poor van was damaged in the front and actually looked much worse than the Smart Car. Thankfully the two young girls in the car were not hurt. I literally wanted to hug them on behalf of their moms when I saw they were OK but thought that might be weird. At any rate, my van, that I love dearly, is still getting repaired. So we put Gun's blanket in the back seat and hoped for the best. That hound laid down the second we started moving and never moved until we got there. He was perfect. It was a good sign for the rest of the week.



Gun'r in back seat.



Gun at the beach. He loved it as much as us.

 We arrived at the house that was just fine for us for the week. Gun immediately settled in like he had been there before. It was almost weird. He would just go into his crate when we left like nothing was unusual and patiently wait for us to return. He even got to get up on the couch which he isn't allowed to at home. I called it the "vacation couch". He was in heaven. I didn't cook one meal the entire week. Weather was perfect. We had no schedule or agenda, just did whatever, whenever. It was lovely. We also realized that we actually really like being together. Me and Rich that is. I know I am rambling on about Gun'r. We were on the same page all week. Not one disagreement until...... our last day.


You can just tell by this picture things were going to go all kinds of bad.

 I had the brilliant idea to go play miniature golf. It's a course that we always took the kids to when they were much younger and we would vacation at Nags Head every year. I have such special memories of being on vacation there with the kids. What you need to know is that Rich is constantly nagging me to learn to golf so we can golf together. He is an excellent golfer and in conversations he has had is very much against slow, women golfers. Yes, I said it. It feels good to get it out there. You heard me. I have also heard stories from the boys about their golf experiences with their dad that they seem to love but there is much goading and harassing each other throughout the course. I want no parts of that. So up to now, I have taken one disastrous golf lesson and never set foot on a course again. Anyway, thinking that miniature golf would be "cute" and like a first date, we selected our club and enthusiastically started on the first hole. At that point Rich also started with the comments. He also chose to believe that if his ball went in the cup and swirled back out that it was in. I disagreed. It was obviously not hit correctly if it popped back out so it was another stroke. That conversation was the beginning of the end and it was only the third hole. Fast forward to the 15th hole and we were not speaking and I was "clubbing seals" as Rich likes to say I refused to wait for him to finish a hole before moving on. He thought it was funny, I did not. I proceeded to gingerly toss (translation: hurl) the score card at him and may or may not have stomped to the car. He said he is sure that's how I acted when I was 10. All I know is I am checking golf off the list of things we will do together in retirement. It's best we have our own space. I am convinced our marriage survives because he has so many interests and I can get rid of him once in a while. I am not kidding. That's the secret to our nearly 28 years of marriage. By the time we got home we were laughing and all was well. Glad we decided to wait until the last day we were there to play a competitive game together.