Celebrating an Adventurous 29 Years of Marriage
August 22nd, 2021
Today, Jerry and I celebrate 29 years of marriage! We were married in Missoula, MT, and on this day in 1992, following a week of perfect summer weather, it snowed and was only 32 degrees! I’ll never forget that blissful day, though, when we celebrated our love and union with our family and closest friends.
Jerry and I met at a wedding in Omaha in 1990. At the time, he was a physical therapy tech in the Air Force, stationed in Dayton, OH, and I was finishing Journalism school at the University of Montana, in Missoula. Ours was a long distance relationship and we fell in love through handwritten letters, many “long distance” phone calls and frequent trips between Missoula and Dayton.
Last night, as Jerry and I celebrated our anniversary over a delicious meal at Cowfish, we reminisced about our first outdoor adventure together. Jerry had flown to Montana to visit me and I had planned what would be our first backpacking trip together.
I chose Sapphire Lake, in northwest Montana’s Flathead National Forest, for our destination. It was a challenging hike to Sapphire Lake–7.5 miles with 3,100’ of elevation gain. After a hot and dusty and challenging effort that took several hours, we arrived at Sapphire Lake in late afternoon, and by all indications we had the lake all to ourselves.
We hurried to set up our tent and start a fire. We were beat so couldn’t wait to get off our feet and to relax. Our hiking boots had gotten wet during the last stretch of the hike so we set our boots on the rocks of the fire ring so the heat of the fire would dry them.
We found a perfect slab of granite on the edge of camp where we could recline and dangle our tired, protesting feet in the lake’s frigid waters. After snarfing some trail mix, Jerry cracked open a bottle of wine. We were too tired to rummage in our backpacks for cups so we took turns drinking from the bottle.
The sun was starting to set and we were too tired to cook so we ate salami, aged cheddar, crackers, and red grapes for dinner, which Jerry had arranged on a frisbee that doubled as a platter.
Soon it was night. There was only a sliver of a moon and the sky exploded with stars. We spied the Big Dipper and Orion’s Belt. (BTW, did you know our Milky Way is just one about 1 billion galaxies and that are an estimated 200 billion stars in the Milky Way alone?) Then, out of nowhere, the sky was filled with swirls of green and pink. Aurora Borealis! At the time, I had known very little about the Northern Lights and had no idea we would get to see them on our trip. We were completely rapt as we watched streaks and flickers of green and pink paint the sky.
The display took our breath away and for a while we said nothing. We laid there, holding hands, our backs on the cold granite slab with our feet now out of the water. The only sound we could hear were of trout jumping in the lake. Tired, buzzed on wine, newly in love, and enraptured by what was happening above, I knew I was experiencing a moment I would never forget. Eventually, we nodded off.
At around 1am, the cold air woke us and we stumbled, bare feet and in the dark, to find our way to camp, where our fire had burned out and was smoldering. We poured some water on it to make sure it was out before tumbling into the tent and falling fast to sleep.
The next morning, when we got up to make coffee, we realized that one of my boots had been almost entirely burned up and consumed by the fire the night before. (It must have fallen into the flames while we had been basking under the northern lights and slumbering lakeside.) I didn’t have any extra shoes so a day later, when our time at Sapphire Lake came to an end, I had to hike the 7 rugged downhill miles in only 1 boot! By the way, this is such a fitting part of the story, as Jerry has always been there to support me when I feel, or find myself ill-equipped.
That was 30 years ago and since then, we have been on countless adventures throughout the country and the world.
I have learned that marriage is very much like an Epic Adventure. There are so many observations, discoveries, insights, and inspirations along the way, and also challenges, adversity, uncertainty, and unexpected hazards.
I wouldn’t trade our experiences–including the wonderful and the difficult–for anything because they’ve helped to shape our relationship and solidify our love for and commitment to one another.
And of course, the greatest adventure of all for us has been raising, parenting, and sharing adventures with our three amazing sons, Wolf, Hayden, and Fin.
Happy anniversary to the love of my life. Jerry: I love you for always and forever.
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog. I appreciate it very much!
An assortment of photos captured over the years:
- Categories: Adventure, Family, Fitness, Travel
- Tags: 29 years, Adventure, anniversary, epic adventure, love, marriage, relationships
- Comments: 1 Comment
