61 Years Together

A Brief Highlight of 61 Years

1^st – 1955 -- Honeymoon in Yosemite Park, accompanied by my Mother, sister and her family

5^th – 1960, now living in our new home in pre-Silicon Valley, CA, a dinner doubtless in San Francisco

9^th – Actual anniversary dinner at the St. George’s Hotel in Beirut, while enroute to New Delhi, India.

10^TH – 1965, living at D-358 defense Colony, New Delhi, India, dinner of Tandoori Chicken doubtless at Moti Mahal in Old Delhi

11^th – 1966—traveled East from New Delhi, through Bangkok, Hong Kong, thence by ship to Yokohama, and finally San Francisco, where we spent our home-leave anniversary with sister and family.

12^th – Planned to visit Israel, but the idiot Arabs engaged in and lost (as always) the six-day war. So, we changed plans and traveled instead to Athens, Greece for our anniversary, while a sweet Canadian CUSO couple stayed with our kids. Spent our anniversary on Mykonos, dining by the harbor

13^th – Left New Delhi for Moscow, where we toured Red Square, enjoyed the Bolshoi Ballet performing Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre, and then on to London, where we picked up our new (1968) Rover 2000TC at the airport. We stayed at the home of our friends, the Dillons, who were still in Delhi, but had offered us the use of their home in Camberley. Dillo was an ex-Brigadier General who had served in Burma with the British Indian Army, and had been captured there. We were told he was a model for the Brigadier (Alec Guinness) in Bridge Over the River Kwai. Toured around London, before heading off to the Continent, where we lived wonderfully for a few weeks, touring with our three kids.

15^th – Now living in the DC area, out in Cabin John, Maryland. Anniversary dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant in Georgetown.

20^th – Still living in the DC area. Dined at a super expensive Italian restaurant in Georgetown, with the bill coming to $350. Carol closing in on her college degree, and poised to find her career as a school Librarian at The Bullis School.

25^th – Celebrated our 25^th with very close friends living in the DC area at the home of John and Susan Scanlon, with Pamela Horst (who now lives in Bangkok) helping to celebrate.  Had just left The Urban Institute and joined the Government under President Carter, only to discover that an idiot was scheduled to take over the reins of government later that year.

30^th - Anniversary dinner again in Georgetown, our go-to spot for fine dining. Becoming ready to leave Government under Reagan, for fear of going brain-dead.

35^th - Cannot believe it is 1990. We even survived 1984.  Began heading to the North Carolina beaches with our family of five plus Carol’s mom, who came to live with us in 1985.

40^th – Wow, who do we know who has been married 40 years?  Traveled out to Seattle to attend Erika’s graduation from her family practice residency, and then we began looking and found a house in Concord, NC, after Erika and Steve decided they would move there so she could enter practice in Cabarrus Family Medicine. We had to fix up the house a lot, since it was an old bungalow, much like the ones we had encountered throughout India. We rented the house, first to Roxanne and Amy, two brand new lawyers.

45^th – We began making plans to retire and move to Concord, NC. More house fixer-uppers.  Dinner somewhere in Concord.

49^th – We decided to embark on a 9,000 mile road trip to celebrate 49 years together. We began in DC, after a meeting I had to attend at The Foundation School, wending our way down to Virginia and heading for our first stop in Nashville, where we met friends. We then drove through the Southwest and then up to Portland. Our plan was to visit places either neither of us had seen (Grand Canyon), or only one of us had seen (e.g., Grand Tetons.) Amazing 25 day trip. We love traveling together.

50^th – Celebratory dinner with family. Then we made our trip up to Niagara on the Lake in Canada, arguably one of the prettiest towns in the world. We stayed at an inn, dined at a wonderful restaurant there (many available) attended a matinee performance of a play by Shaw (The Shaw festival runs there from April to October), and visited some wineries.

55^th – Again visited Niagara on the Lake. We celebrated our actual anniversary at The Peller Estate Winery, having one of their wine-pairing dinners, after seeing a play at the Festival Theatre.

60^th – We visited our favorite place in Canada again, attending plays, visiting wineries and dining again at The Peller Estate Winery, for another wonderful wine pairing dinner.

61 - Planning on a quiet evening, dining at our favorite restaurant, Gianni’s in downtown Concord.