Over the course of the last week or so you may have seen me mention here or there that David and I had our 5th wedding anniversary on September 6. When we talked about it I wanted to tell him so much how these have been the best 5 years of my life. But you know what? I couldn’t say it, I just couldn’t. Because the 5 years together with him before we actually got married were easily just as good!
We haven’t really celebrated any of our anniversaries, but for our 5th wedding anniversary David had a surprise planned. Being the woman I am and knowing him, I had hoped so, but… you never know, David is currently extremely busy at work. So I decided to do a little celebration just by myself and took a day off work and spent it doing / seeing what I love most: The beach, taking photos and sports – all in one, knowing I’d spend the evening with David. What did I do? I packed my bicycle in the car, packed my slingshot, which is perfect for going biking or skiing, with my light camera gear and took a drive to Sandy Hook.
Oh, and this was also the very first day I tried out the brand new iPhone app for sharing photos: Pressgram. If you haven’t heard of it yet, check it out, it is really great. In brief: You can share photos to social media and simultaneously to your wordpress blog, all the while keeping all rights to your photos! You can find my blog post about it here, photos are tagged ‘pressgram’ or assembled here. And you will find the very first ones were posted on Friday September 6 – our wedding anniversary.
By the time I got back home in the afternoon I had received a message from David to be ready by latest 6:30 pm and have packed. Packed?! Woohoo – a weekend away! We hadn’t had one in a while, so I was really excited and I still didn’t know where we would go. In fact when he got home and we left, he still wouldn’t tell me. He just said, ‘take I287 north and then I’ll tell you where to go’. Oh well, that’s David – gotta love him. So, we drove north for a while before we exited the I287 and enjoyed driving some winding roads through the country side and hills or mountains. I still didn’t have a clue where we were heading, but suddenly I saw the sign ‘Welcome to New York’ – we had left New Jersey. And not too much later we arrived at our destination: Chateau Hathorn in Warwick, NY.
Chateau Hathorn is a wonderful getaway B&B with excellent dining, which we enjoyed both evenings. Food, wine and service were excellent. But wait till you get breakfast. It is a real continental breakfast, not just bagels, cream cheese and a brown fluid called coffee. You can tell that the owners are from Switzerland once you taste the delicious home made croissants, you will get served fresh and warm. Together with fresh fruit, jam and cheese it makes for an awesome start in a new day. A day that we started out with going to the Heritage Trail to do some more bicycling.
We had beautiful weather for it, too. Along the way just past Chester, NY we stumbled upon this seemingly hidden and forgotten graveyard. Knowing me, I had to stop and snap a few pictures. These are the ones taken with pressgram, but  I also took some with my DSLR, which I will show you later. Late afternoon we got back to Warwick and decided to stop in town for a late, very late (!), lunch. They have a little park in the middle of town and around it are some restaurants, bars that also have outside seating. We decided to go for the Irish pub, The Blarney and were not disappointed. Good thing we didn’t check Yelp beforehand otherwise we might have chosen differently. We had wonderful sandwiches and Cider and beer – there’s for a change to the fine dining of the evening before!
After another (small) dinner and big, yummy breakfast at the Chateau Hathorn it was time to say good bye to our wedding anniversary destination getaway. So, mid morning on Sunday we headed back towards New Jersey and home. But not without stopping one more time to go bicycling. This time at our go-to destination – Kittatinny Valley State Park. We had a full, but relaxing and most importantly wonderful weekend spent away – together.
I’ll leave you with this sun(shine) flower photo, which I took while bike riding on Sandy Hook. I hope you will continue your blog circle journey by reading the new Sisterhood post by Kay Maguire.
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Great pics. Sounds like you guys had a wonderful anniversary weekend. I’ve always enjoyed a good bed and breakfast!
So do I, Susi. And one of the reasons David chose a B&B is that I always told him about the great times I had when traveling the UK and staying in B&Bs, but we never made it there together.
Sounds like the perfect way to spend your anniversary … congratulations. Gorgeous pictures! xx
It sure was, Laura. Thank you you so much.
Sounds like a great weekend! Happy anniversary xox
We enjoyed it a lot! Thank you, Isabelle.
First of all: Happy Anniversary, Claudia! Secondly: awesome pictures!!! Finally: what a lovely way to celebrate!!! Your husband’s surprise was so romantic… almost as romantic as your statement that the 5 years before your marriage were just as good as the 5 years that have followed it. They say some people are simply meant to be together… I don’t know you and David personally, but I have a feeling this is the case. I wish you even more happiness for the 5 years to come… and the further 5, and so on! 🙂 xox
Thank you, thank you and thank you, Elena, for your sweet comment, compliments and being you – I really enjoy your blog posts.
Looks like you had a wonderful time! The B&B seems like a very relaxing and romantic place to visit . 🙂
Yes, we did have a great time there. The fun thing is, it really is a B&B not a spa, with this and that and whatever, but a B&B. Hm, well, o.k. it does have the restaurant for dinner, which is not so B&B, but still…
Happy late anniversary
what a perfect way to celebrate!
Thank you, Hilary. It would be quite hard to top – thinking about maybe a B&B by the ocean – LOL
Happy anniversary!!! I like the feel of your blog and, for sure, your photography. Wish I lived in the US so I could come and model for your natural light portraits 🙂 Hugs from Helsinki!
Thank you, PNG, I’d be very happy to have you model for me 🙂
Happy Anniversary, Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful weekend and thanks for sharing those gorgeous photos with us x
Thank you very much for your kind words, Kay.
Happy Anniversary! Sounds like it was a great one.
I love the beach photos! It makes me a little homesick for the beaches of my hometown. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images!
Happy ICLW!
Thank you, Heather. We really did have a great weekend. I’m glad you like the photos, but I’m sorry they made you homesick
What an awesome anniversary! You are an amazing photographer as well!
Thank you very much, Marisa. I feels good to actually hear it when your photography is appreciated 🙂
Hi from ICLW 🙂
Happy Anniversary! Your pictures are awesome. I love getting new photo app suggestions (especially when I can keep my rights to them) so I will be checking Pressgram out.
Thanks for stopping by, Emma. Pressgram is sure worth checking out to share your own photos.
Hi from ICLW! Happy Anniversary (sorry it’s a bit late!). I have to say, your pictures are incredible. I’ve been browsing your blog and you’re so talented!
Thanks, Rachel, better late than never, right?! I certainly do appreciate you stopping by and leaving such a nice note for me and my pictures. Thank you!
Awww… what a wonderful surprise! I wish hubby and I could get away for a weekend like that. so nice, romantic and all that gorgeous nature around you. perfect. Glad you had a lovely anniversary. Last photo is stunning.
Thank you so much, Leslie, we needed and enjoyed it a lot. I really hope you get to have your own getaway with hubby soon. I know it is tough when you have children, but then again – you are lucky to have your children, too 🙂