Back on
my birthday, Drew gave me a card that explained he had booked us a "surprise" weekend vacation to celebrate our anniversary, but he wasn't telling me where we were going. I was super excited! He doesn't surprise me very often, so I knew it had to be something that he had put some thought and effort into.
As it got closer, I started daydreaming about where we could possibly be going? We're on a budget and we'd just be gone Friday-Sunday, so it couldn't be anywhere too far away. He said it was somewhere I'd never been before. I thought it might be New Orleans? We used to talk about going down there to eat all the food (I'm pregnant, so that would be perfect!) Drew can also get Saints tickets through work, so I looked up their schedule and sure enough... they were playing Sunday at noon in New Orleans. So New Orleans was a possibility.
Then when I was asking about what to pack, he told me to wear something nice on Friday because we would eat on the way there, but to just pack comfy clothes for the rest of the weekend. He also kept saying that this was going to just be a
relaxing weekend. So then I started thinking simpler. Maybe we were just going to the lake? Not gonna lie, I was a little bummed. By Friday, I was convinced we were going camping, so when I woke up to pouring down rain, I sent him a text and asked him if that was true. He replied and said, "Tent camping... on an island. It'll be fun!" I thought surely not... we
better not be tent camping! This pregnant belly better have somewhere comfortable to lay down at night!
Drew got home Friday afternoon, we took Livy over to Pappy and Annie's, and when we walked through the door Pappy asked, "Are ya'll taking the boat?" I thought
Well, there ya go. We're going camping. Boo.
When we got to the Travel Center and didn't turn right towards Waldo, I had hope. Ha! We were headed towards Texarkana! He finally told me we were going to stop and eat in Texarkana, wherever I wanted, and then we would continue on to our destination.
We stopped at Osaka's and enjoyed some awesome sushi... don't worry, mine wasn't raw. Then we headed on down the interstate. By then I was thinking maybe Dallas? But I've been there before, lots of times, so that couldn't be it. Then we came to De Kalb, Idabel...
Drew said, "You must have some idea now, don't you?
"I don't have a clue! I'm not that familiar with Oklahoma!"
We passed Broken Bow and got to the little town of Hochatown. Drew pulled up into a lot that had creepy, old, dark, scary cabins, and he looked at the first one closest to the highway and said, "I wonder if this is it?" Obviously I knew then we were staying in some sort of cabin. I was SUPER excited because we've always talked about how fun that would be! But I was secretly hoping it wasn't this particular cabin. If we would've stayed there, I'm pretty sure we would've been murder victims on the next
Saw movie. He pulled out his directions and realized this was not the right place.
Phew!
Finally, we pulled up at this place...
I was speechless! I didn't even know what to say! This was
our place for the weekend??? It was amazing! Truly the nicest place we've ever stayed... Jamaica and the Virgin Islands included!
**I didn't think to bring my camera (again, because I was being a brat and thought we were just going camping) so all of these pictures are from my phone.
Friday night, we just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. We slept in Saturday morning, and when we stepped outside it felt amazing! It was a perfectly cool autumn morning. We played a little horseshoes to kill some time before lunch. I think the last time I had played horseshoes was when I was a little kid playing with a plastic set. So I was terrible. But the more I practiced, the better I got... I even got two ringers!
Then we ate lunch at a local pizza place called The Grateful Head. There was a guest journal at our cabin and everyone had recommended this place. It did have awesome pizza. We browsed around the restaurant's shop and picked us up a couple of old timey Cream Sodas and Sarsaparillas to share later.
After lunch, we got some groceries for supper that night, dropped them off at the cabin, and headed on out to explore Oklahoma. The lake and river were just a couple miles from our cabin. We hiked down to Beavers Bend river and it was beautiful. There were lots of people fly fishing out in the freezing water.
We kept cruising around (windows down because it felt so good outside!) and saw a sign for a train ride through the woods. I figured it would be a little cheesy kiddie ride, but I hoped it was some awesome train ride down by the river. We decided Hey, we're on vacation! Let's do it! We saw a deer along the way...
Did you know that the first time Phil and Kay said their vows was in Hochatown, OK?
Sure enough, the train ride wasn't anything special, but we still had fun cuddling on the back of the train and enjoying the views.
We drove on out to the lake and captured this beautiful scenery.
You can see the river in this picture.
That afternoon, we watched the Hogs get beat play, then started on supper. Drew grilled some steaks, sausage, and potatoes while I worked on my horseshoe skills.
After we enjoyed a nice romantic meal upstairs on the balcony, we built a fire outside and ate lots of s'mores!
This picture does no justice to what it really looked like. They had a laser light mounted from the upstairs balcony that shot millions of tiny lights as far as we could see. It looked like a blanket of stars covering the trees, the ground... everything it its path. It was absolutely gorgeous!
We had such a great time. I can't believe he took the time to plan all of this for us. We love spending time together and this was the perfect place to celebrate our anniversary. I really felt like I was the girl in a Nicholas Sparks novel. I spent the weekend in a romantic cabin with the love of my life, who still takes my breath away after 11 years. Only we were in Oklahoma instead of North Carolina... and instead of nursing a few beers (as Sparks always writes) we nursed our Cream Soda and Sarsaparilla cuddled up by the fire. I can't wait to go back with him. Have I mentioned I love him? :)
