We had a ten year wedding anniversary that we will never forget. We had a wonderful 5 day/4 night trip planned for Boston and Cape Cod, and Milt's mom flew out to watch the kids for us. On Friday, the actual day of our anniversary, we left home early to try and beat the heavy weekend traffic and we hoped we would arrive in Boston before about 5 pm. Unfortunately, even leaving early we ended up getting stuck in some light traffic on I-95 in Connecticut. Traffic would be going fine and then suddenly everyone would stop (for no apparent reason), and then the freeway would clear up and move along nicely again until we'd all stop again (and so-on and so-on).
One of the times that we stopped we were in the fast lane and the lanes next to us hadn't had to stop yet, so the people behind us must not have seen that our lane wasn't moving and they didn't have time to brake before they slammed right into the back of us. They were a really nice couple from North Carolina who felt TERRIBLE. They apologized about a million times and even said a nice prayer for my neck and back on the side of the freeway. Milt managed to see them coming in his rear view mirror and so braced himself (and while, to his credit, he did yell something to the effect of "NO NO NO," I didn't realize that meant someone was about to hit our car and I should brace my head too.) So I basically got some MAJOR whiplash, which I really am not enjoying. I knew instantly that I was in quite a bit of pain and couldn't turn my head to either side, but the EMTs informed me that it was a natural reaction to whiplash from high freeway speeds, and that the pain would get much worse before it got better. Milt was very achy too with a lot of back pain, but at least he didn't have neck problems! In fact, we spent the first 24 hours taking overpriced individual doses of Ibuprofen every 4 hours religiously while searching for somewhere to buy a less expensive bottle! The rest of our romantic, relaxing, and ache-y weekend we spent trying not to hobble around and feel like we were in our 90s instead of our 30s (or almost 30s :)!
Our sad-looking car
The OTHER car (if you look closely you can see an imprint of our license plate on their front bumper, even the "Dallas Cowboys" label along the bottom....too funny!)
Needless to say (after spending four hours waiting for: State Troopers, Tow Trucks, Rental Car people, etc...), we ended up not making it to Boston that night. We ate dinner in Darien, CT (a darling little town that was exactly like you'd imagine Connecticut to be!) and changed our Hotel reservation for the first night to stay in Hartford rather than all the way up in Boston.
Milt standing on the side of I-95 while we were waiting
Luckily, our luggage was in the back seat and the only thing we had put in the trunk was Milt's golf clubs (which looked from the outside that they must be bent in half...if we could even get the trunk open!) While we were standing on the freeway looking at the car and waiting for the State Trooper, Milt even wondered out loud if this was fate's way of telling him he shouldn't even be bringing his golf clubs on his anniversary trip! Miraculously, the Auto Body guys did mange to pry the trunk lid up, and the clubs actually didn't look too bad. Milt hasn't checked them all really closely yet, but we were amazed they were even remotely straight and undamaged.
It took some maneuvering, but here is Milt managing to get his clubs and everything else out of the trunk.
With it being our anniversary and all, we were pleased at least to spend the day together and we were seriously just happy to have each other. Realizing that we were alive and well, and how lucky it was that the kids weren't in the car with us made us very grateful. We were in Milt's car that he drives to work, and we had bought it brand new during our first year of marriage, so it was kind of hard to say goodbye to it and leave it there in Connecticut, knowing that it was pretty much totalled and we would probably never see it again.
We we did have a funny moment happen while we were eating dinner. We went to a Mexican Restaurant in Darien and ate out on the outside patio because it was such a nice evening. While were eating, I noticed a couple in their 30s-40s that was saying goodbye in the parking lot about 40 feet past the patio. They kissed once or twice before they started kissing quite enthusiastically, which was easily ignorable for the little bit, but they ended up kissing out there (extremely enthusiastically) for entire time we were eating! Cars would drive up and park by them, and when the people would walk by (trying not to laugh when they noticed), the couple just kept right on kissing, oblivious to everything! The other diners around us had all been watching them too (or trying not to), so it wasn't long before we were all talking to each other and laughing (people joking about "getting a room.") There were even some kids out there, and parents joked about them closing their eyes. It was too funny. Everyone pretty much agreed that they were definitely not married (at least to each other, as one woman pointed out), which I had to agree with after the first few minutes. As much as we might want to think otherwise, married people don't need to make-out in a parking lot for 30 minutes, they can just go home!
So later that night when we had finally made it to our hotel in downtown Hartford, we were so sore that we decided to go down to the Jacuzzi and soak for a bit. There was only two other people in the pool area, and they were splashing and playing (and flirting) in the pool, so we had the hot tub all to ourselves. We sat and just talked about how lucky we were to be okay and everything, and of course we kissed a couple of times (we could barely even see the other couple, I might add). So as we got out and dried off to go back up to the room, the man in the pool said to us, "Excuse me. Can we ask you guys a question? We were just discussing it, and we're just wondering if you-all are married or not." We totally started laughing! When we told them we were, the lady said, "see I knew it!" and the man said, "well, with you guys kissing and all...I thought there's no way you were married" It was too funny. We told them it was our 10th anniversary, and that made the guy realize that was probably why we were kissing (do married people only kiss in public on anniversaries, I wonder?) Anyway, it was a funny ending to what had happened just hours earlier watching the couple in the parking lot!
So, ten years really did fly by and we couldn't be happier for being so blessed in life...even if we really don't want to be buying a new car right now!
We'll post pictures of the Boston & Cape Cod part of our trip soon. We actually did manage to relax and have a lot of fun!
Update: The car really is totalled, and we are realizing that looking for a car isn't very fun when you are forced to find something quickly. I've been going to physical therapy for my neck and spine, and Milt is finally realizing his back is not getting better on its own, so he'll be going to the doctor soon too. My wonderful mom even flew out to help with the kids so I can go to all my appointments and help out with the kids and the house (which has not been easy for me when it hurts to even bend my neck!) But I have high hopes that the pain will not be permanent, even if it feels like it will! Everything (even blogging) seems harder when you're in pain, and I am very grateful that this is temporary and that I normally have a neck and back that work without any thought!
We got to go to DC for a couple days with Nana Betty when she was here, and Papa Kirby even drove up from southern Maryland to stay with us at the hotel. We had so much fun! There is so much to see there that I think we could go once a month and never run out of places to go! Here are some of the MANY pictures we took:
Both of us in one of the ballrooms used in the movie 
After a little more sightseeing in Boston the next morning, we headed to Cape Cod for the last few days of our trip. We got there and checked into our room, which was in one of the resorts' Beach Villas and overlooked the ocean and beach below....it was amazing! I just wanted to sit on our deck all day, but we decided to venture into the village Main Street and go to the little shops before dinner. If anyone ever wants to go to Cape Cod and stay at an amazing place, the resort was the Chatham Bars Inn (pronounced "Chattam Bahs Inn") and we could go back there every anniversary and be completely happy! The little village there in Chatham was absolutely perfect and it was so much fun to just walk along the shops together with absolutely nothing and nowhere else we had to be....which felt like a true vacation! 
