My husband totally and completely surprised me last weekend - and I couldn't wait to share all about our wonderful weekend getaway and share some of the many pictures I have! I'll keep this split into two parts so there aren't a million pictures on just one post, ha-ha!
First of all - I was just sitting at work, minding my own business and getting down to business on Thursday morning when someone came into the building... and the next thing I know, my husband is peering into my office and asking me if I'd like to go on an adventure with him! It seems everyone was in on it; my leave had been approved well in advance, my bags were already packed and all I had to do was hop into the car with my husband and away we went!
Oh yea - did I mention he picked me up in a mini cooper? We cruised to our first stop in the mini - and our first stop was Exquisite Ink to get new tattoos! Eek! We'd discussed and planned this for a while and I was excited to finally get tattoo number two - and so that's just what we did. I went first and then Ryan got his... the whole thing took less than thirty minutes for us both (and that was with me passing out) and then we were out the door and on to the next stop!
The tattoo is very special to Ryan and I - and I'll share more about the tattoos in another post closer to the end of the year. Our final stop before we hit the road was by the house to change vehicles and I went ahead and gave Ryan his anniversary gift! Ryan and I have worked together over the last year to create our very own family crest and I had a friend take it from a drawing on paper to a framed canvas - it turned out amazingly and Ryan loved it! I also discovered a massive vase of gorgeous flowers when we stopped by the house - what a guy I have been blessed with!
We quickly grabbed some Five Guys burgers and then headed for our destination for the weekend: the Serengeti Safari Treehouse Cabin in Peterstown, West Virginia. Ryan booked the one of a kind treehouse way back in May and he didn't just book the cabin ... he also included a romance package that meant the treehouse had red roses on the table and rose petals scattered throughout! We also had a charcuterie box and a deluxe smores kit waiting in the little kitchen when we arrived! It was the most unique and perfect little spot, with the stream racing alongside the cabin - you could hear it trickling along from inside the cabin and you could see it while sitting in the bed, looking out the giant plate glass windows that made up the back side of the cabin!
I mean - look at that smores box! Take a peek at those charcuterie items! It was all so beautiful and delicious and perfectly packaged together for us to enjoy for the weekend! We made a run to the closest Walmart for some breakfast supplies and grabbed a delicious dinner at Outback Steakhouse before coming back, whipping up a lovely fire in the firepit and spending a lovely time sitting out by the fire, listening to the crackling of the embers and the trickling of the stream flowing past!
We slept until shortly after 8 AM on Friday morning - and for two people who usually wake up before the sunshine (around 5... a little earlier for my husband) - this was so incredible. I tracked it on my phone and we'd gotten around 9.5 hours of sleep, so obviously the bed was pretty comfy! We had coffee in our gorgeous Four Fillies mugs - another add on my hubby requested - they are beautiful stoneware pottery mugs and I love that we will have them forever. A little memento of our first anniversary and the lovely weekend we spent in West Virginia!
The most amazing add on that my sweet husband splurged on was a massage on Friday morning! The masseuse arrived at 10 AM with her table and her tools and for an hour, I was able to be completely blissed out - getting a massage while listening to the trickling stream and enjoying the peace, quiet and calm of the massage. It was wonderful! After my massage, I got myself put together and we headed to Lewisburg, West Virginia - voted one of the best small towns in the US! The weather on Friday was drizzly and gray all day, so we grabbed a late lunch at Food & Friends, perused a couple of the shops and then made our way to Lost World Caverns!
Lost World Caverns was discovered in 1942 and was originally named Grapevine Cave; the original entrance was a deep hole where farmers used to dump dead livestock and trash (you can see animal bones in this spot today... eek). The cave was discovered by Virginia Tech and surveyed in the 1960's, before walking paths were installed in the early 1970's and a gift shop (you've got to have a gift shop) was opened in the early 80's! The gift shop also has a small history museum with the remains of a cave bear found in the cave in 1967!
The tour we took was the self-guided option - it's only $12 a person and takes about 45 minutes - 1 hour to complete. You walk through the main portion of the cave, taking in the cave features like stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone and more...There is the option to take a wild cave tour that lasts four hours and requires you to crawl through holes and deep into the "wild" portions of the cave with nothing but knee pads and a hard hat... I don't know if I'm quite ready for that level of cave adventure, ha-ha!
The tour was really neat - I've always loved exploring caves and caverns and I really enjoyed checking this one off my list.. although I don't really have a list, per se. Ryan and I decided that the owners of the cave must quite literally live on the property since it seemed like the building that housed the gift shop and entrance to the caves was attached to another building that looked very much like it was functioning as someone's home - they even had alpaca and goats! It's not called wild & wonderful West Virginia for nothing. I guess it makes for a short commute!
We walked the short trek up the hillside to see the original entrance to the cave - there was so much air being funneled out from within the caves, when I leaned over my hair floated around my face! We headed back to Peterstown when we finished at the caverns and decided to order some Italian food for dinner - stromboli to be specific! We ate out Italian food, made smores with the deluxe smores kit and spent almost 2.5 hours outside by the fire - it was amazing!
I'll share some more tomorrow about the other two days of our lovely anniversary weekend!
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