Special Days with My Best Friend

My husband loves to go bird hunting, and unfortunately, our anniversary is almost always opening day of the season, so I have learned to let him do what he must and the first week of October is always spent at camp with his hunting buddies. He always makes it up to me in a special way.

I'm not a person who must receive huge expensive gifts on birthdays, holidays and anniversaries. I much prefer time. Although I wouldn't kick him out if he gave me a huge gift (and don't get me wrong--he has), he knows I prefer just having him by my side, doing something we've never done before. He also knows that I love surprises.

Columbus Day is my day to be surprised. He'll tell me if I need special footwear for clothes and off we go. Yesterday we went to the Sunkhaze National Wildlife Preserve in Old Town and went hiking. It was a fabulous October day--well up into the seventies and not a cloud in the sky. I wished I had brought a short sleeve shirt for hiking in the heat, but the mosquitoes were SO bad I would have needed a transfusion at the end of the trail! Who ever heard of mosquitoes in October? Jim's legs looked like he had the measles. Between the winged teeth and my propensity to fall, I didn't see much but the trail, which leads to a raised viewing platform out over a huge marsh. It reminded us both very much of the Everglades, and it was the only place to get away from the swarms of mosquitoes.

The hike was easy and well marked; I just wish I could have stopped here and there to take some pictures of the huge stands of hemlock. Mushrooms of varying sorts were everywhere but to stop and get down on the ground, focus the camera and take a picture would have given the mosquitoes enough time to inflict some serious damage.

After the hike, we went out to lunch and ran a few errands. It was a beautiful day, spent with my very best friend and it makes me wonder what he'll come up with next year!