We both took the day off Friday, so Dan came home Thursday night, which made a big difference, that extra day was really good to have...anyway, we left the city at around one and got to the retreat at around 3...we drove along the South Shore to Liverpool, then cut inland to head to Maitland Bridge, which is where the retreat was (it's about 3 mins away from Keji Park, for those who know NS) Anyway, so we got there, and the place was really nice; small, only 7 cabins, 5 teepees, a restaurant, office, kitchen cabin, and a lodge with 4 rooms. Anyway, it was in the woods along the banks of a river that ran into a small lake. Our teepee was pretty cool, it was set apart from the other 4 teepees, which are the 'village'; ours was set kind of in a corner of a small field, on the edge of the woods and right on the lake. It was a pretty big teepee, probably 15-20 feet tall, and there was room enough in there for 3 beds, a double and 2 singles, and 2 small shleves, all on the outside edges of the inside. They are set up on platforms so you aren't on the ground, which is cool, and they were pretty waterproof, despite the pouring rain (more on that later.)
But the best part of the teepee for sure was the hottub. Basically it was a home made hottub...it was on our platform right on the edge of the lake. It was big enough for probably 4 people, and was made of wood. The way you heated it was by a wood stove that was set underwater in the tub (it was walled off by wooden slats so you couldn't touch it) Anyway, most of the stove was underwater, so as you burned wood, the water got hotter. The water was water from the Lake, and there was a valve to release the water and a pump to add more, and a pool skimmer to clean out any grass or bugs. Pretty rustic, but it worked out perfectly. So anyway, we get there, unpack, walk around, and decide to get this hottub going. We light it up, but it takes forever to heat up because it's quite a lot of water and of course, it was freezing cold when we got there. So we played some tennis, had supper in the kitchen cabin (all people staying in the teepees shared a communal kitchen cabin, which had a stove, fridge, pots, pans, everything you would need, it was great.) Then we kinda just lounged around, made a fire in the village (there was only one spot to make a fire, in the middle of the village, but luckily for us no one else was staying in the teepees that night so we had the place to ourselves.) So we go back to the teepee at around 10-10:30 (it was hard to keep track of time that weekend, since neither one of us had a watch and we had no clocks or cells and no access to our car, so we didn't know what time it was most of the time, which was actually nice), and the tub was STILL warming up. We didn't actually get in until about 11:30 I don't think, but it was sooo worth the wait. It was so nice to sit outside, in the hottub, with candles all around, right out on the Lake, and the weather was really nice too that night. We were in there for 2 hours or more I think. So yeah, that was Friday night.
I didn't sleep all that well (I don't sleep well in the woods) but we still woke up at around 9:00 or so to discover that it was misting and raining a little bit. We decided that we would head into a town for the day since it was supposed to pour all day and we didn't want to be outside or in the teepee when that happened, but luckily in the morning it wasn't bad at all. We started up the hottub again, had breaskfast, then came back for another dip, this time in the daylight and in the mist and rain, and it was actually really fun. We left once the rain started a bit harder ar around noon and headed into Bridgewater for the afternoon. We had lunch then went bowling, which was really fun too, considering we hadn't bowled in years. We headed back at around 4:30 or so, and by the time we got back to the retreat, the rain had stopped. Some of our stuff was wet, but luckily the bed wasn't and our clothes were all safe in our bags, so besides being a bit cold and damp, it was ok. We got the hottoub going again and then headed to the restaurant for dinner. It was nice, really small, just a few tables and home cooked by a few ladies who worked there, really home made kinda thing. So we had that, then came back to the teepee and hung out some more, then got back in the hottub (again, haha) But this time we kinda ruined a good thing...the water was wayyyy too hot, since we had kept the fire going for pretty much 2 days straight, the water was near boiling basically, and there was no way to cool it down. Also, it was really windy so it was harder to get out and cool down, so we didn't end up staying in it long, but we did manage to get another dip in.
We woke up this morning, had breaskfast again, contemplated getting in the hottub again, but it had actually cooled down quite a bit and was a bit cold, and it was hard to get the fire going again with all the wood being wet, so we just said forget it and left at around 11. All in all it was really nice, I'm glad we went.
Now, as for being married a whole year, I don't really have a whole lot to say about it. To me, and to Dan I think, it feels like we've been married much longer, so this was just a little reminder that we have a long, long way to go yet, haha. They say that the first year of marriage is supposed to be hard, and I guess for us it was hard, but not so much in our relationship, but more in our circumstances. It was hard for us with Dan working overnights for 8 months, then leaving to plant trees. It was hard scrambling to figure out everything for school, and deciding to live apart again, and me not knowing about my job (still not knowing.) All of that was hard, but being together wasn't. We fought, yeah, mostly about money, but I think that was just us getting used to actually sharing money and bank accounts and everything else, but we've got it pretty well sorted out now. I don't ever doubt that we got married too soon or that we're headed for trouble, I know we're doing well and will keep doing well as long we keep remembering to be kind to each other, respect each other, and support each other. I'm excited to see what this year will bring, but I'm not very worried about it...I know it'll be good :)
Well that was a huge ramble, but I wanted to keep a little record of our weekend so that when we are celebrating our 25th, we can look back and remember how we started out in a teepee.
Happy Anniversary to us!
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