Prequel Beaune France 1998 and Hawaii 2004

When we lived in Germany, there was a group of us that did a Memorial Day Vacation to Beaune, France. The women planned the trip and packed for the guys and we headed out to the train station in Landstuhl. The men had no idea where we were going, it was a surprise. We got to the train station and the guys flipped a coin to decide which direction they thought we would go. They had no idea! They were still confused when we arrived in Beaune, because they had never heard of this place. We had a great time. We toured the town of Beaune, the first day. The second day we rented bikes (not my cup o' tea) and went on a bike tour of the area. Some of us were getting tired so we took a break - at a winery. Can you imagine stopping to drink wine in the middle of a bike ride? We some of our group did. Then they cam out and said we bought cases! OK - how are we going to get these cases back to the hotel? The man that owns the winery delivered the cases of wine for us! YUM! Then right down the road, was this quaint restaurant in the middle of no where. We stopped for lunch, but they were closed, it was 2 in the afternoon. We had one person with us that was fluent in French. She asked them if they would open for us. There were 20 of us! They did and it was the best French food!

Tim and I actually made a trip back to that same location about a year later. This time by car and we purchased 100 bottles of wine on that trip. The Air Force paid for us to ship our wine back to the states, we brought home 300 bottles of European wine back with us. We even still have some from that trip in the Volnay and Pommard wineries.

Ok - that is the history behind our 10 year anniversay trip. The men on that trip all said someday they would give the women a surprise vacation. Well, Tim followed through. I don't know about any of the others. For our 10 year Anniversary - Tim made all of the plans, including telling his parents and my parents and getting my parents to watch the kids for us for a full week.

We dropped the kids off with my parents and then they took us to the airport in OK City. We spent the night, because our flight was at 7:00 AM. We boarded the plane and went to Denver, CO. Well, we stayed in the airport and went to our next terminal....boarding a plane, now to San Fransisco. We got off the plane, went to have lunch (in the airport). The whole time I am asking Tim - where are we going. Then we go and sit for our next flight. The sign says Lihue. Well, I don't have any idea where we are heading. So, I call a friend of mine back in AR...tell her what the sign says and she googles it, but she knows it is a surprise and doesn't tell. :-) Tim decides to tell me before we get on the plane so that I have time to read about Kauai, Hawaii! What a surprise! We had so much fun, we went kayaking, up in a Helicopter, lounging at the pool, out to Spouting Horn, sitting on the beach watching the surfers and walking on the beach and oh yeah and a couples massage in our room! Wait - we also bought a Time Share.

But wait, that isn't all. He didn't share everything with me.....on our way home we stopped in San Fransisco for 2 nights. We went to see the Lion King on stage at the Orpheum Theater. We had the BEST seats in the house!

Now, I am waiting for my 20 year Anniversary. I can't wait to see what my dear husband has in store for me. It might be a family vacation to Africa. We are starting our research now. I hope to have it all planned and can go when our daughter is 12. Yes, she is 4 now, but a lot of the gaming tours won't take anyone under the age of 12.

I hope you enjoyed my story - I love reminiscing! How much fun would it be for us to move back to Germany and get to do some of these fun things again. Yes, I know it will be different this time, we have kids and school and activities, but there is so much traveling to be done for the Stong Clan!