To Five Years!

Yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary, so Lou and I celebrated today by going to Waffle House for lunch. Seriously! In case you think I'm kidding, here is a picture to prove it.

Here's the background story.  Nate and I talked yesterday while he was at a hole-in-the-wall, Indian restaurant in downtown Hong Kong.  He was super-excited about how good and cheap his meal (dal mahkni, chicken briyani, naan and two beers) was. To understand my story, its important to know that Nate and I enjoyed many a good Indian and Ethiopian meal in Uganda in 2008 and still enjoy cooking Indian food together.  So when he commented that his meal in Hong Kong would have been an appropriate anniversary dinner for us, he was spot on (and romantic...sigh).

Fast-forward about 18 hours to Louisa and me driving north on highway 85 through North Carolina. Louisa was acting as if she had a dirty diaper and I was hungry, so I started checking out my options on the green highway signs. When I saw a sign for Waffle House, I immediately dismissed it since I don't like breakfast for lunch, greasy food or chain restaurants. But something in me wanted to make an exception. Obviously chain restaurants are all but unavoidable on a un-planned road trip and greasy breakfast at 11:30 am sounded perfect. So we exited, parked, and ran through the rain for a warm meal.  The grits, bacon, raisin toast and eggs over-easy all tasted great and the coffee was decent. The waitress was really sweet with Louisa while taking our order and telling me about her triplet nieces that visited her last night. Just the word "triplets" made me realize that a 6-hour road trip with a toddler but without your husband - even on your anniversary - is easy easy easy.

A pause in the story for a warning: the ending to my story is not funny or surprising, although I know that is not why you read our blog, so I'll continue without further apology.

The ending is just that sometime during the journey from the Waffle House to DC, I realized that the reason I chose that particular greasy, chain, breakfast restaurant is because its totally the kind of place Nate would pick.  So despite the 12-hour time difference, we each celebrated our anniversary apart/together - he at a tiny Indian restaurant and me at Waffle House.  Happy fifth wedding anniversary, Nate.  You're an awesome husband and an amazing dad.

(For further proof of the amazing dad bit, check out the first picture in my last post, below)