A Wedding Anniversary to Remember

Earlier this month, my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. We like doing new things for our anniversary, as well as honoring traditions. Our anniversary tradition includes spending a weekend in Chanhassen, where we take in a musical at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre (CDT) and the next day, visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. This year we went to Chanhassen the weekend following our anniversary. We saw “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat“ on Friday and went to the Landscape Arboretum on Saturday. The iris garden is our favorite at the Arboretum. It inspired me to create an iris garden at our home for my wife. It is in the shape of a rainbow; appropriate as “Iris” means “rainbow” in Greek.  

We went to Penokee Mountain Inn Bed and Breakfast with our best friends to celebrate our actual anniversary.  We chose Penokee Mountain B&B because of its location near Ashland, Wisconsin. The B&B is 20 minutes south of Ashland adjacent to the Chequamegon National Forest. It was built and is owned by Lee Roy and Cindy Laymon. They were our hosts. We stayed in the main house. There was also a nearby cabin that sleeps four.

We chose a room in the main house where there was also a room for our friends that came to celebrate our anniversary with us. There was a sitting area between our two rooms, as well as a game room with a pool table. Outside the front door there was a porch with hummingbird feeders and hanging plants. There were up to nine hummingbirds at any one time at the feeders. My friend was able to get two of the hummingbirds to feed while sitting on his hand.

As might be expected following our unusually wet spring, there were lots of mosquitoes which we repulsed with repellant. There also was a lot of wildlife; we even had a black bear run through the property.

We spent one day in Ashland visiting the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, taking a romantic walk along the south shore of Lake Superior, and taking in a wine testing and lunch. The next day was my favorite, we drove to Morgan Falls. We took Four Corners Store Road to Lovers Lane where we stopped for a photo opportunity, us kissing under the “Lovers Lane” street sign. By the way, there is no Four Corners Store anymore; it has been replaced by Four Corners Restaurant. We had dinner there.

We continued down Lovers Lane until we reached a “T” in the road and then followed the signs another 3 miles until we reached the trail to Morgan Falls. We hiked a half-mile to the falls, a 85-foot falls in the Chequamegon Forest. Due to all the rain, there was a lot of water flowing over the falls. It was another perfect place for a kiss.

We were at about 1200 feet above sea level. The highest point of the Penokees was under 2,000 feet above sea level. Interestingly, the Penokee Mountains were once the highest mountains in North America, higher than the Himalayas. The glaciers that once covered this area millions of years ago gradually wore down the mountains, leaving the Penokee Mountain range as we see it today, stretching from the Chequamegon National Forest to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Each evening when we returned, our hosts had homemade desserts and wine for us, a special treat to compliment the wonderful multi-course breakfast we were served in the morning. All in all, we had a wonderful time there. The Laymons were great hosts. I would recommend it. There are many more things to do and see in the area, including the Apostle Islands, so we plan to go back. I am attaching a few photos of our weekend up north.

I must admit, I like the idea of extending our anniversary celebration over two weekends. After all, we were married to each other twice. The first time at my wife’s Episcopal Church and a year later at my Catholic Church; more of an official blessing by the Catholic Church. We also took two honeymoons, the first to Costa Rica and the second to Vancouver.  So it is only fitting to celebrate our anniversary over two weekends.

What are the special things that you like to do to celebrate your wedding anniversary?