19 Years!

Our anniversary trip to Germany to see the Passion Play (a once a decade event) was cancelled due to COVID-19 and so we suddenly had a thought that maybe we could go back to where it all began.  Back to where we met and stay at the bed and breakfast that we stayed in the night we got married. 

So we checked and they were reopening two days after our anniversary.  So we planned to go for two nights to Messina Hof in Bryan/College Station, Texas.  We weren't able to stay in the Romeo and Juliet Room which is where we stayed on our honeymoon night.  Brian chose the Camelot room.  We had a complimentary wine and cheese each day and had reservations for the first night at their restaurant and the second night at Christopher's, an old favorite when we lived there for anniversaries and special occasions. 

After arriving we got settled, dressed up a bit, and went straight over to the winery to have our wine and cheese until our reservations for dinner next door.  Our waitress was fun and we ordered an a three coarse meal ending with our old favorite, the hot fudge ice cream with Port poured on top.  After dinner, the sun was setting and so we decided to stroll through the vineyard.  We didn't ask per say if this was allowed, but there were no signs and no one stopped us.  So off we went.  We turned around and came down a different row back towards our room and I thought I stepped on a branch that got caught on my foot.  I instinctively tried to shake it off, but my brain notified me that we hadn't seen any branches big enough for this to be a branch.  I looked down and back at what I had just shaken off my foot to find not a branch, but a big old snake!  It coiled up and slithered away before we could get a good look at the pattern.  Let's be honest, I took off toward the path and alerted Brian that a snake bit me.  He tried to see it, but it slithered away quickly.

Messina Hof Restaurant

Carefree sandal wearing me, before I learned the value of the cowboy boot.

You can't see the bottom teeth marks well in this picture.  These were pretty new shoes.  I am wondering how long it will take before I stop thinking of them as my "snake bite" shoes.

All I saw was a coiled up snake in the shape and size  of a plate that was the same general colors as the grass and dirt, a brownish, greenish, grayish snake.  We heard no rattle and it didn't hurt badly so although we quickly went to our room to wash it and make sure there wasn't any reaction, it seemed like it wasn't a poisonous snake.  We googled all the poisonous snakes in the area and it did not seem like those were what we saw.  Out of the 36 snakes common in this part of Texas, there were only six poisonous ones.  Of those all but two are rattlesnakes and one is a coral snake which is distinctively bright.  The only one left is a cotton mouth and we were pretty sure it was not wet enough for those there.  Still, I was fairly freaked out and we watched the wound and my heart rate for an hour just to be safe.

I survived, though it did put a damper on our first evening.  The next day we took a walk down memory lane, starting with Mass at the Church where we received our First Communion and Confirmation in 2004 when I was just barely pregnant with Hannah.  We drove by our first house and the hospital where Hannah was born.  Then we ate lunch on Northgate and walked around the A&M campus.  We went to the first place we met, the first place we kissed, our old dorms, the Century Tree, and many other smaller memorable places.  It has been so long, and so very much has changed. 

FHK

Where we first kissed almost 23 years ago!

Century Tree

The Secret Place

They moved Fish Pond across the street.

Our first house

After we got cleaned up we had our wine and cheese tasting before going to dinner.  That night we ate at Christopher's, and Brian had a special vase of beautiful roses waiting for me at the table.  It was delicious and just how I remembered it.  The last time we ate there was Valentine's Day 2005, when Hannah was just a few months old.  I remember it well, because we ended up moving to the porch seating since Hannah's usual cheerful self wasn't very cheerful that particular evening.  I am sure we hadn't taken her to many restaurants since we were a zero income family for those last six months of vet school.

That was about it.  Other than being bitten by the fourth snake I've ever even come across in the wild in my entire life, it was a terrific weekend getaway.  I certainly learned my lesson.  Never go for a walk at sunset in Texas without cowboy boots on!  Sandals

I will say though that the snake did prove to be a bad omen of sorts as bad news started to befall us on the drive home from our trip, kicking off with a text from our landlady that she was going to raise our rent 10% in August.  Real life hit us smack in the face by the time we were home.