"Goin' to the chapel, and we're gonna get married..."

That's the song K and I were singing 5 years ago today.  We met online in the spring of 2006, one of the many Journal Space romances, and by December were ready to make ours a "forever" thing.  I suggested we say our "I do's" on California's Monterrey peninsula, and with a little more research we decided on Carmel by the Sea.  Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  ~Carmel by the Sea~

We made reservations for five days at the Tickle Pink Inn, a beautiful Inn high up on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Yes, the sunsets were spectacular!  We spent more than a little time on our terrace, sipping an adult beverage, marveling at the view and listening to the waves crashing onto the rocks below.  We took day-trips south to Big Sur and on to San Simeon.  Just the drive along the Pacific Coast Highway was pleasurable...for me at least.  I was driving rather "enthusiastically" while K was turning various shades of green.  Oops.

The architecture in Carmel is unique, with storeybook houses everywhere, most beautifully maintained as a tribute to the town's beginnings as an artist's colony:

We learned our way around town easily enough and found several nice bistros where we became regulars.  (We slept late and had our breakfasts brought in.)  Just walking down Main Street in the evenings, looking in all the quaint shops (shoppes?) at their Christmas decorations, was a nice diversion.  And of course we learned every twist and turn in the road while driving all over/around Pebble Beach.  Our big day finally arrived and we found that our little chapel in the woods wasn't exactly like we pictured it.  Oh well....

Here we are five years later (June, 2011), happily enjoying a casual meal al fresco in Aspen, Colorado:

Thank you, Ms P, for putting up with me these 5 years.  I hope you'll see fit to hold my hand for another....um....100!  :)

S