Travis and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend and it was pretty fabulous. Anniversaries are kind of a big deal to me, because marriage certainly has its ups and downs and I feel like every year should be celebrated. As you know, I’m also a huge fan of traveling and vacations, so each year we try to celebrate our anniversary with a trip.
We’ve previously gone to Jamaica (honeymoon), Deep Creek Lake (year 1), Universal Studios (year 2), a Caribbean cruise (year 3), and Hershey Park (year 5). We cancelled/skipped our Year 4 trip because we all got sick before our planned trip to Atlantic City for Oktoberfest.
This year, we decided to try and do something with just the two of us. Although we get out a lot, it is very rarely without Jack. In fact, since he came home from the hospital over 2 ½ years ago, we have only been away from him one night (now two).
I actually looked into staying at the same B&B as our last 24 Hour Date, but they were all booked up. It worked out for the best though, because I found another B&B that we ended up liking even more.
Of course, this weekend couldn’t have even been a twinkle in my eye without the help from my parents. My mom and dad (aka Mimi and Dippy) took in both Jack and Ollie over the weekend, so a great big THANK YOU to them!!
We dropped the furry boy and non-furry boy off at my parents’ house around noon on Saturday, and then did something truly wild and crazy. We went to the mall to pick out new glasses for Travis.
Yeah, not exactly scintillating, right? It had to be done though and it was much easier to get the job done with just the two of us.
From there we drove into Baltimore to check into our Bed & Breakfast, the BlancNoir. Unlike any other B&B we’ve ever been to, this one was very modern. There wasn’t a floral wallpaper, ornate lamp or doily anywhere! We stayed in the Paris room, which had the most comfortable king sized fluffy bed I’ve ever sat on, a huge Jacuzzi massaging bath and the most amazing shower ever – it had three rain shower heads on the ceiling and 12 spray jets that come out of the walls. It was like a car wash for people…
So yeah, we pretty much just showered for 24 hours and my undercarriage has never been so clean.
Just kidding.
After we checked in, we walked around Baltimore for a bit to park our car and look into availability at a local snazzy bowling alley (they were all booked up) and then just kind of lazed around until we threw on nice clothes and walked about a block to dinner in Little Italy.
We were considering trying something new, but we had such an amazing experience at Amicci’s in the past that we decided to go there again.
I asked a guy in the bar to take our picture and he pretty much took 5 of the exact same blurry/dark shot… so this is as good as it gets. Thank goodness for Instagram filters!
Even though we have only been to Amicci’s twice EVER, we ended up being seated at the exact same table and had an equally wonderful meal. Every bite was amazing and flavorful and there were SO MANY CARBS, but it was SO worth it. Also pretty great was the fact that we could fully focus on just each other for the meal, instead of keeping Jack entertained so that he wouldn’t cause a ruckus.
Now you might be thinking that we’d spend our one night away from responsibilities out dancing in a club or singing karaoke until dawn… but we really decided to just be as lazy as possible. After dinner we went back to the room, crawled into that amazing bed and watched the end of an awesome movie (if you haven’t seen Red, you totally should). Oh and for some reason this picture looks quite scandalous to me but I’m totally wearing a tank top.
We filled up the Jacuzzi – which took FOREVER – and relaxed in there for a while. While I enjoyed having it in our room, I don’t really feel the need to ever have one in our home. It just seems so wasteful to have THAT MUCH water in a bathtub for a relatively short amount of time. For a night away it is a nice perk though, so good job BlancNoir.
For the first night in over a week, I actually had a good night of sleep. It was probably a combination of the carbs, the cushy mattress and the lack of responsibilities… and it was totally worth the price of the room. The next morning I actually peeked at the mattress to figure out why it was so comfortable, and it looks like it was a pillow-top mattress WITH an extra pillow-top mattress cover… so I think I’m going to add one of those covers to my Christmas list!
After an amazing night of sleep – besides an epic battle of the blankets while sleeping – we rolled into the dining room for breakfast around 10:00. It was nice to just go downstairs for breakfast and have it made especially for you, without you having to do the dishes. The set up was super yummy – coffee, fresh fruit, cheese, juice, parfait and a menu for ordering hot choices. I got poached eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast. Travis had waffles, hash browns and sausage links. We both made lots of yummy noises. We only ended up eating with one other guest, apparently his wife had too much to drink the night before and he was sent to deliver her breakfast in bed. I’ll keep that in mind for next time.
We ended up checking out at exactly noon, before walking back to our car and driving back home to pick up Jack and Ollie. Once again, it was just a 24 hour date but it felt like an entire weekend of relaxation!
Do you try to get away for quick 24 hour dates? Are you a lover of B&B’s or do you find the closeness to other guests kind of weird? Do you and your significant other have sleeping battles over the blankets?
