9 years married isn’t one of the big “milestone” years, but when you have 3 children and one is a teething baby, on day 200 something of a global pandemic, you use any excuse to celebrate and get away.
After pushing the children out of the minivan in front of my parent’s house (don’t worry, we slowed down whilst doing so, we’re not monsters), my husband and I embarked on a fun (for me) 2 hour drive filled with show-tunes (again I did say for me) to a “Getaway” site, 90 min outside of the Metroplex to celebrate 9 years (belatedly) of wedded bliss.
What is Getaway you ask? Imagine Instagram hipster camping brought to life. Each tiny cabin comes equipped with all your outdoorsy needs (and wants): from cutlery, logs, outdoor chairs to pour over coffee, a shower & toilet and a massive, picturesque window begging to be ‘grammed (I immediately regretted writing that last part. Who am I? – If you don’t immediately answer “Jean Valjean” you were definitely not a theatre kid).
After putting our perishables away in the most adorable mini fridge I ever laid eyes on, we went to work starting a fire (ok one of us did). I was tasked with assembling the “Hobo Packets” that I prepped before we left. This was an excellent idea because who really wants to cook on an anniversary weekend? The fire somewhat did the job and we enjoyed a half cooked meal and saved the other half to serve with breakfast the next day.
The best part about these tiny cabins is you do feel very secluded without that “Am I walking into the opening scenes of a scary movie?” vibe. All the cabins are distanced 6+ feet with plenty of trees between them. Check-in/out is completely contactless and there is currently no early check-in/out to give them time to deep clean. It’s honestly designed for a pandemic in mind, or at the very least an introvert’s dream.
Upon waking up at 9:30 (!!//those curtains really do the trick on that big window) the hubs made a painstaking slow (but worth it) cups of pour over coffee for each of us while I lounged in bed, New Yorker in hand, like some goddamn Queen. A quick text to the Getaway staff resulted in more firewood. After tucking in to a breakfast of leftover Hobo Packets con huevos we set off for a nature walk. I felt like I was staring in my own Taylor Swift music video from her latest album “Folklore.” (This is me trying…to come up with catchy content 😉 ) We returned to a little surprise, a beanie! I had complimented the staffer who dropped off the wood on her beanie and how I wished I brought a hat and like a goddamn Fairy Godmother she bippity, boppity, boo’d that into existence. Yes it’s shameless promotion BUT OH SO SOFT.
The rest of the trip was spent lounging around the campfire, reading the latest New Yorker cover to cover (unheard of), eating some of the worst Italian takeout ever (what was I expecting in the middle of nowhere Texas), stuffing our faces with marshmallows and enjoying another night’s sleep with nary an alarm in sight.
Check-out the next morning was a breeze. Tidy up a bit, throw everything you nicely packed for the trip haphazardly into your bag, turn off the lights, hit the lock button on the cabin and bam…home before lunch.
Overall our Getaway was everything we expected and more. It always takes at least half a day to shake the real world grime off of you, but by late morning Saturday we were completely blissed out, enjoying nature, talking about everything and nothing. We’re already making plans to come back and thinking about doing a couple’s trip where we all reserve cabins next to one another. With so much uncertainty about the future, being able to plan something, anything that diverges from the daily grind is exciting and good for my soul. Less stress, more “getaways.”
x Mere
The Mere-Dish 