Celebrating 25 years together
Before our 25th anniversary year, we decided to start celebrating our 25th anniversary as many times as possible. Our pre-engagement picture, our 25th Valentine’s Day together and so on.
For our first celebration, we returned to the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, Kan.
Eric and I dated each other for three days before we decided to get married. That does sound way too fast, but there’s a backstory.
Matchmaker, make us a match
When we met, Eric was engaged, but The Other Woman dumped him short of the altar.
Shortly afterward, Eric moved away, but we kept in touch. I thought he’d never see me as more than his best friend. Finally, after some very determined matchmakers took a hand, Eric finally asked me out. I had thought this event would never happen.
Pre-engagement photo at the zoo
When we finally had become a couple, I had one semester left to finish an education degree at University of Nebraska-Kearney. Before I left, we went to the zoo for a photo shoot in front of an artificial waterfall. The temperature was well into the triple digits and we sweltered.
People looked at us as if we were insane.
We were.
They looked at us the same way 25 years later, but what lovely memories!
We wasted no time in changing clothes to something cooler. After all, it’s a zoo in there!
Touring the zoo
Who’s watching whom?
We noticed the giraffe peering at us while we were baking in our tuxedo shirts. Once we were wearing something more sane, we returned the interest.
The giraffe decided the leaves were greener outside her compound, which gave us an excellent opportunity for photos.
No flamenco for the flamingos
A flamingo enclosure should play flamenco music, yes? After all, these two are doing some athletic dance moves. Can you bend over and touch the ground? I can’t.
The otters and their audience
We thought the otters’ audience was every bit as fun as the otters themselves.
The takin can’t truly go tanking
Tanking is a popular pastime in the Midwest. People gather in stock tanks (water containers for livestock) and float down rivers.
This takin (TAH-kin) doesn’t get to float down the river, poor thing.
If any rancher saw this creature in his or her field, that rancher would likely have heart failure.
Ravanna’s ruins
Kansas Guidebook 2 for Explorers directed us to Ravanna. The ruins mark a vicious county seat fight between Ravanna and Eminence.
Neither town survived. The county itself dissolved. Garfield County was judged to be too small to be a legally constituted Kansas county. It was attached to Finney County instead. By 1942, both Ravanna and Eminence had folded.
Celebrating 25 years together at Sunnyland Bed & Breakfast
I adore turrets. Knowing this, Eric found the delightful Sunnyland Bed & Breakfast. Ooooh, t featured a turret room on the second floor. I LIKE it! As a bonus, we got to sit on the balcony. Love that!
And it had a double-size hammock in the backyard. Triple love! As a bonus, we took one of the best pictures of us ever.
The weekend was a great way to celebrate 25 years together.
How have you celebrated your special anniversaries?
How to visit
More about Kansas
Kansas has a lot to offer. Learn more here. Read more about Southwest Kansas. Scott City is only 38 minutes north of Garden City. Stop in Scott City for a bite to eat and head north to Battle Canyon. The Battle of Punished Woman’s Fork in the canyon was the last Kansas battle between the US Army and Native Americans.
