“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
~Robert Brault
As a famous hobbit once said. “Well, I’m back.”
Our anniversary trip has come to an end, we had the weekend to settle back into things at home, and work has begun once again. It is bittersweet, as it is every year. We have such a wonderful, romantic, relaxing time on our annual visits to Hermann, Missouri and our challenge every year is to bring a little bit of that magic back with us to sustain us throughout the year until our next anniversary journey begins.
I took precious few pictures this time and none that I would consider spectacular, but by way of entering back into the swing of things I thought I would share them all the same.
It is the little things that matter, hence the opening image of Mt. Dew in bottles. Bottles!!! Bottled pop recalls images of summer afternoons in our neighbor’s tree house, sipping on ice cold soda. I was so excited to see this in a local ice cream shop that I had to buy some to drink there and to bring home.
I was so excited, I had to include two pictures! I have one bottle left, waiting for some quiet moment to sit out on the back porch and savor it!
The view from the patio in “our” room (we stay in the same one every year) is absolutely beautiful. The Inn sits at the top of a hill overlooking the valley in which the town lies. This church is one of the things I love looking at every year, and you can see the Missouri River beyond it.
This winery, Stonehill, is at the other end of the panoramic view of the town that we can see when sitting out on the back patio.
The owners of Hermann Hill Vineyard and Inn have luxurious romantic getaways down to an art and it is one of our greatest pleasures to arrive and be given our wine and a little snack. We quickly unpack and go out onto the patio to enjoy the view, the weather, and let all the cares that remain melt away. We have arrived, let the relaxation begin!
One of our favorite things to do is to drive down to the riverside and sit and watch the water flow. This year we chose to stay 3 nights instead of our usual 2, a change that I believe will be permanent as it affords the ability to be that much more relaxed. No pressure to ‘do’ anything, just enjoy the beauty of this small town and time with each other. Each day we sat on this bench and I read A.A. Milne’s book, Winnie-the-Pooh, to Mary. It was delightful and I look forward to doing a review soon to talk more about Milne’s genius. We also did some reading of individual novels while we were down there. We hadn’t planned on being out in the sun quite that much, so we each brought home a slight sunburn! But it was worth it!!!
I love this old hotel along the river near the train station and was excited to see that they are finally doing some work in it. Hopefully soon it will be a functional space again. This particular day we had coal trains come by the river every 10 minutes or so and I thought it would be fun to get a picture.
I am a fan of rusty items and decay. Not sure when I became this way or why, but suffice it to say that I look for items like this to photograph when we are on vacation. These particular hooks and chains are spaced out along the river.
I couldn’t tell if they had been there for a long time and were used back when the Missouri River had more boat traffic or if they are something more recent. I thought they were pretty cool though.
This is a view of the river from the middle of the bridge that spans the Missouri River and leads into Hermann. The picture below is that same area taken from a different angle.
As I mentioned, it was a wonderful, relaxing time and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to get away with Mary for a few days to celebrate each other. And thank you all so very, very much for the wonderful words in our anniversary post. We both appreciate it so much and returned to read those comments with big smiles on our faces. Here’s to all of you:
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end”
~Ursula K. LeGuin
Welcome back, Carl. Beautiful spot! 🙂
well the photo’s look pretty darn good to me! It’s great that you get away for your anniversary each year!! I applaud you!
Glad you are back and hope you both had a wonderful time~
What a wonderful tradition. Looks like a relaxing place and a good location to relax, rewind, and get revitalized. Welcome Back.
Loved the pics of the bottles of soda. When I was a kid that was one of the wonderful things about visiting my grandparents. Even after everyone was drinking soda out of cans, my Grandfather insisted on only buying cokes in bottles. They were the smaller bottles, remember those? Always bought in 6 packs, they would sit out on the back porch waiting to be moved in 2 & 3’s to the frig, and after drinking the bottles would be replaced in the little 6-pack cartons to wait for the trip back to the grocery. Drinking a cold coke out of a bottle on the front porch swing, watching the traffic go by down on the highway was a summer tradition. Now you have me wanting to go out and find some bottled soda LOL!
I’m so glad that y’all had such a great time Carl!! It always sounds like such a beautiful place when you post about it and the pictures are wonderful once again. I really like the chains picture…I like stuff like that too. And I’m totally with you on soda in bottles! It just makes it so much better, doesn’t it? There’s so much nostalgia attached there.
Sounds like a wonderful time!! (Wine and Winnie-the-Pooh! Mary is a lucky woman!! I would be bewitched by you!)
The pictures are wonderful, although I had to laugh. All I could think of is “Only Carl would take picturs of a rusty old chain…and have it look cool!”
Beautiful shots of Hermann! Would you share your pictures, past and present on my new Flickr goup, http://www.flickr.com/groups/fortheloveofhermannmissouri?
Oh, who are you kidding?!! Those shots are lovely!
I so love the thought of you reading Winnie-the-Pooh to Mary on that bench by the river. Such a sweet, lovely image! I’m so glad you both had such a wonderful, relaxing time!!!
Oh man, but am I jealous that you got to hang out in a tree house as a kid!
Mountain Dew in bottles?!?! My husband works for Pepsi and I’ve never seen those! They look pretty cool though =) What a beautiful place you stayed at, I’m glad you had a wonderful relaxing time.
I’m glad you had a good time!
Man, I can’t wait to get back down there!
In Prince Edward Island, I think it is, they don’t have plastic bottles. I think it is only glass. It’s pretty cool!
Looks like a great trip. I enjoyed the pictures!
It looks like a wonderful place! So glad to hear you guys enjoyed your time together and congratulations on your anniversary! Here’s to many more trips together 🙂
Welcome back, Carl! That looks like an utterly amazing place to spend a few days! I’m so glad to hear that you had a good and relaxing time together!
May there be many, many trips to follow!
Shanra: Yes! Many, many more…and soon!!!
Iliana: Thanks so much. It is a wonderful retreat for us.
Kailana: I’ve always wanted to visit PEI, ever since falling in love with Anne Shirley!
James: Mary and I were talking about how fun it would be to go as couples sometime. Kicking back and drinking wine!
Ikkinlala: Thank you, I am glad we did as well. We needed it.
Kristina: I was shocked, let me tell you! I almost can’t bear to drink my remaining bottle.
Debi: I wish I could recall exactly what I read or heard that prompted me to go grab Winnie-the-Pooh just before our vacation, but I’m glad I did. I had initially intended to read it to myself and then Mary saw it and asked me to read it to her. We had a wonderful time with it.
We lived in a housing area out in the country and our friends had this tree house way up in a tree in their yard. It was fun. Of course we also just climbed regular old trees all the time too. Can’t imagine letting my child do some of the stuff that we did!!!
Eric: Once my internet gets back up and running at home I may just do that, thanks!
Stephanie: Ha, you crack me up! I’m glad I made the chains look cool. I am indeed one of those weird people…I go on vacation and my favorite pictures upon returning are of Mt. Dew bottles and rusty chains!
Chris: yes, lots of nostalgia when drinking cold pop from a bottle.
Astaryth: I remember taking bottles back to the store. I remember collecting bottles on occasion for money. That and picking up aluminum cans for money. Sounds like you had a great grandfather who knew the right way to drink soda!
Deslily: Thanks! I’m glad some of them turned out good.
Maree: Thanks! Wish I could say it was good to be back but I wish I was still there!!! 🙂
Love are some lovely pictures! I’m glad you and Mary had such a good time 🙂
And by “love” I of course mean “those” 😛
(Note to self: read BEFORE you click “submit”. BEFORE.)
Nymeth: Reading before hitting ‘submit’ is overrated! 😉
I’m glad you had such a lovely trip, and your bottles make me smile. How well I remember the grape Nehi as a child. It gives me delicious chills thinking of it. I don’t suppose you remember the little red pop machines with a rectangular door one opened to pull out one’s bottle? Much like the cigarette machines with all the little knobs you pulled just to see if any spare change fell out? Well, maybe that was just me.
Congratulations on the anniversary! Glad you had such a beautiful trip.
Welcome back! Such a lovely way to celebrate an anniversary, and it sounds as though you both had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
Love that second shot of the bottles…it glows!!!
So glad to hear you and your wife had a wonderful and relaxing anniversary trip. Congratulations on your 20 years!
Great pictures. I too inexplicably love to take pictures of rusty things; maybe it is because of the perceived history. I’ve got a great one of an old rusty bucket and water pump taken in Tombstone, AZ a couple of years ago.
What wonderful photographs, and what a lovely, easy description of your special trip. It delights me that we each had a river to enjoy, although your focus was reflection and renewal while mine was newness and exploration.
I can’t remember having a Mountain Dew since high school – looking at your photos I’m ready to head to the store, but they’d probably only have cans. There’s something about “bottled pop” that just captures Midwestern childhood. My favorite was Nesbitt’s orange – and I just found it online, for 99 cents per bottle. Who knew?
Great photos, romantic story, cold bottles of pop dripping with condensation. What more could you ask for?
So glad you two had the wonderful time you anticipated. Happy anniversary!
I am heading north to my river this weekend. I guess it is “river time” in blog land.
Qugrainne: I am so happy for you. I hope you have a wonderful time! Rivers and spring/summer do seem to go hand in hand!
Shoreacres: I remember Nesbitt’s! I didn’t take any pictures of them, but I did find some Fitz’s Orange Soda in bottles and brought a couple of them home to my daughter.
Terri B: Thank you. I am sure you are exactly right, it is the perceived history that draws me, us, to photograph those items.
Janet: I thought it was fun too, the way the light made the bottles glow. Thanks!
ds: You are welcome. It was wonderful.
Melanie: Thank you so much!!!
Bellezza: I remember grape Nehi AND those machines that you are talking about. When I was a kid it was more rare to see a machine like that but they were around and I was always fascinated with them. They were like treasure chests of goodness and seemed so cool! Hadn’t thought about those forever, thanks for the reminder.
Hi Carl,
I actually went to this winery a few years ago. My son, Jon had a football game at Wash.U. He played for Carnegie Mellon and they’ve been rivals for years. I think they lost that year but we still had a great visit.
Welcome Home and Happy Anniversary!
p.s. Mt.Dew rots your teeth.
Cynthia: That’s cool! Mmmmm….the wine was so good. And the port! Yummm….
You crack me up! Don’t be dissin’ on my Mt. Dew!!!
Carl – I’m glad you and Mary had such a good break; it’s so important to spend time with the ones we love and it so often doesn’t happen. It’s my anniversary next weekend and though we can’t gte away we have made plans to do something together. I hope we enjoy ours as much as you did yours (if that makes sense!)
wow! it looks very, very peaceful. and so spaceous! perfect.
i love the photo of yours and mary’s glasses of wine.
I love the shots of the rusty chains. Beautiful quality and high res. Another winery you might like is St. James Winery. I’ve tasted both wines from Stone Hill and STJ and they are in my opinion the best wines from Missouri. Here’s a link to their site if any of you are interested. http://www.stjameswinery.com/shop/wine/sweet/velvet-white.html