Five

A special-addition five happies tied to our anniversary and vacation to Chicgao

1.  My anniversary present from Matt.  The first stop on our honeymoon cruise was in Grand Cayman.  One of the first stores we went in was a jewelry store that had this beautiful caribbean ocean blue stone - similar to turquois but softer and less green.  I really loved this one pendant, but it was pricy and we had just gotten started on our vaca, so I figured it was best to wait.  Besides, we'd probably see it all over the place.  Our next stop was Cozumel.  At this point I had decided that I loved the necklace enough that I wanted to get it if we saw any more of them.  I had slept on it and knew I would not regret spending the money on it - it was beautiful and just perfect for me.  We looked in several jewelry stores in Cozumel and didn't find the stone at all, much less this particular pendant.  Belize and Roatan - no aqua blue stone.  Bummer.  Even just a few weekends ago at the market in Charleston, SC I looked at their turquoise display hoping to find something that I liked.

My beautiful husband did a little research and found a couple places online that cell the stone.  He even found the exact pendant I had fallen in love with on our 2nd day of marriage :)  I don't know how he remembered, but the stone is called larimar.  It's a tilted heart set in silver with a sweet little design engraved in the back.  I'm totally in love with it and him. 

2.  Sailing on Lake Michigan.  What a rush!  This is no easy task.  My short wing-span and tiny biceps are not cut out for such work.  There were a couple of times I was sure I was going over.  How amazing to be out on this lake that looks as far reaching as any ocean while looking back to see the sun reflecting off of the skycraper windows on the shore. 

3.  Public transportation.  I even enjoyed racing to the next bus stop just to see the daggon thing pull off without us.  Running down the street with my wheely bag o' luggage... flipping it over because I took too much of a lean on the ramp up onto the next sidewalk.... needing Josh's help to get it flipped back in place so that I could keep running and catch up.

4.  Animals at the Shedd Aquarium.  My favorites: penguins, sea lions, sea turtles.  Ah! So cute.

5.  Taking Matt's parents to Trader Joe's and picking up some of our favorite things for them to try.

Close runners-up: Eating watermelon on the Koh's roof top with the Chicago skyline in the background and live music on the Navy Pier.  What better first anniversary song to be playing when we walk up than, Love Stinks? haha.