Quarterly Meetings

A few years ago, Kellie and I fell into the habit of scheduling quarterly rendezvous weekends at area hotels in our fair city. This allows us, while our kids are still at home, of getting away for a true romantic experience without having to drive clear across the state. We're close to home, if desperately needed, and we're not drained from traveling when our oasis time is over. Besides, living in Houston, there are some truly nice hotels and getaways to discover right here in our hometown.

Kellie figured out a couple of years ago the benefit of using any of the many online discount reservation services to book our hotel. We simply go on the travel site, type in "four-star hotel" for such-and-such weekend (at a very affordable price for us) and hold our breath to see what we get! We don't exactly know where we're going, but we know it will be nice. We do elegant meals (so many great restaurants to choose from) and just allow ourselves a genuinely romantic time together.

We mix up the experiences, too. One particular quarterly weekend, Kellie surprised me by agreeing for us to splurge and stay at the Inn at the Ballpark across from Minute Maid Park. We also happened to have tickets to the Astros/Cards game during an exciting pennant race. Well, of course, the game turned out to be fantastic. There were many late inning home runs that extended the contest into extra innings. We thoroughly enjoyed all thirteen thrilling innings and then simply walked across the street to our first-class hotel when the game ended. It was a total blast! And we would have never stayed for an entire night game before, let alone extra innings, due to our kids and a long drive across town to get home from the game.

Note: I'm so glad my wife genuinely loves baseball now. It makes a weekend like that possible. In the early years of our marriage, I would take Kellie regularly to opening day at the Astrodome and she would be invariably asleep in her seat by the third inning. However, these days, she's the one who has the game on TV before I do--I can't explain the metamorphosis! It must be not unlike my willingness in recent years to accompany her on some smaller shopping excursions--definitely not my cup of tea. I guess I finally realized I do like being with her and seeing her enjoy herself doing something she likes to do. Let's just say that twenty years of marriage and turning towards each other has softened our hearts towards the unthinkable-- quite a bit!

Anyway, the point is that it's important to get away regularly, if possible, and allow your marriage the chance to be special and romantic once again. There are so many pressures at home--balancing job demands, family issues, children, and even just the rigors of maintaining a home together. Having mini-getaways (even just an overnight will do it) inject new life and love into your marriage and remind you once again why you fell in love in the first place.