Happy (late) anniversary and birthday to my sweetie!

Today is his birthday!  Hope he had a nice relaxing day and we get to spend many more together.

Friday the 8th was mine & Randy's 10 Anniversary!  He mad mentioned making a big to-do about it with a vow renewal and such, but that didn't pan out.  But I think we had a pretty fantastic weekend anyway!

First, I randomly suggested that he go with me to get a pedicure.  I was really surprised when he simply said "OK"!  I think he really enjoyed it and will be making it a regular thing.  Escpecially the sugar scrub and hot stone massage.  He kept saying the little old Korean woman was scrubbing so much dead skin off that his feet were going to be smaller!  Then he also discovered the joys of driving barefoot.  His flipflops were bothering him so he kicked the one off and he acted like he was such a rebel!  Heehee, do that all the time!

Mmmm massage chairs

The part I wasn't excited about was that I had to stop in the hospital and have blood drawn for my surgery on the 11th.  I also got pre-registered so they put the damn hospital band on my wrist then, too!  That really sucked wearing that stupid thing all weekend.  I was so self-conscious!

(it is currently 10 days later and I still have a noticeable bruise from this!!)

I really didn't know what Randy had planned for our anniversary.  I knew we were going to Canada again (we went to Niagara Falls for our honeymoon and Toronto for our 5th, so it's getting to be a thing with us).  I really am not too fond of surprises like this - I can't look forward to something if I don't know what it is!!  But he had to let me know somewhat,  so I knew what to pack and to get out our passports. 

We drove up to this place along the St. Clair River called Marine City and took the ferry across into Ontario - it's not even a 10 minute ride, and only 12 cars could fit on each ferry.  The town on the other side is called Sombra.  A really cute, quiet place.  Not a lot of exciting things to do. 

On the ferry!

Customs was a breeze there.

He found an adorable little B&B about 3 miles (5.5km) from the ferry landing called Sheboane.  We were the only guests there for the night. 

This was our view when we pulled in.  They owners had actually been next door and their Great Dane was the one who found us sitting in the driveway.  

The other side of her face is black and with a blue eye!

Very sweet. 

This is the view coming up from the river.  Inside the door was the stairs.  There was a larger suite on the bottom floor along with the dining room and 2 suites upstairs.  

I'm glad I got a picture of my flowers.  We couldn't bring them back over the border!  

5 red carnations & 5 white ones. 

This is the view from the balcony.  

We had reservations for dinner at a restaurant called the Aft Cabin right near the ferry landing.  The building itself wasn't anything spectacular, but the food was amazing! 

I had sauteed shrimp & scallops with grilled veggies (squash & pineapple - never would have dreamed up that combo!) and scalloped potatoes.  Randy had the chicken cordon bleu.  

Dessert was a rum cake.  To. Die. For. 

This was the view from the B&B's personal pier.  It was nice to sit, but the mosquitoes were out in force!  This is looking over toward the US.  We wouldn't get any less into Ontario than we were! 

I never did get any pictures of the big freighters on the river!  

View in the morning. 

They had a lovely water garden behind the guest quarters with big koi fish that we could feed. 

This big frog almost jumped on my foot! 

Randy got me a beautiful sting of pearls with matching earrings!  It's 100 inches long, so I can wrap it up in different ways.  He knows I don't wear fancy jewelry often, but I will wear these!  Looks great here with my tanktop, jeans & flipflops! 

Random party store picture - not sure how I feel about this!

After a wonderful breakfast and chat with the nice people who run the B&B. we hopped in the car and drove to Chatham-Kent, about 45 minutes (55 km or so) to a riding stable that Randy found.  

While we had dinner Friday night, a storm blew threw, dropping the temps to absolutely perfect.  Jeans & a t-shirt were perfectly comfortable for riding!  Breezy enough to keep the bugs down and it was a great day.

TJ Stables, home of the Canadian Cowgirl Rodeo Drill Team!

He's gotten a reservation for just the 2 of us and a guide.  They have 17 wooded acres that we roamed around in for an hour.  We crossed a lot of the same trails, but it wasn't like riding around a ring.  It was neat.  They did a good job of pairing us up with our horses, too.  They had a nice calm, sturdy gelding named Tonka for Randy and from what I gathered, the alpha mare named Mia for me.  The girl commented that she didn't do well with other mares but she'd be fine with Tonka and her Nova.  

I was pleasantly surprised with Mia.  I was supposed to be riding with 2 hands on the reins (UGH!) which means the horse is used to left rein being pulled to turn left, etc.  But I'm used to both reins in my left hand.  So when I wanted her to turn, I'd move my hand over the left, laying the right rein against her neck and a nudge with my right heel and she responded beautifully!  And when she dropped back a bit, she picked right up into a trot when I asked her to! 

Mia's ears were always back, which is a shame, she was a pretty girl!

Tonka wanted to eat!  He kept trying to snag flowers along the trail. 

We drove thru a lot a farmland, but close to Lake St. Clair so there was plenty of wind for the mills!

We were only gone over night, but it was good to be home!

We got off the ferry and stopped at customs - the agent asked where we were coming from and Randy (the smart ass) says Canada.  The agent did roll his eyes, but to his credit, he did NOT say "no shit, Sherlock!"  I'm pretty sure I would have!  We probably could have been dishonest, and not mentioned my anniversary flowers, but we thought for sure he could see them sitting on the backseat of the car.  So we had the option of taking them back to Canada or giving them up for disposal.  So we gave them up.  I hope they did keep them in their office so someone could enjoy them!  

Going on - today was Randy's birthday!  Angel & I took him out to breakfast.  He went and renewed his drivers license at the Secretary of State.  Then we did basically nothing and napped for the rest of the afternoon.  I took him out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, then we walked around the Salvation Army for a while to help settle all that food.  We didn't plan on getting dessert there, but the manager brought out a brownie with ice cream since we'd been "so patient with all their delays".  We were like Okkkk.......we sure don't recall any time where we had any super long waits for anything......but if you're gonna give us free dessert, we'll take it!