The Goodenough Blog

When I met Eric in 1997/1998 I thought he was so mysterious, so smart and underneath that hard exterior he had the most tender heart of any boy I had ever met.  I was immediately in love and thought we would go on dating and being in love forever.  But then my wonderful Eric upped the stakes and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him and while I was so young and naive about marriage I gladly accepted.   I had this unexplainable knowledge that he was going to do amazing things and I wanted to be part of the journey.  Now, 9 years after we said “I Do” we find ourselves frozen on a canal in rural England having the time of our lives.  I think this is what I meant by being part of the journey, although I never quite pictured a life in the UK.

Now for the surprise!  Eric has had a long fascination with canals and locks since I can remember.  So for our 9 year anniversary I surprised him with a 4 hour tour of Bath by boat.  He was so excited and couldn’t believe that I had kept it a secret for nearly a month.  As we approached I soon realized that this was not the private tour I had imagined, this is a choose your own adventure, drive your own boat, holy crap what did I get us into, trip.  Surprise!

We had so much fun on the canal, it’s like being in an RV except you are on the water.  There are other boats parked along the water which people live on since there are kitchens and bathrooms and beds.  We decided that we might have to spend a weekend on one sometime, you can cruise into a city, park and have a pint at the local pub and then climb back on and drift off again.  We were on our own into the wilderness with only a ten minute tutorial on how to drive these things and the rules of the canal.  We were pioneers off to explore the new world together.

I have to say this is the most fun we have ever had on our anniversary.  We had an amazing time on the canal, we found this incredible tea room in a basement and I had the most delicious Chai.  We walked over to the Royal Crescent and enjoyed the sunshine and then went out for a less than amazing dinner.  I won’t go into specifics about the ending of my dinner, but lets just say I got no sleep.  Even still I am happy to say that the adventure continues and that we have had an incredible 9 years and I can’t wait to see what we do in another 9.  I love you Snarky, thanks for the time of my life.