Anniversary Weekend Part 1: Heading to Oglesby, IL

As of September, we've been married for a year. Crazy. I still feel like we're dating. I chose to wear a family heirloom as my wedding band, so every time I look at my ring finger, I can see my past and future beautifully resting next to each other. A daily reminder of everything I have to be grateful for. 

To celebrate our first year of marriage we wanted to travel. Since I don't work for the airline industry anymore, we had to think local. Luckily we're no strangers to driving. 

Oglesby is not the most luxurious or romantic location for a anniversary, but adventure awaits and what it does not have in glitz and glamour, it has is natural beauty, but we'll get to that later. First, we have to get there. 

Good snack

Basic. Frap and PSL

Traditionally the first year of marriage is celebrated with a gift of paper. I thought this was a nice sentiment since we didn't want to spend a lot of dough, but we wanted something sentimental and special, which is why we came to Oglesby. 

Anyway, I got Bryan a book of poetry and he got me the most thoughtful, creative gift I could imagine. He took every card that we got from our wedding and made a book of them. He even took some pictures from our wedding and added them into the mix. What a wonderful way to look back at these moments, instead of putting them ina shoebox to be opened...never. 

Our gifts to each other

For dinner we went to Uptown Grill, a cute little place in the cute little town of Peru. The food was, if I'm being honest, a little confused, but it was fun to try.

Cheese plate

Fish tacos

Sweet sausage ravioli 

At the end of the night we had a night cap with a bottle of wine in some vintage stemware. We luckily acquired these new glasses from Mamoo, Bryan's grandmother, and they were the perfect thing to dress up our otherwise modest hotel.

The night was young, but we had to go to bed. A brand new day was on the horizon and we had to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our trip to a state treasure. Hiking on the next part of our anniversary weekend.

-Akemi-chan