Twenty Five Years and Counting...

Twenty five years.  That seems like a long time.  In many respects it truly is when you stop to think about it, but twenty five years also feels like it passes by like the blink of an eye.  My lovely wife and I celebrated 25 years of marriage on October 20, 2015.  A little over twenty five years ago we were engaged in San Antonio, Texas. For our Silver Anniversary we wanted to retrace our steps of our engagement and journeyed to San Antonio while the boys held down the fort at home, milking cows and gathering eggs.

So where do you think a couple of people who have a small family farm would go to have coffee and a pastry when they go to the big city?  Well, Mi Tierra, of course! Mi Tierra, in Spanish means, "My Land"  Mi Tierra began as a 3 table cafe in 1941 by Pete and Cruz Cortez.  They served early rising farmers and workers at San Antonio's Mercado.  Sixty years later and their children continue the family business in the successful eatery.  We enjoyed some panes dulces (sweetbreads) and coffee, with Tricia having a mango empanada.

My sweetheart having sweet bread

I opted for a guava empanada.  Delicious!

Guava Empanada

While we were enjoying our panes dulce and coffee a group of three mariachis came around and serenaded us with a love song.  They chose "And I Love Her," by the Beatles, sung in Spanish.  Very fitting, I thought.  

And I Love her (I do!)

To add a little agrarian twist to the story, when they moved to the next table they sang the "Mexican Chicken Dance Song," complete with one of the singers doing an excellent impression of a chicken thoughout the song.  It made us feel right at home.

We moved on to the River Walk and proceeded to take pictures in the exact same place we did over 25 years ago.  We were a little more casually dressed this time!

My Wife Today

Here we are two and a half decades ago on the night we were engaged!

We're engaged!

And here we are today in the same spot...

The Happy Couple

San Antonio has picturesque stone bridges that cross the river and my honey posed on one.

Like a bridge over troubled water...

And here we are at the Alamo.  Twenty five years ago we walked by the Alamo and I bent down and collected a handful of big live oak acorns.  I thought it would be a really nice thing if I could get them to germinate and plant them in our yard.  I thought that one day when we were old, gray, and wrinkled, surrounded by kids and grandkids, we could look to the sprawling live oaks and I could point to the trees and tell the kids about the day I proposed to their mother and how our love and commitment grew just as the mighty oaks above us did.  That would be really cool.

Remember the Alamo!

I was successful in getting one of the acorns to germinate and it grew.  Let me tell you about the rest of that story, though, at the very end of this post...

We drove on to Canyon Lake, Texas.  We had camped out at this lake on quilts beneath a starlit sky many years ago.  We took a couple of pictures atop the dam at Canyon Lake.  Canyon Lake has a sign that always makes me laugh.  It says, "Canyon Lake - Drive Slow, See our Dam, Drive Fast, See our Dam Judge!"

Tricia at Canyon Lake

Canyon Lake dam overflows into the Guadalupe River that runs through Gruene, Texas.  Gruene is a small town that sits on the river that I posted about In this crazy post.  We later went to Gruene on our little pilgrimage and sat in the oldest Dance Hall in Texas and listened to some good old country and western and bluegrass music.  Then we ate at the Grist Mill Restaurant.  There was an old Cotton Gin sitting where the restaurant stands until it burned in 1922.  The only thing remaining of the old water powered-mill is the three story brick boiler room that stands today as the Grist Mill Restaurant, serving up some great Chicken Fried Steak with gravy!  

Kyle on top of the dam

Back to the "Alamo Acorn" Story.  Over the course of the next two or so years (1991-1992) the live oak grew in a pot outside of our little apartment in Houston.  It was about two and a half feet tall and healthy.  Unfortunately, we came home from work one day to find our Anniversary Oak had been pulled up by its roots and laid in the grass by someone.  It was withered and dry.  I tried to revive it by putting it back in the soil and watering it, but our beloved anniversary oak tree perished.  Our marriage, however, did not.

Alamo Anniversary Live Oak Acorns - Let's try this again!

Twenty five years later as Tricia and I retraced our steps on our Silver Anniversary pilgrimage back to where it all started, I bent over at the Alamo and picked up a pocketful of live oak acorns.  We're going to try this again!

Sometimes disaster strikes.  Sometimes things aren't easy.  Sometimes things don't go the way you planned it in your dreams or goals.  But love, like a live oak acorn, properly cared for and nurtured, can grow and reproduce itself, becoming a testament for future generations of something that started small, years ago and endures.

Twenty five years and counting...  Here's to many more happy years together. Happy Anniversary, Tricia.  I love you!

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.  Proverbs 12:4