I'm so happy with ourt trip after 40 years of marriage

[travel-mum]

My husband and I just came back from our trip for our 40th wedding anniversary.
We've done other, more exotic trips, but this was about being together, and planning for how we intend to spend our retirement years. When we retire we plan to spend the winter months pulling a trailer around southern U.S., so this trip got us acquainted with some of the areas.
First, we flew into Nashville, Tennessee and rented a car.
Then we fulfilled a lifelong dream of hearing Loretta Lynn sing "A Coalminer's Daughter" at the Grand Ole Opry.
After a couple of days we drove to the Smokey Mountains where we rented a beautiful cabin.
While staying in the Smokey Mountains we went to see the Lost Sea Cave. It is the largest underground lake in North America, and second largest in the world. We had to walk about a km down underground to get a boat ride on the lake. It was very dark and hard to even see the lake while we were floating on it!
Then we drove to Chattanooga, where we saw Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls in a 140 foot underground water falls. We took an elevator down 260 feet, and then walked through incredible cave formations for over half an hour till we got to the falls. It was fantastic!
After that we got a condo near Pensacola Florida for a few days, in Navarre Beach on Santa Rosa Island on the Gulf of Mexico. There were beautiful white, sandy beaches for miles and miles. We took a day and drove to Destin, Florida and walked on the boardwalk. Fishermen coming in and filleting their fish gave my husband some bones to throw to the gangly throng of pellicans waiting to eat. It sounded like they were saying "Mine, mine, mine!"
After Navarre Beach we drove through Mobile, Alabama and down along the Gulf of Mexico through Biloxi, Mississippi and Bay St. Louis. We couldn't believe that, except for the odd marina here and there, the whole coast of almost 50 miles was nothing but white, sandy beach!
Our trip that day ended in New Orleans, Louisiana, where we had a casita waiting for us for 5 days of Mardi Gras. A casita is a very small house, and ours was in a courtyard, behind iron gates and behind another house, so we were well off the street. It took only 10 minutes for us to walk from our casita to the French Quarter. We arrived the Friday before Mardi Gras so we could enjoy many of the parades, parties and festivities planned. For Valentine's Day, we took a dinner cruise on the last remaining steam paddle boat on the Mississippi, the Natchez. It was a beautiful day, and the meal was delicious! Every day in New Orleans there were two or three parades to see, and we caught almost 100 sets of beads from the floats, and well as bouncy balls, fake tooth brushes, cups, and a teddy bear etc. , It was a crazy party, I tell you, the days leading up to the big day, but nothing compared to being on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter on Mardi Gras day. Everyone should experience this at least once in their lifetime!
After Mardi Gras we drove to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a little quiet time, and checked out the Old State Capitol, the new State Capitol and a museum.
Our last stop was Memphis, Tennessee, where we spent a whole day seeing Elvis' Graceland and the Elvis Car Museum, Lonely Street, the Heartbreak Hotel and all other other Elvis exhibits. To tell you the truth, I was kind of Elvis'd out by the end of the day.
Our last day took us back to Nashville for our flight home.
So our 40th wedding anniversary trip was a complete success.
It also taught us a few things.
We are very comfortable travelling through the southern U.S.
My partner was FEARLESS driving through the cities.
You sure do need a GPS!
Everyone was very nice and friendly.
The prices at the grocery stores are comparable to what we have at home.
The gas prices were a lot cheaper! Gas only cost us about $150 U.S. and we drove over 3,000 kilometers.
We can hardly wait to do that full time for the winter, probably in a few year's time.
Right now I am one very happy woman!

[Patty Smyth]

Sounds incredible, congratulations.

[lilo0003]

sounds amazing. Happy anniversary

[thriftygranny]

Wow sounds like a wonderful trip, congratulations on 40 years, you must have been babies when you married!

[bargain_hunter_lola]

Congrats on being married for 40 years!

What a wonderful way to celebrate. Sounds like you had a lot of memorable moments . Congrats again!

[Natalka]

Wow, that sounds absolutely fabulous - and so varied!

[terry2144]

Sounds wonderful. Congratulations!

[coupon girl]

sounds wonderfull -congrats

[Lynn49]

What a wonderful trip!!!!! It sounds like something my hubby and I would love to do, but instead of Elvis museums, I'm pretty sure we'd be visiting places like Gettysburg and more civil war museums that we could fit into a trip!
For our 40th we flew to Rome, spent a few days there, then did a 12-day Royal Caribbean cruise with a balcony cabin to Greece, Turkey, Egypt (we hired a car to take us to the Pyramids, 3 hrs from the dock for the day), then to Sicily, back to Rome for a few more days....it's the first time I've ever had tears at an airport...I can honestly say I left my heart in Rome; if I could live there, I would!!

Congratulations on your 40th Anniversary! Time to plan for your next tour!
We'll be 45 years this summer....some fun, huh??

[walkonby]

travel-mum that was doing it up right! The sheer amount of sights and adventures you packed into that trip was fantastic to read about. Congrats on 40 years together!! With many many more to come.

[TaraF]

Sounds like a wonderful time!

[travel-mum]

I forgot to mentioned that we also:
Toured the Jack Daniels Whisky Distillery
Visited the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was killed
and confirmed that we really DO like to be with each other!

[morningrose]

Happy Anniversary and great planned trip!

[Lily369]

sounds amazing, congrats on your 40th

[Britanica]

Must have been an amazing feeling! Congrats to you both!