A lifetime away from it all

Dan and I drove away in a thunderstorm. I was so nervous that I actually pulled out of the driveway and headed in the wrong direction. After a few minutes of listening to Dan begin the recap of his work day I realized my error and turned us around. 10 minutes later on the highway he took a call and muttered to me on the side, “Where are we going?” I shooed him off and kept on going. 30 minutes later he took another call and offered to assist the restaurant with tech support the next morning, as it appeared he would be busy for the rest of the evening. I clearly voiced my concern with that proposal. “Ahem!” I cleared my throat as if to offer up another suggestion. But that was all it took. He looked at me sideways and proceeded with the phone call, telling them he would have to talk them through the problem since he didn’t have his computer with him. I then reached into the back seat and produced said laptop, something that he had wondered about.

“I noticed that you brought my computer.”

“Yes,” I said. “I wanted to make sure you had it in case you needed it.” Ended conversation. Diverted his attention by asking a boring question about his job that I didn’t really want to hear, but knew would keep him talking and distracted from the forward motion of the car pushing us further and further away from home.

It wasn’t until the giant road sign that said Newport, with an even larger arrow arcing to the right, that he realized where we were going. A few moments later we were making our way down the cobblestone streets and I told him we were there for the night, two nights in fact, and that we weren’t heading home until Sunday evening. “Really? REALLY?”

When we pulled up to the hotel, a “modern mansion hotel,” the car doors were opened.

“Checking in,” we said.

“Do you have any bags?”

“No, we’re packing light. There’s nothing in my trunk but a whole lot of tools,” said Dan.

“Actually…” I said. As I opened the trunk and started pulling out the bags Dan was in an obvious state of surprise and delight.

The room: beautiful. In every way. In every delicious way. We stepped inside. We tipped the dude with our bags. Dan used the bathroom downstairs (because yes! there were 2 bathrooms in our LOFT) and shouted quite loudly, “Oh My God, it’s a Caroma!” He was talking, of course, about the toilet. Yeah, “of course,” ha ha ha! Dan was about to give me the history of the dual-flush toilet, but I put him off for a while. He did finally give me the story of this amazing Australian invention while we were getting ready for dinner, and while I was taking a pee no less.

We went to dinner. We sat by the marina having drinks while we waited for our table. I made a funny face. And then I tried to recover. I could see Betsy and her husband walking toward us, but Dan could not. She snuck up on Dan’s blind side and chanted “Happy Anniversary!” Our friends from CT just happened to be in town on the same weekend celebrating their own wedding anniversary – June 28th. While we celebrated our 6th anniversary, they were celebrating their 1st, and it just all worked out that we would both be in Newport. We indulged in food and wine and food and laughter. We went to a blues bar and listened to some really non-bluesy music, but spiced things up with plenty of conversation, er, shouting over the music.

Saturday morning we woke up HUNGover. After breakfast and advil, we started to feel better so we rented a scooter and tooled around town. We took in views of the ocean and the mansions along the Cliff walk. We zoomed past little coves and houses built into boulders. The scenery was breathtaking in every way. Even though we were only going 30 mph I squeezed Dan a little harder on the turns. Years ago we were zooming down I-95 in Fort Lauderdale doing 60, 70, 80 mph, and the wind in our hair and the freedom of the little scoot reminded me of those dangerous days long ago.

We drove to a polo game for a little bit just to see what it was like. We yawned a lot before dinner, but after taking some time on the roof deck right outside our room we found the energy to head out again. When we arrived at The Mooring we were escorted to our table where I presented my last surprise: a bottle of Veuve Clicquot on ice and two empty champagne glasses just waiting to be filled.

Sunday found us meeting up with our friends again for a delectable brunch at a popular pub in town. We filled out bellies and said one last goodbye to our enchanting hotel and headed to the dock for a sail. We boarded Nefertiti, a previous winner of the America’s Cup, with 3 other couples, and sailed out to the bay. Dan cranked the sails up with the guidance of the Captain, and I sat with all sorts of peace in my heart and in my head.

Dan and I said many beautiful things to each other this weekend.

On Saturday night I was too drunk to remember how it ended, but it’s probably most important to remember how this sentence started, “Sarah, the reason that you and I work is…”

We “work.” Dan and I. Me and Dan. Him and me. We do. We Work. Our relationship. It just works.

The next best thing was over lunch on Sunday afternoon after our sail and just before our trip home. Dan turned to me with a saddened expression on his face.

“I don’t want to leave.”

Tagged as: secret weekend