The Greatest Adventure

It doesn’t matter how great or small the adventure is, so long as we’re together.

When a visit by Pope Francis is the catalyst for meeting your husband, a high bar is set to keep your love story interesting.  

A challenge we accepted.

Despite the Holy Father’s involvement, it wasn’t love at first sight and there was no whirlwind courtship, but after nearly a decade our love story grows deeper each day.  

We share an appetite for Type II fun (fun that makes you miserable while it is happening, but feels great afterward), and we mutually embrace the Live a Great Story mindset. Now as we mark five years of marriage, our life together continues to be a series of adventures. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Exhibit A

Many people would consider it crazy to run a half marathon before sunrise the day after being married in New Orleans and celebrating on Bourbon Street. But neither or us thought it was crazy, which may be evidence of why we work so well together.

Couples mark their nuptials however they choose, and we opted to celebrate ours by running 13.1 miles (side-by-side for the whole race wearing ‘just married’ tank tops - Joel in a top hat), renting bicycles (to bike to Urban South Brewery) and tandem kayaking in the Manchac Swamp.

Exhibit B

Before we were married, in April 2019 I was about to turn forty and wanted to ‘show my body who was boss,’ so we spent a week hiking in the Peruvian Andes. Despite tired legs and sore hips, we were rewarded with some of the most breathtaking landscapes I’ve ever seen.  We still talk about some of the views.

At that point, we determined some places are best explored on foot. So, in 2024, we traveled to Nepal to trek in the Himalayas.

We’ve racked up more than a hundred thousand steps in cities from the east coast to the west, Boston to San Francisco to Washington, DC., and that was just in 2024.

But there are some places where sneakers or hiking boots aren’t sufficient, so while in Marrakesh in 2021 we rode camels and sipped tea and tore across the savannah in a jeep spotting the wildlife in Botswana in 2023.  Exploring one end of Africa to the other.

Exhibit C

Less than six months after we were married, COVID-struck and the lockdown disrupted traditional vacations, so we took up camping – fresh air, hiking, and biking.

Lest you think adventures must include sweat or an adrenaline rush, I assure you they don’t.

Exhibit D

In 2023, we made a 5-day, whirlwind visit to Munich for Oktoberfest, but the trip included much more than liters of lager. Of course we biked through the city, hiked up to Neuschwanstein Castle, but the most special memories are the laughing, swaying and singing on top of the beer tent benches with our newfound friends from around the world.

When pampering is called for (and sometimes it is) we’ve spent long weekends at resorts in Mexico and Dominican Republic.

But we don’t need to travel far and wide to scratch our exploration itch. We have mini adventures close to home exploring new rail trails on our bikes, popping our kayaks in a lake, or choosing a new location for our traditional First Day hike every January.

We’ll contently catch an outdoor concert at the public library or a trip to the local theater or street festival.

We simply love being together and experiencing new things and reminiscing about our adventures, and envisioning future ones is one of our favorite past times.

Among the things I’ve learned from all the places I’ve visited and people I’ve met, I know that life isn’t just about choosing your own adventure but choosing who you adventure with.

It doesn’t matter how great or small the adventure is, so long as we’re together.