| Being on a deployment really makes you think about your life and the things that matter. Family is vitally important to both of us, especially our relationship with each other. After one of our many chats about how we need to do more things together, last year we made a pact that every summer we would take a vacation. Then COVID-19 hit. Not to be deterred by a little pandemic, we set to work trying to plan the perfect vacation.. Month goes by, hmm… Pandemic seems to be sticking around… Better have a Plan B. A couple more months go by, oh shoot, we better have a Plan C, just in case! Plan A: Niagara by the Lake – Mary’s coworker #1 suggestion. It’s in Canada, but not too far – a perfect little, quaint town that had shopping, spas and cute boutique hotels! Oh snap, the Canadian border closed and we have no idea when it will be open again – BUMMER, put that on our To Do for future vacation! Plan B: Charleston, SC – Seems like the South isn’t being hit as hard with restrictions. When they were, they were lifting them a lot earlier, let’s book a cute boutique hotel that has bikes and lots of shopping and activities. Wait, NY just imposed strict guidelines for residents leaving the state to visit anywhere with a higher than 10% positivity rate. That’s risky, better cancel it. 😦 Plan C: Erie, PA? – Okay… Its under 10% and we can drive there from NY. We booked the hotel, crossed our fingers and took solace in the fact that we would be together and we prayed we would have fun. Ruth drove home and after a short visit in NY with Gram, we followed each other to Erie, PA. It sucked because we were in separate cars, but fortunately it was a short drive. We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott, right off the Sassafras Pier. It overlooks Lake Erie. We checked in, dropped off our bags and headed straight to Primanti Brothers! If you’ve read the other blogs, you know how important food is to both of us and we had already planned out our first meal. It was so good! While planning in NY, we had booked a massage at Massage Envy so immediately after, we went for a full body massage. It was Mary’s first time getting a massage, you can read more about her experience in her First Timer Blog. We both had a great experience and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We noticed we were pretty close to a shopping plaza, so we zipped across the street to check out some shops. Ruth has a condo at the beach in MD and is always looking for special finds during her travels and found some cute coastal coasters (some for a housewarming gift, too), as well as two lamps that were made of tiny seashells – MAJOR SCORE! Once we got settled back into our hotel room, we got into our bathing suits and hit the pool to get some sun. It was a small infinity pool that was VERY crowded. We ran into a very strange ‘couple’ at the pool. They were cuddling and holding hands, and although it looked like quite an age difference, hey whatever makes you happy. Well, you know neither of us can’t hide our faces no matter how much we tried. Another lady came up to us and said weird huh? She said, “what is even more weird is that they are mother and son!” After that strange encounter and a little rays, we got dressed and went to dinner right there are at the hotel, called the Shoreline Bar and Grill. We sat outside and it was hot as balls in the sun, but none the less, it was good. We ended the night in our beds in our comfy clothes and watched Joe Dirt. The next day we had to do our virtual 5K in honor of a coworker’s daughter. It was nice because most of our run was right along Lake Erie. After the run, we decided that today was going to be the first time we were going to ride jet skis. Ruth has rode on one, but hasn’t ever driven it herself. I haven’t even been on one. So, we were excited to give it a try. Although it was beautiful out, it was pretty windy so we weren’t sure if we’d still be able to do it, but we started the walk over to the rental area. When we were almost there, Mary realized that she forgot her ID. We figured you needed it, but we were almost there. So, we just walked the last 10 minutes and asked. Sure enough, she needed it so we walked all the way back to the hotel and grabbed it. We walked back and first we had to fill out some forms, and then we were sent upstairs to watch a video of all the dos and don’ts of jet skiing. Once the video finished, we walked back downstairs and picked out our life jackets. They pulled our jet skis around and we hopped on and we.were.off! Since it was a windy day we sure did hit A LOT of waves! We had SO MUCH FUN! It was a great time! We were getting close to our time! You don’t want to do that or you will be heavily charged. So, as we headed back in we saw a brother and sister hanging onto their flipped over jet ski and yelling, “HELP!” We drove up to them and tried helping them. I mean, they obviously didn’t watch the safety video! Ruth coached the brother on how to flip it over. While Mary went to pick up their floating crocs and flip flops. The brother eventually got it flipped over and was back on it, but it wouldn’t start. He was getting closer and closer to the wall. So, Ruth decided to drive in and tell them that there were people in need of help. Mary went over to the sister who was still in the water and freaking out at this point because she said she can’t swim. Mind you she had a life jacket on, so she was reminded that she’d be okay. She really wanted to get back on her brother’s jet ski, but her neon green long acrylic nails weren’t having any of that! After about 3 desperate attempts, she got up there just as the rescuers were heading towards them. Mary headed back in to meet Ruth. After we displayed our life saving skills, we went to El Amigo Mexican Restaurant. It wasn’t very impressive, but we are both Mexican food lovers and snobs so… Then we went to Romolos Chocolate store. We were in love! We both bought so much! Out of everything though, the almond bark was our absolute favorite! We have been dreaming about it since we left! That night we headed to the Mediterranean restaurant, Bistro 26. The food was remarkable! The pita bread and salads we got were perfect. We will be back there and highly recommend it to anyone ever in that area. We headed back to the hotel pool, which was empty this time, so we did a little photo shoot by the infinity pool. Then we did what we did best – headed back into our room and hopped into comfy clothes and watched another movie. It might sound a bit crazy to do so much chilling when we’re finally together, but it was just what was needed! Mary is a very busy mom, and Ruth works a high-pressured job, so downtime is definitely what was needed. Mary doesn’t get to relax very often, let alone with our person. Honestly, I don’t think it matters where we end up because when we are together, we have so much fun. She is the one person that I can be completely myself around and have never ending laughs! Stay tuned folks – In July we are headed to Newport, RI!! – Mary & Ruth |
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Ruthless Lifestyle 