Well, who'd've thought, eh? Eighteen years! I can't believe it's true, but it really is ... 

Eight years, OK, I'd go for that, but eighteen .. no way! Wow ..

Apparently this is our 'porcelain' anniversary, as far as gifts go, I can't think of much .. a toilet?

 

The weather was perfect so we decided to go to a Wildlife Refuge close by in Alabama, only about 10 miles away.

On the way up we drove through Corfu and found the Buttercrumb Bakery open, which almost never is the case when we're passing by. 

It being a Sunday it should be closed for sure but the sign on the door stated: "Sundays open by chance". Lucky us!

 

            Choices, choices ..

Like I said, the Refuge is close by so it didn't take us long to get there.

We drove to the first overlook we could find to have some coffee first ...

Well, it was all about the pie of course .. strawberry-rhubarb. Pretty good!

After which we drove for a while through the fairly large Refuge, checking out a few more of the overlooks, before going on the 1.3 mile 'Swallow Hollow Nature Trail'  through the wetlands.

 

This Refuge has a lot of them, wetlands I mean, and 4 different  nature trails with boardwalks to elevate you over and through the swamps.

     

Interpretive panels along the way tell of some of the more common residents and plants of the area, like this Great Egret on the left and the Cormorant on the right.

We didn't see much wildlife but we're planning to go back in the Fall, during the much more busy bird migration, and hike some of the other trails.

          

Amanita Jacksonii (you can eat this one!)

Buttonbush

Fast forward to 4pm, when we found ourselves in a real movie theater (yes, they still exist), which had been ages, to see Mamma Mia 2!

                                                                           

I loved, loved, loved the first one, and this one almost as much! 
This one's a little more serious, but I loved the 'young' Donna, and those two crazy friends of hers were as hilarious as before!
And the music, Abba .. what can I say .. bringing back 'my time' in the seventies .. sigh .. so long ago ..


  

Afterward we treated ourselves to sushi, which was also a long time ago!

Yumm!

The next day we sort of extended our anniversary celebrations by playing an early round of golf at the Buffalo Tournament Club ..

... and having lunch at (Lebanese/mediteranian) 'The Pita Place'.

        

Not quite what we had, but I forgot to take a picture ..

And that's it for this week, folks. 

A very pleasant anniversary 'week', and hopefully we'll have many more to come ...