This Is The Last Place I Ever Expected To Spend My Wedding Anniversary

This is the last place I ever imagined I’d spend my wedding anniversary.

On top of a mountain.

In Oman.

Go ahead and look on a map.

I had to.

We’re talking the other side of the globe.

A tiny country bordered by The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

Yeah, Yemen.

Which my husband insisted we would only end up in if we took a wrong turn.

A glimpse at the part of the world where you will find Oman.

Welcome to the latest travel creation of the man I’ve come to refer to as, “MilesHusband.”

The man I’ve been married to for five years now has gone overboard with his hobby of collecting frequent flyer miles without flying.

It’s all an elaborate formula of how we spend money through credit card bonuses and online shopping portals.

That’s the simple answer.

The details of spread sheets and spending plans would make your eyes glaze over.

Until MilesHusband entertains you with what are admittedly over-the-top travel experiences we get for mere pennies.

This destination started as a joke.

“We could fly from New York to Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways First Class Apartment Suites,” went his sales pitch.

A glimpse from my apartment into Husband’s on Etihad Airways First Class service.

We each got our own apartment on this fancy airplane.

Those two one-way tickets would’ve cost $29,000.

MilesHusband paid $15 a piece.

Yeah, for thirty bucks we flew to the other side of the world.

“I booked an extension to Muscat,” Miles Husband mentioned in passing. “Don’t worry, we’re really not going to Oman,” he assured me.

Until we were.

When we did research and found it is actually an incredible country.

Progessive for that part of the world.

Safe.

And so we came.

Without a plan to get back.

Getting picked up at the airport in Muscat, Oman for the two hour drive up one very steep mountain to the Anantara Resort.

“Why limit ourselves?” MilesHusband’s sales pitch continued. “What if something better opens up while we’re away?”

Which is the answer to the question, “How did I get here?”

A question, I realize, is a great analogy for marriage.

Have you asked yourself that, Dear Reader?

About your marriage?

About life, in general?

How did I get here?

Sometimes it’s a sad question when things are a wreck.

And sometimes inspired, when things are good.

The answer for me, at this moment, is reassuring.

It occurs to me that when a marriage works, one of you is always getting the other one home, in one sense or another.

I remind myself of this as I hear Husband mumbling,

“Uh, oh. Wifey, we might be stuck in Muscat for three days,” as he sees award space disappear from his voodoo MilesHusband matrix.

MIlesHusband tries to work his travel magic from the balcony of our hotel in the middle of Oman.

I can be on mountain top in Oman because I know one way or another this man will get me home.

He would die for me actually.

This makes a mountaintop in Oman a pretty wonderful place to be.

One I never imagined I’d get to.

You want to really talk about “How did I get here?”

With this guy.

Perfectly imperfect, quirky guy who loves me.

Wish I could draw that map for you.

The odds certainly didn’t appear to be in my favor.

All this makes getting home from the mountain in the middle of nowhere seem not that big a deal.

I never expected to spend my wedding anniversary on top of huge mountain in Oman because long before he came along seven years ago, I had given up hope of ever having any kind of anniversary, especially one for a wedding.

And it inspires me to say, “Happy Anniversary, Husband. Thank you for five years of incredible adventures. By the way, I hear Italy is lovely this time of year. Any chance you get us there on our way home?”