Covid Gave Us a Cheesehead Anniversary

Chicago

My husband and I celebrate milestones by going on field trips.

We began this tradition in our fifth year of marriage—per Hallmark, the wood anniversary—at Galatoire’s, a famous New Orleans restaurant. For our 10th, the tin anniversary, we visited Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia. Tin? Hallmark suggests this romantic gift to mark the occasion: “Bake them something amazing and give it to them covered in foil.” For our 15th, the crystal anniversary, we toured Lotusland in Santa Barbara, Calif., a fantastic garden established by an eccentric Polish opera singer who outlived six rich husbands.

No. 20, china, found us not in Beijing but on a cruise around the Baltic. We lunched in Tallinn, Estonia. How many people (other than Estonians) can say that? For silver 25th we cruised again. Off the Alaskan coast, on a little boat named the Liseron, my husband caught a 55-pound halibut for our anniversary dinner.

This month we celebrate our 30th. We always plan ahead, so in April 2020 we plunked down the deposit for a trip through Hungary, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic. Covid had just arrived; certainly it would be long gone by July 2021.