Little Did We Know 24 Years Ago

When Russ and I got engaged we went on vacation together for the first time to Newport, RI and Nantucket. We stayed at cute bed and breakfast’s. Since the Internet had not been invented yet we found them the old fashioned, by reading books on bed and breakfast spots and calling them up on the phone to see if they had availability. We picked our Nantucket lodgings because it was in town and was reasonably priced.  
When you pick vacations by reading books that had been published years before you never really are sure if what you read was what was happening now so it all was a crap shoot. There were no Trip Advisor reviews letting you know not to take a room on the street side or that the breakfast was not as good as an egg Mcmuffin.
As it happened the place we went first in Newport, although nice as a whole had a great variability in rooms and we had a tiny attic garret that was hardly tall enough for Russ to stand up in. But what the hell, we were young and in love. After a couple of days there we happily left for the ferry to Nantucket.  
Leaving the car on the mainland we arrived at the wharf on Nantucket and walked the three blocks up Broad street to Center Street where we found the Ha Penny House. It was the perfectly typical Nantucket shingle style house where the owners served us afternoon tea before showing to the blueberry room. What a joy it was. A room with a tall king sized bed that over looked the beautiful white Congregational church across the street. It was so much better than described in the old bed and breakfast book, totally making up for the misleading description of our previous Newport spot. Russ and I spent three nights on Nantucket making the end of our first vacation end on a very high note.
Today we flew on to the Island for a five day working vacation of Russ and his business partners and all the spouses. Rich, his partner, had rented a house that was big enough for us all to stay at in town so we could walk to restaurants and shopping. As Google maps led us to the house down Water Street and then on one of the two Ash’s either Ash Lane or Ash Street that run parallel to each other the little voice of the navigator said, “turn right on Center Street and you are at your destination.”  
We pulled up to a beautiful big grey Nantucket colonial right across from the Congregational church, and two doors down from the Ha Penny House. Happiness over came me. Never 24 years ago when we first came to this island could I have guessed all the places we would have gone in our life, the jobs we have had, the homes we have lived in, the friends we have made, the child we have loved to end right back where we started. I can’t wait to see what the next 24 years brings. I know I am lucky if it is half as good as the first 24 years have been.