Marci and I try to get away each year -- for at least one night -- in celebration of the anniversary of our wedding.  This year (our 11th anniversary), the opportunity for this came a month and a half late, but we still were able to manage a two-day (one-night) trip to the island of Texel, just off the coast of North Holland...

It was kind of funny to realize the parallels between this trip and our original honeymoon.  Both were taken to small islands, just barely off the coast of the mainland in the vacation-region of the country in which we lived at the time.  Both destinations were full of beautiful dunescapes, with tall grasses waving in the wind.  Both times, we got to stay in a room with a view of the beach, where we could watch the sun setting.

We actually ended up with lots of photographs that paralleled each other from these vacations.

Compare the above photograph (taken yesterday) with the picture below, taken on our honeymoon in 1998.  We didn't exactly get the same "pose" of our hands -- but it is interesting to see the ways our hands have aged over the last 11 years...

We also got parallel pictures of sunsets, individual shots as we enjoyed the nature, and views from our rooms... but I won't go to the trouble of posting all of them (considering that the entertainment value of these pictures for others might not be so great)... You'll just have to take my word for it, that there were some interesting parallels between Siesta Key (Florida), USA, and Texel, NL.

I do, however, have to post these pictures of ourselves -- also aged a bit (more noticeable with me than with Marci)... Aged like fine wine, right? :-) 

It's strange to observe the passage of time, isn't it?  The photographs from our honeymoon already have a distinct patina, separating them from the pictures of today.  My hands and hairs reflect the changes... But I've been very privileged to have a wonderful wife, with whom I can observe it all.

I can't help but think of the words to an old Jim Croce song:  "There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them... I've looked around enough to know, you're the one that I want to go through time with."

Here's to the next 11 years (and 41 days)...