For obvious reasons, Jason and I are fairly committed to staying close to home in the month of April. We agreed a while back that we’d leave our weekends open, take care of things around the house and do our best to soak in some R&R on Saturdays and Sundays before Baby K gets here. But this being the last weekend in March–and also the weekend between our anniversary and a certain someone’s birthday 😉 , we decided we’d have one last big hurrah of a date to celebrate, just us.

Ironically, we started out the weekend with a trip to Babies R Us. It’s natural in this season to have a few leftover things to purchase as baby prep, and since we were heading on up to Grand Rapids anyway, we decided we’d make the detour. Wasting little time, and with a baby monitor and changing pad cover in tow, we made our way to the city for our fabulously long, overnight date.

We grabbed lunch at one of our favorite spots, Parsley, for some Mediterranean fare before heading over to the Grand Rapids Public Museum and the Bodies Revealed Exhibit. We had planned to catch the exhibit before checking into our hotel, but it was sold out until the 5pm show. Instead, we picked up tickets for the Sunday, 12p tour and checked in early to the oh-so-amazing JW Marriott. Truthfully, I could stay in this hotel every weekend and never tire of its elegance, modernity and/or view. We settled into this room:

i DO love the jw!

cozy!

nicest hotel bathroom i can remember.

art over the tub? just lovely!

With this view:

the grand river. no, really. that's its name 🙂

a great spot to view the lotus and other way-too-fancy-for-us cars in the valet circle below. perfect for jmk!

And then we lounged and napped, and I got camera happy for a while (in case we’d forget later just how BIG this baby was on our last official getaway before D-Day):

belly with a view.

smile, baby! we can't wait to meet you!

After a bit, we wandered down to Starbuck’s and took a little walk…nothing too strenuous on a relaxing afternoon like this! Then for dinner, we waited with half of the rest of the city for some of the best food in town at one our favorite spots, San Chez Bistro. There, we enjoyed tapas including the Ensalada de Pollo y Curry, Tostones Fritos, Empanadas, Salmon con Hierbas and Bistec con Pimienta, and topped everything off with Helados y Sorbetes–a trio of locally produced Palazzolo’s handmade gelato and sorbet. Everything was delicious (and we were SO full!). Our waitress honored our triple celebration (anniversary, birthday, baby), so we dined in grand fashion without a grand tab–even better! We wound down our evening back at the JW, and with the exception of the 2am-3:30am window (more on this later), had a blissful sleep.

This morning, room service (which I think I’ve had twice EVER in my adult life before today:) arrived at 8:15a and delivered a knockout breakfast, which we dutifully enjoyed in bed. Breakfast in bed has got to be one of the finer things in life–especially when it looks a bit like this:

jason's

and mine.

Add an assortment of jams and the like, two large carafes of coffee (one decaf, one regular), and a voucher under our door this morning for FREE breakfast, and the day couldn’t have started any better! After lazing around a bit and enjoying the chance to sleep in, we got ready, checked out and walked over the Grand River to our 12p museum date.

Bodies Revealed was, as advertized, interesting, intriguing, and bizarre. But we both agree that it was well worth the trip, and we’re glad we had the chance to see it in town before it moves on later this Spring. I won’t try to describe it here, because it’d be hard to sum up in brief–highly recommended though, if you’re interested in anatomy or anything related to the human body and its function. It’s amazing that we have opportunities to see things like this, right at our fingertips. We rounded out the trip (and our getaway) with a spontaneous ride on the beautiful carousel at the museum. A little unconventional, we know, but it was free with our exhibit tickets, and we couldn’t resist. For 5 minutes or so, it was delightful to revert back to the childhood joy I so clearly remember, and to laugh and smile with Jason, who videotaped most of the experience for posterity’s sake 🙂

All in all, our time away was wonderful, and highly valuable as we look to a new way of life in the weeks to come. I love celebrating moments with J, and now, with our little one in mind as well. Although we enjoyed this particular weekend without the need for a sitter, it was honestly all that much more joyous an occasion with the idea of family in mind–and with all of the hope and possibility that my belly currently contains. Our world is about to change in a very big way; it’s a beautiful thing to be embracing that as a couple, and to be celebrating so much of the love and fun we already have together–just us, in the meantime.

truly in love,

mm