Babymoon

A random picture that I took at 27 weeks and forgot to post.  I am now 29 weeks.

There are a couple of variations that you can find online about the origin of the tradition of "honeymoon."  One suggests that it is a derivative from a nordic practice of the groom kidnapping his bride-to-be from a neighboring town and then going into hiding until the parents of the bride give up the search.  Another, and probably more likely, says that the elite of India used to go on a month tour after the wedding to visit friends and relatives who could not otherwise attend the celebration.  It was adapted by the British as a tradition for the couple to just go on a vacation after the wedding.  Whatever the origin, that tradition has been around for quite some time and is now the first trip for the couple to celebrate their marriage.  A relatively recent tradition is for the couple to take one last trip to celebrate before the arrival of a baby.  This is known as a "babymoon."  I am pretty sure the origin of this tradition is the travel and tourism industry just trying to think up one more way to get people to travel.  I fell for it.

Ken and I decided to celebrate our babymoon with just a weekend get away to a bed and breakfast in Hood River.  Although we didn't "do" much while we were there we had an absolutely lovely time just walking around the historic downtown, sitting on a park bench and people watching, visiting the Hood River and the Columbia River, and eating food.  I did sudoku a lot and he thought about business ideas.  It was so nice just to be away from home and do something different for a couple of days.  I didn't take a ton of pictures so here are just a couple of them, especially ones of my baby bump.

At a park on the Hood River.

 Overlooking the Columbia River.

At a panoramic viewpoint overlooking the Hood River valley.  We had just gone to visit several local orchards and we picked 12 lbs of peaches.  Yum.  I am so excited for peach smoothies.

So you know, Ken was there too.  Mt. Hood in the background.

One more, just because it was so beautiful.

I have to mention real quick that we took a 35 mile drive on a loop through the area with orchards.  Although it was beautiful, since we both grew up near orchards and picking pears in an orchard it wasn't as astounding as it otherwise might have been for someone else.  Still though, we definitely enjoyed the trip.