Speaking of vows, Tuesday is our second wedding anniversary. Since we're not buying presents this year I'll use the occasion to document all our travels together chronologically, something I've been meaning to do for a while. The following is probably not of much interest to anyone but us, but the blog has turned into more than a way to keep up with family and friends, it's also a way for us to remember our experiences.

This list only documents trips we've made together.

1. Boston, Massachusetts, September, 1998. We went up to see Elvis Costello play a free radio-station sponsored concert. We started way in the back, but due to a sudden storm that scared away all the non-devoted fans, we ended up right under the stage. Other highlights: Showing Mark where I used to live and where I went to high school, visiting the Boston Aquarium and eating Pizza Regina, yum, my favorite pizza since high school and still one of the best.

2. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1st trip October, 1998. The first trip we made together to Chattanooga was to attend my friend Chris' wedding. This was also the first wedding Mark and I attended together. We went up subsequent times to go white water rafting, and another trip to visit the aquarium, but I'm sketchy on the dates.

3. Athens, Georgia, Halloween, 1998. The first of many trips to Athens that we've made together (and the only one that will be documented here). We went with a big group of friends to participate in the Halloween bar crawl. We had a blast, this was possibly the best Halloween I've ever experienced.

4. Madrid/Barcelona, Spain, Dec/Jan 1998/1999. Our first trip together outside of the United States. Highlights: Spending New Year's eve in Plaza Mayor with lots of festive Spaniards. Walking around Barcelona and taking in the Gaudi Architecture. Visiting several fantastic art museums.

5. San Francisco, California, June 1999. Another Elvis Costello show, this time at the Fleadh Festival. Shane MacGowan pulled a no-show, the drunk. Other highlights: Watching the seals bark at one another on the waterfront.

6. Austin, Texas, Summer 1999. I tagged along with Mark on a business trip. Highlights: The turtles, bats and nutria along Town Lake.

7. London/Manchester, England, November 1999. Mostly a pub tour as I was exhausted after my first few months as a first year special ed. teacher with city of Atlanta schools (the worst job I've ever had). In one of the pubs the term "heavy gravity spot" was coined for falling over for no apparent reason (other than strong lager). An injured ankle kept us away from the tourist spots, for the most part, the rest of trip, with the exception of a jog through the British museum where we saw the Rosetta stone and ignored mostly everything else. Other: We spotted Henry Rollins drinking coffee in a Starbucks (in the window seat, the attention whore), followed by a discussion about whether or not to give him the two finger salute, we chickened out (he's a big guy) and regret it to this day.

8. Orlando/Cocoa Beach, Florida, Christmas, 1999. My first Christmas with Mark's family. They were, and continue to be, very fun to be around. Other highlights: Going to see multitudes of manatees at Crystal Springs, and gator spotting near the Kennedy Space Center.

9. New York City, New York, Winter 2000. Highlights: Walking around Park Slope Brooklyn, huddled together, freezing our asses off. Also, a rooftop in Brooklyn one in the morning.... well around that time anyway, the view was like nothing else I have ever seen anywhere else, with city and humanity stretched out forever. Our first time staying as a couple with Kristina and Michael who have proved time and time again to be amazing hosts, and have put up with my sorry excuse for a house guest many, many times. Some day soon we hope to reciprocate.

10. W.Palm Beach, Florida, April, 2000. We went to visit my best friend Karen and her husband Tom at their house in W. Palm (they've since moved to Connecticut). What I remember most about this trip is visiting in their house, and swimming in the pool. It's always very nice to visit with good friends and we don't see Karen and Tom near enough.

11. Cancun, Mexico, June, 2000. The water in Cancun was amazing. This trip was the first time I'd gone snorkeling and is still the best visibility I've come across, including a particularly memorable "Mark, Shark!" moment. The other major highlights were swimming with dolphins at Dolphin Discovery, and visiting Xcaret.

12. Boone, North Carolina, New Year's 2000-2001. Our first (and so far only) ski trip together. We discovered that I ski about as well as Mark snowboards, and almost died driving down the frozen roads in my brand new (to me) Honda Civic. New Year's was somewhat anti-climatic as all the bars had closed. We did light a few fireworks purchased at one of the many scary Fire Works! shacks along the Georgia/North Carolina border.

13. New York City, New York, Spring, 2001. We spent the first night of this trip with people we no longer consider friends as we did something unbeknownst to us to piss them off (that's my story, I'm sticking to it). We spent the rest of the trip with Karen and Tom (see W.Palm Beach) and had a blast together. The most memorable event was a sketchy interaction in the lower East Side with some of the scariest looking guys I've ever seen in my life, and a morning trip to the planetarium. Another too-short visit with two of my favorite people.

14. Tokyo,Japan/Singapore/Tioman Island,Malaysia, June, 2001. Our first trip to Asia together. This was the trip that inspired the move to Singapore, and began our first real consideration of life as expatriates. We've been back to all three places if that's any indicator of how much we enjoyed ourselves the first time.

15. Chicago, Illinois, July, 2001. Highlights included visiting the Chicago Aquarium and Art Institute, and later that day stumbling upon a Patti Smith show while walking around downtown. Chicago's a lovely city, where else in America can you find a Picasso and a Chagall outside for everyone to enjoy?

16. Las Vegas, Nevada, October, 2001. We went to Vegas for my very good friends Kristina and Michael's wedding. Most memorable: the rehearsal dinner at "The Pink Taco" restaurant in the Hard Rock Cafe (nice one Kristina). The wedding was lovely and it was so much fun being on vacation with friends! Their vacation wedding inspired us when planning our own event less than a year later.

17. Paris, France, Christmas, 2001. Mark proposed to me on this trip. It was tres romantique as he waited until Christmas eve when we were on a bridge over the river Seine with Notre Dome in the background. As Jonathan Richman says "if you don't think Paris was made for love/Give Paris one more chance..."

18. Key West, Florida, January, 2002. We went to Key West on an exploratory trip to see if it would be a suitable location for our wedding. Which leads to trip 19....

19. Key West, Florida, May, 2002. We got married on the beach at Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park with two other couples elbowing for room on the same beach, in spite of that it was a very lovely sunset ceremony, made all the more special because our most cherished friends and family flew down there to be with us. I highly recommend a destination wedding; you get a vacation with your best friends and an excuse to have a very small wedding (which I also recommend).

20. Charleston, South Carolina, July, 2002. We went to Charleston for 4th of July weekend. It was a nice break away from Atlanta. There are some lovely beaches nearby too.

The rest of our trips together have been documented on the blog so I'll just list them without commentary:

21. New York, October, 2002
22. Orlando/Cocoa Beach Florida, November, 2002
23. Moved to Singapore, November, 2002
24. Vietnam, December 2002
25. Koh Samui, Thailand, March, 2003
26. Bali, Indonesia, April, 2003
27. Sydney, Australia, July, 2003
28. Tokyo, Japan, September, 2003
29. Los Angeles, California/Cocoa Beach, Florida/Atlanta,Georgia, December-January 2003/2004
30. Bangkok, Thailand, January, 2004
31. Tioman Island, Malaysia, March, 2004
32. Melbourne, Australia, April, 2004