Happy Anniversary Alex!

September 26th is my favorite day, because I get to say those words to my wife Alex…the best life partner I could have ever hoped for!

“Old Souls” Indeed…

Alex is sitting in front of the record player she gave me as an anniversary gift a few years ago…and that album is the “Phantom Of The Paradise” movie soundtrack…this cult film from 1974 was a rock opera version of “Phantom Of The Opera”:

Alex had never heard of the film or the song, but when I played it for her it was her immediate choice to be our first dance as a married couple at our wedding…here are the lyrics by the iconic Songwriter / Actor Paul Williams:

“Our love is an old love, baby
It’s older than all our years
I have seen in strange young eyes
Familiar tears

We’re old souls in a new life, baby
They gave us a new life to live and learn
Some time to touch old friends
And still return

Our paths have crossed and parted
This love affair was started
Long, long ago

This love survives the ages
In its story lives are pages
Fill them up, may ours turn slow

Oh, our love is a strong love, baby
We give it all and still receive
And so with empty arms
We must still believe

All souls last forever
So we need never fear goodbye
A kiss when I must go
No tears, in time we kiss hello…”

And here is the song as performed beautifully by Actress Jessica Harper in the film – we met her this spring in New York and I told her we played this as our first song – she was very gracious and nice – here is the song as performed in the film:

We both love the song and how it resonates in a special way for us…this love affair was indeed started long, long ago…

It’s always fun to look back at some of our adventures, and this year, because of work schedules, we planned our anniversary trip for the end of June – when we went on our first Safari!

Yes, we were joined by Elephants, lots and lots of Elephants – take a look at this funny, and very noisy, baby Elephant chasing after Mom:

There were so many unique aspects to this safari, which covered 5 different lodges in three different countries over 19 days…

Among the many incredible moments was a visit with Botswana Bushmen, who showed Alex how to find water in the dry Kalahari desert – by shaving a buried root!

Take a look:

There is so much to celebrate about our last 12 months together, and so much more to come as well…oh, that’s us on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, with Victoria Falls just a half mile behind us:

Of course, I’ve shared some of our other anniversary adventures from the past, like when we stayed at the actual house used for filming “Under The Tuscan Sun” in Cortona Italy:

Celebrating “Under The Tuscan Sun!”

As some of you know, we stayed in the real house used to film the terrific movie “Under The Tuscan Sun” in Cortona Italy!

Here’s a look at this incredible property:

You can see video from the house, plus a look at the property and lots more by clicking here:

We’ve had so many great adventures together, like the night we stayed in the “Pearl Jam Suite” at Seattle’s The Edgewater Inn, and Alex strapped on a Guitar and rocked out:

The Edgewater Inn also has a Beatles room – because the band fished out their hotel window once!

Click here for that story:

We also had an incredible le adventure in Sicily – where we stayed at “The White Lotus” Hotel!

Welcome To The White Lotus!

You see, season two filmed in the town of Taormina, and they made the show before we stayed there – but it premiered AFTER we did…so we got to see so much of our experience on the show – here’s a tour:

And then, there was the time we celebrated our Anniversary with a trip to Spain, where Alex rolled calls back to the US because she was in production on a TV show, with the spectacular Costa Brava as a backdrop:

For those who follow this blog regularly, I have shared lots of adventures with Alex, including when we celebrated our wedding anniversary “on the rails”:

We celebrated our 20th anniversary in 2018 by taking the iconic “Orient Express Train” from Venice to Paris, with a stop in Budapest! It was as magical as you can imagine:

The Historical Magic Of Train Travel!

There were so many incredible memories from that trip, as you can literally sit in your suite and watch history go by outside your window, but sometimes, what goes by is a little “too close for comfort” – like when I stuck my phone out the window of the moving train to capture our arrival into Budapest – after they had stopped to put a real locomotive at the front of the train – here’s what happened:

You can see more images from this trip, including some of the incredible food served onboard The Orient Express – just click on my story here:

Alex is always up for an adventure, so when we were in Budapest, we ate some classic Hungarian food!

Click here to see it all!

Alex is so much fun to travel with, and is my best friend, and I can’t wait for the adventures still to come!

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Happy Anniversary Alex!

Categories: Africa, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, safari, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir

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