Napa Valley, CA, USA

We spent our first anniversary together as a couple in Napa Valley, in the rolling hills of Northern California on the western coast of the United States. We picked a gorgeous winery, Castella di Amorosa, which is an actual castle located near Calistoga, California. The romantic setting was everything we could have hoped for, and the countryside reminded me of Italy (while reminding Rafael of his hometown).

Originally, we had hoped to share some high-quality and professional photographs with you from our day… but unfortunately, life had other plans. The morning of our anniversary, as we set out for Napa Valley, we were robbed in our San Francisco hotel lobby. Both of our Canon Rebel cameras, which we had just purchased, were stolen… along with our photographs from Las Vegas and California to that point. One helluva way to start our first anniversary together! It definitely dampened the mood.

We tried to keep positive spirits throughout the day, and I even enjoyed several wine and chocolate pairings in Napa Valley. Our lunch was exquisite in Calistoga, too. I definitely recommend the trip to anyone, especially as a romantic getaway (just watch your bags and your belongings VERY closely, folks!)

I’d have to say, with all the traveling we’ve done over the years, we’re very lucky that this has been our first experience with robbery or theft. And although the thieves stole our expensive photography equipment, they couldn’t steal our memories. Luckily, we still had our cell phones and were able to snap some photographs of the remainder of the trip. I’ll share a few with you here.

And as far as our anniversary, despite the rough day, I’ve realized that it was a test… and we passed. I realized that, if we could have such an awful start to what should have been a romantic day of joy and celebration, then we could make it through lots of other obstacles as well (and we have). Rafael has been there for me, even during some of the darkest moments of my life, and I am very grateful to him for that. We worked through this potentially negative situation together, and are still going today. And it didn’t dampen our experience; we were still able to end our trip on a positive note and keep moving forward with our relationship. How many couples would have been able to say that? I am thankful we can.