I couldn’t have felt more calm. I didn’t expect it. But I’m so glad I feel this way.

Those three short sentences epitomize my thoughts on the morning of January 31st, an unbelievably beautiful day on Gaulding Cay beach in the Bahamian island of Eleuthera. In a few short hours, I’d be getting married to my favorite person in the world. Breeah and I would now seal our status as a dream team couple, a perfect match, adventurers extraordinaire for life! In those moments I had never felt less anxious and I still cannot reason why…

Our location on Gaulding Cay Beach in Eleuthera, sign posts directing us to all our major travel destinations. Thanks to Boy Meets Girl weddings (boymeetsgirl-weddings.com). Photography by the great Erik Kruthoff (erikruthoff.com)

To be sure I don’t travel or write to tout and brag, but in the weeks leading up to our wedding I faced a strange internal conflict. Why, when we’ve both taken on so many experiences that would certainly push many others we know well outside their comfort zone, am I so nervous about a wedding, something that almost everyone else we know went through already (or eventually plans to)? Somehow I’m generally comfortable with flying and driving all over the world, but I couldn’t seem to get over this hangup of having to engage in the wedding ceremony formalities in front of more people than I was comfortable with (and, truth be told, that pretty much meant Breeah and I and a minister).

Couldn’t have asked for a better girl, a better place and a better group of people to celebrate this incredible journey

Yet, there we both were, with seven of our closest family and friends who made the trip to witness and I felt completely in my element. There could have been 80 people there that day (though that would have detracted from the pristine setting of Gaulding Cay) and I am sure I would have kept my cool.

The happy adventurers!

The wedding couldn’t have been more perfect. Neither of us stumbled on speeches, neither of us really cried, just had these wide, eye-gazing smiles when we weren’t speaking. I reminded myself to slow down, be steady and deliberate when reading vows, and take in each and every second of this moment – because it will never repeat itself.

The calm before…the calm. Best friend Tormod and I about to get a snorkeling session in the morning before the ceremonies. Much credit to Breeah’s dad, Roger, for spearheading the beach raking project!

Man, I wish I could live the rest of my life this way. My mind often hurries through each day, juggling with many thoughts, plans and ideas and wondering whats next on the radar. Travel, especially Weekend Roady-style travel, is oftentimes squeezed into 1-3 day bursts that more than often include hundreds of miles of driving, rushed meals and breaks, early mornings and late nights and racing through trails to get all the money shots on the point-and-shoot.

Posing in front of the court house in Governor’s Harbour the day before. Just got permission to wed on the island!

OK, it is not always a tour-de-force of obtaining maximum value from one’s weekend. It certainly wasn’t in Eleuthera. We had 10 days! 10 days of easy living in the out islands of the Bahamas. In the last 10 years I can count three times where I’ve had over a week off from anything (we managed Guam in 9 days – including two weekends). I think I appreciate this type of travel a little more, despite its quick drain on my vacation bank. Yes, for the next few months we’ll be back to our standard 2 or 3-day adventures, but I’m trying to make more room in my life for week-long journeys and traveling just a little slooowwwerrr…

To celebrate not only our love for each other, but our love for the experience of travel, of sharing the joy of immersing ourselves in the local Bahamian culture with our closest people, that will make our journey to Eleuthera one we’ll cherish over all the rest. We’ve each shared incredible moments over countless adventures in the past few years, but nothing gives us more joy than to bring more people into the fold and spreading our love of travel with them. Nothing makes us more happy than seeing other people, especially people with less experiencing traveling, enjoy themselves and really take to the DIY elements of our style of travel (i.e. staying away from resorts and pre-packaged itineraries whenever possible).

One of our favorite beaches during the trip, this is the view from Russell Island looking over to Harbour Island (yes, it is a very easy swim between the two). A couple dolphins swam through here while we were setting our stuff down.

I can go on and on about or trip – and I will. Eleuthera is not only an incredible place into and of itself, but there are two wholly different islands just a few hundred feet away that couldn’t be more distinctly different – Harbour Island and Spanish Wells. A cheap ferry ride away, these islands are entirely separate districts of the Bahamas. The rest of this month I’ll be spotlighting those as well as sharing a little story about running into someone named Lenny Kravitz…

I really just wanted to take this time to gush a little. Tomorrow I’ll be 35 and I couldn’t have paved a better journey if I had planned it all in advance. Sure, the road has been windy, with its fair share of switchbacks and (sometimes) harrowing cliff-side diversions, but I’ve cherished every single piece of gravel under those wheels. From here on out, I know that for every single bump in the road that I’ll always have my best friend in the world right there with me, and I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.

An adventure awaits…