The First Wedding Anniversary

The King and Queen celebrated the beauty of their royal relationship last weekend! A wonder to behold! One year ago we had the most beautiful wedding in all the land. We are very happy when everyone tells us it was the best wedding they ever attended. The ceremony was personalized by Ben and myself, and our friends were moved by the truth of Spirit, and our wedding vows honest sentiment. The setting of our wedding was the glorious outdoors, the food was provided by our guests and was overflowing, and the music performed by Ben and friends was exciting! The weather turned from rainy to blue skies just in time for the wedding. Everyone relaxed and enjoyed the beauty of our day, and each other. A celebration of life and love. How wonderful it is to find your soul mate and wake up happy everyday! We are truly grateful for this experience!

We planned on going to see Hall and Oates in concert at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. So Ben found us a really nice restaurant in nearby Little Italy called Aldo's that was fit for this most Royal occasion. Lovely architectural details and excellent service made for a very special location to celebrate. A most delicious Riesling and the best Asparagus soup ever for me, and a very yummy shrimp bisque for Ben started out the evening. We have a custom of sharing everything when we dine out so we had a mix of surf and turf items. Although Aldo's is an expensive restaurant, the fine dining was worth the extra you pay for their wonderful cuisine and service. I wish we had asked who was the maker of our wine, because it was so smooth!

We toasted to forever love and touched together our Rings of power! Life is good! Long live the King and Queen! Aldo's also treated the royal couple to some culinary gifts for our special occasion as well. A pesto risotto, our dessert, and a sweet liquor, which was far too powerful for us to drink! Ha! I certainly would recommend this gem in Baltimore's Little Italy to anyone. Parking would be very difficult here, so thank goodness Little Italy has a valet service stationed in the front of most of the restaurants. Helpful for sprained ankle's too!

I see my hair is brushed to the side and that reminds me that on this day my hot flashes were in extreme mode. Very hot and flashy every 40 minutes. I will not let them stop me! A little dab will do me! Well maybe a big dab! I also have to remember to pack reading glasses in my purse, so we both can read the menus when we go out to dine. After dinner we chatted with Aldo outside while we waited for our car in the sunshine. Aldo proclaimed proudly that he uses the best ingredients and told us everything is made on the premises.

Off we went to Pier Six concert pavilion In the Inner Harbor to see 'Hall and Oates. The weather was clear and felt as beautiful as the photo above. As a Philly girl, I love the soulful voice of Philly's own Daryl Hall. The man can sing! I really enjoy his web show called 'Live From Daryl's House.'  You get a peek inside Daryl's home and musical world. It is an unusual mix of guests that hang out and jam. Worth checking out for any music lover! The concert was entertaining, but too polished. This tour was to promote the new box set and the songs were just the top forty hits. I loved the last time I saw 'Hall and Oates' perform at 'Rams Head Live'', maybe five years ago. It was a free form simple concert, just the musicians and microphones. No set design. Daryl sang whatever song was called out, and the band was so good they got right into whatever song was thrown at them. 
 

I much prefer the soul songs and very much missed the soulful renditions of "In a Philly Mood," and "Me and Mrs. Jones." I just wanted to hear him wail! I also missed their guitar player T- Bone Wolk who passed away recently. Oh well, at least I bought the live recording of the former concert and can listen to it whenever I like! The seats in that venue are way too small and close together. You really better like your neighbor! Luckily for us, the funny thing that evening, was that the four very nice music loving people sitting next to us, lived near our Realm. Sometimes it really is a small world!

Earlier in the week we also took a trip to a quaint nearby town where Ben bought me a new 'Trollbead' for our first anniversary. Oh and did I mention Ben put together a beautiful bouquet of flowers to remind us of the awesome bouquet he got for our wedding day display. Always thoughtful... the King makes the Queen so happy!

Wedding Photo by Robert Smith Photography
The other photos are from my portable CoolPix Camera. 
You just can't carry the Nikon in to concerts. Darn.

UPDATE: I learned from the comment below that Daryl Hall also ate at Aldo's Restaurant on Sunday. Such synchronicity! Not surprising though, because it is evident Daryl loves good food. If you watch the web show 'Live From Daryl's House' there is always communal cooking going on during each episode. Part of the fun! Here is the info and link to the 'Baltimore Sun Blog' that will confirm that very cool comment message. Dining at Large.