ANNIVERSARY GETAWAY

This week Susan and I spent two nights and two days in Port Orford, a charming small town on the southern coast of Oregon. It’s a place of wonderful hikes through forests and over the headland hills, a couple of fine beaches known for lively tide pools and agates, and a couple of fine restaurants. The place where we ate both our dinners was called Red Fish, and the food, the service, and the view were superb.

In the past we’ve stayed at the Castaway, a serviceable motel on a bluff overlooking the Port Orford harbor. Great view and a reasonable price. This time, though, we splurged and stayed inland a bit, in a “guest habitat” called Wild Springs. It was worth every penny. The accommodations are five separate cabins, set deep in a forest. Part of the forest has been turned into a wild garden, decorated with sculptures. Breakfast—and what a breakfast!—is served in a lodge that’s up the hill a bit, affording a splendid view of the Pacific beyond the forest.

Our cottage was named Earthsea, which was appropriate because Susan was reading Ursula LeGuin’s Sea Road at the time. (The story collection is fiction, but it could have been set in Port Orford.) Earthsea was cozy and comfortable, decorated in old-fashioned elegance. Though other cabins were occupied also while we were there, we felt alone in the quiet forest.

A number of special touches made Wild Spring unforgetable: a generous shower head, Chinese checkers, plenty of candles in the cabin, the absence of television but a screen for watching DVDs, a vast library of CDs and DVDs to borrow, and a deep, hot spa for a late-night soak.

For more information about Wild Spring, see http://www.wildspring.com/

Why did Susan and I decide to splurge on this two-night getaway? To celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

These have been the twenty-five happiest years of my life, and Susan says the same. During these years we have worked and played side by side, day and night. We have built a business together, and a life, and a marriage. I’d like to write a novel starring this relationship of ours. Why not? It would have romance, love, sex, humor, travel, adventure, hard work, growth, family, and a passel of grandchildren.

Yes, these twenty-five years have given us a treasure chest of memories, and those memories also serve as a teaser of adventures yet to come.

But the story of this relationship would never make a good novel. Why? Because it lacks an essential ingredient of fiction. What is that missing ingredient?

Guess the answer and leave it in a comment below. First five people to guess correctly will win a free book. Leave your email address so I can contact you.

REMINDER: The invitational blog post for August will be 99-word autobiographical stories inspired by “Cinderella” or “The Ugly Duckling.” Please contribute. Open to all writers. Deadline August 1.