Happy Anniversary, Happy Anniversary ...

Yes, kind readers, yesterday, June 23, was Val and my 5th wedding anniversary; Val had to work due to vacation spots being all taken at work, but we were able to exchange gifts and go to Trattoria Aroma a block or two from home for a great dinner and relax at home.
I have previously blogged about our wedding day in Las Vegas and the ceremony at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel; coincidentally, our brother-in-law, Brad Dossinger, recently copied our wedding video to DVD and we watched it, to much laughter, a few weeks ago, but it was one of the best days of my life.
While all of our anniversaries have been great, possibly the most memorable was our first anniversary, which we spent in Ireland. We got to visit some of our family's origins as well as lots of other fascinating sites, and we stayed several days at the home of Toby Sachsenmeier, formerly of Buffalo, who lives just outside of Doolin, County Clare, and works as a psychologist for the government.
We spent our anniversary in County Clare, almost all in Doolin itself, having a great seafood dinner with Toby and a couple of other people and then spending hours and hours outside; we had the great timing of having our anniversary on the midsummer's solstice, and the amount of daylight was amazing, staying bright until 10 p.m. or so. Of course, we did stop inside McGann's on Doolin's main street several times for music, talk and liquid refreshment.
One major part of the mid-summer's solstice celebration in Ireland is the building and lighting of bonfires, and there were several serious ones in our location on the mid-west shores of Ireland. One was about two miles south of us, another about a mile or two north of us, but the one that was built on the east side of the bridge just outside McGann's (there is a great photo of Val and I on that bridge that night) was amazing. About 20-30 kids age 8-15 dragged over wood, cardboard and other combustibles, piling them up to about 10-15 feet high, with virtually no help from adults or older teens. The leader was an alpha male, about age 13, in a blue and yellow football/soccer jersey who both ordered a lot of youths around and would lead by example when they weren't sure what he was trying to get them to do.
Finally, the bonfire was lit with the help of a few pieces of burning kindling and some accelerant (possibly gasoline, but no one was saying for sure). The flames easily lept up 30-50 feet, and it burned for hours as we all just watched, smiled and had lots of conversations with new friends. Damn, the Irish we encountered, as well as Americans, Germans, Brits and others that night and 10 days we were there, were friendly, with or without the assistance of Guinness or Harp.
In the end, every anniversary of ours has been memorable and wonderful because it means that I am maried to Val, the absolute love of my life and incredible photographer, web mistress, wife and woman.