"Is your marriage in trouble?"

The question asked by my beloved high school students when I said I was going on a marriage retreat. And often if you say "marriage retreat" to the public at large, this is also their question.

And my response is, "Heck no!" There are ways to improve an already stellar marriage, and that is what the Mrs. and I did this weekend, with our friends Scott and Esther. We headed down country a ways to Camden, Maine, to stay at the Country Inn and attend the 2007 marriage retreat headed up the Russ and Lorie. And what a great time is was.

At the risk of plagiarizing Esther's post, here we go. We left after work on Friday and drove down to Camden and ate at this great restaurant at the Cedar Crest Hotel (aptly named the "Restaurant at the Cedar Crest") and had the most amazing burger and got to watch live jazz, as well as drool over the Gibson Les Paul one of the old gents was playing. Please wipe the drool now...

Then back to the hotel for the first session of the weekend, which dealt with living in the N.O.W. or Nourishment, Observation and Work, which are the big three in having a great relationship with your spouse. Also being able to hit the "reset" button when things get a bit dicey helps as well, because as most of you know now, most fights are about the stupidest things.

Saturday night brought about date night, and while we were tempted to double date with someone despite instructions not to, we ended up at Su Casa, a Mexican restaurant near the inn, almost by ourselves, but a couple we had just met this weekend decided to eat there as well and I resisted the urge to go sit with them and have some Nachos and a Corona. The food was amazing and the owner was even visiting each of the tables to see how peoples' meals were. Incredible! If you are in Camden and want some authentic Mexican, this is the place.

The weekend also featured some videos by Mark Gungor. He has a great insight into marriage and is an absolute riot. He takes the edge of potentially serious topics by adding very timely and appropriate humor. Check out his website here. I would recommend his seminars to anyone. He had too much info to really post here, but if you check out his stuff, I have to say my "Nothing Box" is about the size of the Grand Canyon...

A great weekend!!!