"Togethermoon" (noun) American : a prolonged amount of time ( anywhere from a weekend, to a week, to a month ) where a couple who is in a long distance relationship is able to spend time together.

We've all heard of honeymoons, babymoons, buddymoons, minimoons, all beautiful vacations that are created to carve out time to connect, as a newlywed, a new parent, a friend....it is a time to honor the changes in life, no matter how big or small. They are all trips around the moon with the people you love the most.

So, in true English Literature Major fashion, I had to come up with a name for the vacations I as a partner in a long distance relationship, experience. Distance being the opperative word. So I busted out my trusty thesauruses and looked for antonyms for distance....closeness, with, together...so the "together-moon" was born.

Being in a long distance relationship means lots of wonderful things. It means learning to communicate in different ways, allowing space for each partner to grow as an individual as well as a cohesive team. It means sharing new experiences, new ways of thinking and doing and experiencing. It means supporting your partner in deeper ways; energetically, verbally, and emotionally. It allows for lots of alone time, fun and exciting ways to be intimate, and a full dose of "absence makes the heart grow stronger".

Long distance also has its immense challenges; time differences, miscommunications usually and easily solved with some real physical face time, missing skin on skin contact. It can have its moments of immense joy and immense toughness.

We are a couple, at this point of our journey, who are more used to being on the other side of a screen than face to face. So that "together-moons" are like stepping into utopia. A moonlit utopia.

We spent our most recent "together-moon" in Santa Barbara, CA. Up the coastline of raw oceans landscapes, rolling lush hills, and the special slow-magic found only in Northern California. We made our way up the 1, and called The Goodland Hotel home. Nestled in the trees of Goleta, we spent our days drinking the best wines, playing Uno (of which I won...barley), getting lost on bikes as we chased the sunset through the hills and the neighboring fields of farm land. The adorable decor, homey feel, amazing pool, BOMB AF wine bar and restaurant, made us feel right at home. We laughed, we cried, we ate s'mores for the first time, we listened to vinyls, and we reconnected to what it is to be a couple, together.

May the moon always guide you.