Best. Birthday Weekend. EVER.

it was beyond all expectations! really. Dev planned the whole thing and managed to keep it a secret, even though it seemed like we were reading each other’s minds all weekend.

So, since this is four days worth, i’m going to try to simplify this post as much as possible.

THURSDAY
-Leave work at 4PM. – Dev pulls in front of the gallery in “Hot Foot”. (a light blue 1985 Honda Civic with plywood on the rear quarter windows – high class!). the car is packed full with blankets and pillows and a cooler – WE’RE CAMPING! perfect and much needed for sure.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

-she hands me a wrapped present – it’s obviously a book- i flip it over and there are driving directions to the campsite – we’re headed to Santa Cruz

-we get to the campsite – it’s basically like camping in grandma’s back yard – there’s a lawn at some parts – no biggie, it’s quaint and there really isn’t anyone there on Thursday night

FRIDAY _BIRTHDAY DAY!_

-Dev wakes me up with a cup of coffee – it’s my birthday! YAY! – we hang out, have breakfast – i open the book – it’s a book of PHOTOBOOTH PICTURES! amazingly beautiful vintage photos.

But Wait….it get’s better! there are envelopes in different sections of the book – “day one – adventure one”, “day one – adventure two”, day two, supplies for day two, sunday drive home adventure.

okay, so today is day one…i open adventure one:

Roaring Camp Railroads mountain steam train ride. now, if you don’t know by know, i am a huge train fanatic! so, this paired with camping is perfect enough, but don’t forget….there are more adventures to be had.

on the train ride, Dev handed me the envelope for adventure two:

it was THE MYSTERY SPOT! i was debating posting about it on here….or just including photos, but it’s so amazing…i don’t want to give away the secret. i encourage you to look at the web site if you want to find out what it’s all about.

during dinner, i persuaded Dev to let me open the envelope for day 3. really, i figured it was my birthday and it’d be nice to have something to look forward too…especially, since the envelope said that we had to get going early…

SATURDAY

-remember how i said Dev is the best ever? or how i can’t wait to be with her forever? yeah…Saturday consisted of…

MORE TRAINS!

-we went back to Roaring Camp Railroads to take the beach train to the Santa Cruz boardwalk. this was a diesel locomotive and we road in a car c.1900 and a car c.1930. the train was an hour each way…the boardwalk is about 10 miles from where we were, but we were going through mountains and towns.

DEEP FRIED TWINKIE!

SUNDAY

-time to pack it all in. wake up early. breakfast with the neighbors since Dev forgot to pack enough meat to last me four days.

-so what’s in the final envelope? only a trip to The Winchester Mystery House! this was one of the “mind reading” insidents (along with the “Mystery Spot” where i was just talking about this place this weekend. it was the one place i really wanted to check out before the move.

-we stop by Bob’s in Boulder Creek to pick up a baby redwood burl and a bag of ice.

-stop by Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park for a walk among giants

-drive back to Oakland – wonder why we don’t live together and how weird it is to spend this whole weekend together only to have to go to our separate houses. realizing that we only have to do this for about 3 more weeks.

that’s it! i really couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. Dev and i we able to spend quality time with each other out of the grind of the city and do a bunch of adventures while collecting all the smashed pennies along the way? sounds like perfection to me. i have a few scans to do tomorrow night, hopefully. we got a few new photobooth pictures to post. two from last weekend and a few from the boardwalk in Santa Cruz from yesterday. we also got one of those “antique” dress up photos taken thanks to Sita and Kym.

soon, i promise.

on a final note: going 4 days without a phone and computer was calming. both our phones died, so we were without for the majority of the trip. also, we joked about how people used to check their messages after coming home from vacation…remember, when you’d try to guess how many messages were on the answering machine? yeah, i’d like to get back to something like that.

some day.

And FOR DEV: