Surprise 30th Birthday Trip

My sweet husband turned 30 a couple weeks ago. I wanted him to feel truly celebrated, so I planned a surprise getaway for him. Ryan didn't even know we were leaving town until Wednesday night, and we were leaving Friday morning. We normally do road trips to celebrate our birthdays and our anniversary, so that's what he figured we were doing.

Anyway, after I got off work on Thursday night, we dropped Wally off at our dear friends, the Giddens's house. We headed home and started packing. This was tricky since Ryan didn't know what to pack, and I didn't want to tell him and give away our destination.

So we packed as best as we could and then headed to bed. I had told Ryan that if possible I wanted to get a really early start in the morning. Well, at 5:45 on Friday morning, I got out of bed and into the shower. Sweet Ryan didn't understand why we had to leave so early, but he willingly got ready and helped me get our suitcase closed. Right about 6:30, which is when I said I wanted to try and leave by, Ryan asked if he should put our luggage in the car. I told him yes and then ran to our front window. I saw that Trent was waiting for us outside, and then I ran back to the garage, where Ryan was loading the car, and opened the garage door. Ryan was so confused that there were headlights shining into our garage. As soon as the door was up, we saw Trent, dressed in a tux, mind you, getting out of his car and coming to take our luggage to his. He made such an excellent chauffer.

When we got settled in the back seat of the car, Trent turned on some classical music "to prepare us for our trip" and then he handed Ryan a book entitled "Ireland". It was pretty funny. At this point, Ryan knew we were flying somewhere but had no idea where.

Trent dropped us off at the Louisville airport, and I got us checked in while Ryan stood off to the side. We got to our gate, and Ryan accidentally saw the destination said Las Vegas. He was trying to be so sweet and ask if that was where we were going. It was so funny watching him because I knew he had no desire to go to Las Vegas. I just played it off and didn't really answer him. That flight was on its way to Las Vegas, but we got off in Chicago, where we had a layover.

As we waited for our next flight, I started giving Ryan hints about where we were going. You all know what a brilliant kid Ryan is, so I had to give him some really obscure hints. Hint #1: Rack of Lamb. Ryan thought about this for awhile but wasn't coming up with much, so I gave him another hint. Hint #2: Clint Eastwood. Again Ryan thought, but wasn't figuring it out. Hint #3: Gooey. I told him the last hint would be the most obvious. These hints I'm sure seem more obscure to most people, but we had talked about going to this destination, so it made a little more sense to us. Ryan eventually figured out our destination--Carmel, California!! For those of you are still trying to figure out my crazy hints, Carmel backwards is lem rac (rack of lamb), Clint Eastwood used to be the mayor of Carmel, and carmel is of course gooey.

Anyway, Ryan had so many questions to sort through before he finally showed how excited he was. It was pretty cute watching him work out everything in his head--I could totally see those wheels spinning.

Our flight to San Francisco, got delayed, but we eventually got there. We rented a car to drive down to Carmel, and we even got a FREE upgrade to a convertible! Yea! We were so excited! It was the middle of January, but it's warmer there, so we were able to drive around all weekend with the top down and the heater on.

On our way out of SF, we stopped at In 'n Out Burger for a late lunch. Neither of us had eaten it, but our friend, Todd, raves about it. It was a two hour drive to Carmel, so it was dark by the time we got there. We got settled into our room, went and had dinner and then walked around the town a little.

Let me pause here to say that we have heard about this little town since before we got married. Several people saying it's their favorite place to go. It's a small town on the coast of California. It's very non-commercialized. No chain restaurants or hotels. It is the cutest town I've ever seen. The buildings are all so beautiful, and there are flowers everywhere year-round.

I was somewhat worried about taking Ryan to Carmel in January because that's when they get most of their rain. There was some huge storm system that went through California the whole week before we got there and ended the night before we arrived. In Carmel, they had 80-100 mph winds and the streets were flooded by the ocean. All this to say, that it was beautiful and sunny the entire time we were there. Thank you, God!

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast at this incredible little restaurant. They had the best raspberry pancakes ever! We then walked down to the beach and hung out there for awhile. It was breathtaking! Everything was so beautiful. Off to our right, you could see the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Course. Carmel is extremely dog-friendly, so there were dogs running all over the beach--most without leashes. The dogs were so well-behaved. They fetched balls and frisbees out of the ocean. I just can't describe how wonderful it was just sitting there taking it all in.

We then drove the 17-mile scenic drive through 3 nearby golf courses, including Pebble Beach. We were constantly stopping to take pictures because it was all so beautiful. As I'm typing this, I'm remembering the sound of the waves rolling in, smelling the saltwater and the flowers. It was so peaceful!

We finished our drive and grabbed a late lunch at a local restaurant. Most of the restaurants have seating outside because the weather there is so mild all year. They have overhead heaters for the winter. We then headed over to the Carmel Mission to look around. The sun was starting to go down, so after taking several pictures, we drove back to the beach to watch the sunset. We were just a few minutes too late, but we loved watching the ocean again.

That night, we drove into Monterey, which is only about 5-10 minutes away and had Chipotle for dinner. This may seem like a strange choice, but we only get to eat Chipotle 2 or 3 times a year since there's not one in Louisville.

The next morning, Sunday, January 13, was Ryan's 30th birthday! We went and got some breakfast at another local restaurant. The food wasn't quite as good as the day before, but the presentation of the food was so impressive that I had to take a picture.

We then walked down to the beach again. We even walked along the water, but my goodness, when those waves rolled over our feet, it was so cold! We then walked around town, looking at some of the little shops. They were all so cute!

We then got in our red convertible and drove farther down the coast. We stopped at the Bixby bridge, which is where lots of car commercials are filmed. Every time we turned a bend, I was amazed at the beauty of what was on the other side. My words are so insufficient to describe this place. Not to mention, that as we're driving, the smell of the forest around us was amazing! So fresh! We got back to Carmel just in time to watch the sunset on the beach. Again, there aren't words to describe the beauty of God's creativity, and unfortunately, pictures just don't do it justice.

For dinner that night, we at at P.F. Chang's. Some friends of ours, the Crums, recently ate there for Jenny's birthday, and it seems like we all ate the same heavenly cake--the Great Wall of Chocolate--seven layers of decadent chocolate cake surrounded by berries and a raspberry sauce. YUM!!

We headed back to our room for the night, where Ryan opened his birthday presents. It was a great day, and I'm so incredibly thankful for the 30 years that God has blessed Ryan with and that God has chosen to bless me with knowing Ryan for almost 10 of those 30 years!

On Monday morning, we headed back to the same place that we did on Saturday morning for breakfast. We were both hoping to get the raspberry pancakes this time, but bummer, they were out of raspberries! We were so sad because we'd really been looking forward to it, but I got strawberry, and Ryan got blueberry. Both were still pretty good. We walked around town a little bit more, and then we packed up our car and headed back up the California coast. Our waiter on Sunday night mentioned that Santa Cruz was a fun place to go, so we stopped by there on our way back to San Francisco. They have a boardwalk, there, but apparently nothing happens there during the middle of a weekday in winter. Oh well!

When we got to SF, we went to Boudine's at Fisherman's Wharf. It's this great little bistro with this amazing sourdough bread. Their chili in a breadbowl is phenomenal. We then drove over to Union Square, which is just this huge shopping area. We walked around there until we were able to meet up with the Millers. We got to know Jeff, Heather, Rayah and Ashlyn shortly after we moved to Louisville. While Ryan was starting his first semester at Southern, Jeff was finishing his last. Anyway, they graduated a few months after we met them and they headed back home to the San Francisco area, where Jeff is a pastor. Jeff and Heather showed us around SF some, but it was getting dark, so we weren't able to see much. When then went and ate dinner, picked up Rayah and Ashlyn and then headed back to their house. Ryan and I were so humbled by their hospitality. We were all pretty tired, so we headed to bed not too long after we got home.

We all had breakfast together the next morning before all going our separate ways--Jeff to work, Rayah to school and us to the airport. Our time with the Millers was brief, but we were so blessed to get to spend some time with them.

Thank you to Trent, Tory and Kedra and Jeff and Heather for everything you did to make this such a memorable trip for us! Praise the Lord for sweet friends who go out of their way to help someone out!