surprise!

Well. Turns out Brian had ALL KINDS of plans for my birthday...

As I was putting the baby to bed, I heard the doorbell ring. It seemed Brian was expecting someone, so I wasn't too surprised about that, but I didn't know who it was. Boy was I flabbergasted when MY MOM came into Charli's room! And then MY DAD came in, too! And Daisy! And Jim! Well, those last two weren't such a shock, but my parents... Good thing I had a shirt on! :) *sniff* I almost cried. I'm totally turning into my mom.

Charli started crying, what with the sudden invasion of her room right at bedtime, so everyone left and I put her down and everything was fine. We ordered yummy pizza, and Mom kept talking about babysitting, and I kept thinking "Wow, that's a long ways to come just to babysit for an evening, unless... they are babysitting for more than an evening?" And so I finally figured out that Brian had gotten us reservations to the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, so we could make use of the gift certificates my wonderful team at work had given us as a wedding present. And he kept this secret for weeks. And my parents (and Sam, I'm sure) kept it secret for weeks. And Daisy kept it secret for weeks (she picked up my parents at the airport). As a matter of fact, even some people at work knew (I don't know for how long), and they kept it quiet. I'm sure it helps that I am completely thick about these things, and probably wouldn't figure out a suprise if it bit me on the butt, but that sure was a lot of people who knew and who didn't tell me. I think even Kim and Brent knew, out there on the Pacific Crest Trail...

Mom was hilarious. She brought me some gifts for my birthday - a beautiful handmade cloth activity book (for Charli), and a bubblemaker (for Charli). She also brought Charli a couple of toys and some new clothes and shoes. And she also had a few more things for Charli in her suitcase. :)

So on Saturday, Brian and I left Charli overnight for the first time, and headed for Half Moon Bay. The Ritz is pretty swank. They asked our names at the gatehouse on the way in, stuck something on our windshield, and after that, everyone greeted us by name, and at reception, they gave us a couple of glasses of wine. We got a room with a little firepit and looking out over the ocean (all the rooms might do this) and a really nice tv. You can enjoy the whole room with us via pictures!

We saw whales (but I didn't bring my long lens, so my pictures aren't very good)! There is a bath menu in the bathroom, where you can order a fancy butler drawn bath in your extra deep extra fancy marble bathtub (minimum $45, for a kids' bubblebath including hot chocolate and cookies). At 6:30 in the evening, a guy in a kilt walks around the property playing bagpipes! There is a catalog in the room that sells a sweater for $2500 (yes, that's two zeros before the decimal point)!

We had dinner and breakfast in the hotel, and they were quite acceptable. Dinner was not as good as the dinner at the Ritz in the city, but it was still pretty good. The chef might have been trying a little too hard - I thought there was often an ingredient in the dishes that didn't quite go, and there was one that was a frankly terrible combination (foie gras and peanut butter shortbread?! Don't try this one at home, folks!), but then you just eat the bits separately and they taste quite good - but the location is gorgeous and the service was good, so overall things were quite lovely. Breakfast the next morning was very tasty, but the service was terrible (very unexpected). Nothing that would prevent me from staying there again, should the (free) occasion arise...

Overall, we (I) had a great time! I highly recommend it to anyone who has way too much disposable income, or alternatively who has a really, really generous entity of some type (like, say, a team at work) who gives you lovely gift certificates, and a really, really great daflink who plans big secret things.