I had some vacation time to burn before my rapidly approaching anniversary date at work, so I scheduled a random Thursday as a vacation day (we usually have a skeleton office crew on Fridays, so those aren't good days to take off) to get my hair done and to get a manicure and a pedicure.
When my day off arrived, it happened to be the Thursday that all Portland meteorologists were predicting to be the biggest snow storm we'd ever seen, also known as Snowverreaction 2011. I didn't have to stress about getting to work, but was worried that my appointments were going to be cancelled, which would have been a huge bummer. None of them were, and it ended up being a great day. I went to bed that night anticipating waking up early for work the next morning.
Fast forward to 6am on Friday morning... I am awakened by my husband, who flipped on all of the lights in the bedroom. I look over at his side of the bed, and there is a pair of Oregon State rainboots, and a note. This is what I saw:
In my morning confusion, I interpreted this to mean that the rain boots were my birthday present, plus Dan was giving me twenty dollars. The equal sign appeared to be blurred text and I was squinting to try and read it. I also didn't understand why I was getting my birthday gift 4 days early.
I had no idea that the note really translated to read:
My birthday present, along with #20 on my 101 things in 1001 days list meant we were leaving on a Spontaneous Weekend Getaway.
Yeah, I am definitely not a morning person.
To help me out a little... Dan came over to me and said, "Surprise! We're going on a trip!"
My response, "It is Friday, isn't it?" In my head, I thought it was suddenly Saturday, but I truly could not remember Friday happening at all.
As I was still waking up, and processing everything, Dan proceeded to explain that he'd arranged for me to have the day off of work, and we were leaving for a weekend getaway. He was giving me 5 hours to get up, get dressed, pack for myself, pack up the dog, and get any work done that couldn't wait til Monday. As a type A planner, I kind of freaked out a little bit. I like to know all the details and plan way in advance. For any type of trip, I start packing and planning what I'm going pack at least 2-3 days in advance. I was happy to know that we were going somewhere very cold and snowy, and I needed to pack very warm clothes.
Dan left to head to work for a few hours, and since I couldn't sleep any more, I got out of bed and started doing laundry & packing up dog food, etc. For the next couple of hours, I did chores, packed, worked from home, and texted and called my friends and family to tell them about my surprise. I was getting very excited!
Dan got home and we loaded up the car and hit the road. I had no idea where we were going, but Dan had everything detailed out, of course. When I first put this item down on my list, I knew it would be a challenge, not only for me, but for Dan as well. We are both planners and like to know everything in advance. Neither of us does well in "fly by the seat of your pants" type situations. I really did not know how I would ever check this off my list, because I knew Dan would have a hard time going with it. So, it was really no surprise that this was his strategy. I was getting my spontaneous weekend getaway, while Dan was getting to be in charge of all plans and details. Check, and check, all parties happy!
Before we left I wrote down my guesses on where we were heading. As soon as we started out, I knew it was either the Coast or Central Oregon (Bend or Sunriver). However, I knew there really wasn't much snow at the Coast, so I was definitely thinking Central Oregon. Sure enough, we took the exit towards Detroit Lake and headed towards Bend. Dan tried to play it off like we we weren't driving that far, but stopping somewhere in the middle. Right, okay.
Road trip!
Our furry co-pilot. Looks thrilled, doesn't she?
Gorgeous blue skies & sunny weather
Driving over the mountains and through the pass
View from our back deck at Sunriver
After we settled in to our room, Dan decided it was time to start the birthday celebration. I have never minded having a week long celebration, so I didn't argue. I got to open my first birthday present!
Garrett's Popcorn!! YUM! In a special edition 'Oprah's Favorite Things' tin! YAY! This is the world's best popcorn people. If you haven't had it, you do NOT know what you're missing. And if you ever fly through Chicago, and don't tell me that you're going so I can give you my popcorn order, we can no longer be friends. It's THAT good.
We snacked on some popcorn as an appetizer, and then headed in to Bend to grab dinner. It was absolutely FREEZING that night. When we were driving back to Sunriver, the car was showing the outside temp was 7 degrees! BRR! We watched a movie in our room and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
On Saturday morning, I was awakened with another birthday present...
This is my "Please don't take my picture first thing in the morning!" face.
...but, I guess if the present is in a Coach box, I could smile a little...
... or smile a whole lot!
Dan blew me away with a beautiful new Coach bag. I was beyond surprised. He spoils me.
Since this getaway was so spontaneous, we didn't really have any plans, so we just headed into Bend and puttered around. Got some lunch (too late for breakfast by the time we got started!) and coffee, and did some shopping around town.
We went into Real Deals, which is my favorite store in Portland. The Bend store is much bigger and they had some very fun things but we didn't buy anything.
Then we went on to the outlet stores, and shopped at Nike and Columbia. We both got a few things at some great deals, thanks to Dan's "employee discount" through Kelly Services.
After we were done shopping, we took Mollie down to Old Mill to walk her for a little bit along the river. She was loving the fact that she got to be on "vacation" with us!
That evening, we met up with our friends, Kelly and Cody, who live in Bend, for dinner. I chose to eat at Deschutes Brewery, simply because I'd never been there before and who doesn't love a beer and a burger?! Cody beat us there and got our name in. We waited in the bar for a bit, chatting and sipping a couple of beers. Dinner was awesome! Shockingly, I had a vegetarian burger, but it was really, really good. The sweet potato fries were the best I've ever had!
After finishing dinner at Deschutes Brewery, we went back to Kelly and Cody's house to hang out and introduce our dogs to each other. Mollie and Bella had never met before, but they bonded instantly. The two of them went crazy wild all over Kell and Cody's house, playing together. They wore each other out and Mollie slept for three days after that.
New buddies
Kelly and I with our fur-babies! Our crazy pups!
Cody and Dan
For dessert, Kelly surprised me with cupcakes from Ida's! They were all sooo delicious! We shared all the flavors... Key Lime, Red Velvet, Oreo and Peanut Butter Chocolate. So yummy! Look at Kelly's creative and decorate cupcake platter!
After dinner and dessert with the Martins, we headed back to Sunriver for our last night. It's so cozy and relaxing there. I turned on the fireplace and we kicked back to watch TV.
The next morning, we checked out and started our trip back home, stopping for breakfast in Sisters. The weather had been a little crazy in the pass and the temperatures were really low so we wanted to get home early, just in case!
All in all, it was a very fun, relaxing and amazing weekend! And it was definitely spontaneous. I felt so blessed and spoiled by my husband. It was really special to me that he put so much thought into planning this weekend so I could cross this off my list. He is truly the best husband in the whole world and I am SO lucky that he is all mine. And I have two amazing and wonderful girlfriends who helped him pull the whole thing off, Kelly and Brittney, I'm so blessed to have you two as friends!!
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