Week of August 13: Andrea's Birthday Weekend

What do you give a woman who has everything for her birthday? Let's face it, Andrea has everything a woman could ever dream of having. Andrea is healthy, has a good job, lives in a nice house, has lots of friends, has a family that loves her unconditionally, has a cute dog, and of course, has a fabulous stud of a husband (I have come to accept the burden of being a fabulous stud). What more could anyone want? So when it comes to gift giving occasions, such as Birthdays, Valentine's Day, Arbor Day, Christmas, etc, I really have to do my homework. Fortunately this year, Andrea's birthday coincided with my semi-annual bonus from work. And with that bonus check in hand, I surprised her with a new car!!! A Ferrari 360 Mondena Spider! What? Those zeros after the decimal point on my bonus check don't count? OK, so maybe that baby blue station wagon next to the Ferrari is our actual car and maybe I didn't get Andrea a new car. But I did take Andrea to Carmel for a fun birthday weekend.

We took a half day at work on Friday and drove down Highway 1 to Carmel. If you don't know much about Carmel, it's a small exclusive town surrounded by the beautiful and rugged Pacific ocean. It's located about 100 miles south of San Francisco and is home to Pebble Beach and the famous 17-Mile Drive. Actor/director Clint Eastwood was mayor of Carmel during the mid 1980s. As we neared Carmel, we began to see a lot of fancy cars. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and even a few Ford GTs were whizzing by all around us (I've never seen a single Ford GT in person before this weekend). As we began to feel a little out of place in our stationwagon, we realized that this weekend was the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Concours d'Elegance (French, literally "a competition of elegance") is an annual automotive charitable event where cars compete for the Best of Show title.

We drove about a mile past Carmel and checked in at the Highland Inn. Normally, the price of staying at the Highland Inn is well above our comfort range but I was able to find a special bargain deal for the weekend. When we checked in, they gave us an ocean view spa suite!

I did tell you about the burden of being a fabulous stud right?

We woke up to a foggy morning on Saturday and decided to go for a hike at the Point Lobos State Reserve which was about 2 miles north of our hotel. Point Lobos was really amazing.

After hiking at Point Lobos, we headed off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Even though I've lived in the Bay Area for most of my life, I've never visited it before. Andrea on the other hand, had been there a few times. The only word to describe the Aquarium is WOW! I was really amazed at the quality and the scale of the displays.

Not only did the Aquarium have multiple giant aquariums everywhere, they also had hands-on interactive displays. I got to touch a Sting Ray! We also got to watch an otter play with a plastic dog toy. Soo cute!



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I really can't describe in words how amazing the Aquarium is.

FA-BU-LOUS!

We left Carmel on Sunday. On our way home, we stopped by the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, it was very crowded and the wait time was over an hour. We decided that it would be best to return there in fall when it wasn't over crowded (look for future blog).

Thanks to a wonderful husband, Andrea had the best birthday of her life. And thanks to Andrea's birthday, I had a great time as well.