He did good!!

As I posted earlier, I knew Brian was up to something. I thought I had it all figured out. Maybe not down to specifics but enough that I knew he was up to something. Boy, was I wrong.

Thursday, I had lunch with Brian's mom at a really good restaurant in Timonium. A few hours later, Brian called me and told me I had to be at the gym by 7pm. What? I can barely walk (thanks to my first BodyPump class Wednesday in which I was unable to get in and out of a car or sit, stand, well, anything that involves any muscle use until Sunday....) and you want me to go to the gym? Are you nuts? He insisted I be there by 7pm and go to the spa. Huh. He's up to something. He scheduled me a massage. It was wonderful. It was 30 minutes so we only did the upper half of my body. That probably was a good choice because I don't know that I could handle her rubbing my still quivering leg muscles. Afterwards we went for a bite to eat and headed over to Target because the gift card I got from Brian's parents was starting to burn a whole in my pocket. (Thank you, Brian and Shelley, it will most definitely be put to good use.) Side note, Brian and I got Eddie Bauer water bottles which are freakin' awesome. Its amazing how I actually want to drink the water out of them.

Ok, back to the story. Friday morning, Brian got up before me. At some point he left four cards in the bed. Three were from the kids and one was from Brian. It was addressed to "Birthday Girl" and said something along the lines of, "No surprise party. No Amicci's. Pack your bags, we're going on a surprise weekend getaway!" Dammit. I never saw that coming. I was excited to say the least. The only thing I knew was that we were going someplace "cool" temperature wise. I'm always freezing, so trying to figure out what to pack for a weekend when you have no idea where you are going is a little tough. Eventually we were all packed up and started driving west. On the way, Brian read every street sign on the way there. "Maybe we're going to Turf Valley. Maybe we're going to Frederick. Maybe we're going to Charles Town. Maybe we're going to Harrisburg." He could tell I was getting aggravated and loved every minute of it.

A little after 4pm, we pulled up to the Old Waterstreet Inn in the historic section of Winchester, VA. It was a very nice house. Brian chose the Cortland Room for our stay because it was the only room with a porch off it. We had some wine and cheese prior to us going for my birthday supper. We walked to the Pedestrian Mall on Loudon Street (a street only for those walking) which is filled with boutiques, cafes, restaurants, storefronts, etc. We ate at Violino Ristorante Italiano. It was a quaint Italian place owned and run by a family from Northern Italy. We had calamari after hearing good things about it from our Innkeeper. Compliments of the chef, we had a zucchini tart and then our main meal. It was fantastic. I decided to stay on the safe side and order lasagna. Its nothing at all like the lasagna your grandmother makes. This was different. The pasta was green and thin. The meat was delicious....oh, the whole plate was wonderful. I wasn't able to finish it all, but I wish I had a little pocket somewhere that I could have stashed it for the next time I got hungry. (Now, I want to go to Italy on a trip.) The waitress came back to offer us dessert. I'm not a huge fan of Italian desserts, plus I was full to the gills, so I declined. Brian did as well. The waitress asked if there was anything not on the menu they could make me instead? Are you kidding? Who does that? Very nice of them, but I was stuffed. A few minutes later I turned around and the chef and his wife were standing next to me singing me Happy Birthday with a profiterole with chocolate gelato, chocolate sauce and a candle. Maybe I've turned sentimental lately, but for some reason it actually meant a lot that the Chef came out to sing to me, not send a bunch of clapping waiters/waitresses who hate singing to sing to me. Of course, even though I was stuffed I found space for it. It was again, delicious. After that meal, we were full and worn out so we went back to the Inn and chatted a while over wine before going to bed.

The next day, after breakfast, we went to an Apple Harvest Festival. That was supposed to be a short walk to get there. It wasn't. And it was multiplied by the fact my legs and ass still felt like they were going to fall off thanks to BodyPump. It was a cute festival. There were lots of craft vendors and food. Brian was excited about seeing all kinds of apple pies and I think was disappointed he wasn't going to be able to try any of them. We stopped for some lunch on the walk back and ended up back at the Inn for a nap. That night was a blast. We went to a bar called Sweet Caroline's. They had fun bartenders, a really great 80's tribute band and tons of friendly people. We actually met three girls that tried to talk us into moving there. For some reason Brian gave my cell number to the one girl. I'm not sure why. I'm still waiting to call. Maybe she doesn't want to look to eager to talk to me so she's giving it the "three days, I'm not desperate" time before she calls me. Ha! I think she may have found herself a boyfriend that night anyway.

We left Sunday AM after breakfast. The remainder of the day was pretty much uneventful, but relaxing. I have to say this was one of the best birthday presents I've ever gotten and I am extremely impressed that he was able to keep it a secret, yet lead me on that there was something else planned. (Actually, that concerns me a little that he could lie that well even though I knew he was up to something.)

Thank you, Brian. I loved it!!