Carrie's birthday adventure

For Carrie's birthday on Saturday, I kept what we were doing a surprise until that day. When I woke her up, I gave her an envelope with instructions inside as to where she was supposed to go, then everywhere we went I gave her another envelope with more instructions. It made the day a little bit more mysterious, and we had a good time. I figured I would post with the notes and include some footnotes of my own to tell you how the day went.

Envelope 1:

Happy 30^th Birthday!!!!

You have a number of things planned today for your birthday, but they will be revealed to you over the course of the day.

First off, get ready, get dressed, and go to Kerrytown,* where you will receive further instructions…

*Kerrytown is the part of Ann Arbor where we had the wedding reception. Also, the notes I gave her did not have hyperlinks.

Envelope 2*:

Welcome to Kerrytown for the first time in your 30s! While here, you need to do the following:

Go to the Farmers Market, pick out some tomatoes!** (If there are any good ones…)

Go to Cake Nouveau and get a free birthday cupcake!*** (You know, if they will actually do that for you. Take your ID.)

Go to Zingerman’s for your free bagels. At Zingerman’s, you will receive further instructions.

*OK, so somehow this envelope got left behind, but I was able to recite it to her almost verbatim, since I had typed it out maybe an hour before.
**There weren't any good tomatoes yet. I am hurting for some heirlooms.
***Chick who runs this place is hot. The big check she had from winning on Challenge on the Food Network recently was out for all to see. I always wondered if you actually got another check, or if those things were legal tender.

Envelope 3:

While here at Zingerman’s, let’s grab some lunch! I am starving!*

But don’t get dessert, because we are off to Ben & Jerry’s and Stucchi’s for some free birthday ice cream. After that, you will receive further instructions.**

*Yeah, I knew I would be hungry. I had the sandwich I always get with pastrami and corned beef and two types of bread, and Carrie got something with brisket and cole slaw, and we had some mac and cheese on the side.
**These two places are literally right next to each other downtown. Most Ann Arborites only go to Stucchi's. True Ann Arborites go to the Washtenaw Dairy, but we got free ice cream here so whatever. Although, we were still full from lunch.

Envelope 4:

I hope you enjoyed or are enjoying your ice cream, which I will guess was the olive flavored sorbet with celery meringue.*

Now, go to Borders by 2:00! Hurry up so that you can see Garrison!** We will get her CD and get it signed and say Hey to her if she will let us. (Here was where I was going to give you her CD, but it was nowhere to be found.)

After we leave, you will get even more instructions! (But we have done so much already!)

*See the 30 things post about what Carrie dislikes in terms of food.
**Seriously, we forget how much we love Garrison until we see her perform. The pure acoustic is always better - just her and the guitar. There was a decent crowd there. Plus, when we went and spoke with her afterwards, I name-dropped Chip for the third time in a row meeting her.

Envelope 5:

Wow, it has been a busy day. You look like you need to relax. Luckily, you have a 3:30 appointment at the Relax Station for a “Royal Treatment” massage!! Let’s get over there!*

(Unless, we have like an hour to kill. Then we can do something else first. I just didn’t know how long Garrison would take.)**

After your massage, you will receive some more instructions!!

*Carrie enjoyed her massage and it was the big surprise of the day. Yay me!
**We totally had an hour to kill, so we went home real fast.

Envelope 6:

Now that you are relaxed, let’s go grab some coffee.* After that, we are headed out to the Wine Barrel to pick up your birthday presents!**

*It was too soon for coffee, so we got it after we picked up the wines.
**This place is in Livonia, so it is a bit of a jaunt. But we got the 1978 Cos d'Estournel, which is from St. Estephe, which we have never had, and the 1978 Lynch Bages, which is a Pauillac, which we love.

Envelope 7:

Now, let’s go back to A2 and rent a movie at Hollywood Video. It’s free you know.*

*We got coffee first, but we picked up Spiderman 3.

Envelope 8:

Let’s go home. You have a bottle of White Star in the fridge. Pour yourself a bottle and go read the Millfill blog.*

*The point of reading the blog was for her to see #30, which was where we were having dinner, at the Earle Uptown. Dinner was pretty good, but the dish we went there to get was not there! They were out of the fois gras for the Rossini, which sucked!! But the wines were stellar - we had the 1996 Les Hauts de Pontet, which is the second label of our favorite Bordeaux that we can afford, and we started off with the 2006 Pouilly Fume “Vieilles Vignes” Regis Minet. And yeah, I cut and pasted that.

So, overall the day was a success and we had a fun time. Since that took about a month to plan, I will have to start planning her 31st sometime in March.