It's been planned for weeks--tonight David and I are celebrating his birthday and our anniversary at the beautiful Cheaha State Park Lodge. They are having a special St. Patrick's week deal, and I booked our room a long while back intending to spirit him away after work today and spend some quality couple time. Remember the evil stomach virus from last week? It has invaded our lives again, this time attacking both grandmothers. No babysitter availability means this is now a family getaway instead of a romantic retreat for the two of us. I asked David if he wanted to postpone the trip (he guessed our surprise destination yesterday, darn it) when we found out the bad news this morning, but he said we'd just bring Dennis along. I called and arranged for a roll-away bed for our room.
This is such a beautiful place, and the room is so much nicer than I had anticipated (especially for $29.50--the special deal--wow!), having been very recently remodeled and with brand new high speed internet available (hence this blog's timely appearance). And Dennis has been just charming all day. He talked all the way here in the car, some to me, some to himself, not too loudly (David caught a nap while I drove us here). He never asked for a potty break, so I was delighted to discover he was still dry after we'd gotten here, checked in, unloaded the car, and played in the room for awhile. That's four hours since we left home, stopped by to see Pop, visited the hospital, shopped for a bit in Alabaster, gassed up the car, and drove 120 miles. I'm so proud!
Tonight we had dinner at the restaurant here, special St. Pat's Day menu stuff that was actually quite good. Our corned-beef-and-cabbage portions seemed small, but Dennis got a nice sized burger and fry meal. We all got pricey drinks instead of water, and we ordered two desserts to celebrate David's birthday in style. We sort of cringed when they brought the bill but were delighted to discover that the whole meal came to $15.09. Holy cow! They gave him dessert for free since it's his birthday. We had thought we were kind of underwhelmed with the meal until we saw the check, at which point we decided that it was a GREAT meal for that kind of money! It sure is a beautiful restaurant, with a wall of windows overlooking the incredible mountain vista, rock walls inside with giant antler chandeliers on the ceilings, and we saw nightfall happen and the distant city lights appear. We dressed a little nicer than usual and wore our shamrock beads for the occasion, and we saw some of Dennis' best restaurant behavior yet, though he did announce that he was ready to go back to the "'tel room" when we were finishing the meal. He loves the room and his little roll-away bed, for whatever reason, and he is peacefully sleeping in it now. He didn't give us much trouble at all about going to sleep. I know he'll be fun on the hikes tomorrow as well--he's never been here before and we'll show him the highest point in the state (and surely take his picture there).
It's not the trip I had planned, but it's a nice little mini-vacation nonetheless. I'm still hoping for one-on-one time with David soon, and an overnight for just the two of us. Maybe it will happen!
I baked Shamrock Cookies today with a special cookie cutter that Gaynell and Jim sent to us, and while I was doing so, Dennis unwrapped David's birthday presents. He brought them in to me in the kitchen and said "here's Daddy's presents!" just as I looked out the window and saw him driving up. I hurriedly stuffed them into gift bags and tried to right the damage, but there was gift wrap all over the floor to give it away! Dennis picked out a swimsuit and shirt for his Daddy ("to go swim with me" he said in the store) and I got him the new Clive Cussler and a crossword puzzle book. He liked everything. And there's a picture here of Scuba Dennis, taken just before the cookie-baking-and-gift-unwrapping extravaganza.
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