Ever since I married Richard, I have had a happy birthday each year. There is something about having someone who knows you so well and who cherishes you that makes growing older a happy, exuberant event. After all, I am growing older with him! I also realized that I care less for presents than I do for experiences-- and that is something on which Richard is an expert. He knows how to rock a birthday! This year, he created a scavenger hunt for me to help me find my birthday presents.
Richard planted 10 red envelopes around the city of Bellevue with a clues at each location, and with each clue being a different puzzle I had to decipher. He also planned a music playlist for me that corresponded to each of the envelopes. I think Richard had as much fun planning this as I had figuring it out.
Envelope 1 clue: "Dispatch: Silent Steeples: Flying Horses 2:08" (referring to my playlist. the song directed me to my favorite carousel.)
Anna really enjoyed helping with this clue!
Envelope 2 clue: "Chief Mate of the Pequod" (Starbuck)
Envelope 3 was a picture of a toy top. Understandably (I think), I thought Richard was referring to a toy store. When I proudly took him to the spinning toy tops in the store, expecting my next clue, he had to sheepishly tell me the picture was referring to a grocery store that had been called "Top" (unfortunately, the store had been renamed "Haagen" recently).
Envelope 4 clue: "This one was completed 91 years after Andrew Carnegie's last grant" (Lake Hills library)
Envelope 6 clue: Robin +S+Wood and Southpark - compass (Robinswood Park)
Clue 7: "Chram (in Prague)" ....the temple
Clue 8: a recipe for cinnamon rolls and the date 4/21/2012 (we had picked up a cinnamon roll from Lil John's restaurant on our way to the Tulip festival on April 21).
Clue 9: "leaner isle park" (an anagram for Larsen Lake pier)
which was another one of Anna's favorite clues.
the final clue was a cryptogram that told me that my birthday presents were under the bed! Richard knows that one of my greatest strengths is my ability to decode cryptograms!
for my birthday, I wanted a real Willy Wanka experience! So we went on the Theo chocolate factory tour! Richard had to wear a beard guard in addition to his hair guard!
Theo chocolates is one of only a few factories in North America that takes chocolate from the cacao bean to the finished product in the same factory.
there were plenty of samples along the way...don't you worry!!
these beans were from the Congo!
someday, when I grow up, I want to work here in their confectionary room!
this tour was truly a chocolate lover's dream come true!
this is one happy girl enjoying a wonderful 31st birthday
We all got to choose a cupcake (well, I got to choose two!)
Anna, of course, chose the pink cupcake (which actually happened to be the favorite of all of us!)
My birthday party, the next day, was LEGENDARY. A Happy Hour variety show.
One of the highlights of the evening was watching our guests try to figure out how to make Mocktails!
my friend Kari and I practiced our dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"
we turned our backyard into a lounge area.
I asked my friend Monica to both perform a musical number...
and give an art history presentation on her favorite artist (she is an art history professor at Seattle University)
Matt and Carrie Hong performing a Michael McLean karaoke number
even Anna got in on the performing action! I only wish I had gotten a picture of Jeremy Bowen playing his stand-up bass in a tuxedo, and Richard and I performing our guitar duet.
2 comments:
What a fun fun birthday! I'm impressed with Richard's creativity and with your ability to decifer his clues. I so wish we had been there to celebrate and participate in the variety show. Maybe at your next birthday. :)
What a cool birthday! I can't what to see what Richard does for your *90th* birthday, since they seem to be getting cooler each year:)
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