For anyone who has known me for any amount of time, you know that I fully believe that everyone should celebrate their Birthmonth and not just one single birthday. It began for me long ago when my attempts to gather all of my friends for one single party on one single day ran into problems with people's schedules being too busy to make that one day. Being in September, usually meant this was the first time for people to see each other after summer break and so, it evolved into multiple fun events happening throughout the course of the month which allowed people to still gather for fun but gave more options of dates and times for availability. From the beginning, I have never really made the events all about me! I have wanted them to be fun events for everyone (it just so happens to be based around the celebration of my birth.)
This year, my amazing husband decided to take over the planning and execution of the events and promised to make this year's Birthmonth an "Experience Extravaganza!"
He sure did live up to his word!
We started the month by doing one of our favorite experiences, Camping!
We spent Labor Day weekend camping at Salt Point State Park. This park is about 3 hours north of us on the coast. It was a really great campground with clean bathrooms, reasonably priced firewood and really nice sized sites. Our site was about 1.5 miles from the ocean, so we had the nice chill of the sea breeze but still had great tree cover on our site.
To get to Salt Point you must travel along Hwy 1 through the curves and switchbacks. It is an amazingly beautiful drive. But, it can cause some concern when pulling a trailer. Therefore, we decided to leave Woody home for this adventure and just go back to the basics of tent camping. (Granted we still brought the super comfortable mattress from inside Woody and our plush sheets and blankets so we were not super roughing it but still....)
Our good friend, Peter Mai, came up to visit us at camp and was fascinated by all of our gadgets and gizmos. One thing that can be said about CampPaine Preparedness, "Yup, we have that!"
We spent the next day hiking along the coast. Checking out the seals and enjoying the foggy overcast weather that kept it cool.
The second weekend of Birthmonth was a new experience for both of us, a Hot Air Balloon ride over Napa Valley.
We left the house at 4:45 a.m. and drove to Napa. He told me what we were going to do the day before so that I would not be super angry about waking up that early. We met up with the balloon company, Balloons Above the Valley, and loaded into the gondola. Our balloon pilot, Captain Russ, was a seasoned balloon expert and took us on an amazing and smooth journey in our balloon named Freedom.
The balloon carried 22 people over the valley during an amazing sunrise overlooking the mountains and vineyards. It was truly spectacular. It was surprisingly not scary, despite the fact that we got up to 4000 feet and the pilot was very clear in saying that he really has no control over where we go. He can make the balloon go up and down and spin 360 degrees. That is it. He had to be in constant contact with the chase crew who was down on the streets driving to various parks and public lands that Captain Russ thought he would be able to bring us down in. About an hour and a half after take off, he put us down in a park with what I can only assume was the smoothest landing in Hot Air Balloon history. It was awesome. We went to brunch after the balloon ride. With champagne and amazing huevos rancheros, Captain Russ sat with us and told us tales of his flying past. It was another extraordinary experience.
The third weekend of Birthmonth was marked by a visit from Jean!
Anyone who knows Jean knows that she is an experience extravaganza in herself! We had a great weekend laughing and catching up about travels and adventures. Jean is one of the best people in the world. Someone who truly knows how to experience every wonderful moment of life, and through the stories of her travels and adventures, takes you along for the ride.
The beginning of Birthweek was spent with a great dinner out at our favorite Ramen place with Ryan's best friend and our bestman, Pops, who was in town visiting for work. My girls at work put together an awesome breakfast birthday party for me before the kids got to school with yummy cake and beautiful flowers. Then Ryan's Uncle Willie came to visit SF and the week continued with THE Experience Extravaganza pièce de résistance, dinner at Saison!
Saison
is a 3 Michelin Star dinning experience according to the 2018
Michelin Guide
. For reference, 3 stars is the highest possible rating. Ryan really outdid himself with this event. He made reservations 3 months ago to ensure that we could go on my actual Birthday. The chef sets the menu and we just had to sit back and enjoy the ride. It was nearly 20 plates of amazingly wonderful foods. Each individually prepared with such care and attention to detail. Every single item was fantastic and at the end when one of our 7 servers asked us which one we liked the best, it was one of the hardest questions we have ever had to answer. The service and ambiance of Saison was an experience all of its own. We had the most attentive servers ever. They started the evening with a champagne toast for my birthday and gave me a personalized Birthday card from the entire staff. After each course, they came and wiped our table, refilled our drinks and set out new cutlery for the next dish. When I needed to use the restroom, they brought me to it instead of just pointing like most places would do. Many of the dishes were brought to our table by the chef who made it and you could see the care and joy he felt by presenting us with his creation. At the end of the night they brought me a special birthday dessert with hazelnut cream and gold leafing. It was amazing!
Click on each photo to read a description of the dish.
The rest of the month was filled with our visit from Ryan's Uncle, dinners out with friends and prepping and planning for our October trip coming soon... Stay Tuned!
Ryan promised a Birthmonth Experience Extraganza and came through with flying colors!
In addition to all of the excellent experiences that he gave me, Ryan also got me a a really awesome present. A sling shot! With clay balls so they are biodegradable. Now I can scare all of the birds away when we are camping or hiking! Check out this wicked slow-mo video of my backyard target practice.