30th Birthday: Surprise number one: Mom and Dad!

For my birthday, Mark planned three surprises - one for each decade. I was totally blown away by them all - I didn't expect anything for any of them, except for maybe right at the last minute. It was an unparallelled feat of logistics and secrecy, and I can't believe how well everyone kept all of the secrets, because it seems that absolutely everyone knew everything about what was going on!

As everyone knows, for the first surprise, Mom and Dad flew to England. They flew into Heathrow on Monday and it worked out really well because Mark managed to finagle a meeting in London, so he could pick them up from the airport. He took them to the Moon and Sixpence, in Clevedon, which is a pub with rooms, on the seafront. They've just redone their rooms, and it sounded like they did a good job. Here's a sneaky photograph taken when Mark dropped them off - at this point, I'm at home at the flat, unaware of anything going on!


On Tuesday, Mom and Dad hung out and slept out their jet lag, confined to their room, because I was working from home most of the day, and Dad was afraid that if they went out in public, I might spot them and the jig would be up. But in the evening, I had a clue waiting for me, which kicked off a sort of treasure hunt all around the flat - and car. The last clue took me to the Blue Ocean, which is a Thai restaurant in Weston-Super-Mare, which is one of our favorites.

Because of the wording of the final clue, and a couple of other things, I had a sneaking suspicion about what might be there, but I didn't think that Mom and Dad would actually have flown over. And when I entered the restaurant, only Mark was waiting there. But then, Mom and Dad came out, which Mark captured on video (most of it is of me, talking, but what else is new....let me know if this video doesn't work - it's my first time including one on the blog):





Then we had really yummy Thai food!



At this point, I knew I had two more surprises coming, but Mark assured me that this was the biggest one, so I relaxed, thinking that not much else was going to happen...so I was totally unprepared for the next surprise!