Last Saturday (Oct 31) was Terry’s 28th birthday. I decided over a month ago that a surprise trip was in order since his birthday conveniently landed on a weekend. I booked the hotel, lined up a sitter and managed to keep it quiet from Terry. Most of his family and my family knew where we were going, even our daycare provider knew but thankfully they all know how to keep secrets!
As the day got closer I realized I had two small snags. The dogs needed to be watched and I needed to pack Terry’s clothes and Abigail’s without him knowing. I got ahold of Terry’s mom and she graciously offered to come over Saturday evening to keep the dogs company and hand out candy and then come back in the morning after her night shift at work. I was very appreciative! I also managed to get Abigail’s clothes all packed up on Thursday night. On Saturday at 2pm I finally told Terry he needed to pack an overnight bag. He was curious and asked if he needed a swimsuit and I told him that he didn’t.
We hopped in the car and brought Abigail to her aunt’s for the night then I started driving. As we got into the outskirts of Stillwater I finally told Terry that this was our destination and I had to tell him the address of our hotel so he could navigate the last few minutes.
We stayed at the Water Street Inn, in a Water Street room on the third floor.
Terry was very excited about the room and the hotel. He especially liked the gas fireplace and I knew he would so I made sure we got a room with one! Once we checked in and dropped off our stuff we left to go find our restaurant for Terry’s birthday dinner.
I looked over the list of restaurants on the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce site and checked out all the ones with websites. I landed on Smalley’s Caribbean Barbeque. I thought the food looked good (you can access their menu online), the price was right and the atmosphere looked fun.
Boy, was I right! Our server was dressed as a pirate (now this might have been because it was Halloween) and she kept Terry’s Diet Coke (or Pepsi?) full (Terry’s marker for a good server). We decided to go with Pirate Burgers. These are 1/2 pound burgers with 14 toppings (you can pick and choose but you can take all 14) including 3 types of cheese, 2 types of onion, 3 kinds of mayo, coleslaw, bbq sauce, bacon, lettuce, tomato and pickles. I had 7 toppings and Terry had 10. Also included was one side. Terry picked the roasted sweet potatoes with sausage and caramelized pork and I went for the skin on potato salad with bacon and eggs. All of that for only $9.50 each! Oh yeah, and everything tasted so good!
Terry couldn’t even fit his mouth around it!
Both of us by the fire
We were so full Terry didn’t even order dessert for his birthday!
We decided to go walking around town after dinner and try to get some pictures.
Sunday morning we slept in, got some breakfast then drove over the lift bridge and into Wisconsin for a few minutes. Terry was driving and I was in charge of the camera. Glad I snapped this shot when I did because you can really see how steep this hill is!
On the bridge
We found a spot to park once we got back to Stillwater and did some window shopping. They have a new knitting & fabric shop so I had to check that out. Real nice stuff and some of the cutest fleece clothes for kids! I’m thinking of trying my hand at recreating one of the cute dresses for Abigail. We also looked at a kitchen store and a Christmas ornament store. We probably looked at a few other places too that I can’t remember right now.
We walked along the water
As we got back to the car we saw this
So we climbed up (and got lapped at least once if not twice by someone who was doing the stairs 14 times that day) and saw a beautiful view. BTW, I’d say the stairs were probably 2x as high as you can see in the picture, it turns there and keeps going up!
We convinced the guy that he needed a little break before his last trek up & down so he came over and took our picture.
We had a wonderful relaxing weekend and I am so glad I could take my spectacular husband away to celebrate!
