Operation: Birthday Surprise

This past weekend, I secretly traveled to Florida to meet my youngest brother and sister to surprise our Dad for his 70th birthday.  Although we were traveling from California, Texas, and Ohio, we managed to arrive within an hour of one another.  With the help of Mom’s best friend, Mrs. H, who was only let “in on the plan” at the last minute, we hitched a ride from the airport to Mom & Dad’s house.  Originally, we were going to surprise them for lunch.  Mom’s friend was going to arrange the meet up.  However, Mom & Dad were stuck at home waiting for a UPS package to arrive that they had to sign for (Thanks Tim!) and did not want to venture out.

We quickly rolled with Plan B, because well…that’s how we roll. Well at least Matthew and I do…Anne just kind of plods along.  Anyway, Mrs. H pulled up and went into the house to ask Dad about some “car problem” she was experiencing while the three of us hid outside in wait.  Fast forward 20 minutes…and we were still waiting.  Just when we all thought we had succumbed to the Florida sun, they rolled outside (We later found out that Dad was in the shower.  We had already decided he was in the bathroom, but we just thought it was to escape from Mom).

Upon seeing us, Mom turned into a living rendition of “The Scream”.  Dad, after briefly checking his heart for the correct rhythm, recovered first. Needless to say, they were surprised and happy.

The weekend went by fast, but it was not without good food and good drink. Most notably, we took Dad to Ruth’s Chris for dinner. Anne managed to reserve their wine room which is a glass…well, wine room…in the middle of the restaurant.  Dad has been wanting to have dinner in there for some time.  We had a great meal and I once again treated myself to the Cowboy Ribeye.  This bone-in meat treat is always, always good.  The privacy was also nice, because Matthew wasn’t too embarrassed when I swung my camera out…unlike last time we had dinner when I was visiting him in Houston.

For night two we grilled Dad style.  A mixture of salmon filets and red snapper grilled with butter and dill.  It’s a blessing to have the Webers at Dad’s southern command post.

In hindsight, it was a trip I will not forget.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful family and speaking of family, it would not have been a trip if Anne didn’t miss her connection back to LA…which she did.  Some things never change.  Happy Birthday Dad!