Birthday!

My 21st birthday was last week. It was a weird birthday for me - the first one I've spent NOT with my sisters fawning over me, and a birthday dinner with the fam. It didn't help that Thomas was still dealing with sever sunburn. (he managed to get 2-degree burns all over his chest, and back) That meant that at 7am on my birthday I was at the grocery store getting burn cream for him. Thankfully he saw the calender before he left for the day, and remembered to sing happy birthday to me. I spent the day at work where I think every single person managed to complain to me about something that was going wrong with the day. I didn't tell anyone that it was my birthday, until the end of the day when the closing manager gave me a huge task 10 minutes before I was supposed to be off the clock. I reminded her that I did not close that evening, and that I wanted to get home to see if my husband got me a birthday cake. After confirming that I had, in face, been there since 10am, she congratulated me, and let me go home.

Thankfully (almost) everything got better after that. I came home to find one of our recliners   filled with envelopes and packages, and Thomas brought out my birthday cheesecake.

I got some lovely presents from my family (as well as some surprising ones - turns out that Grandma is quite generous, once she finds your amazon wish list)

The next day I had off, and I spent a lovely leisurely day at the library, Target (where I was told by the Starbucks lady that I looked 16), and treated myself to lunch at the Amish Market down the road. 

Now Thomas had been telling me for the past two weeks that he had something planned for me on my brithday. I had no clue what it was. I grilled him, and got out of him that it wasn't anyplace for dinner, no 'activity' of any sort was going to happen (which took Dave&Busters out of the question) and that I would "absolutely love it" and "never imagine in a million years what it is". 

Huh.

I knew from the directions once we got into the car that we were going to downtown Baltimore - in rush-hour traffic. That was very impressive for my traffic-phobic hubby. Finally we got to the Inner Harbor, parked, and started walking, on a pier. I was totally clueless - he wasn't going to take me on a boat ride, was he? I was wearing heels! Then, as we got closer, I saw this:

Apparently Thomas goes to school with someone who works at the Tikki Barge , and he thought it would be fun to have a 'traditional' 21st birthday celebration, as well as give me a little taste of the tropics. (I've been badgering him about going someplace tropical for our next vacation)

We stepped on board, and these two burly security guys asked to see our ID - you know, since we both look like we're still in high school. My darling husband didn't hear them at all, and went charging past the swimming pool. I waved him back, and we pulled out our VA licenses. We really need to get those changed to MD ones. 

Anyway, we went up to the bar, and Thomas saw his friend from school. He made us a (virgin) strawberry daiquiri, and lime margarita, and since it was my birthday, it was on the house. Some people are really so sweet. 

They were delish. Thomas let me try both, and I settled on the margarita. I do love me some lime!!

It was lovely - the sun was still up, and the bar wasn't too rowdy yet, and we just sat enjoying the warm weather, the sunshine, and being with each other. Between my work schedule, and Thomas studying for his registry on Saturday, we've not been able to spend much quality time together. 

After we finished our drinks, and I declined Thomas' offer to throw me into the pool , we set off for the harbor. I wanted to head into the Barnes and Noble that I had seen last time we were here. It's beautiful.

It looks huge - really it's only 2 stories. We had fun though; I read to Thomas in the children's area, and then he showed me the journals that I drooled over. Afterwards we headed to Hard Rock Cafe. Thomas hadn't ever been in one. I don't think he really liked it, but I had fun rocking out to Katy Perry, and laughing at the cheesy 70's (early 80's?) music videos. Afterwards we walked along the harbor, beside the aquarium, before heading back to the car. 

All in all, I did have a lovely birthday.