Sylvia Birthday - March 12, 2005

A few months before Sylvia's birthday, Michael called me and told me about a plan to surprise Sylvia for her birthday. He wanted to rent a condo at Newport on the coast for her birthday weekend and invited Rocke and me, along with Crystal and Doug to help celebrate.

Since Michael wanted to keep this a surprise, I enjoyed the task of finding a condo in Newport for the birthday celebration. After looking every day for a few weeks, I finally found a condo at Nye Beach and made arrangements for Michael to rent it.

The condo was rented from Oregon Beach Vacations Property Management. The Nye Beach Condo was bright, airy and light filled. It was a two bedroom, three full bath condominium that comfortably slept 6. It had all the amenities of home for our comfort; a jacuzzi tub, tv/vcr/cd player for our enjoyment, as well as a fully equipped kitchen with microwave, coffee maker, dishwasher and full size refrigerator.

We were able to relax and watch the spectacular ocean front view of the water and Yaquina Head Lighthouse from the spacious deck and living room. There was also a view of the ocean from the master bedroom.

Michael took Friday, March 11th, off from work to so that he could have a three day weekend to spend with Sylvia celebrating her birthday. They left early on Friday morning from The Dalles to drive out to the Oregon Coast, stopping at a couple places to visit before arriving at Nye Beach. They stopped and did some bird watching at Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge near Salem, Oregon on the way.

From there, they drove to Corvallis to do some shopping at Oregon State University Bookstore . From there, they drove out to Newport. Sylvia didn't know they were spending a couple of nights on the coast until Michael handed her the directions to the condo.

They checked into their condo, then went out to dinner at the Sandbar & Grill, which is located right next to the condo they were staying in. The restaurant had a roof top patio for indoor & outdoor ocean viewing. Returning back to the unit, they relaxed and watched some television while enjoying the view of the ocean from their unit. Later on that evening, Michael let it slip that Rocke and I would be arriving on Saturday.

Rocke and I arrived at the condo around noon on Saturday with Sylvia's birthday cake and a couple of balloons. We visited and caught up with what has been happening in each other lives. Then we went with Michael and Sylvia to the Rogue Brewery where we had a couple of drinks and a snack.

Michael still had another surprise for Sylvia. She didn't know that Doug and Crystal were going to arrive Saturday afternoon to surprise her. Doug, whose birthday is also March 12, and Crystal are their friends from Salem. They get together every year to celebrated their birthdays together.

After changing some of their plans around, much to our delight, Crystal and Doug were able to make it. On the way back to the condo from our little outing, Sylvia was talking about how this was the first year that they had not gotten together with Doug and Crystal to celebrate their birthdays. Before arriving back at the condo, Crystal called me on the cell phone to let me know that they were in the condo parking lot. Sylvia then figured out that Doug and Crystal were going to be joining us for the celebration. She was one surprised birthday girl.

Before going out to the birthday dinner at the Sandbar Restaurant, Rocke and I took a walk on the beach, while Michael and Sylvia visited with Doug and Crystal. After dinner, we lit the candles on the birthday cake, sang "Happy Birthday", blew out the candles and everyone enjoyed a piece of cake. After the cake, Sylvia enjoyed opening her birthday gifts.

Sylvia and Crystal stayed up late and visited, while the rest of us "party poopers" went to bed.

To quickly, it was Sunday morning and time for the celebration weekend to come to an end. We all packed and went in different directions. Michael and Sylvia drove back to The Dalles. Crystal and Doug drove to Seattle to do some shopping. Rocke and I went home to Tigard. On the way back home, Rocke and I drove along the coast and stopped in Lincoln City to have some lunch at Dory Cove Restaurant which was recommended to us by Robin Towne, a sales representative that Rocke works with.

The weather was spectacular and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful weekend to celebrate Sylvia's birthday on the coast.