Happy Birthday to Me!

This is the end of my Birthday week. I had such a great time.

First I'll show you how goofy my parents are. That is a gigantic Birthday card. I've left some smaller ones so you can see the size difference.

And that beautiful Champagne bottle is made entirely out of chocolate.

Made by Helen Grace. Isn't that the cutest thing?

And then my Big Hunk took me to Irvine. Yes Irvine. What's in Irvine you say? Well a very cool Hotel called the Hyatt.

First we went to The Galley.


The Galley is a little hole in the wall kind of place. They have the greatest malted shakes you've ever tasted. The first time we went there Big Hunk and I shared a malt. However this was MY Birthday and I wanted one all to myself. Big Mistake. I got nauseous. Really nauseous. So nauseous that I was sure I was going to lose my shake and maybe ruin my whole mini vacation. We were going to go to Fashion Island but I did not feel very well. We went back to the hotel.






After resting for a little bit I was up for dinner. We went to another hole in the wall place called Memphis. It used to be a biker bar back in the day. Now it is just a little neighborhood bar/hangout/restaurant. They have great fish there. We had the special which was halibut and garlic mashed potatos. They arranged it all so pretty on the plate, just like a fancy smancy place. It was totally excellent.





The day of my birthday Big Hunk left the hotel very early to golf. His son had arranged to play golf on my birthday which also happens to be his birthday. I told him not to worry, go, have a great time with your son, on my birthday, I don't mind. I'll just stay home, by myself, and cry.

So I sat there in the hotel. Well first I went upstairs and raided The Regency Club. Let me tell you about this in case you are not the seasoned traveler/hotel stayer that I also am not. You get in the elevator, you put your room key/card in the slot and push floor #12. You can't push this floor unless you put your room key in the slot, right there in the elevator. I thought that was interesting. Also there is a floor #13. Right there in the elevator. I had always thought there was never a floor #13 but there it was. And you needed your card to make it work. My card apparently was not programed for this floor cause I couldn't get there and I was much to lazy to see if I could access it by stairs. Back to the Regency Club, basically just a room with a continental breakfast in the am and some snacky's at night. You can always get coffee there but most importantly there is a balcony where I could indulge my habit. We always get a non-smoking room because it stinks when other people smoke. But our room had no balcony, drat.

Ok so I chowed on a bunch on continental stuff, I had a handful of magazines, hot tub downstairs and a beautiful day. At one point I was watching Phenomenon with John Trevolta and Kyra Sedgwick (did you know she is married to Kevin Bacon?). Anyway, great movie and towards the end of the movie the phone rings. I am bawling my eyes out. (sad, sad ending) It's him, telling me what a great time he is having kicking his sons ass at golf, what am I doing? I told him I was crying. It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to.

Because they got such an early time we went out afterwards with his son and daughter in law and their 2 adorable children. We went to this cool little cafe in Laguna Beach. It's called C'est la vie.

Two Adorable Children

I ordered this very yummy sandwhich. It was called the Parisian. It was a bagette, toasted crispy, on it was roasted peppers, tomatoes, avocado and slices of brie all melted together. We ordered a side of this pine nut sauce to pour over it. It was heaven and I think I could duplicate this at home for a nice summer meal.


Big Hunks son that shares the same birthday with me. Isn't that special! That means he will never forget my birthday!

His lovely wife Kim. She really is a doll. She is tiny and fun and I love her.

Kimmy goosing Big Hunk

This was on the beach in front of that cool French cafe. After this we went shopping at all those cool unique shops. I found an absolutly beautiful Hummingbird feeder. Handblown with little removable glass flowers. I also saw this absolutly gorgeous ring. Now I'm not a huge jewelry type of person but this ring was so pretty. I didn't take a picture but imagine a 6-8 inch string of tiny diamonds, not too tiny, you definatly know they are diamonds, and wrap this around your finger. The ends curved slightly and the strand was not tightly wound but largish space between them. I had never seen anything like it and it was just so pretty. It was in one of those artsy fartsy type jewelry places that Laguna Beach has. Guess how much it cost? Just guess. $2,600.00. Yikes. I could buy a lot of pugs for that!

That evening we dined in the hotel restaurant. It was a nice pricy place but the Filet Mignon was excellent.

And what did my sweetie give me for my birthday? I forgot to take pictures so I'll do that tomorrow.