Birthday Doings

Well, it's now Monday evening and Ben has headed for home ready to go back to work tomorrow. He arrived yesterday afternoon to celebrate my upcoming birthday with a couple of gift bags, one of which contained my new friend pictured here to the left. The other gift items are just between us, but suffice it to say I am most grateful for his thoughtfulness. Once we got through the gift giving and some relaxation time, we headed out for an afternoon and evening of fun and adventure.



Ben asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner, and I replied, "Barbecued Ribs!" (probably my most favorite restaurant meal of all time), so he pulled in the Damon's in Grand Haven (We don't do short trips obviously). Our first surprise was when we ordered a beer and were told, "We don't serve beer on Sundays, just mixed drinks." Ah, the joys of being in the heart of Reformed Church country. So we ordered drinks and our BBQ ribs. All was going fine until Ben accidentally knocked over a glass of water. Well, our server came over and tossed a stack of paper napkins on the table and left. I assumed that she left those so we could keep from getting soaked and that she would be back with a towel. WRONG! She didn't come back, but left us there dining poolside so to speak. After waiting a while Ben went and tracked down the manager -- managers seem to be getting younger all the time. She came over and we explained what happened. She apologized and went to bring us napkins to go with our dessert -- she never reappeared nor did the napkins. I young fellow came over and mopped up the rest of the water with a towel. As if all this weren't bad enough -- our server came back and said, "I wasn't trying to be rude", and "I didn't see this as an issue!". She was appropriately rewarded when the check arrived. She got a whopping ten cent tip -- more than she really deserved. The manager, we were told, was buying our dessert. Actually the quote was from our server, "Courtney bought your dessert." Let's face it -- the reality is that the restaurant bought it. Anyway, we laughed about the whole thing as we put the place on our "Places not to re-visit list."

From there we headed down to the lakeshore and walked the waterfront all the way out to the lighthouse. There was a huge crowd of folks of all sizes, shapes, colors, and ages enjoying the evening. It was gorgeous and we walked and walked as we waited for the coming show of the world's largest musical fountain.

The fountain show was filled with religious music -- some modern and some traditional and the lights and fountain worked in time with the music. It was a grand show though it was a little short. By now it was 10:30, and this tired couple headed back up the road for home and bed. It was all in all a fabulous day. Monday's fun will be posted in a separate post so that you don't have to read it all at one time.