What weekends were made for...

My birthday is next week, so Garrett decided to surprise me with a night away. He orchestrated child care, reservations, everything. And then all week he would text me things like:

"I know something you don't know."

"Any guesses?"

I left work early because Josh (the guy I ride with) "had to be home early." I knew it was a ploy, but let it rest. We got back to town around 5:00. Hunter and Andi were gone to their friends' house and Ryan and Leigha were being picked up. I hurried up and packed the rest of my things and we took off.

I was a little surprised that we headed South on Rte 50 instead of North to the Interstate. I had assumed we were staying at a hotel up north. It seemed odd that Garrett would get a hotel in Champaign when he had just returned from there for work. I had even packed for hotel staying - shoes for the treadmill, swimming suit for the pool, and no hair dryer. "Oh, well" I thought. "Anywhere is good with me."

We were cruising through Kankakee, chatting - I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going, I figured we had over an hour in the car. We were enjoying the beautiful old houses when Garrett suddenly pulled over and parked in front of a beautiful victorian house.

Little did I know, the historic distric has several beautiful old bed and breakfasts. I was very surprised - talk about out of left field. I had NEVER imagined in a million years we would be staying at a bed and breakfast - let alone in Kankakee.

We checked in to The Burr Oak with the lady the runs the place - Kathy. She lives in the back of the house and the front has three bed rooms, 2.5 baths, a parlor and wrap around deck. We stayed in the master suite - the Kankakee room. It had all the amenaties of a hotel room (minus the hair dryer) including Q-Tips!!!

After fresheing up a little bit we headed out to eat. Garrett said he knew "just where we could go" so again I didn't pay much attention. We went to One Sixty Four North, which is a restaurant I had just noticed and wondered if it was any good. It is very classy - valet parking, live musician, excellent atmosphere and exceptional food!

Garrett tried to talk me into seeing Dark Night, but I wanted to go back and enjoy the beautiful night on the porch. We even had time to throw down The Bean Game in the parlor. Garrett was exhausted - in the middle of one of his turns (around 8:30) he dozed off to sleep - right there at the table while trying to lay down his cards!!

In the morning we had a continental breakfast - there was even a Happy Birthday balloon on the table! We sat in the parlor for an hour, just enjoying our food and each other's company. We decided to head to Bolingbrook to Bass Pro Shop and look at tents. We have wanted to get back into camping now that the kids are a little older, but we didn't have a big enough tent for all of us.

We ended up purchasing an 11-man tent and eating at the restaurant in the store. They had two large fish tanks - one fresh water - with a waterfall and one salt water aquarium with beautifully colored fish of all kinds.

We came back to town and arranged to go camping with our friends Chris and Liz (they had watched Ryan and Leigha while we were gone). We invited one of my co-workers and his wife (Mark & Kate) and their girls out for supper.

We enjoyed hobo suppers on the fire, a roomy tent, and an incredible beautiful night!

Everyone is tired this morning. Everyone has had a bath/shower and is dressed for church. We have a lot to do this afternoon, but naps are first on the agenda!!

What a great way to spend the last weekend of summer (as fall begins tomorrow). We will be camping again next week with scouts and the last time of the season on Oct 18th!