28th Birthday Weekend

This past weekend was my 28th, and my sweet husband surprised me with a birthday party Friday night! I had never had one before, and totally had no clue even about the party. Friday I got off from work early and came home and tried getting Frank to come home early and climb. He said he couldn't and I didn't think much of it. When he got home, we went for our dog walk, and I was so hoping we could go for a short one because my legs were so tired from a class at the gym the night before, but Frank talked me into doing the super long one since it was Friday night. When we got home, we went up to get dog treats and Voila! Coworkers and friends of mine were waiting in the kitchen and scared me to death when they yelled out! They brought loads of food and we hung out until 11, so it was a good night. I was a little depressed all week because my sister was going to come and then couldn't, but Frank did such a grand job with the party and then our weekend trip, it was a really great birthday.

We debated all week whether to go somewhere or not, and since it was so cloudy and nasty for climbing, we headed up to Dresden. We hadn't been and its only 2.5 hours away! One of Germany's prettiest cities we'd heard, and with a serious WWII history. We splurged and stayed downtown at the Hilton and were even on the "executive floor" because they tried giving us a room with twins and we insisted on double room vs twin which ended up being the only one they had left supposedly. The altstadt sights are all really close to each other, so its great for walking around. We even managed to find the climbing gym without making a single wrong turn, normally impossible! Gyms are always in such strange areas of cities normally. The gym was called XXX which made me curious, but it's only because it was HUGE. The climbing was actually pretty darn good, 18 meters high on one wall even, but the gym was so hilarious. They were playing the worst 80s music ever and then mixing in some funny oldies like "Lollipop", which made it super hard to climb when Frank would bust out laughing while I was leading singing along.

For dinner, we walked to what we heard was the popular side of town for the "young crowd" at about 10pm. Well, the young crowd ended up being the scary, teenage, punk crowd! So, we turned ourselves around and walked the mile right back to the yuppie bars and restaurants by the Hilton in the altstadt, ending up at an Australian restaurant with crocodile, kangaroo, and weird fish on the menu. And do, we ate vegetarian that night, and it was quite good.

Sunday, we ended up leaving Dresden in the early afternoon, giving us time to hurry home, pick up the dogs, and head out to climb at a new place. Unfortunately, most of the routes are soaking wet right now and seeping like crazy, but we were able to find 3 mostly dry routes to play on for a few hours.

Time for me to shower and get ready for bed now though. Wish it were the weekend again already!