David's Birthday!

Dave's birthday this year was a full week long.  This is because my scheduling department scheduled my mandatory 3-day annual recurrent training to start ON David's birthday.  So first I treated him, and then he came down south and treated me for a couple of days.

So for the northern portion of Dave's birthday, we spent a little time in a secluded English country manor

for reals.  This is an English Country Estate.  Like, from England.

This guy was one of the founders of Goodyear, and one of the things he did with his millions was to transplant his favorite mansion from England to this little spot in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

It is now an exclusive country club and inn.  On this Sunday, we dined alone in the sumptuous dining room with our Ukrainian server giving us her undivided attention...

 (She was training another server at the time and would loudly instruct her on how to deal with "them" as if we couldn't hear her around the corner.  She turned out to be really nice, but she was cracking us up through the meal)

After lunch, we took a walk around the property.

In the little gazebo,

at the end of the lawn,

the world smelled like sweet honeysuckle, and we saw some beautiful birds playing in the stream below.

 And some of these, too:

 Farther back lie the tennis courts.  Dave looked around,

 and found us a tennis ball.  We played a little hand-tennis (a very little cause I am not in good shape right now).  And then we went into Chagrin Falls.

But we forgot the camera, so this is one of the only phone photos we got.  It's a cute little town, though, and the diner we found had very good food.

When we returned, this is the room we had for the evening!

 Sigh.  I love the wood detailing and the beautiful fixtures.

Part II and Dave's presents coming soon!

Happy 33rd birthday, my love!