Empty Nester’s Journey – The Surprise

As surprises go – this was one of the best!

Dom and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary in Lake Placid this week. It was our hope and intention to wrap ourselves in nature, to hike Jackrabbit Trail, and to finally delight in a restaurant that we’ve had our eye on for years.

HA!

‘Best laid plans’ as they say… Neither mice nor men could stop mother nature and the universe from having their own ideas about how we were going to celebrate our anniversary.

We were greeted by 36 degree weather… rainy, sleety, icy, windy, weather. April mountain kind of weather. Stay inside with your plaid flannels and deck of cards kind of weather…roaring fire and favorite book kind of weather…wicker rocker, classic movies and cup of tea kind of weather…

And the restaurant, The Interlaken Inn, the one one we’ve tried on other occasions to get a reservation, but for one reason or another couldn’t… you guessed it, closed due to renovations.

We, of course were disappointed, but little did we know that the kids were planning to surprise us with a bottle of wine delivered table side. Once they discovered that our plan fell thru – their next question was, “What’s the new plan?”, imagining we’d be going to a different restaurant and they’d just make a new call.

At that point we decided to forego dinner out. It was already 4:00, and we would grab a late lunch from one of our favorite little sandwich shops, Simply Gourmet, the cozy little place that greets its patrons with a forest green front door, peach-colored floral plastic table covers, aromas of freshly baked crusty hearth bread and silky soups and chowders designed to take the chill out of even the coldest of springtime days. And because we knew we’d want something special a little later, instead of  a luxurious meal, out… we would opt for homemade hot fudge brownie sundaes, in.

When the kids heard this, they responded with, “Ahhh, cute, yes, sweet idea!” while still conspiring to create a new plan.

At around 9:00 pm, that evening, while enjoying a little Jack and Diane in Something’s Gotta Give, we noticed car lights up out front of our place. We didn’t think too much of it, but kept a watch due to the fact that we were the only ones in our building that night. Then – the phone rang. It was Lauren calling from California. She wanted to see ‘what was going on… were we hanging out… were our lights on…’ Funny question, we thought, but then we started to put two and two together – the car out front, we were certain, had something to do with her phone call. I love a good mystery.

Enter pizza delivery boy.

Lauren, Chels, and Nick, from California and Syracuse, had surprised us with our anniversary dinner in Lake Placid.

The only thing that could have topped this unforgettable gesture, is if the three of them had delivered it themselves.

 

The. Best.