30 Years = A night away - no kids!

E did it - He finally pulled off a surprise and I didn't figure it out.....I've come to realize that I love to be surprised...but I am too darn snoopy and ususally find out the surprise before it actually happens. Well Thursday night he teamed up with two of my girl friends and pulled off a surprise birthday dinner for me with 9 other women and NO KIDS. I seriously thought I was going to dinner with my Mom and E and showed up to a restaurant full of some of my closets girl-friends, needless to say E did not stay but rather went home and cared for our 2 children instead. It was a great night. AND THEN - last night E and I went away as a b-day gift to each other while my Mom stayed behind and watched A and little E for the night.

Where did we go?

Sylvan Lake Resort in Custer State Park (about an hour from our house). It is a resort that sits right next to Sylvan Lake and at the base of South Dakota's highest peak. (Harney Peak 7,742 feet - not quite a CO mountain - but something for SD). We rented the "Honeymoon" cabin - which really just afforded us a couple more comfy chairs and a king size bed instead of 2 queens. We went to dinner in Hill City, SD and returned back to our cabin around 7pm with about 4 books a piece and ready to settle in to a night of reading near the fire and a restful night of sleep - no interruptions or SO WE THOUGHT!




This would be Cabin #7 (the Honeymoon cabin) where we began our night. Each cabin comes equipped with a wood fire place. We first noticed they had failed to give us any wood for our fire so we returned to the lodge and requested our wood. E then began to make a fire - the fire just didn't seem to go off very well - nothing that E did - the ventilation was just terrible and we ended up smoking ourselves practially out of the cabin - after setting off the smoke alarm we decided enough with the fire and doused it with water. Well now with the windows open to clear the smoke it was evident we were going to need to turn the heat on - after locating the "switch" that is supposed to be on the heater (this one was broken off) we connected it back on and turned on our heat (a very noisy heater - but it was heat at this point and that was all that mattered). We settled into our bed with our books and began to read. About 45 minutes into reading our attention was brought to a terrible smell - after doing a little more investigating we realized it was sewer gas smell coming from the bathroom. We quickly called the Lodge and told them of our troubles - they replied with "we'll send someone down right away to clean it up" - clean what up - it was just a terrible smell, so they agreed to move us to another cabin. So we quickly packed up our things and got back in the car to drive to the next cabin.




This would be Cabin #8 (no longer the honeymoon cabin) which meant 2 queen beds and no comfy chairs. We unloaded our bags into the cabin and checked for any strange sewer smells (all was good). We decided to forgo the fire this time and just go straight for the heater in this cabin. As luck would have it, this heater was broken too...but the "switch" to place it back on the heater was missing - so now we had no way to even turn the heat on AND the reading light next to the bed didn't work. Okay - enough was enough - we loaded back into the car and drove to the main lodge to figure out what they were going to do for us. They offered us there only room left in the lodge - but we declined - we really wanted a cabin. SO -



Off to Cabin #9 (third time's a charm right). This cabin had a heater - THAT WORKED. A Lamp - THAT WORKED and it didn't smell like sewer - we decided that it would work. It was now 9pm and we were just ready for bed. This cabin was okay, but neither of us slept very well, the wind blew really hard all night long and our screen door wouldn't shut all the way - therefore it was banging all night. - o -well. It was still a night away AND we did manage to sleep past the hour of 6:30am - not by much. We've decided in the future it is the Kids that need to go away for a night to a "CABIN" and we'll stay at home and enjoy our own bed.



This was part of the view from our first cabin - the camera can hardly do it justice.



Off somewhere in the distance here - we think is Harney peak - we've yet to tackle this hike as popular as it is - we've decided at this point we would like to do it without kids first.

Thanks E for making my birthday a special day!!!