Date: 2006-04-01
From: Hot Springs, NC (The Alpine Court Motel)

To: Hot Springs, NC (The Sunnybank Inn)
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: overcast clouds

4-1-06Hot Springs, NC (The Alpine Court Motel) to Hot Springs, NC (The Sunnybank Inn)0.0 milesHappy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear me! Happy birthday to me!If you haven't guessed yet, April Fool's Day is indeed my birthday, this one being my 23rd birthday. Shanae reserved the time after three for her birthday surprise for me, but before that we had lots of work to do. First, we went through all our food and separated out all the stuff we had to mail ahead to the next town or back home. I went over to put in my laundry and give my mom a call. Already some wonderful birthday news: I had gotten the $4000 Sanielivici scholarship to do undergraduate research all next semester! I really didn't expect that, so it was a wonderful birthday surprise.I got back to the room and Shanae and I hopped across the street to mail our stuff and then to the outfitters for Shanae's pack and other various items. Shanae was checking out the Osprey Ariel 60 or the Granite Gear Ozone, and I had to pick up some sort of water purification (my water filter had just been pissing me off lately; it was making my arm tired from pumping all that water) and denatured alcohol. We putzed around the store so long I looked at my watch and realized it was almost 11AM, checkout time at the Alpine Court. While Shanae was checking out with her new Osprey pack, I ran over to the motel to get our stuff packed up. Shanae joined me, we checked out, and drove over to Elmer's.When we got there, one of the workers there showed us to our amazing room in this old Victorian house. It was very cool because everywhere you turned there was something unique to look at. Shanae really liked the dragonfly umbrella covering the skylight. We had a queen size bed, with a nice quilt on it, a desk and some chairs, and a bathroom down the hall, all for the hostel rate of $15 apiece. The house was enormous, a large kitchen, a couple of eating areas, a music room with two guitars, a banjo, and a piano, a sitting room with a TV, movie, chessboard, books were everywhere, and guest rooms were all over the place. It was an amazing house.We left shortly after to finish with out purchases at the outfitters. They gave me a birthday chocolate bar, with an image of a monkey on it, saying I looked like a monkey and smelled like one too! Shanae left to go back to Elmer's while I tried to work on my online journal at the outfitters, but the computer was in high demand so I went over to the Yellow Teapot and used theirs for an hour and an half.Back to Elmer's by three upon Shanae's request, but back out the door again to walk over to the Hot Springs. Shanae had gotten me a 1-hour massage and a hot springs tub soak for my birthday! The massage was great, a head to toe ordeal, and the tub soak afterwards with Shanae relaxed me completely. So completely that I had to take an hour nap once we got back to Elmer's.The dinner bell was rung at 7PM, and Shanae and I were the first two down to the dining room. Everyone else soon joined, and all the guests, Elmer and his workers sat down to the first course of soup and crackers. It was a lemongrass and ginger soup with sesame crackers and was so incredibly delicious I had to have two bowls. Next was a freshly prepared salad with poppy seed dressing, which I also had two helpings of. The main course was brown, steaming, fluffy rice, with a vegetable peanut curry to go on top. Again I had two helpings! When dessert came around my piece of pecan pie had candles on it and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me! It was pretty great. After that, I was so full I could barely make it up the stairs to go to bed. Beached whale coming through!