Pack Your Bags For a Surprise Weekend
I planned a Birthday weekend getaway my wife to a mystery location
A week ago today we woke up in hotel room on the 38th floor in Miami, Florida. The Beaux Arts Hotel to be exact. Some folks feel a bit queasy this high up but I was grateful for the amazing view. The hotel is located within another hotel, the JW Marriott Marquis. The arrangement is something I still don’t fully understand, but the weekend was enjoyable, memorable and I would give my hotel experience a strong thumbs up to anyone looking for a place to sleep while visiting south Florida.
(In the brief video above I took two photos from the hotel. One before dawn and the second at dawn. Yes, I am learning to animate my artwork)
But how did we get there?
With a master plan of course. My scheme was all part of a birthday surprise weekend and getaway for my wife, Debbie. She has been working hard and I wanted to make her birthday something special. Something for her to remember.
So here’s how I did it.
Early last week, I asked her if she could take Friday off. Once I received the confirmation, I told her to pack for the weekend. Carry-ons only. I also mentioned she needed to be ready to leave right at 6 pm on Thursday evening.
Now, when I told her to pack for a weekend I did not share any details.
She only really asked me one question: “how do I pack for this?”
Apparently, my answer was vague as I did not want to give away the location. After reviewing the weekend weather forecast, I told her it would be warm. Pack for a few nice dinners on Friday and Saturday I added. I did not and would not offer much more. Asking your significant other to pack for an unknown destination is not very easy.
Go ahead and try and it and see how they react.
At some point, I enlisted Jessica, Debbie’s 20 something daughter for an assist. I shared my plan and asked Jess to help her mom pack for the adventure without giving away the destination.
Jessica did terrific job trying to assist her mom. Debbie said that neither one of us really helped.
This was all part of the adventure so she accepted it.
I worked hard to supply Debbie possible hints that we might be driving. Simple misdirection. If we were going to drive, I knew she would probably see us heading to places like Palm Springs, Las Vegas or maybe Scottsdale. When I finally gave in and admitted we would be boarding an airplane she did not believe me.
Thursday arrived and we left the house with our packed bags at 5:45 p.m.
I scheduled a red-eye flight on American Airlines from John Wayne/Santa Ana Airport at 9:05 pm. She did not yet know this.
We began the birthday weekend at Debbie’s favorite local Sushi restaurant.
The food was terrific and by the end of the meal she still had no clue what was next. My wife never even asked. I think she was just grateful we were on a new adventure.
We finished eating and I drove the SUV in the general direction of the airport. Once she figured that an airport was involved a grin came over her face.
However, my deception was not yet finished.
I parked the car in the airport garage. I checked us in with the agent and held onto our boarding passes. We easily and quickly passed through TSA pre-check.
The first gate we came to after TSA was for an American Airlines flight to Charlotte. I sold Debbie on the fact we were going to North Carolina for the weekend. She happily accepted this ‘fact’ and we sat down at the gate. Debbie said she did not know Charlotte so this was a nice surprise.
A few minutes later I asked her to get up. Wrong area. Charlotte was not our destination. We casually moved from Gate 6 at Charlotte to Gate 7. Destination: Miami. So it said at the check in counter. At first she did not believe me, but when I handed her the boarding pass, Debbie was now even happier.
The trip really began with the 9 pm Thursday night departure. It was overnight flight and ended when we touched back down in Orange County, California Sunday evening at 10:15 pm.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbdf81de7-0295-4bad-8e2d-6fb5f1419cc3.heic)
Here are a few highlights of what happened in-between.
* * We shopped and ate our way through the Lincoln Road Mall. Debbie had fond memories of the outdoor shopping center from years ago. It has been a popular spot for locals and visitors for decades. However, today there is a 30 percent vacancy rate of empty shops. We still had a really nice time.
* * I arranged for dinner on Friday at A Fish Called Avalon. The restaurant is located within the hotel. Restaurant seating was outdoors, facing Ocean Drive on Miami Beach. The food was beyond delicious and it served as the perfect setting for Debbie’s actual birthday evening. The staff came by to embarrass my wife and sing happy birthday. Giorgio Riccobono, the restaurant’s general manager, was very kind and stopped by to check to make sure my wife was enjoying the experience.
* * I managed to surprise Debbie again the following night. I secretly arranged for her former Florida neighbors Chris and Fred to join us for dinner. We met them at Sexy Fish Miami, a trendy restaurant which turned into a night club later in the evening. When we entered the restaurant, Debbie was again thrown for a loop when the friends were seated at our table, waiting for us. My wife’s reaction was priceless.
* * On Sunday, I rented a beautiful boat and we spent three hours on the water with Andres captaining our boat.
Was I a bit devious? Guilty. Did I lie? Absolutely not.
Hopefully, when my wife looks back at remembers one of her special birthdays, this will rank among the better ones.
If you know someone who could use some inspiration to plan a birthday, weekend getaway or just a surprise, please share the link above.
Here are a few more of my favorite photographs from the weekend.
I welcome your thoughts about this post. Just click on the link and leave your thoughts. Thanks!
You can also follow my artwork on Instagram by clicking here.
Nice job with the surprise, Charles! A perfect weekend in Miami to celebrate Debbie! 🌴🎉