Farewell to the Twenties!

Surprise! I'm in San Diego right now.
The reason?
To visit family (I haven't been "home" in over a year and a half), but mostly to celebrate Laura turning 30!

Before we can celebrate her turning thirty next Tuesday, (July 22nd) we first must say farewell to her twenties.

If you've ever read Laura's blog "It's good to be me!" you know that she knows how to throw a party for a friend like you would not believe.

Now it was time for a party for herself.

First off was a four hour brunch at a local restaurant on the edge of small air field.

The 94th Aero Squadron restaurant has a WWI theme, which is pretty close to being 1920.

Here's the front of the restaurant.
Next you invite all your friends to come join you through out the day...in 20's style dress.

Laura's aunt made her dress; Laura's friend Margo (in the black outfit behind Laura) made her own outfit. The normally brunette Margo helped Laura plan the event, and she herself had just had her 30th party with the theme "Paint the Town Red.

The girl with the purple boa is named Heather. She graduated from UT Arlington with Laura, and now the two of them both work for San Diego Hospice, Heather in pediatric and Laura in hospital liaison.

Both of them love life and celebrate life daily.

That's Heather's husband David next to her; he is in medical research. Laura was part of their wedding last fall.

Crystal is next to me in the cloche; you might remember her from the blog where I asked people to vote on which hat she should wear to a wedding.

She is now totally hooked on hats.

Smart girl!

Mom and Dad and I rented our costumes. I really loved Mom's; Dad's got a load of comments, and the fact he carried that pick ax around was a hoot.

It was a champagne brunch, and boy did we enjoy the bubbly.

Later two other friends from work dropped by too.

I liked Mom's headache band's feather. Very classy!

After brunch the party moved down to the beach area, to Mission Beach. The Mustang convertible was rented by the girls as a surprise to Laura.

Crystal was our getaway driver.

The Big Dipper rollercoaster in Mission Beach was built in 1926, so of course taking a ride on it had to be part of saying farewell to one's 20's.

My parent's rode it back when they were kids....

Amazingly, we got parking right up in front!

And folks had told us it just couldn't be done on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon.

Yup, that's Laura up there with her arms up.

I like merry-go-rounds, so we saddled up for a spin there too.

Yes, we got "spoken to" about staying seated.
We are always in trouble, but it is worth it to have fun.

It was quite gratifying to be driving around in a muscle car convertible while in costume.
Laura enjoyed yelling out that it was her birthday at every corner we drove around.

After the amusement park we headed downtown to the Courtyard Marriott hotel. It is built inside an old bank that opened in 1928; the bank vault is still there, and can be toured!

Love the old style building.

Even the ceiling was great!

At the hotel more guests arrived. A gangster....

And his moll.

Surrounded by candies created in the 1920s, we played a four hour long Murder Mystery Game.

It turned out that Laura was the player who did the dastardly deed!

The whole day was the perfect way to say good bye to one's 20's.

Laura really had a great time during those years: she graduated from college, started her nursing career, visited all 50 states, lived in Hawaii, Santa Barbara, Philadelphia, LA, San Francisco, Denver, Salt Lake, San Diego, and Houston, bought a brand new car, traveled to Scotland, Mexico, Canada, and Sweden, wrote a novel, jumped out of an airplane, got engaged, planned a wedding, then ditched the guy just in the nick of time.

Whew.

Those were some really crazy years.

Can't wait to see what she does in her thirties.

Whatever it is, I'm with her and behind her all the way.

I've put more pictures of the day in a slide show that you can enjoy by clicking here.

Wish you could of been here too!