Nicole's Surprise!

One of my best friends, Nicole, is turning 30, so her husband decided to surprise her with a girls' trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We had been planning this trip for months while telling poor Nicole that we couldn't afford to go on any birthday trips with her (not an entire lie). She was upset enough about turning 30, but the fact that no one wanted to do anything to celebrate this momentous day was really starting to get to her. Coincidentally, on the same day we were planning to reveal our surprise Nicole had a breakdown and got super upset with her husband. Luckily, he took it like a man and did not spoil the surprise. Thursday night at about 11:00pm me, Rachel, Brindi, and special guest Tasha (Nicole's best friend from New York who flew in just for the occasion) put on our swimsuits and went to Nicole's door. Tasha hid out of sight so there would be an extra surprise. We knocked and when Nicole opened the door we asked if she was ready to go? She was really confused and thought that we wanted to use her hot tub since we were all in our swimsuits, but then her friend Tasha stepped into view and the impact of our visit hit home.

We told her to pack her bag because we were leaving for the airport at 4:30am. She was genuinely surprised, and we were all so happy that we had kept our secret so well. After very few hours of sleep we headed to the airport. We got to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale at about 10:00am. Luckily, they let us have an early check-in. Pier 66 is a really nice Hyatt hotel on the water in Ft. Lauderdale. Jonny got us 2 connecting junior suites! He is the man!

We decided to go down to the lobby to get some breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We sat down, took one look at the outrageous prices on the menu, got up and walked out. We opted for the cheaper gas station breakfast across the street.

The weather was a little overcast, so we decided to go back to the room and take a nap. When we woke up we took the shuttle to the beach and walked the strip looking at souvenir shops. Then we ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. Afterwords, we went back to the room and got ready for a night on the town.

That night we went to a movie at a theater in what we thought was a cute little quiet area of town called Las Olas. We saw a 10:15 of "Bounty Hunter". It was a terrible movie that dragged on way too long. When we got out of the movie the cute little quiet street that we had come down a few hours before was crowded with cops, drunks, and strippers. It turns out we were in the night club portion of town and they just hadn't been open yet when we went in to our movie. We quickly hailed a cab and made our escape, but not before catching a pole dance through the open door of one of the clubs. That girl had the tightest butt we had ever seen! The next morning we went straight to the beach. We had breakfast outside at a cafe across the street from the beach. Then we laid on the beach for a few hours. It was very relaxing.

That night we went to a hibachi restaurant in a safer part of Las Olas. We ordered sushi and hibachi. Brindi and Nicole tried their hands at tossing eggs. After dinner they brought Nicole her birthday treat and we sang to her.

We went back to the hotel and had fun hanging out and chatting before bed. The next morning it was overcast again so we decided to walk around town. We crossed the large draw bridge that was in front of our hotel. We ate at Einstein Bros. and got mani/pedis.

Then we went back to the hotel, sat in the hot tub and lounged by the pool. Then it was time to leave our hotel. On our way out of town we stopped and ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory where we sang to Nicole yet again. Then we headed back to the airport to catch our flight home.

It was a short trip, but we had a blast celebrating with our dear friend Nicole. She is awesome, and she deserved this girls' trip. Happy Birthday Nicole! Love you!