Finally a chance to sit and let you know all about my unforgettable birthday! Joey's mom, brother and sister were going to be heading back to the states and needed a ride into the city. It worked out perfectly because I needed to go see the Dr. for my 5 month check up and its always nice to have more than one reason to make the long drive.
So the plan was to get up and head out early, make a quick stop at McDonald's for lunch (special treat for the birthday girl) and then head on into the city for a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. Wonderful plan, excited about the plan, going to be a great birthday!
Well, I should have known better, planning is silly. Especially here, so Sunday night when I got the word that things had changed, I wasn't too surprised and I was curious about what the next day would bring.
Remember how I said the King was in town, well it seems we got invited to see him on Monday morning. So, we decided we couldn't miss an opportunity to see, maybe even MEET the King. We headed out at 9am, the time the invitation said to meet him. After running into all sorts of people who hadn't seen the invitation or didn't exactly know what it was all about we finally were told to wait in front of some tents. Finally someone we knew came and told us where to go. We were moved to a large area, with barricades and tents. We stood in the corner in the shade. It was SO hot in the sun. Since it was a high security zone we didn't grab much, not even a diaper bag for Josiah.
We were really the only ones around, other than some secret service guys, lots of police and soldiers and the carpet guys. The carpet guys were laying out carpets for the King to walk on. Big beautiful red carpets. They were under a really big set of tents and then made a sort of walk way out to a podium. Things weren't looking good for things starting on time, since we were the only ones there and all. Then around 10 we heard people yelling as they came running into the area. There were thousands of people - who didn't have invitations - who were going to stand in the same area we were just to get a glimpse of the King. They were running to get the best spot and soon they were crowding in to where we stood. It was getting kinda crazy and I must confess I was wondering what in the world we were doing there, it wasn't looking very promising to actually meet the King.
The guards then realized (or were told, I can't remember) that there were Americans in the crowd with an invitation. So after a time they came and got us out of the group. It was pretty funny, they didn't really know what to do with us. So they kept moving us around. "Stand here, oh actually stand over there. Oh, we forgot it is a high security risk for you to stand here, so we'll have to move you. Stand in the shade it isn't good for a baby to be in the sun." On and on it went different police would argue with the solders and with the secret service men about who had authority to deal with us and where should they put us. They didn't think we understood which was part of the fun, but we understood most of it. We got to talk to some of the secret service men and spend some time sitting on those beautiful red carpets.
Finally after 4 1/2 hours. They moved us into a line in front of the barricades full of people. We stood in a line along with some other important native officials. Around 1:30ish the King pulled up in a fancy Mercedes (that's what Joey said anyway) and out he came waving and blowing kisses. He quickly ran under the tents and looked at all the pictures of the new development. Then he ran along the walk way of carpets and raised a flag telling an excavator to go ahead and did a hole. Then he waved again and ran back to his car and drove away. All in all he was there about 20 min. I know he saw us and we were only about 100 ft away from him. I even thought I saw his lips mouth the words "Happy Birthday" as he walked by. Just kidding, but he was pretty close and it was exciting to see him.
As soon as he left the whole place cleared out. It was like a stadium after a football game. Go as fast as you can and get out of there! We rushed to the car and got on our way. After dealing with traffic we got on the road to the city about 2:30 and we were off. We decided to bi passMcDonald's for the sake of time and got to the city about 10pm. We picked up our friend Tom who was there for a night and went to the nice restaurant. It was so fun. I had a yummy fish in cream sauce. It was really good. I was super blessed with lots of fun gifts - new clothes, new flip flops and cute earrings.
As I climbed into bed I thought about the day. Its not everyday you get invited to meet the King and be surrounded by people who love you at the same time. I can honestly say that I will never forget my 29Th birthday, it was a day to remember!
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