I had been trying to come up with something to do for my birthday, but not finding anything exciting when Jess discovered there was a circus in town–Venardos Circus! They weren’t performing on my actual birthday, so we went to see it the day before. It was just down the street from us–couldn’t have been any more convenient. We drove over and ate lunch and then got in when they opened the doors so we could get pretty-much-perfect seats.
It was a small circus, which I think I liked better than a big production. No matter where you sat you were no more than ~30 feet from the stage so you got to see everything really up close. You could see the performers’ muscles shaking and watch the expressions on their faces showing how difficult the acts were. It felt more personal than a big production with hundreds of seats where everything is perfectly polished. I think the group perfectly embodied the concept of the traveling circus spectacle.
They had a juggler, a modern concept of a clown, acrobats, trampolines, lots of energy, and lots of fun. I highly recommend it and would be happy to go again if they come through town in the future.
The next day, I took the day off of work to enjoy my birthday. Had a lazy start to the day and did some reading. For lunch I wanted to sit somewhere quiet, so we took some sandwiches out to Brushy Peak Regional Preserve and sat at a shaded picnic table. Watched some rabbits or hares hopping around the landscape. It was nice.
There’s a rabbit in the shade under this picnic table:
After lunch we played the first scenario in Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. A game which I got for my birthday last year. I have too many campaign games waiting to be played. No buying more campaign games until I’ve played the ones I have. We were victorious (it’s intended to be a casual, light-hearted dungeon crawl, so winning should be pretty easy).
After getting the game cleaned up it was time for a surprise from the girls–my very own treasure hunt! I started by visiting the Library of Secrets and receiving a clue from the librarian. And from there I was sent all about the house until I had assembled the components of a computer and typed in the password I obtained along the way.
Completing the treasure hunt naturally unlocked my presents as the prize, which I opened next.
And from there it was dinner time. We went to BJ’s and it was decidedly disappointing. But there was a delicious cake waiting when we got back to make up for it.
After eating cake we went up the hill at Cayetano Park and watched the sun set. There was a cloud bank over the western hills, so it was a bit anti-climactic.
