Happy Birthday to Rey De La Cruz, Suzanne Calhoun, Ryan and I! 🥳 And thanks to Rey for letting us crash (add on to) his birthday celebrations! 🎂 We started late, which I was hoping would allow time for the clouds/marine layer to move on. It was quite chilly at the start, especially with our chill pace. It was a little chaotic at the start. Irene rode to Pescadero and her allergies were acting up and asked if anyone could bring her some Zyrtec. I said I could. I was also going to pick up a set of wheels from Emily to drive back for Irene. On my way to give Irene the Zyrtec, Emily had just arrived and, with wheels in hand, wanted to drop them off in my car. I told her I was on my way to give Irene some allergy meds and Emily asked, "For what?". I said, "For allergies." Emily asked me again, "Why?" We comically went back and forth like this for a couple more times. Emily's reasoning was that it was a nice, clear, day, why would you need allergy medicine. I had to let her know that I have to take multiple allergy meds every day. All the people with birthdays were given a set of three balloons which we tied to our helmets. On the way through Pescadero, Suzanne and I were leading and we were getting cheers. Irene and Margaret singing Happy Birthday probably helped too. I had stopped to get photos before the first Stage descent and trying to catch up with the balloons tied to the helmet felt very weird. I managed to lose a balloon somewhere and then I lost a 2nd balloon on the 2nd descent but Peter stopped and grabbed it for me. I managed to hold on to both all the way back otherwise I would've been down to one life left. The late start and pace did eventually pay off as the sun was out at the coast when we got there. It was very pretty but there was also a lot of traffic. I really wanted to take more photos but it just wasn't possible/safe. When we got back to Pescadero, it seemed like everyone grabbed their own artichoke bread. I thought it was pretty funny. I grabbed lunch instead of some bread but I did snag some from Chris. Rey's birthday cake had a picture printed on it and Anthony asked, "What's that, a raccoon?" It was upside down for me and I couldn't tell what it was but it was Rey's dog! We joked that it was as if Anthony was saying, "What's that ugly thing?" 🤣 When it was time to cut the cake, I had the knife and we were trying to figure out the best way to divide it. Rey was suggesting a grid pattern but I wasn't quite picturing how to do it. I was way more comfortable cutting it in half and then cutting each half in half. Rey said something about "sunset" and I thought he was referring to some cake cutting style I wasn't aware of. Turns out he meant cutting it into a grid like the "Sunset District". I went with what I was comfortable. 🤣 Added some photos from Emily Bei Cheng and Margaret A 🙏