Early birthday celebration

My birthday is later this month, so my bestie took me on an outing to celebrate early. She drove us to Boulder, CO, the home of Liberty Puzzles, for a factory tour and lunch out. And what a good time we had!
First, it was great to be in a car for two hours (each way) with nothing to do but talk. Well, she had to drive, too, but she is talented like that.
Then the factory tour was quite eye opening. I love puzzles and had romanticized the idea of having a job invovling making puzzles. Well this job looks very tedious. In one room a few young folks feed the wooden puzzle boards into a computerized laser jig, then in the other room a few more young people carefully take the puzzles apart and use a scapel to "debride" the pieces of any unwanted nubs.
Whoa, not my idea of fun!
Then we went into their stock room area to peruse all 700 puzzles and pick one (or two) to bring home.
As you can see in the photo, the special thing about these wooden puzzles is the assortment of whimsies (whimsical pieces) that are included in each puzzle. I know whenever I pull out this puzzle I will be reminded of today's outing.