It seems as though we always have visitors at our house, which we love, but truly its really nice to get away sometimes. Especially to a place that they make your bed for you every morning and your kids can't crawl into bed with you.
Thankfully, Papa came down back in February for almost two weeks so the Husband and I could get a much needed parents only vacay.
Like most of these trips, we headed out to California. And of course used the Husband's miles to book first class tickets and enjoyed comfy chairs, a decent breakfast, and the coordinating drinks.
Once we landed, we hopped in the rental car and hit the road -- only this time, we weren't going North to Napa or Sonoma, we went South...
...and drove the Hwy 1 along the coast making various pit stops along the way.
Until we got to our destination for the first two nights -- Carmel by the Sea. Once we checked in, we grabbed a glass (or two) of wine at the hotel happy hour, played a bit of backgammon (after re-learning how to play) and then headed out for dinner. As it was already dark before we left and we both were a bit clueless about our whereabouts, we got about a block away before deciding to circle back and just eat at the restaurant attached to our hotel.
We woke up fairly early the next morning, grabbed a quick breakfast in the lobby and then headed out for a hike. We had originally hopped to head to some of the many trails in Carmel by the Sea, but sadly because of all the recent rain, we learned that many of them were closed. Thus, we took the opportunity to wander around the town and along the coast, and even though it wasn't what we'd initially planned, we weren't disappointed.
One "benefit" of having a change of plans was that we suddenly had additional time to fill so we headed into Monterey and went whale watching.
Overall, it was a super cool experience -- but would have been slightly better had it not been freezing and had I had one less glass of wine the night before.
Speaking of wine, after showering, we quickly hit the Carmel Walking Wine tour and tasted some surprisingly yummy wines!
And after tasting at four wineries, we realized that we hadn't eaten anything and since it was just before 4, we headed out to Clint Eastwood's restaurant for yet-another-drink and some appetizers.
Can't complain about the view, can you?
Then it was off to dinner and an early night to bed!
We woke up the next morning and decided to wander around again before leaving town. This time we wandered onto Pebble Beach Golf Course. Not sure if we were suppose to be here or not (my guess is no) but the Husband was super excited to say that he's been on the course and get his picture snapped!
We then walked the beach again and this crazy many actually went into the frigid water.
And after our walk, we packed our stuff up and loaded into the car to drive even further south to Paso Robles. We had initially planned to drive Hwy 1 the whole way, but just like the hike plans, this was derailed because of all the rain. Total disappointment, but guess we'll just have to come back!
Day 1 in Paso was spent trying wine at Justin and Dauo wineries and then a yummy dinner right in town. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of this day!
The next morning we got up fairly early and headed out to Cambria for an actual hike!
We made it to the end (let's be honest, other than the muddy puddles it was fairly easy) and would have stayed a bit longer, but for as the Husband was about to climb down the rocks and get a picture closer to the water, he realized that he lost his phone somewhere along the trail. So we quickly headed back and luckily found it pretty close to where we began and only inches from a muddy puddle.
Although we would have loved to have hiked more, we really didn't want to waste anymore time so off to the wineries we went -- first stops included Epoch and Thatcher before stopping at Opolo.
We had initially planned on stopping in, getting a glass of wine and some pizza and then heading back to the hotel to change. However, because of construction, we found the tasting bar before we found the pizza...and needless to say, we didn't have any pizza and had way more pours than what's on the standard tasting menu. Clearly, we joined the club as this may have been our favorite stop of the day, if not the trip.
After a quick shower, we hopped in an uber and did a few more tastings. The first was at Turley (where we are already members) followed by Niner. At this point, we were both done with wine tasting, tired, and ready to see our babies.
Overall, it was a great trip and we'll definitely be back. And we are so blessed and grateful that Papa is able to come and spend the time not only with us, but with the girls!
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