I like May long weekend! That's when Robby and I get to reset for the year. Robby and I like to travel, so we make sacrifices in some areas partly so that we can splurge in that area. Traveling together, particularly without children, really refreshes us. This is especially true of Robby. He will talk about our last trip until the next trip! He'll say "wasn't that New York trip Great?!" or "Thanks for going to "New York with me!" We have almost been married for 4 years and May has always been a time to look forward to! Here's our travel record just for the month of May:
2012: Miami (I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with Leila)
2013: Thailand (ALONE!) AND Mexico (with Leila). It would have been nice to split up trips so as to spread out the fun. However, we already had our Thailand trip booked for months when Robby's work told us they were taking us on a Mexico trip.
2014: New York City (Alone and 5 months pregnant with Heidi)
2015: San Francisco!!! (with Heidi--the cute little thing isn't into baby food or bottles, so she can't be far from Mama for long).
Robby has a work conference this week. So we decided to take advantage of the fact that there is a long weekend beforehand and I came out with him to Cali for a few days before I go to Utah solo to wrangle the kids while he soaks up education to apply to his job.
We got here yesterday--Saturday. We left Utah where it has been raining for what seems like 2 solid weeks and hoped to see some good California sun. It was actually pretty similar in Utah when we left as it was in California when we arrived--pretty overcast. But we continued with our plans to go to Muir Woods anyway--a Redwoods forest.
On the way there we stopped for lunch at a Farmer's Market in Marin, CA. I love Farmer's Markets! It's interesting that the people who man the booths--entrepreneurs of sorts, often believing in organic fruit, all-natural lotion or homemade yogurt as though it were their religion, can be so chill, almost hippy-like! It's such an oxymoron to me--laid back salesmen.
We split a brat hot dog and a chicken, mushroom, cheese, sour cream stuffed buckwheat crepe. Both were very yummy! Then we sat down and enjoyed our food while watching a little band.
Then we continued on our way to the forest--It was beautiful--the sun came out which broke through the thick forest canopy and warmed up the fresh, moist air.
Redwoods can get about 300 feet high!
After the forest, we drove back toward where we would stay for the night--in Castro Valley. On the way we drove over Golden Gate bridge!! I know. It's just a bridge. But I've dreamed of seeing that bridge since I was a kid and watched Full House :) Right beside it is Golden Gate park. We took a walk around there for awhile. Heidi squawked at the Canadian Geese (I think she was saying "my Mom's Canadian too!!) and the pigeons. Since then, she periodically seems to make purring noises like a pigeon. There were also some cute little turtles in a pond.
My phone was dead at this point and that was our only camera. So I didn't get pictures of the park. I'm learning something though--just because you don't have pictures to prove it, doesn't mean it didn't happen!
After stopping at a Sub place called Togo's for a quick dinner we headed to our accommodations. We would be staying in the basement of "some guy's house". That's generally how we do things since we use airbnb.com. I've said this before, but it's a website where people can rent out whatever they have and it ends up being more of an adventure and less expensive than a hotel. We were thinking we had hooked ourself up with some pretty sweet digs when we pulled into this neighborhood of townhomes. However, when we called the guy, we found out we were. . .in the wrong place.
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| This is the right place. |
You can't tell from the picture, but to the left, there's a makeshift barn with hay bales inside and a tarp as a wall. To the right is a run down house, further down is scrap metal all over the place and at the end of it all is the place we would be staying. . .home sweet home (for three days).
When the little Asian man and his 4 year old boy showed us around the basement suite, the first thing we noticed was the smell--raw sewage. STRONG! Everything else seemed just fine. Everything seemed in good condition. He made certain to point out the new kitchenware including a new pan on the stove. The place had been renovated recently with new laminate floors and fixtures. When he showed us the bathroom, the stench was almost overwhelming. He said "it looks not so clean in here, but we cleaned it". It wasn't the looks so much! Goodness, could he not smell that?! Anyway, he finished showing us around and Robby asked where the playpen was. Before we came, Robby had called the man to find out if he had a playpen for Heidi to sleep in. We thought this was pretty likely seeing as we could tell from his online profile that he had children. He had affirmed to Robby that he did have one. Heidi was about an hour past her bedtime when we arrived, so we were ready to put her down as she was getting pretty fussy (hence our promptly inquiring about the whereabouts of the playpen). He looked confused and said "play. . .pen?" "Ya. . ." Robby said. "for our baby to sleep in". "Ohhh! I thought you meant a pan. . .to cook in. I asked my wife "what is a plate pan and she also thought it was a pan!" No wonder he had called special attention to the pan on the stove! Now where was our baby going to sleep? . . .Hmmmm... Robby probed to find out what he had. It turned out he had a wooden bed with railings at another house. He went out to retrieve it while Robby went to the grocery store to buy food for Sunday. After probably an hour and a half to two hours, the bed was finally setup and I was able to lay Heidi down. You'd think at this point she would pass out instantly from exhaustion, but no. This wasn't her crib, so she cried for around an hour. Ugh! Traveling with babies is not such a relaxing get-away, but we're still having fun.
