Our last hurrah weekend was indeed fun. We started on Thursday afternoon and headed down to Pete's office to pick him up so we could get to the hotel while it was still daylight. We booked a room at an awesome hotel, and man, did it deliver. The valets, bell man, concierge. As soon as we got into our room, I promptly laid down on the bed and fell asleep. Pete took Lucia to explore the hotel, and when he came back he said something was going on, there was tons of security and secret service around. Lucia, naturally, had made friends with some CHP officers so she came back thrilled with her new stickers from them. We headed out for dinner at a quaint little Italian restaurant, and I got on Twitter to find out who was in town. Surprise! It was former Presidents Bush, Carter and CLINTON (faints). WHAT? All in Monterey for the Pebble Beach golf event and STAYING AT OUR HOTEL. Whaaaaaat. (link to picture of Clinton at the hotel)
So there was that. Thursday night we talked and thought it would be really special and memorable for Lucia if we ordered room service for breakfast. So we did and she was indeed absolutely thrilled. She kept saying, I get to eat my fruit ON THE BED?????? LIKE A PRINCESS??? Yep, kid, just like that. It was great. I have only ordered room service on other time in my life, and Pete had never ordered it. So it was memorable for all three of us.
Friday we headed out and on the epic Highway 1 to Hearst Castle. Being the planner bee that I am, I had bulleted out an itinerary in my head of how things would go down: leave the hotel at 10:30 a.m., arrive at Hearst Castle (90 miles away) by 12:30, depart by 2:30, arrive in Santa Barbara by 4-4:30.
Except I failed to realize that HWY 1 is very windy. And long. And Pete really loves going for drives, and thought I knew that anytime you take HWY 1 you basically double your travel time. Add construction to that, and we arrived at Hearst Castle at 2:20 and the next tour wasn't going up until 3, so we decided to bail. I just wasn't that invested in it. We drove to Santa Barbara and checked into our hotel, then went to dinner at a really awesome Mediterranean place (minus the snotty server). But unfortunately our hotel wasn't that great and wasn't cheap, so we complained the next morning when we checked out, and thankfully got some money back. We ate breakfast at a Danish place that was freeeeezing but OK, then checked out the view from the tower on the Santa Barbara courthouse (on the tip from our waiter).
FINALLY, we drove to Pasadena to see Mary and David, which as always, was blissful. Like visiting family. So fun. Their new house is amazing, and had plenty of space for all of us. I took a long nap and the rest of the gang walked to the playground for some fun times. We went out to dinner for David's birthday and were thankful to Mary's brother and his lady friend for watching the kids so we could actually have an adult conversation without 1,000 interruptions. Yesterday morning we gnawed on leftovers and a mish-mash of things for breakfast and just sat and talked, like we always do. So fun. So great.
We hit the road around 2 and made it home in 6 hours flat, which included about 40 minutes total stopping time. Perhaps a new record for getting home from SoCal.
It was a great trip. More pictures to come.
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| View from the lobby at the Monterey Hotel. |
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| So tired. |
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| View from the Santa Barbara courthouse |
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| Right around the corner from our hotel in Santa Barbara |
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