Monterey Weekend Getaway

Hoping you're all experiencing a much healthier week than we are over here. Puking, coughing, fevers, the works. We're going through tissues and oj like it's our job and spending most of our time snuggling on the couch while watching Pixar movies. The extra snuggles are pretty much the best and only good thing about sick babies.

In between extra loads of laundry and rotating babies curled up on my lap I decided to take a trip down memory lane to a more pleasant, healthy time. Allllllll the way back to...this weekend ;)

My parents graciously offered to watch the kiddos (before they realized we were bringing the plague along with them) and Joe swept me away for a weekend to Reno. 

Wait, what? 

Well that was the original plan until the skies opened up and rained for weeks on end. It has seriously been almost nonstop rain for about a month now. Which means snow in the mountains. And since we don't have snow chains and didn't feel like driving through a blizzard we made a last minute change of plans and headed to the coast instead. Monterey to be exact.

First of all, let's appreciate how beautiful the drive was. It was about two hours from my parents' house to Monterey and somehow there was almost no civilization along the route. Just lots of gorgeous scenery and very unpredictable weather.

We got to Monterey in time for a late lunch and headed to the wharf for some amazing seafood and scenery.

Even though it looks like nice clear blue skies in those pictures a mini storm rolled in while we were eating and it was gray and drizzly when we walked out. We weren't gonna let it rain on our parade so we just grabbed an umbrella and wandered around the wharf enjoying the gorgeous views and looking for sea otters.

I was determined to see a sea otter after we just coincidentally happened to come across one in the river at UC Davis a few weeks ago and they're the cutest things ever. Every time I saw anything floating in the water I'd exclaim "Is that a sea otter??" Oh no...just a buoy. Or a duck. Or driftwood. Or seaweed. And then, FINALLY, as we were walking back to the car it was a real actual sea otter floating around right by the restaurant we'd had lunch at. We ran over to get closer pictures but it turns out we didn't have to rush because the cute little guy was just floating around trying to crack open shells on his chest for a lonnnng time.

After that dose of super cuteness we checked into our hotel, did a bit of shopping, and just relaxed watching Planet Earth and playing scrabble slam for a bit before heading out for dinner. Super exciting, I know, but getting to watch non-cartoons is a novelty when you're a parent.

Taking normal photos is not one of our specialties.

Sunday was also gray and drizzly but we stopped by the beach anyway. It was secluded and gorgeous with crashing blue waves and flowery sand dunes. Perfect beach weather if you ask me. We also drove through Cal State Monterey, which had some gorgeous views but was too rainy and spread out to walk through.

After that it was time to go home and see our babies, who were already well on their way to being sick by that point. But first Joe had to humor me and stop at several lookout points along the way. So many gorgeous views and so little time. Also, I should probably point out that we got really lucky with our timing because as of today a lot of those roads are flooded. This rain has been brutal and I hope all my California friends are family are staying safe and dry. 

Back to reality: