Carmel By The Sea

Allen traveled so often during the last 18 months, he racked up a couple of weeks worth of free nights at Hyatt resorts. But when we started seeing what resorts we could go to, we quickly realized that what was equal to a week's worth of time in Albuquerque was not equal to a week's worth of time at the resorts offered here in California.

We decided to take a quick weekend vacay to Carmel - without the kiddos! Grandma and Aunt Laura split up wrangling our shortlings so we could enjoy our first night away in over 4 years.

Lunch over looking Monterey Bay.

There is something about the beach and the ocean that is so appealing to all the senses. Simply gorgeous.

Do you think he was contemplating life's mysteries?

Nah. He was hunting. Look what he found.

The room. The entire West side of the room was glass with a slider going onto a private patio. We left the door open to let in the cool ocean breeze, but the fire kept the room nice and warm.

The view from our room.

We went for a hike at Point Lobos.

Seals (or sea lions or whatever ones they were; who can tell the difference anyways) sunbathing.

Sweep the leg! Put him in a body bag Johnny!

Fear doesn't exist in this dojo.

I have to admit, for the first few hours I kept expecting someone to have a meltdown. Or to need to stop to change a diaper. Or find a place that is safe for Emily to eat. Allowing ourselves to enjoy the flexibility of being on our own was a little discombobulating.

But we got over that pretty quickly and had a great time. We stayed up late and laughed hard and slept in (well I did. Allen got up at 6 and read the paper and such things.) and just enjoyed being Allen and Traci for a while.

It felt really good to have "us" back for a couple of days.