We had a few days while we were in Carmel that we were packed up and practically loaded into the car and we made a split-second decision to change plans and stay close to home and lounge on the beach. The days we did that were fruitful and we never once wished that we’d gotten into the car and gone elsewhere.

The days on the beach were the days that we’d make Mimosas and sip on them while reading our international bestsellers and scooping sand into our pail. The smell of sunscreen and PB & Js were mixed in with the smell of kelp. We got to watch divers enter and exit the water with great skill and took many strolls on the pebbly sand.

But sometimes the beach just didn’t feel like it was going to be enough for us and we’d head out the door with our bags packed. (Here I write this in November and now, one month later, I’m wondering what the heck was wrong with the beach that I needed to leave it???? Jeesh!)  We went to Monterey, Big Sur, and Santa Cruz on our adventure days…..avoiding long car rides unless a nap was involved.

We discovered that the Santa Cruz boardwalk really didn’t involve much fun, at least if you wanted to drink, walk your dog, ride your bike or skateboard. Instead of bemoaning all the wrongs of the ‘no fun’ sign, Barry bought Maggie some cotton candy and we were all happy.

When we origianlly decided that we were going to spend a few weeks in California, we set our sights on Santa Cruz becuase of everything that we’d read about it suggested that we’d like it. After spending the day there, which I am glad we did, we came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t have been as good of a fit for us. Our little Carmel beach cabin with all its funky charm was a perfect fit.

We’re not huge shoppers and our version of going out on the town is picking up a couple bagels and smoothies and finding a park to enjoy them in. Plus, we really like to have Sydney with us and it makes us sad to either leave her at home or keep her cooped up in the car.  Although I was somewhat jealous of all the beach volleyball courts set up  and I know we would have rented beach cruisers for the duration of our stay, I felt pretty good about our decision not to make our base camp in Santa Cruz.

We also spent plenty of time in Monterey….Barry rented a SUP and we took Maggie to the aquarium. We also rented bikes and rode them along the shore from Monterey practically through the Pebble Beach Golf Course. Neither Barry or I had done much research about the area of Carmel and so when we discovered that we were practically staying on the 18th hole of Pebble Beach, we both wished that we were fancy golfers for a day.

But even if we were super fancy-pants golfers, what would we have done with Maggie? Had her be our caddie? We would have been something else out there….probably would have been kicked off on the 1st hole.

We rented bikes and rode through a few holes and discovered a beautiful sandy beach loaded with tons of surfers. I’d take surfers any day over golfers, so it worked out for the best. Maggie hated her helmet and kept kicking Barry’s butt yelling for me. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep up with Barry’s massive triathlon legs and take pictures at the same time. Suffice to say, I only snapped a few images.

Nearly every single day of our trip involved water and us being in close proximity to it. I give Barry a hard time about how much enjoys all things water, but in reality, I feel the same way. Whether we were just out front of our cabin, on a hike or walking the boarwalk, we were always near the water.

Our days always ended with a s stroll down our favorite path. Tonight before it was night-night time for The Mags, we strapped on our head lamps, bundled up and headed out for a walk in the cold, stormy weather that November brings the PNW.  It was cold and wet and I wondered silently to myself if snowflakes weren’t too far off in the future. I also thought about how just a month ago we were strapping ourselves into our car because spending another day at the beach was just too much to handle. What the heck?

Now that we’ve been home for a few weeks, vacation seems so far away. So much has happened since our return and looking at the images of our time away makes me want to carve out a little niche to preserve what we left behind. It just isn’t possible to do that and create the same ‘we’re taking it as it comes’ attitude here at home. For some reason the To Do list looms and speaks to me in a very non-vacation way.

Thankfully Maggie is neither here nor there on the issue of To Do lists and vacations. The little nugget is just bursting with words these days and has become a heavy-duty bookworm, intently looking at all the details of every story. She is again in love with “Is Your Mama a Llama” and I’m certain that both Barry and I can recite it with our eyes closed. She’s intent on getting anyone to sit with her and read, which makes me very proud. Except sometimes I’ll be directed to her rocking chair by the point of her index finger and some harsh “mamas,” with books piled in her arms.

As long as it’s not “Is Your Mama a Llama,”  I think I’ll be able to imagine that I’m still on vacation and eventually the To Do list will get done….

After I filled up one of my camera card with photos, I popped in my trusty old back up and discovered a couple pictures of Maggie last year wearing the same brown jumpsuit that we’ve got a duplicate of this year. She was such a chubby cutie pa-tootie, she still is just not as roly-poly. We packed the brown jumpsuit thinking that we’d use it all the time, but we only busted it out one day when the weather was a bit foggy. Other than that, we all got to strut our stuff in shorts, dresses and t-shirts….except for Barry who didn’t wear any dresses.

While we were in Carmel the World Series happened and somehow we became enthralled with the series. I found myself quizzing Barry about different players and we’d talk about the games well after the last pitch had been thrown. It worked out just perfectly that we’d pack our lunch and head out the door in the morning in search of a trail that would suit our needs either in Big Sur or the Point Lobos State Reserve across the bay from our cabin.

We snuck Sydney onto a few hikes, I swear that was a picture of a horse and not a dog with a red x on it, and discovered that even the high 60s are too hot for her to hike in. She’d always start out with such gusto, but a few times we were worried that we’d have to switch Maggie out of the backpack and slide Syd in.

During our hikes we’d chat each other up and the theme of our conversations often revolved around two things:

1. What were we having for dinner/dessert that night.

2. What time was the World Series on again?

We’d hike until our legs got tired, our dog started lagging behind or our child started screaming. At one point I dumped part of our water bottle on Sydney in hopes of cooling her off and I’m certain that she hasn’t forgiven me for it yet. I have moved wayyyy down on her list of favorite humans.

One day after a longer hike in Big Sur (Which I really didn’t get pictures of that are of any value. Boo on that. )we stopped on our way home to check out Point Lobos State Reserve. We left the backpack in the car and let Maggie motor along with us or passed us between our able arms. The Reserve was actually a huge chunk of land that was donated decades ago by the family that owned our cabin, so in a very round-about way I felt a distant connection to the cypress tree grove and steep cliffs.

We were surprised by the size of the reserve and happily followed a trail along the water’s edge watching the sun go down, putting on yet another spectacular show; however, we failed to realize how far away from our car we’d really gotten. So there we were….with out a light, map, or even a diaper and it was getting dark.

Suddenly, what had started out as a quick trip to scope out the State Reserve, turned into a ‘oh-crap-we’ve-got-to-get-back-to-our-car-before-dark-and-we’re-wearing-flip-flops’ type of stop.  We weren’t really worried all that much, but I wasn’t interested in cruising around aimlessly in the dark.

We busted our tushies and made it back to our car by the time it was pitch black. Both Barry and I heaved s sigh of relief and promised that we didn’t need anymore adventures like that…truth be told, we’d pretty much almost been hit by a few cars, but don’t tell our moms that, kay?

Once back home we started cookin’ up our delicious Surf & Turf and some brownies to boot….while St. Louie crushed Texas. Maybe crush isn’t the right word, but it sounds perfectly dramatic.

We went to Santa Cruz for the day and wandered around the downtown area, weaving in and out of the shops. Towards the end of the day (a.k.a Maggie is tired and we need to drive home so she can nap) we  went down to the beach and walked along the pier. The sand volleyball courts were filled with teens from a nearby school, apparently PE happens at the beach in Santa Cruz. The rides were closed and the boardwalk all but empty. We let Maggie run wild along the boardwalk and out to the pier, checking out surfers in the distance.

I stepped away for all but two minutes to take some pictures and came back to find that Maggie somehow had convinced Barry to buy the biggest ball of cotton candy in the world. They sat together enjoying the sticky mess all while fending of the pesky pigeons. Maggie, as we’ve learned, really enjoys sweet tasting things and cotton candy was no exception. Girlfriend got right up in there letting chucks dissolve on her fingers and tongue.

For all the other exciting parts of Santa Cruz, the highlight was letting Maggie eat a pile of sugar. When we finally threw the ball of cotton candy away, we all had bits of it floating in our hair and crusted in our fingers. By the time we got back to the car, Maggie was really ready for her nap and we were happy to see our supply of wipes….

Right outside our cabin door there was a trail that hugged the shoreline and it might have been the biggest blessing of our whole trip. We started and ended our days on the trail because it was a perfect place for both Maggie and Sydney to stretch their legs without the constraints of a leash or a hovering hand.

One day we took the trail all the way to town, but that was a horrible move on our part because we decided last minute (as in, already halfway there) to go and didn’t bring any snacks for Maggie. By the time we reached town, a couple miles later,  she was screaming as if she were starving and we felt like the worst parents in the world. Thankfully we found a bagel shop and her happy food dance ensured. Lesson learned: Always, always, always bring snacks…..and diapers.

But the evening strolls were my absolute favorite. We’d often have dinner simmering and the sunset would pull us all outside with our eyes attached to the ever-changing clouds. With the exception of a few foggy nights, and the night that we were accidentally still on a hiking trail in the State Reserve, the trail is where we’d be watching the sunset. Maggie was usually chasing Sydney wanting to put her leash on and Sydney was usually sniffing some weeds trying to get away from Maggie. Barry and I’d spent our trail walks talking about this and that, clinking our wine mugs in cheers, watching Mags and Syd.

We mostly had the trail to ourselves, but by the end of our trip we’d met a few locals that knew both Maggie and Syd by name. They’d fill us on in on some of the local haps and we’d tell them about the rain we’d left behind in Seattle. Sometimes we’d take a side trail to the top of the bluff or down to a sandy beach, but we’d always keep our eye on the setting sun as if it were a ticking clock reminding us it’d soon be dark.

The mad-dash to get back to the cabin before it was dark out, even though Maggie would often bring our head-lamp, was usually not necessary. For the colors right outside our front door were often far more dramatic than the ones we’d seen on the trail.

I guess all those Sun Salutations that Maggie and Sydney did on that first day really did something, because we were showered with sun and sunsets that were astounding. At one point I was talking with my dad on the phone and telling him that we had to go buy sunscreen because we weren’t expecting such nice weather. He said he felt so sorry for me because I had to buy sunscreen in October….I have a feeling he was being sarcastic.

But really, to start and end our days on the edge of the ocean was spectacular, there is something mightily refreshing about sea air, the crash of waves and the safety of a trail that contains both your dog and child.

For all the greatness that our trip turned out to be, we had a rough, rough start. The evening before we left, both Barry and I got sick and we put off leaving because there was NO way I was getting off the bathroom floor. It was awful. Poor Maggie had two parents that were feeling less than stellar, not the best way to start a long-awaited vacation.

But it gets worse.  Doesn’t it always, at least before it gets better?

The next day when we finally started driving, many hours past our original ETD, we had to establish a new rule in our car: Maggie is NOT allowed to eat or drink in the car. She gets car sick and we’re just not willing to clean up puke over and over again. This meant that we stopped frequently and our car was by far the stinkiest on the road.

But our arrival to our new precious home was met with high-fives and sighs of relief because we’d decided on a whim to rent the cabin and only had a few pictures from the owner’s website.  A revolving conversation on our few-day drive was about our rental cabin and a shared fear that perhaps we should have done a bit more research.

At last we arrived and it seemed that Maggie and Sydney kept doing Sun Salutations just to make sure the weather would stay because our cabin was spitting distance to the beach and the puking had stopped!!

We popped open a bottle of champagne (thanks, Sue!), busted open the windows and doors, found our flip-flops and headed to the beach with huge smiles plastered on our faces. The cabin was perfect in a funky, rustic way. Aside from moving the living room coffee table to the extra bedroom, because Maggie was jumping off of it, it was perfect for our little family. And did I mention the beach was outside our door?

Watching the sunset that first night and sipping on champagne, while Maggie and Sydney continued doing their Sun Salutations, both Barry and I decided that it might be a few days before we felt like getting back in the car. It became abundantly clear, after just a few short hours of being at our cabin, that we’d made the right decision to come. There was something for everybody, plus a little left over in case we wanted more…..and we wanted more.

We returned from our vacation this past weekend with solid reminder of what real life feels like, because we really hadn’t been experiencing real life at our little cabin by the sea in Carmel. Babies (who are really toddlers) weren’t teething. People (at least not us) weren’t working. Pugs weren’t lonely. And the rain was not anywhere to be seen.

Now we’re home and there’s certainly a feeling of comfort and joy (not in a splashy holiday way, but more in a “I love my bed and I forgot about my boots” type of way). You know?

I took hundreds upon hundreds of photos and I’ve had a few moments here and there to look at them and they make me feel so happy. We’re not the same people in those photos – we can’t be. Are we that lucky?  We are.

I’m holding on dearly to the version of me that I discovered on vacation, I’m forcing Barry to maintain his “Vacation B” persona as well. We’re better people that way and it makes settling back into real life at a slower pace easier because teething, working, lonely dogs and rain are just not cool. Not at all.

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“You are drawing on me again! I can feel it! You’re drawing on me again!”

That’s what I’m hearing right now between Barry and Maggie. And Maggie is laughing. She’s got a bunch of pens dumped out on top of him. This is the first time in almost two days that she hasn’t had a fever or been super grumpy and so getting drawn on isn’t half bad. We’ll take it.

But that means that instead of writing and photo sharing, I’m going to go and see about all those pens scattered about and the giggles coming from Maggie’s mouth.

The photo series of Maggie in the blue hat are from the day before we left on our trip. The one below is two days later after we drove (with piles of puke in our car) and reached our destination…..

On the last day of our NoDak trip, the day that was our longest driving day by far, both Maggie and my dad got sick. It wasn’t pretty and nobody really enjoyed it, but we got through it.  Before we realized that Maggie was going to be a bit of a puke-bucket, I banished my dad from my car because I didn’t want him to pass whatever he had on to Maggie. Of course, a few hours later she decided to puke out whatever was in her stomach all over the backseat. It wasn’t very traumatic because after she puked, she was all smiles and giggles. I blame the sprouts from The Montana Club, but that’s another story.

Since my dad was shunned from our car, the only other option was to hunker down in the back seat of my grandparent’s car and hope to ride out his sickness because the other two cars were already in other states. Seeing his bobbing little head in the back seat peeking out of the window with a blanket pulled to his chin made him seem like a little kid all over again. Truthfully, I feel like I got a pretty clear snapshot of him as a kid and my grandparents as parents to their sick kid in the back seat. My grandma worried while my grandpa’s lead foot helped get them closer to home.

Being sick is plain awful no matter which way you cut it. I know that when I’m sick just hearing the voices of my parents makes me feel better, even if they’re just telling me to get some rest and drink lots of fluids.  I also know that when Maggie feels badly, I’m the one that she wants and I’m the one to make her feel better. More often than not she just wants to be held and I’m more than happy to wrap my arms around her. Strangely, as our caravan moved closer to home at the end of our journey, I couldn’t help but wonder if my dad found the same comfort in having his own parents near by. Do we ever really grow up?