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Trinidad
I’m much too tired to be writing a post right now but I have to because I know tomorrow is going to be jam-packed full of new bloggable things and I can’t have this backing up business. If I don’t write about it now, I’ll get back from vacation and have a whole weeks worth of stuff to talk about but I won’t because I’ll be tired and already forgetting all of it. So maybe I’ll write about it with only half of my brain and hope that’s better than all of my brain that has forgotten half of what happened.
The last two nights we’ve stayed at a bed and breakfast in Trinidad. The Trinidad Bay B & B in fact. It was really nice. Toby wasn’t so charmed by all the “charm” but then Toby is an old fart. I loved it.
The decor, the fancy sheets, the sea shells… everything. AND then of course there is THE VIEW. The view is actually why Toby chose this place. He looks at things on google earth and has the whole world figured out. He knows where he’s going before he even gets there.
Did you know you can see the swells of the waves in Trinidad from google earth? You can. They are that big. The coast gets pummeled here. But Toby didn’t just choose this bed and breakfast based on google earth. He actually grew up here and has known about this view since he was a kid.
It’s a great place to stay because Trinidad is beautiful. There are tons of trails to hike on and amazing view to take photos of. Of course everything is five hundred times more fun when it is not raining so it can be a bit tricky timing your visit but we managed. It was pretty rainy when we first got there but absolutely gorgeous the next day.
We hiked around a lot, showing Baby Bug what mushrooms and blackberry branches look like. We trudged over rocks and brambles and mud puddles. It was great.
At one point we came upon a sheer cliff that dropped down to rocks and surf below. I don’t know how I didn’t see it coming since we had been walking along looking at the ocean very very very far below us all along. But I didn’t. When we got to the edge, I walked right up to it and almost lost my lunch. I was that close to just walking off the edge. I actually got physically ill just thinking about what might have happened if I had Baby Bug in my arms and she pulled one of those wiggly toddler moves. I still don’t want to think about it.
Thankfully Toby did know about the sheer drop off and was prepared with Baby Bug in a vice like grip. I guess I’m a lot more afraid of heights than I thought I was. I didn’t take any pictures of that view but I did take about a thousand of all the others.
And there’s more here.
I should write about how toddlers don’t belong in fancy bed and breakfasts and about how I am so sick of traveling… but I think I’ll save that for another day. We are not home yet but I need to retire to my not-as-cozy-as-home bed and get some z’s before Baby Bug wakes me up at the crack of dawn. Tomorrow we are going to explore a possible future town we might live in and I am VERY excited about that.
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To Grandmother’s House We Go!
We also made a lot of stops so Baby Bug could get out of her torture chamber (car seat). Even though we hate that Toby is a smoker (cough cough, hack hack), it is kind of handy that he needs to take smoking breaks every four hours or so. Of course if I had the choice I’d much rather suffer with cramped legs in the car and have him live a few years longer but that is sort of moot point. I’m just glad we were able to stop along the way and get the wiggles out.
Speaking of Wiggles! Guess what we listened to in the car? The Wiggles! I can’t believe that Toby put up with it. He hates catchy commercialized tunes. He even got a chuckle out of Baby Bug singing “Hot Potato” as loud as she can in her super duper toddler voice. It’s amazing what a little child can do to a grown man. He didn’t sing along but I saw the sides of his cheeks scrunch up from my back seat point of view. I just thought I better put that down for posterity. It may never happen again.
He’s a good dad…. and a good husband too! I might as well go with this for a theme because Toby really scored some brownie points with me on this trip.
This time the trip was different (besides the fact that we now have a toddler that we never had before). Toby played travel agent. It was sort of a behind the scenes Christmas gift to me that I really really appreciated. He usually asks me to do the online researching for booking hotels and such but I just don’t have the time and brain power that I used to for this sort of thing.
So when he told me he had taken care of all of it I was filled with glee. A holiday trip AND secret surprise stays at hotels that I did not pick. I know to most people, that sounds like a recipe for disaster but I am a true adventurer at heart and the thought of not knowing where I am going to stay for the night (but still knowing that it will be pleasant and nice) is fun fun fun. If I wasn’t such a picky eater I would sign up for the Amazing Race in a heart beat. I want to travel the world someday!
The first night we stayed at the Hilton in Sonoma Wine Country. It wasn’t super snobby fancy but it wasn’t the Motel 6 either. It was really really nice. Ever since we had that horrendous stay in a Motel 6 in Vallejo where some drug dealer called us up on the phone in the middle of the night and said he could see what I was wearing… we pick our hotels a little more carefully. That was the creepiest hotel stay I have ever had in my entire life. It even included mysterious brown poop matter and cockroaches. But enough about that. You get the point. It was really bad.
Not like our stay at The Hilton. Hiltons are nice! I couldn’t help thinking of the Hilton sisters as I sampled the fancy shampoo and admired the faux plein air paintings of local landmarks and cows. I wondered if Nicki or Paris helped their Dad pick any of this out. Probably not. But it was a fun day dream.
I don’t really care about hotels though. What was really fun about staying in Sonoma was waking up the next morning and exploring a little bit. Toby and I have toyed with the idea of moving to this part of California because it lends itself to the type of photography he does for a living. We aren’t set on it yet but we talk about it from time to time.
It was really fun for me to wake up early and take Baby Bug on a brisk walk in the crisp morning air. I imagined what it would be like to live here where the grass is so green and the sky is so blue. I know it might be a lot colder in the winter and a lot hotter in the summer but I think I could manage it. It’s very very pretty. I think Secret Agent Josephine could find plenty to blog about in wine country. Who knows though. We’ve talked about a lot of different areas around the bay area and north… I don’t think we’ll be moving anytime soon but it’s fun to think about.
After a delicious breakfast (included at the hotel stay–hot dog!) we hopped back in the car and headed north. This last leg of the journey was definitely a lot easier. There is so much more to look at and the scenery is beautiful. We really appreciated the moon roof in our car as we drove through the redwood groves. I should have take a picture but it was too dark and blurry as we whizzed by going 90 miles an hour. I might try again on our way back. What’s the point of having a moon roof if you can’t take pictures out of it, right?
And that was pretty much our drive…with lots of stops along the way.
Next up: Christmas at the Grandparents: Baby Bug gets SPOILED ROTTEN!
