California Interlude

I had a major birthday this year, one that I wasn't so thrilled about. To celebrate and ease the pain of getting older, my two best friends from college (who had the same birthday this year) and I decided that we should go on a trip together without our husbands or kids. We planned the trip in summer 2011 to make sure we had a date that would work for everyone, and we rented a house in the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County, CA. Little did we know when we made these plans that my family would be in England for the summer. Big birthdays only happen every ten years, so we decided to carry on with the trip plans, despite the obvious complications of the added distance. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came for a visit a couple of days before I flew to California,  so they were here to help hold down the fort while I was gone.

I left Heathrow on an eleven-hour direct flight to San Francisco.  It was a strange feeling to leave my husband and kids behind on another continent.  This was the longest I have ever been away from my kids, and it felt extra strange, given that I have spent almost every hour of every day with my kids for the past 2.5 months.

My friend Eliza from my post-doc days at Stony Brook and her boyfriend Brent just happen to live about 5 minutes from the San Francisco airport.  She kindly offered to collect me from the airport and let me crash at her house the night I arrived, even though another mutual friend, Cathy, was already planning to visit that weekend.  It was nice to have some friendly faces waiting for me when I arrived.

Dinner with Eliza, Cathy, and Brent (who took the photo)

The next morning Hatti and LeAnn, my college buddies, arrived at SFO, and after a painfully long wait for our rental car, we were ready for lunch.  Eliza had recommended a place called Plow.  My trusty iPhone led us to a neighborhood with mega-steep San Francisco hills, where we had a delicious lunch.  I had scrambled eggs with Dungeness crab, some of the tastiest home fries I have ever eaten, and a big cup of coffee to help with the jet lag.  

Yep, we parked here.

View of the city from the hill

Plow with Hatti and LeAnn-- adorable place with delicious food and even better company

By the time we were headed out of town on the Golden Gate Bridge, the fog was thick, making for a perfect San Francisco photo op.

We had a lovely weekend in wine country.  We spent a day wine tasting and a day at the beach.  We swam in the river, soaked in the hot tub, and spent a lot of time talking and talking and catching up.  It felt like ages since we'd been able to sit and talk for as long as we wanted, and I've gone all summer not talking to anyone but Erik and the kids. It was just what I needed.

View of the Russian River from our porch

Dinner

Stairs down to the river, covered in grape vines

Chilling in the hammock

Wine tasting at Iron Horse Vineyards

The cave at Thomas George Vineyards, my favorite winery by a mile

Blind Beach near Jenner, CA.  When we arrived, the beach was covered in fog.

This greeted us at the trailhead.  I was very glad not to have my kids along.

We had a long, steep hike down to the beach.

The bottom of the hill was the steepest part, so there were stairs on the path to help people make their way down. Except, they were in slight disrepair for the last stretch. We had to scramble over the rocks to reach the beach. We saw a man in flip flops carrying an infant on his back attempt this after us. Yikes.

The fog was still thick by the time we made it to the water,

but it burned off pretty quickly.

We ended up with a gorgeous, sunny day.  I put on sunscreen but still managed to burn my shoulders to a crisp. I guess I'm out of practice with the sun.

One last look at the beach.

If I had one complaint about our trip, it's that it was too short.  We had hoped to hike through a redwood forest and take a canoe down the river that was just out our back door, but we didn't find the time.  Time with my friends was such good therapy.  We finished off our trip with a lovely dinner at boon eat + drink, paid for by my friends in Indianapolis as a birthday gift to all of us.  We oohed and aahed through the whole dinner and literally did not leave one bite of food on our plates.

Cheers!

Molten chocolate brownie with sea salt and whipped cream; bread pudding; vanilla panna cotta with berry coulis and lavender shortbread cookies.  Holy smokes, they were good!

LeAnn and Hatti flew home on Monday, and I stayed one more night with my Stony Brook friends, catching up on where everyone is now and reminiscing about when life was a little harder and a little wilder.  It's nice to see life moving in a positive direction for all of my friends and to realize that most things do get better as you get older.