Sebastopol Weekend

Disclaimer: my picasa album is getting pretty full, so I tried creating another one not linked to my account. Transferring pictures over to this blog post was weird, so the formatting is a bit wonky.

On Thursday the kids and I headed down to Santa Clara to meet Sevak for lunch and go to Great America. There was a special deal where season pass holders (Rose and I) could bring a friend (Sevak) for a low price. I was already frazzled from a long drive/getting lost a few times/trying to find a place to eat amidst a surge of techies on lunch break. Then we arrived at the park, only to find it is now closed on weekdays. Cue the Chrissie rage. Sevak crazily suggested that we just head somewhere down south for a long weekend (since we were already an hour south of Danville). We had no clothes, toiletries or anything, but for about five minutes I went along with the plan and we were about to get on the 101 southbound, knowing only that we were going "somewhere down south." I realized that such a plan might be fine for a couple of adventurous newlyweds, but adding two kids and a baby to the mix would make for a less-than-desirable vacation experience. We went back home. A donut stop helped calm my nerves. :) We also decided that we would definitely go on a weekend getaway. Friday morning we settled on Sebastopol. It had a Marriott property and it was near Armstrong Redwoods and Bodega Bay. We left in the afternoon, after Sevak had a meeting. The kids love going to hotels (or "ho-tay-uls," as Rose, who must have been a Southerner in another life, pronounces it). The first thing they do is have a pillow fight with Daddy, and then they watch T.V.

After completing our initiatory hotel experiences, we set off for dinner. Simon's hunger has been dictating much of our lives lately, and he wanted noodles, so we ate at a cute little place called Pasta Bella. Then we got homemade ice cream at another adorable little place called...

(painted upon the table)

The chairs were all painted with a flavor:

I got peanut butter and chocolate, as usual:

The kids got "pink" as usual, and realized (as usual) that a desirable color doesn't always yield a desirable flavor. So they ate a lot of mine.

They were being so loving and cute as we walked along the sidewalks:

The next day we went to the Armstrong Redwoods Reserve. We started off by exploring the visitors' center:

Then we went into the forest. It was so peaceful being in that environment. I think the kids quite enjoyed it, too. They also left their mark by carving their names into this tree with Sevak's keys:

I know, how un-environmentally-friendly, right? Well, there were probably about a billion other names already carved into it...we figured it was okay. So shoot us.

Secret passageway

Good times in the forest. The drive home led us to the Russian River. We stopped there for a bit and sat around waiting for a paddle boat, but realized we really didn't want to do that (also, Simon was "hungee"). Here are a couple of pics to show we were there:

We got some pizza and drove the rest of the way home. I should mention that it was a beautiful drive on the Gravenstein highway, going through quaint little towns and passing orchard after orchard of Gravenstein apple trees. A dinner of chocolate chip cookies from Whole Foods really made for a great evening. The next day we checked out of the hotel and headed to Bodega Bay. We didn't really have a destination in mind; we just typed the city into our GPS. Luckily we stumbled upon a beautiful, hidden-away beach. Jasmine loved resting on the towels and listening to the roaring waves:

The kids had fun gathering buckets of water... And running on the beach...

They also got buried in the sand by Daddy:

After that we stopped at a community yard sale and farmer's market. Then we stumbled upon another hidden gem, Sand Point Crab Company: The line was ridiculous, so we figured it must be good. Luckily the kids kept themselves entertained by disguising themselves as ghosts with our sweatshirts, since theirs had gotten wet at the beach:

We ordered crab cakes, a crab sandwich, and clam chowder. It was super yummy.

We also saw seals up close in the marina. It really was one of the most unplanned, completely perfect vacations. Glad we finally got one in now that summer's over! :)