Is It Really Over?

Why does it always seem that when you return from vacation it feels like you never really left? *sigh* We had such a fabulous time. The weather was absolutely incredible; it was about 80-85 degrees on the central coast. We drove up the coast on Friday in our rented convertable w/the top down and stopped at several wineries along the way. Poor Tim had to "take one for the team" and do all of the wine tasting since I couldn't really partake (I could have used the spitting bucket, but what's the fun in that?!). We ended up only buying a couple of bottles, but when we opened one with my mom on our return, it got her stamp of approval, so we must have picked well! Friday night we ate at the resort restaurant (spa food - good but expensive) and spent the night soaking in our private outdoor hottub. Our room was so remote that you have to get carted out by golf cart (you can also walk the path, but it is a long way if you have luggage and it gets very dark out there at night!).

On Saturday we spent the morning at the resort's spa. We both got massages and I also got a facial. It was sooo nice and relaxing! Then we hopped in our little red convertable and took a drive down the coast to Pismo Beach. We had a fresh seafood lunch overlooking the ocean and took a drive downtown, although we elected to skip trying to find a parking space since it was so overcrowded. I think the great weather brought everyone out and down to the beach, and there wasn't enough that we saw that we wanted to stop and fight to see. So we ended up driving north up the coast and stopping in San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, and then Morro Bay and just walking around soaking in the sunshine and the atmosphere. It was definately fun (and the clam chowder was pretty darn good), but it wasn't so exciting that it would be something I would want to do every vacation. Maybe it's because our beaches are even better than the ones we visited! I think next time we would elect to just stay at the resort and take advantage of some of the hikes and other activities that were offered. We preferred the first day touring the wineries, but we were pretty alchoholed-out (Tim had a terrible headache by the end of the day) and didn't want to spend Saturday doing the same thing. Anyway, we had another seafood dinner in Morro Bay on Saturday night and shopped at some of the local downtown stores (we almost bought Tim a great used surfboard, but I was really worried about being able to get it home, so we decided to wait). Then we drove back down to the resort to spend another gorgeous night in the hottub.

On Sunday we slept in a bit and checked out around 11 (after soaking in the hottub some more!). Then we drove back down the coast and stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch and some shopping. We also stopped at the outlet mall in Cabrillo has outlets like Coach, Barney's, etc.), but it was so overcrowded (and they didn't have any maternity places) that we didn't end up getting anything.

So that was our vacation in a nutshell. Back to the daily grind :( Anyway, here's a picture of our hottub filling up with mineral water from the resort's hotsprings. Enjoy!