This past weekend was an absolute blast. For my first Mother’s Day we decided to pack up the family and head to Crescent City, CA. It’s not too far out of the way from where we live and it has a couple of decent attractions, plus a beach to play on. We packed up after work on Friday and hit the road giddy with road trip anticipation. It’s been a while since we’ve gone anywhere and I was definitely looking forward to getting out of town for a couple of days.
So off we went with an unsuspecting baby in the back, unaware of our 2 hour trip intentions. She actually handled it quite well and only got cranky once we arrived in town. But soon we were settled in for the night at the Quality Inn and I even upgraded our room from a Queen size to a King size room with a jacuzzi! By the time we were ready to get Amelia to go to sleep it was at least 2 hours past her normal bedtime so she was cranky! It took us a while to get her to go to sleep especially in a travel crib that wasn’t her own, but she eventually cried herself to sleep. We were fairly exhausted ourselves and instead of staying up and watching TV or reading or even playing on the lappy we passed out. Good thing too as bright and early Amelia was awake at 6:30am.
With our little darling forcing us out of bed early we took the opportunity to head to the free breakfast buffet that came with our room. There were a few people up as well and soon Amelia found herself fascinated by one of the other guests children. Their girl was about 18 months old and I was surprised to see that Amelia had more teeth then she did. There was some cute interaction and an alright breakfast. Not what I was hoping for, but they still had a nice selection of food. What was important to me was that they had tea.
We headed back to the hotel room and attempted to get Amelia to take her morning nap. It didn’t go so well. She was really fussy about being put down in the travel crib. Even after we’d gotten her to sleep she’d immediately wake up when we put her in it. So knowing she needed her nap and we needed to get the day going, we left her to complain in the crib; we retreated to the bathroom to check out the jacuzzi. It was huge, it had jets, and it was relaxing! But still the munchkin could be heard through the walls, so while we did get some time to relax it wasn’t as serene as we’d have liked. So out we hopped to attend to Miss Grumpy Pants.
In light of her refusal to sleep, we opted to get the day going. It was still kinda chilly out so we put the Munchkin in some warm clothes and headed out. Luckily it was a beautiful day out and with our ingenious brains we decided to go for a long drive along the coast. The combined motion of the car as well as the warmth from the sun proceeded to knock our daughter out for a while. She got her nap and we got to check out the awesome scenery. Redwoods on one side and the ocean on the other. I couldn’t ask for a better morning.
We headed back and by this time it was around noon, time for some good old local food! We ended up at the Fisherman’s Restaurant and both ordered their clam chowder and fish and chip platter. The fish and chips were pretty tasty, but served in such a large portion I couldn’t finish mine. The clam chowder was alright but just a bit too thick for me. Amelia was awake at this time and enjoyed some crackers with us. After lunch it was time to hit the beach! It took us a bit to find the right kinda of beach. The first part we past looked to be filled with surfers and I wasn’t sure if it would be the best place for a baby. So we traveled down the road a bit and saw a promising part of beach front right next to a giant play structure. We stopped in there first and let Amelia have fun on one of the swings. She loves swings sooo much!
Now it was time for the beach! We headed towards what we thought was a nice looking part of sand only to find out it wasn’t a good place at all. What looked pretty from the road turned out to be a muddy trail of rocks. So somewhat disheartened we decided to go back to the surfer beach. That turned out to be so much better. We let Amelia down onto the sand and suddenly she had miles of flat expanse to roam free in. She was in Heaven. She squealed, she crawled super fast, and she ate sand… lots and lots of sand. I chased her all over the place and loved the little Amelia trail she’d made in the sand. It was so much fun. We’d even brought a bucket and spade for her to play with and ended up trying to build a sand castle. Amelia helped of course by showing us how unstable our creation was and that it wouldn’t hold up to an attack at all. She did this by repeatedly grabbing chunks of sand from the “turrets” eating them, and then eventually just plowing headfirst into the wall and climbing over it. It was awesome.
Eventually we had to go an clean up a baby full of sand as well as our own sand covered selves. We headed to the hotel room and cleaned off, taking this opportunity to relax a little and get the little one to take her afternoon nap. I took this opportunity to go to the main office and grab some more stuff for tea. At the front desk I asked the guy if he had any suggestions for things to do or recomendations for a good place to eat. He recommended the Beachcombers right on the ocean where we could have a nice dinner and watch the sunset. That sounded great to me. So after we all took an afternoon nap we headed down to dinner.
Inside Beachcombers was really nice, the staff was awesome and the food tasted wonderful. We had a coupon from the front desk guy for free appetisers so we decided to try the shark bites, neither of us had had them before. Omgooses they were delicious! I don’t know if it was just what they were fried in or if it was the meat itself, but it was awesome! Plus it was from a Mako shark, you know, those ones from Deep Blue Sea. I have to admit that I felt a little smug about eating something that would eat me if given the chance. Ha! Ate you first! The main course came around and I had clam chowder and Parmesan Halibut. It was fantastic! Their clam chowder was much better than the one I had earlier as well, but I didn’t get to eat as much of it as I’d have liked due to Amelia liking it way more and protesting every time I stopped giving her some. Dustin had some seafood medley pasta but since both of us were still pretty full from lunch we both ended up getting our stuff boxed up to go.
Back at the hotel we put the little one down for the night and tried to watch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Dustin was so awesome he heard I’d wanted to watch that with him and had purposely pushed it up in our Netflix que so we could watch it. Unfortunatly, I had so much fun during the day I didn’t drink enough water and was taken down by a mega dehydration headache. Being the wonderful man that he is, Dustin ran to the store for me and got me IBprofen, a Yoohoo, and a Mountain Dew. I was drinking a lot of water in the meantime as well, and even with Dustin massaging my neck and shoulders I still couldn’t get rid of it. The night ended sadly with me falling asleep and not finishing the movie. But by morning it was completely gone.
With day 2 ahead of us, we started it off by going to Denny’s. That’s a treat for us since the closest Denny’s is a half hour away back home. I was excited and got a gianormous omelet while Dustin got to make his own American Slam breakfast. Amelia chomped on a variety of foods including mushrooms, eggs, and toast. With breakfast done it was time to head back to the motel and get the munchkin to take her nap. This went far better than the previous day and with the hotel having enough hot water for both of us, one of us took a shower while the other held Amelia during her nap. It seemed better than her getting no sleep again. She only slept for an hour, but it was about all we were going to get at this point. So we packed up the hotel and checked out for the day. We still had places to see though so we packed up the van again and headed to the Redwoods Trees of Mystery.
I love this place. It’s only $14 a person and it’s breathtaking to see these old trees in all their majesty. The first tree we saw was so large it was able to hold other trees on it’s branches. There were literally a family of trees nestled in the branches of this beast. Amazing! This was also Dustin and Amelia’s first time here. I’d been here several times before, but it was nice to go with my family and see the awe on their faces as well. Well ok no so much on Amelia who was getting grumpy with being strapped into a car seat and then a stroller. But it was still a great way to spend the afternoon. After we checked out the trees the tour deposits us into the gift shop which also has a Native American museum attached. We wandered around checking out the gifts and commenting on the absurdity of the “If you break something you’ll pay 50% of the cost” signs posted around the store. That’s what insurance is for. Eventually we ended up by the Redwood Burl plants. Everytime I’ve come here I’ve always wanted one and I decided that I was going to finally buy it. It’s sitting in my kitchen now and I can’t wait for it to sprout! If you do it right, it’ll actually begin growing into a tree! We’ll see how well I’ll do there though.
After the fun times at the forest we decided it was time to head back into town and see if we couldn’t grab some food and then check out any last places. The actual town of Crescent City isn’t that fun to be honest. It’s got some nice scenic spots but overall a boring town. Not very touristy. I still had a wonderful time though and it’s family that counts more than anything. So when we headed back I got some last few pictures of the Battery Point Lighthouse and the fingers of land that extend out over the ocean. There was also an interesting island just off the shore that seriously looked like it would be awesome from some extreme Frisbee Golf. That wrapped up our weekend at Crescent City, so then it was time for the long haul back.
The drive back was fun though seemed much longer then going to the beach. We made a few stops on the way to get food and gas and to give Amelia a break from the van. She did very well and sometimes all she needed was for me to hop back there so she could have some human interaction. The first time I did that she played peek a boo with me with her snuggie for about 10 minutes and then promptly fell asleep. Too cute! When we finally got back into town we had enough time to unload the van and relax for a few minutes before our friends from Portland stopped by. Jack and Mary Hall were coming up from visiting their Mum in California so it was great to see them and catch up. They are the first people from Dustin’s home town to see Amelia full blown walking in person. I can’t wait til Dustin’s Mum, sister, and brother can see it as well as all the rest of our friends up there.
Overall the weekend was a huge success! I felt enormously loved and appreciated. As well as the weekend trip Dustin got me the Breaking Benjamins CD I wanted, the next book in the Sandman series, and the Christopher Moore book Bloodsucking Fiends. My Florida Mum is sending a care package as well and one of Medford friends dropped off a gift basket as well as the numerous happy Mother’s Day wishes on Facebook. Thank you everyone! First Mother’s Day = Epic Win!
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| First Mother’s Day Weekend |