For my birthday I always tell Ben I would rather go away and do something rather than receive a present from him. Usually we get a hotel with an indoor pool and go swimming then hit up the outlets the next day. This year the thought of going shopping, for myself anyway, sounded like as much fun as passing a kidney stone (which I've never done but after watching my brother endure them constantly for the past 10 years, doesn't look like fun). Anyway, as usual, I digress. After researching all of our options I decided I wanted to go to the coast.
Besides booking a hotel no other official plans were made (gasp!). I am by nature an ultra planner and usually like to have every detail mapped out and confirmed several times over. It was actually kind of liberating to be so spontaneous (although I think I'll limit the freedom to my birthday weekend, you've got to plan some things!).
We love going to different non-chain restaurants, especially for breakfast, and we stumbled upon a beauty that Saturday.
They had the biggest french toast I've ever seen and huge, crispy pieces of bacon. It was to die for!
After breakfast we just started driving. We saw some signs for a lighthouse so we decided to follow those. The road unexpectedly went from a small town to the middle of a redwood forest! It was gorgeous and the trees were gigantic...almost as big as the french toast!
After a brief stop to take some pictures and marvel at the size of the trees, we kept driving. Only a few miles past the redwoods began these beautiful green, rolling hills. I've never seen more gorgeous scenery and my pictures really don't do it justice.
We soon stumbled upon the coolest visitor's center I've ever seen. It had such realistic exhibits and breathtaking views. Kiara could have stayed there playing for hours!
After the visitors center we continued following signs for the lighthouse. The drive was really unbelievable and every turn we made revealed a new, beautiful view. The variety of the earth around us was fascinating. As we came around one curve this is what we saw in front of us:
and to the right:
and to the left:
We got to the shore and found out that since it is whale season no cars were allowed on the road up to the lighthouse but there was a bus available. We hopped right on and our amazement continued. There were beautiful wildflowers everywhere and we even spotted a few deer.
Kiara thought it was a fun roller coaster ride (it was QUITE bumpy) and showed us how brave she was to go "no hands."
The bus can only take you so far then you have to hike the rest of the way to the lighthouse. This is where we got dropped off:
Absolutely stunning!
The hike quickly proved difficult for the 3 year old in our group and Ben was forced to carry her part of the way. At one point he told her he had to put her down for a minute. She was not a fan of the idea.
Eventually we arrived at the overlook and were once again speechless at the beauty which was in front of us.
Ben asked if I wanted to make the 300-stair trek down to the lighthouse and back up again. I laughed, asked him if he had ever met me, and told him I was just fine sitting on the observatory deck with the kids. He then proceeded to tell me that he wanted to take Kiara. I laughed again and told him he was welcome to but to not be surprised when he ended up carrying her the whole time (remember the previous picture?). He insisted she would be fine and the two set out on their journey. She did pretty well walking on the way down but the way up went like this:
After the lighthouse we took the bus back to the shore and thought we'd start heading home. Once we got there though we saw 3 elephant seals dead sleeping on the beach. They were so close to us, I didn't zoom my camera in at all!
We played on the shore for a minute and took in that awesome ocean air and view. I kept waiting for the big ship from "Goonies" to come sailing around these cliffs.
It was one of those days you wish could go on forever. I was once again reminded of how lucky I am to be so in love with my best friend and to enjoy the time we have together. My kids are simply amazing and give me reason to get out of bed each day. I had a couple of friends offer to watch the kids for us while we went away, and while I was so grateful to them for the offer, I really didn't want to be away from them or spending time with anyone else but these three. Life is definitely good!
