Vaca Sans Baby

Two weeks ago, Badge and I took a vacation sans baby. It was long overdue (we hadn’t taken a week off work since our Taiwan trip two years ago), and we had a fantastic time. Here’s what I remember.

Sunday morning was pretty chaotic. After Baby Burrito woke up and ate breakfast, we madly dashed about packing up odds and ends. The Prius was stuffed to the brim with our luggage and baby gear, but we managed to hit the road without forgetting anything. There was a funny moment when we turned around and expected to see Henry strapped to the baby seat instead of the baby but luckily that was not the case. Baby Burrito entertained himself pretty well for the first hour, then got tired, fussed/cried, and passed out for the rest of the ride to grandma’s. Upon arrival, Badge and I promptly unloaded said baby, and scurried off to El Pollo Inka for some lunch (yes, we brought grandma back some food). After resting up in the afternoon and giving baby lots of kissies, we officially began our vacation.

Sunday – Downtown LA
After checking into our hotel in Little Tokyo, it was off to dinner at Osteria Mozza. After some sleuthing, we tracked down the montepulciano wine from our last visit and ordered a bottle. For apps, I got burrata bruschetta and Badge had buffalo mozzarella with salami salad. So tasty.


Of course, we ordered the orrechiette with sausage and panko topping, which was just as epic as I remembered. For entrée, I had lamb and Badge had ravioli, and for dessert we split flourless chocolate cake and some fruit thing, which escapes my memory at the moment. It was good though ☺.


Monday – Monterey
That morning, we hit the road bright eyed and busy tailed. It was a long drive up to Monterey but nothing we couldn’t handle. Many tunes and a couple rest stops later, we pulled up to Jabberwock Inn, the bed & breakfast where we were staying. First off, I should note that I’ve never stayed at a b&b so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As soon as I walked in, I was won over. Very cutely decorated and owned by the nicest couple. After dropping off our stuff, we visited the aquarium, which was conveniently within walking distance.


The exhibits were great, although I was surprised to find the aquarium smaller than expected. We were able to visit all the exhibits in a couple of hours. Great chance to practice photography (even though most of my pics were blurry because those bugger fish are fast).




We went back to the b&b for cocktail hour (wine and strawberries), then it was off to dinner at Passionfish. After consuming copious amounts of seafood (oysters, crab cakes, scallops, fish), we decided to end the night with a movie. I convinced Badge to watch the Hunger Games, which turned out to be quite good (side note: how is this movie PG-13 with all the violence?).


Tuesday – San Francisco
The next morning, we drove to San Francisco and attempted to have lunch at So (remember those noodles I was obsessed with?), but they were CLOSED and weren’t reopening until the day after we left. What the hell?? So instead we had sandwiches and quiche from a coffeeshop on the corner which was actually quite tasty. After checking into our hotel in Japantown (apparently Japanese hotels are a great place to get special rates), we immediately took the bus to Union Square and swarmed Barney’s. The poor sales reps didn’t know what was coming (side note: I haven’t really been shopping since before I was pregnant so this was a long time coming). With our wallets significantly lighter, we hightailed it to the Mission where we met Maya, Brian, McClain and his gf for dinner at Chilango. Strangely enough, the food wasn’t nearly as good as the last time we went (Maya commented they can sometimes be inconsistent), but the dulce de leche cake still made my day. After dinner, Badge and I went to Maya and Brian’s new home in Nola (super cute) and hung out.


Wed – Sonoma Valley
On Wednesday, we headed back to Union Square to be picked up for our wine tasting tour. Badge booked us on Terrific Tours after deciding the last thing we wanted on our trip was a DUI. Again, we weren’t sure what to expect but it ended up being…well, TERRIFIC! The tour guide Dan was super knowledgeable and personable. There were 4 couples in total and everyone was really nice and low key. We visited 3 wineries (Larson, Bueno Vista, and Homewood), stopped in downtown Sonoma for lunch, and went to another wine tasting room (Roessler) while there. We bought a hefty number of bottles as we went. The piece de resistance was the port at Homewood. AMAZING!!




The tour was an all day affair, ending in a ferry ride back to San Fran. Suffice it to say, I was pretty tipsy towards the end. Once we dropped off our wine purchases and sobered up a bit at the hotel, we went out for sushi, followed by a comedy show. The opener was a very awkward very unfunny Asian kid. Luckily, the second act was better, and the main act was pretty hilarious. After the show, Badge convinced me to walk to North Beach for some late night pizza.

Thursday - Berkley/Oakland
During the day, we decided to go shopping again (I know I know, we had a major itch to scratch). Maya met up with us for a couple hours which was fun. For dinner we booked it over to Berkeley to dine at Chez Panisse Cafe (couldn't get reservations at the dinner room in time). The food was simple and well executed. At this point I stopped lugging my big camera everywhere so you'll just have to settle for the iphone pics.


Friday - Santa Barbara
Friday mostly consisted of driving back down the coast. We got to Santa Barbara around mid afternoon and grabbed Mexican grub at La Super-Rica.


After checking into our hotel (a hipster motel actually), we walked around downtown and got a quick glass of wine from a local tasting room. Then it was off to dinner at Bouchon where we had FANTASTIC french food, and happened to sit next to Maria Sharapova. Go figure!

Saturday - Redondo Beach
In the morning, we rolled out of bed and right over to Float Day Spa for a massage (me) and gentleman's facial (Badge). Then we drove to Thousand Oaks to visit Namita, Kal, and their adorable baby Aria. After a lovely homecooked breakfast, we made the trek back to Redondo Beach to see Baby Burrito! There was much rejoicing when he finally woke up from his nap and graced us with his presence. We promptly whisked him away to Kara's birthday party which was a great time (with great eating). Badge and I ended up spending the night at mom's before packing everything up, baby included, and driving back the next morning.

Fabulous trip. Can't wait to do something like this again! Many more pics here