A Much Needed Weekend Away

Brian took me away for the weekend to Marin. We stayed at the Tam Woods Hotel. While the outside of the hotel is under a bit of construction, the inside  is nice and our room was perfect for the two of us. The hotel has a few great things going - outside fire pit and free smores kits, free bike rentals, and a free movie library. It also has a decent fireside breakfast of muffins, bagels, eggs, bananas, oatmeal, cereal, tea, juice, coffee, or you can save your leftover dinner and heat it up and eat it for breakfast next to the fire : )

Leftovers always taste better as breakfast!

The great thing about the weekend was that while Brian had things planned that we could do, nothing was concrete and we played it by ear and did what we wanted.  My instructions were to pack running clothes, and clothes to go out to dinner in.  We left Friday evening and it was pouring rain, so we checked in and stayed in. Saturday we went down and had breakfast, still undecided as to what we would do for the day as it was pouring rain still. By the end of breakfast though, it had stopped raining and was getting sunny. We had a window from about 10 - 4 that was supposed to be dry, so we hurried and changed into running clothes and headed up to Point Reyes National Seashore.

Point Reyes, you can click to make it bigger...For non CA peeps, this is across the GG Bridge from San Fran, up the coast about an hour - North of Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.

 I had never been and didn't really know where or what it was. Beautiful is what it was. We drove through miles and miles of beautiful forests, lots of redwoods and eucalyptus trees, small towns, creeks, green ferns....it was just really pretty. I cant' wait to head back up there and explore some more.
Eventually we got to the visitors center and got a map and headed out on a hike/run. It was raining off and on, but not too cold.

I got a new jacket! I had been looking for a warm one that was thin enough to wear my Nathan vest over. This one is that and just happens to be my favorite colors. I'm wearing my Zensah compression sleeves w/pink socks on top. I was nice and warm, considering I didnt' know what Brian had planned, I packed pretty well. He, on the other hand was cold and wet.

Our shoes seem to have sprung a serious leak.

My favorite kind of trail...

Everything was so green and smelled so good!

This was after we had reached the top, we were running a 2.2 mile stretch of downhill, came around a corner, and saw what looked like a tunnel of fog. We both stopped and just said "wow"....it was much spookier than this picture shows.

My shoes are junk as far as traction in mud, I was slipping all over, thus I'm running in the grass.

After a crazy fun few miles of down hill, we were done. On the way home we stopped at this great little spot, the Farm House deli/bar/restaurant/hotel. One of those small spots you would normally drive by, but ended up being a highlight of the weekend.  You know you have found a gem when you order diet coke and they ask if RC Cola is ok instead.  Brian had fried oysters and I had chowder and fish and chips.  We were sweaty, muddy, and generally gross all the way around, but this place was comfy and homey and nobody seemed to notice.  The food tasted extra good having just come in off the wet, cold trail. This place is 1.2 miles from the trail head at the visitors center, so it makes a great place to hit up after a day of exploring.

This map is on the side of the building, I'm pointing to where we are.

You can tell by Brian's shirt how sweaty and stinky we were...or at least he was.

I love the tin roof.

 After that, we headed back to the hotel. It was rainy and windy again and our window of dry weather was gone. We never did roast smores or rent bikes, it was just too wet. We thought we wanted to go see a movie, but once we got showered and changed and warmed up again, we didn't really want to go back outside.  Eventually we ended up going out to dinner, getting our favorite slice of carrot cake from Safeway, and watching a movie back in the room.  After a lazy Sunday morning, we got packed up and headed home.

It was a perfect, relaxing weekend away.  We've never left the kids with a sitter for 2 nights. Ever. It's only every few years that we even leave them overnight for 1 night, and usually that has involved running a marathon, and not just for a relaxing get away. So this was incredibly overdue, and once our sitter recovers from her exhaustion, we'll be hitting her up again!

Thank you, Brian!! It was a perfect weekend!

More pictures here.