Us, December 26, 2017: Leo, Shadow, Roy, Ondine, John
Us, December 26, 2017: Leo, Shadow, Roy, Ondine, John
We celebrated our 20th anniversary with a romantic weekend getaway! Roy and Leo stayed home, with Barbara checking in on them. Leo spent most of him time at Baba's, while Roy opted to come home to sleep.
Ondine had booked us into the Wikiup in Julian, a B&B. Our room was the "Rose's Secret," a room just off the common room well bedecked in roses and lace and throw rugs. We kept tripping over the rugs, and rolled up a particularly troublesome one. The room had a cavernous bathroom with skylights, an electric heater/faux fireplace, and a private patio entrance with a white wrought iron cafe set beneath a large canvas umbrella.
For dinner, we went to The Julian Grille, where Ondine had cream of artichoke soup and a spinach salad with salmon, and John had a sweet walnut and spring greens salad. Yum! Then, for dessert, upon returning to the B&B we snaffled two enticing pieces from the trays set out for guests: a raspberry cheesecake and a heart-shaped cookie dipped in chocolate. The raspberry cheesecake was especially fresh and fluffy.
Saturday morning we enjoyed the quiet and the warmth of the electric fire and vast array of blankets and comforters, listening to the drumming of the rain on the roof. The strong floral perfume, though, bothered us, and John moved the potpourri bowl outside. Later, he took it into the main common room, where, trying to put it out of the way, he forgot about a step down and stumbled, scattering the top layer of potpourri! He was cleaning up the mess when the owner walked in. Awkward! Anyways, that's when he learned there was one of those plug-in scent dispensers behind one of the tables, so he removed that too.
Meanwhile, Ondine had her own common room misadventure. She was sitting on a couch, enjoying the warmth and the beautiful decor, when she shifted her position and suddenly things began crashing down beside her! First a telescope went over (it had been resting on a blanket draped decoratively over the couch), and the telescope hit a floor lamp, which toppled down and hit the woodburning stove! That brought both owners out to see what bears had gotten loose in their lodge! It was only us bears. (We began to think we don't belong in nice surroundings; it's not our natural habitat.)
A hearty, delicious breakfast was served around 10, which, thankfully, went without either of us knocking anything else over, although we were both on high alert for every delicate little object around us. We chatted to the other guests, two other couples from San Diego. It's all very social, a B&B.
We walked around the grounds a bit and fed the llamas, then returned to our little nook for nearly a full day of quiet reading time. Ahh!
We made a reservation for an early dinner at Romano's Restaurant. Ondine had minestrone soup and a St. Patrick's Day tortellini in pesto, and John had an antipasto and lasagne. Yum!
Sunday was check-out day but thanks to Barbara, we still had the bulk of the day to roam free. We fed the llamas again, and then went into Julian where we checked out the Pioneer Cemetery and The Julian Book House, a used-book store. Ondine bought three books and John bought a book on Henry VIII. Then we went to The Julian Grille again for a late lunch/early dinner: Ondine had a hearty vegetarian sandwich and John had a chicken pot pie. We also went to Apple Alley and got a whole crumb-top apple pie to bring home for the kiddos.
A side note: about 20 years or so ago, John was one of the leaders in a local hiking club. Once, after a hike, the members decided to do a taste test among all the apple pies in Julian, to see which was best. John and many others thought the crumb-top apple pie from Apple Alley was superior to the better-known touristy bakeries. Flash forward to last weekend: we asked our waiter at The Julian Grille for her favorite pie place, and she said ... Apple Alley! So this place is still the insider's tip for the best apple pie in Julian.
We paused on the drive home to take a short hike along the Harvey Moore trail. Here are photos from the weekend! NOTE: many filenames and embedded dates are off by one date, because John incorrectly set his new camera.
Meanwhile, Roy had started his job at the Horton Grand Theatre running a spotlight for Bring It On! Barbara had taken him to and from the theater downtown, including navigating downtown (twice!) on St. Patrick's Day when a lot of streets were closed off. We picked him up Sunday night; John felt he needed the practice run since he'd be doing the shuttle back and forth all week long.
Monday Roy had a day off, but the rest of the week he had to be at the theater by 3:00, and would typically work until 10 or 10:30. Leo went to D&D after school on Wednesday, but on the other days went to the library instead, where John picked him up after dropping off Roy downtown. John tries to get in a post-dinner nap so he can be safe driving downtown and back at close to midnight. He's really racking up the miles running back and forth downtown twice a day!
Ondine, meanwhile, is in Berkeley attending a multi-day workshop on Narrative Therapy. John took her to the airport very early Thursday morning, before taking the boys to school. She's catching a bit of the "atmospheric river" that's forecast to drop quite a bit of rain in the area!
Barbara has the UU shelter starting this weekend, plus Aunt Kani is visiting so she has a full schedule.
Bring It On! starts this evening and runs through the weekend, with two shows Saturday and Sunday. Wow! As part of Roy's job, he got us two tickets to see the show, so John and Leo will go to one of the performances. Ondine won't be back in time, unfortunately.
Friday after school John took the boys to Souplantation for lunch/dinner, and we ran into Barbara and Kani!
Then, next week starts Spring Break, which is already booked pretty solid for us.
Neighborhood gas prices are about $3.75 per gallon.
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