Labor Day Weekend

How was your long weekend? Was it amazing? It is hard to believe that Labor Day weekend has officially come and gone. I am not going to accept that summer is over, until it is really over. Like September 21st over. Regardless we had a great weekend. We had absolutely no plans, which led to an amazing weekend. That is usually how it works, right? On Friday we decided to see if we could get out of town for a night or two. Our only restriction was driving distance and making sure we could find a dog friendly hotel. Have you heard of Hotel Tonight? It was our first time trying it, but it is an app for your phone that finds last minute discounted hotels for that night. We found one for Carmel, threw clothes in a bag, Chumley in the car and hit the road. Carmel is about an 2 hours south of the Bay Area on the coast. We stayed at the very dog friendly hotel Tradewinds Carmel  right in the middle of Carmel. We explored Carmel, and had a fantastic meal at Mandaka and cocktails at Cypress Inn. Saturday morning we woke up and sadly our Hotel Tonight trick didn't work (mostly because it was a holiday weekend) so we decide to head home but not before an amazing day filled with golf for Luke and the Monterrey Bay Aquarium for me. Since we were already pretty close, we decided to drive a little more south on the coast and have dinner in Big Sur at The Big Sur Bakery  before heading home. One the way home we saw and the most unbelievable sunset I have ever seen. The rest of the weekend was low key and perfect, with lots of cooking on my part - it seemed to last forever.  Why can't all weekends be 3 day weekends? There is a special place in my heart for the Monterry Bay Aquarium. They used to have a sunfish in one of their tanks, sadly I think that guy is gone, but the hammerhead sharks made up for it. I try and check it out every time I am down there. Yes, I am the only person there without kids. The drive alone to Big Sur is stunning. This is the view from the car heading south on RT. 1 from Carmel to Big Sur. The start of the most stunning sunset. We timed it perfectly so that after an early dinner, we snuck down to the beach at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to watch the sunset. It was pure luck that we experienced this. And all sorts of magic. It was a dog friendly beach so Chumley got to enjoy the sunset as well. Big Sur and Carmel are magical in so many ways, if you have not been, you should most definitely check it out. Have a great (short!) week!