A short getaway... and a few other things

We have been SO BLESSED to have grandparents galore at our house lately! Last Tuesday Shari arrived for a visit. We had fun bopping around town, going to lunch at Google, exploring some parks, and showing her Candice & Bryant's new house. We also enjoyed wayyy too many late nights staying up till 11pm or 12am chatting and eating treats!

Eating lunch at Google w/ Grandma (the pasta bar on Wed is delish!!)

On Thursday night, Kevin & I said goodbye to Shari and the little man and we drove south to San Simeon and Santa Barbara for a little getaway trip. We loved every minute of our adventure together!! Don't get me wrong... I LOVE Andrew and love every minute that I get to spend with him, but my parents taught me that the most important thing you can do as a parent is love your spouse, have fun together, and continue to always be cultivating your relationship with one another- which means taking time to hang out as a couple! Although that is do-able close to home... it is even more fun to have an opportunity to go on a little adventure. Our trip reminded me once again how much I love Kevin and how much fun we have together.

On our drive down to San Simeon we took a pit stop at Applebees to consume basically their entire dessert menu.

Kevin's bed at our hotel ;)

We rolled into foggy San Simeon around 10:30pm and checked in to The Morgan Hotel. It was beautiful. We didn't want to pay much for such a quick stay, so we were actually shocked at how nice this place was. On Friday morning I woke up around 8am and went for a run in the neighborhood (there isn't much of a neighborhood... mostly just Highway 1)... and I managed to run circles enough to stretch the small running area into a 40 minute run. Then we grabbed breakfast at the hotel and headed off to Hearst Castle, about two miles down the road, for our 11am tour.

Riding the bus up to the castle

We couldn't have picked a better time to take the tour. The clouds along the coast disappeared and the weather was gorgeous! Perfect not too hot, not too cold central coast weather. Loved it!


Kevin had never been to Hearst Castle before, so we just took the basic experience tour and really enjoyed it. Our tour guide was wonderful and I loved seeing everything again.




I feel very large and in charge in these pictures (which distracts a bit from their beauty), but I guess once I'm not pregnant anymore I'll at least have something to compare myself to and think, "wow, at least I'm not as huge now as I was back on our trip." :)


Kevin loved the pools and is hoping we can have one of these some day.


After the tour we ate lunch (Kevin downed some beef burger/sandwich that had been highly recommended by Candice... and he thought it was really good)... and then we watched the IMAX movie, Hearst Castle: Building the Dream. I enjoyed a nice nap in a comfy seat during most of the movie (because that's always what happens when I sit down at 2pm these days).


We spent the rest of Friday afternoon driving down to Santa Barbara. I had a great car nap- an added bonus of leaving the singing 2 year old at home. When we arrived, we checked into The Mason Beach Inn... cheap, pretty nice, only two blocks from the beach, and conveniently a mile or less from downtown (my favorite part).

We ate dinner downtown on Friday night at the Habit Burger Grill and then went and watched Inception. Such a great night! Afterwards we topped off the evening with some hot cocoa to warm us up on our mile walk back to the hotel :) My goal was never to use our car in Santa Barbara (because I love walking so much)... and that goal was accomplished! (I think Kev is still recovering :)).

On Saturday morning I went for an hour run along the beach paths while Kevin slept in. We loved just having a chill morning and eventually we made it downtown for lunch at a yummy Indian restaurant. We ate enough food to last the entire day... and then some. To work off our lunch, we rented this duece coupe thing from Wheel Fun down by the beach... and rode it around for about an hour.


The weather was insanely beautiful and so were the views along the water. Fortunately the seats were adjustable so that Kevin was able to get semi comfortable- I forget sometimes how tall he is. The little surrey that I originally wanted to ride was so short that his knees would've been at his chin and his head wouldn't have fit under the roof.


We spent the afternoon shop-bopping around downtown and utilizing our Banana 30% off discounts... we got Kevin some great shirts for work and enjoyed browsing. After being on our feet from noon onward (about 6-1/2 hours), our legs revolted and we walked the mile back to our hotel to relax!

Later in the evening we ventured back downtown to devour some yummy Ben & Jerry's ice cream sundaes, buy Andrew-man a little present (from Rite-Aid- aren't we awesome parents ;)), and enjoy some live outdoor music.



Sunday morning we woke up and dropped in for church at a local chapel and then started our trek home. One of the things on our list of "Buskirk Fun Things to Do Before we Die" is to drive Highway 1 from San Diego to Seattle... preferably in a convertible (any guesses as to who added this item to the list?... since I like my hair neat and get carsick on windy roads) . Well, we didn't have the convertible, but we decided to drive home from Santa Barbara to Monterey on Highway 1. We couldn't have had a better day.


We stopped a few times to snap some photos and enjoy the views.


Although the drive took us almost 7 hours (instead of a much shorter drive on 101), we had a lot of fun... and I enjoyed naps during some boring parts and I didn't get car sick. Yay! Only negative was that Kevin's car stereo was stolen a few weeks back... so we had no music on the drive... although eventually we whipped out his iPad. Mostly we just had a good time chatting and enjoying the views.


We finally got home around 5pm and were happily greeted by Andrew and Shari. They had so much fun riding bikes, playing outside, exploring parks, going to soccer practice, and hanging out with Candice, Bryant, Livvy, and Peter while we were gone! We are so grateful for Shari! What a super Grandma!

This morning before Shari's flight back to Utah we had fun playing at the park. Shari has become an expert snail finder over the past week or so... so Andrew was really excited when she found TWO snails at the park!


We even went back to visit them again tonight.


What a great week! Now back to reality I guess... painting rooms, mopping floors, doing laundry and dishes, decorating, and lots of organizing is ahead!! So glad we got a little end of the summer getaway before September arrived!! Thanks again Shari!