Last Friday marked my last day at work for 2013. I have been at my
current place of employment for almost 9 1/2 years. During that time at
most I have taken about 2 weeks off from work. My employer will allow me
to take a total of 6 months off for maternity leave. This could leave
some women wondering what they would do with their time but not me-I
feel like I have a lot of organizing and prepping to do and my biggest
worry is that the baby will decide to come earlier than Dec. 10th. I
also still have a bit of a bucket list (like one last Sunday night at the 500
Club, stuffing my face at the Hella Vegan Eats food truck at Dolores
Park, paddle boarding at Jack London Square, hike to Cataract Falls in
Marin, etc.) I need to work on once all the baby prep stuff is done.
But first things first-Babymoon! GK was a little worried about being too far away from a hospital in case of an emergency and of course Elsie had to be included so we decided to revisit one of our favorite spots-
the Stanford Inn, an eco-friendly resort in Mendocino. This was the spot of our first getaway together in 2011 and where we became engaged last New Year's Eve. For this trip I was especially looking forward to a prenatal massage in the forest, vegan food, and a king sized bed with extra pillows.
After my massage I returned to our cozy room complete with a fireplace to find GK and Elsie engaging in some serious cuddle time.
We then relaxed which consists of watching TV since we don't own one. Unfortunately the inn does not have Animal Planet (a favorite) so we settled on the Food Network's reality show, "Chopped," that had a special Thanksgiving theme. Above is the view from our room where we could see the ocean and we took a short break from the TV to appreciate an amazing sunset. Then it was time to head to dinner at the inn's Raven's Restaurant.
Probably because it was a Tuesday night, we were one of about three couples, and I have an incredibly healthy appetite these days-we were finished with dinner in a little less than an hour. Clockwise from the upper left hand corner-roasted beet frisee salad with lemon walnut pate, vegetables tamales with beans, rice, & avocado slaw, homemade mushroom tofu ravioli with cream sauce & sauteed chard, and barbeque pulled tempeh sandwich with citrus slaw. Unfortunately I was too full to order dessert.
Being a model is hard.
After dinner GK took about an hour to get a fire going and Elsie had her holiday photo shoot (sorry-no previews). I fell into a blissful sleep with the fire crackling in the background, surrounded by at least five fluffy pillows, and no alarm clock to wake up to.
In the morning I decided to take advantage of the solarium swimming pool. Because I've been feeling ahem, a bit warm these days, walking to the pool barefoot, in just the inn's bathrobe was pretty invigorating and I reminisced about all the ice baths I took last year while training for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50K.
36-week belly shot.
It's official-I still float!
After the pool we had brunch-tofu Florentine and roasted potatoes for me and quinoa and black bean enchiladas complete with freshly squeezed orange and carrot juice.
Then it was Elsie time and we took her for a walk on the grounds. Here she is checking out the organic garden.
And here she is ignoring the llama.
Elsie refused to look into the camera so I looked in the direction she was-at what I have absolutely no clue but I hope it was interesting.
GK's turn to look intrigued.
We even ventured down to the dock at Catch a Canoe. Elsie is NOT a fan of water and typically refuses to walk on a dock. However, when we took her leash off and proceeded without her, she summoned the courage and joined us. She was so nervous she wouldn't even accept the treats we offered her for being so brave.
I would have loved to stay just one more night but that would have been pushing it with all we have left to do in the next few short weeks. We'll be back in 2014 though with just a little extra luggage:)
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