Gualala Trip with Friends

The second weekend of January we went up to Gualala to hang out with some friends. Dyani and her fiance, Brice, had some time off from their residency jobs and wanted to explore Northern California (Brice is from France, has lived on the East Coast and is getting to know our coast now that they live here). Edward and his friend, Crystal, also came along. It was a super fun but relaxing weekend!

Because Dave works in Gualala during the week but has to watch Eddie all day, he had to drive down to Davis on Thursday and drive all the way back to Gualala the very next day. Whew.

My Fridays in insane--classes, seminars, and meetings solid from about 10am-5:15pm. Remembering to eat, drink plenty of water, and pump my milk between all of it is challenging. While I was on campus all day, Dave drove up to Gualala with Eddie and the dogs--we try to travel only during the day so we don't mess up Eddie's nighttime schedule (bath at 8:15pm-ish, jammies, a book or tummy time if he's not too fussy/tired, nursing, then to bed). So I drove up alone when I was done on campus.

When I got there, everyone was hanging out in the kitchen with my father-in-law. I bathed Eddie in the sink while everyone watched (who can resist a darling naked baby splashing in the tub?). I tried to put him to bed around 9pm like usual but he wouldn't have it. I don't know if it was because he was in the Pack-n-Play (he's used to his crib now) or the excitement of the day. But it took me a whole hour to get him to sleep! (Then when he woke up he wouldn't go back to sleep in the Pack-n-Play, even after crying for 20 minutes...so into our bed he went.)

After a pancake breakfast made by Dave on Saturday, we all piled into our minivan and headed up to the airport. We wanted to show Brice the bee hives and fruit tree orchard since his family is into that type of thing. Then we went on a tour of the Point Arena Lighthouse.That night for dinner we had abalone, pesto pasta, salad, and squash casserole. Many of the ingredients were grown by us or caught in the ocean in Gualala. I prepared two whole abalone (we totally didn't need that much for only 7 adults) and got a big blister on my finger from tenderizing all of it. After dinner everyone but me played card games. It was a great weekend and in the evenings we got to just sit around. Soooooooooo nice!Eddie was super spoiled the entire trip, with lots of folks to play with him. Somehow I didn't end up with any pictures of Dyani or Brice. Dyani was nice enough to even change one of Eddie's diapers while I made breakfast on Sunday.

Sunday morning came too quickly and we all had to leave to get back to real life.