Weekend Getaway

This past weekend we took a little trip north to Brevard, NC so that J could take part in a bike race with some friends.  Last year he went by himself, but this year we decided to make a little family trip out of it.  We left our house at 9:45 AM Friday morning and got on the road.  I was worried about how munchkin would do for four hours in the car when I knew he wouldn't be napping. Turns out that with a little Disney Jr. and some books and snacks he was perfectly fine.

We got up there around 2:30 and found the house that we had rented with some friends.  It was very old and the floors were a little uneven, but it was perfect for what we needed it for. We made a Wal-mart run (we had forgotten to bring our fans that we use to sleep at night) and then tried to get munchkin to take a nap. No go.  I rocked with him in the recliner in the living room for a while, but he wasn't going to sleep. We gave up and played in the yard for a while until our friends got there.

We decided to go out to dinner and I was afraid it was going to be a trainwreck.  Especially since it took us quite some time to find a place without a long wait (the small town was a little overrun with the 1000+ cyclists in for the race).  Eventually we found a little place with no wait (Marco Trattoria) and were seated. Looking at the menu I was worried that Andrew wouldn't eat anything, but then I saw the kids menu with a mini cheese pizza included. Perfect.  We had a nice relaxing evening sitting outside eating our delicious meals and Andrew chowed down on his pizza:

We finally got him in bed at almost 10:00 and I turned in shortly thereafter.

I had hoped he would sleep in on Saturday, but at 7:37 he was up and at 'em.  I got him up and we hung out with J and the other guys before they headed to the start of the race (only a few blocks from the house).  We played in the back yard for a while and then I decided we would walk downtown so I could find some coffee.  Unfortunately we had forgotten to put the little umbrella stroller back in the car when we were packing it up the day before, which meant I was going to attempt a "quick" walk with a two year old.  Yeah, there is no such thing as a quick walk with a toddler  :)

We made it to downtown only to find that the one place I was thinking of didn't open until 10:00 (it was 9:45) and I think it was actually just a coffee roaster place that sold bags of coffee, not served it.  Damn.

So we walked up Main St past some more stores in search of coffee.  One of them was this cool little toy store with these nutcrackers outside:

We didn't go inside right then, but we did later.  Eventually I found a little bakery that served coffee.  I got a mocha latte for me and a peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie for Andrew.  I decided we better head back towards the house since I hadn't told Angela where we were going.  About a third of the way back Andrew stopped and said "Hop on!", which is his way of telling me he wanted to be carried.  So I was carrying my coffee and the cookie bag in my left hand and carrying my 30 lb toddler on my right hip with that arm.  Not an easy task.  After a while I had to set him down and he promptly demanded "More cookie!".  I gave him a piece, he popped it in his mouth and then lifted his arms and said "Hop on!" again. Ugh.  I got us back to our street before setting him down and telling him my arm hurt and he had to walk the rest of the way. Thankfully he listened and happily walked until we saw a cat at the neighbors house:

I was silently praying that it was a friendly cat and not going to claw my kid's eyes out as he followed him around saying "kitty!" and petting him.  The kitty was very patient and didn't even seem to mind the cookie crumbs that Andrew was leaving on his back as he petted him.

We got home and hung out for a bit before we headed back downtown to meet the guys after the race (this time we drove).  He was excited to see daddy and we hung out while the guys ate their lunch after the race.  Then we headed home and we were able to get him to nap. I was exhausted and napped while he did.

That evening we headed to another cool little restaurant downtown (The Square Root) for some dinner. This time he didn't do so well with the eating and barely touched his grilled cheese or sweet potato chips. We took them to go and headed to this little lounge place (The Phoenix) for some drinks and relaxing.  There was a little area in the corner with couches and a table and games.  Andrew was entertaining himself playing with Connect 4 and we started a game of Uno.  After a while J and I took him home and Jay and Angela stayed to hang out.

We had an easier time getting him to bed that night and watched a movie once he was down.  Yesterday morning I woke up to a bloody nose, which was not cool.  Once Andrew was up we fed him some breakfast and packed up the car. The first stop was a manual car wash to de-poo the car that the birds had used as their private bathroom the day before.  Andrew loved it:

Then we headed for Looking Glass Falls for a little sightseeing before heading home:

 When we were walking back from looking at Sliding Rock I snapped this picture:

My little boy loves his daddy - and his duck.  God, I love that kid.

All in all it was a fabulous little getaway weekend and everyone had a good time. I know weekends like that are going to be more difficult after 2.0 gets here.  That makes me cherish times like this all the more.