I hate winter, specifically January.

December is fine, it's not usually *that* cold, and there are all the Christmas lights, music, decorations and eggnog. Mmmm, eggnog. But everything after New Year's Day just sucks.

It's cold, it's dark, it's dreary, and I have to wear a lot of clothing (and dress my child in a lot of clothing, which is a real chore). My thighs get little bumps and ingrown hairs on them from wearing pants all the time. I'm constantly in a cold sweat, and my muscles clench up against the cold. The only time I'm truly relaxed and happy is when I'm in a hot bath, or parked in front of a hot fire, or under a big down comforter. Other than that I'm just killing time the best I can, waiting for Spring to arrive and hurry UP with it already.

February is better, because the signs of Spring start to appear. Subtly at first...it stays light until 6:00pm, a few leaf buds appear on trees, green grass unfurls from barren dirt. But these few signs bring joy and hope to my life and bring me out of the Crab Station that is January. Even if February is still cold and rainy, just the days being longer is enough to snap me out of my January funk-a-thon.

Anyway, it happened to me this January too, just like I knew it would. Plus Dan was gone every week on business, which didn't help. Julian got a nasty cold, then I got it, and we were both miserably sick, like January wasn't enough on its own.

So Dan finally came home and, taking in the sad state of affairs on the home front, he offered to take us somewhere for a little break. Cabo? Hawaii? Ick, no desire at all to get on a plane. A total waste of an entire day. Rush to the airport, hurry up and wait, stand in line, be inspected by strangers, desperately try to enterain rambunctious toddler for hours on end so he doesn't annoy strangers packed in like sardines next to us, endure hours of discomfort and inability to relax for even one second, and spend the next few days deep breathing just trying to unwind from the whole experience before turning around and doing it all over again. The return trip. Ugh

Seriously, RVing is looking good these days.

But anyway, we ended up going to Carmel for five days and it was wonderful. Less than two hours away by car, and a scenic drive to boot. Julian is very happy in the car these days, as long as it's moving and he has a snack. In fact, if we *don't* go anywhere on any given day, he starts bugging me to "Go go go. Mommy and Baby and Truck. Go go go." It doesn't matter where we go go go, he just likes to get out and see things.

We stayed at the Carmel Valley Ranch, which was luxurious (if a wee bit run down). There was a big lodge with a roaring fire, and Kobe beef burgers with blue cheese and good french fries, which made Dan happy. Our room had a big deck with a private hot tub. Even though it broke down twice, it was still great. Julian wanted to use the "outside bath" constantly, which was fine by me until it broke down and got cold, then we took an inside bath.

The weather couldn't have been better...upper 70's during the day, a veritable heat wave. Very unseasonable too, normally it's raining in Carmel at this time of year. But for us, it was warm and lovely and sunny every single day.

We saw flocks of wild turkeys and deer every day at the Ranch, which made up for the smoky fireplace and complete lack of hiking trails on 30 or 400 or 1200 acres of Ranch property (the number was different in every source).

We went to the beach (spectacular), we ate all gourmet meals, all the time (Jeffrey's Grill in Carmel Valley is highly recommended, as are Village Corner and Porta Bella in Carmel Village). We ate at Jeffrey's on 3 days out of 5. It's a breakfast/lunch place in the local shopping center, but has outdoor tables, fantastically delicious food, and very reasonable prices. I had the Oriental Chicken Salad 3 times in a row. It was that good.

Dan took me to the Pacific's Edge restaurant on our last night there. The food was incredible of course, and the views spectacular. I wasn't able to fully concentrate, since Julian was with us (childcare fell through, thanks to ill-informed concierge back at the Ranch) and of course that was the ONE dining occasion all week that he chose to act up, squirm around, fuss and cry, etc. Our suave waiter Mario was smooth as silk though...like our private butler for the evening.

So let's see, what else? We lounged, we ate, we bathed. We went to the beach. I had big plans for getting a massage and horseback riding and all kinds of other things that didn't materialize, but that's OK. We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves, that's what's important.

Julian loved the trip. Every day was full of new and exciting things to see and do, he got to take a bath in a BIG tub outside with Mom and Dad, and drive his cars around on a lot of new surfaces. He enjoyed the good food and the restaurants, and behaved exceptionally well everywhere but Pacfifc's Edge. He adored the beaches and the wild turkeys and the deer. It was all fun, fun, fun.

I was trying to relax of course, so I wasn't really on the ball as far as organizing our time in Carmel. The two days that I chilled on being Planner we ended up sitting in the hotel room longer than we wanted to, and Julian missed his nap and ended up sleeping in the car while we drove around. The day that I stayed on top of planning and organizing we had a great time all day long, Julian took a long nap, and everything fell into place activity-wise.

I noticed that Moms don't *really* get a break on vacation. You still need to be on top of everything...make sure that regular meals happen, everyone gets adequate sleep according to schedule, the activities take place when they should, you get to places on time, etc. But you don't have to cook, you don't have to clean (except for tidying up the room a little before the maids come in), and there is no household to-do list staring you in the face during your downtime. That in itself is golden.

It's definitely not the total freedom of pre-baby vacationing. But taking your child to new places and seeing them enjoy all the sights and sounds...that's priceless. You don't get to do nearly as much, but what you do, you completely enjoy...not just through your own experience, but through that of your child.

Oh, we were there while the big Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament was ramping up, so there was lots of excitement. Didn't see any celebrities or anything, but we did have a big group of Yahoo! employees arrive at the Ranch for their annual company trip to the tournament. Y! employees get heavily discounted rates on lodging and admission. It was weird to be there and watch the Yahoo! limo pull up, and all the happy Y! employees walking around with their branded fleece jackets and caps and stuff. Oh well. No corporate life for me anymore. That's fine. It's not all trips to Carmel, that's for sure.

Then it came time to go home. Like clockwork the fog started to roll in, a chill breeze started blowing, and we skeddadled out of there. After a final brunch at Jeffrey's, we hit the road and Julian passed out for a perfectly-timed nap in the car. Score!

As always, it was good to be home, but especially so when it was painless leaving and arriving. I think we're on to something.

Photos to come. Still figuring out the new camera and how to get the pics OFF it.