Hello world! + Mini Adventure #1
A quick and cozy Carmel adventure
I’ll keep this intro short and sweet - I’m here to kill two birds with one stone (feed two birds with one scone?) by documenting life and adventures of all sizes, beyond Instagram and my iPhone photos. What are these two birds?
I’ve been wanting to reinstate a practice of journaling, mostly to build gratitude and combat stress/anxiety entering a new chapter as I return to work after parental leave. I love using Instagram to document life’s little adventures… and I would also like to spend less time on there for all the reasons we know it’s not great to spend too much time on social media.
I want an easier way to share my adventures with friends and family… to stay in touch with folks who live further away AND to easily share recommendations and ideas with other likeminded adventurers. I’ve always loved trip planning (I spend an ungodly amount of time on Airbnb) and this has taken on a new angle since becoming a parent - I recently logged onto Facebook messenger and found a message from a former high school classmate that said something along the lines of “we don’t know each other that well but just wanted to say I love your baby posts because it’s inspired me to get out more with my new baby!” That instantly made me feel much better about all of my baby content spam 🥰
Thus - ✨Mini Adventures✨! I’m sure I will rethink this name a million times, but this one resonated as I’m constantly telling Spyq (partner) that I want to go on a mini adventure somewhere, especially when I’m feeling a little blue and stagnant. It takes on a whole new meaning with the new mini we have in our lives, where even doing things we’ve done many times before seem like a whole new adventure 👶🏼 So what is a mini adventure? It could be a weekend (or more) away, it could also be a day trip, a local hike/stroll + beer, or even discovering a new vintage store etc. Basically anything that gets me out of the house and sparks joy. It ideally has some degree of novelty - although not always! While I sometimes fantasize about nomad life and traveling more, the current reality for me is that we only get 1-2 big trips a year and have to suffice with these mini adventures!
Who knows where this will go, but I’m starting with documenting some of the mini adventures we’ve taken over the last 4+ months while I’ve been on parental leave from work. Hopefully these mini adventures will continue as I return to work!
Here goes nothing!
Mini Adventure #1 - Carmel-By-The-Sea
(Carmel Highlands / Carmel Valley to be covered in a future post ☺️)
August 4-5, 2024
TLDR - one cozy foggy day and night in Carmel-By-The-Sea featuring my first postpartum martini, pizza by the fire pit, and an ocean stroll.
Where did we stay?
Le Petit Pali Ocean Ave - dog friendly, modern country cottage vibes inside with a hip motel outside, and the friendliest service I’ve encountered in a long time! Bonus points for some nice outdoor space with Adirondack chairs and a fire pit.
What did we eat?
I REALLY wanted to check out Chez Noir, but alas they are closed on Sundays :( We also had Morph (our dog) with us so needed to prioritize options with outdoor seating - not the easiest a chillier foggy summer day.
Terry’s Lounge - we went here for the patio with an outdoor fire vibes. Had my first postpartum martini (never dirty enough for me) and a few appetizers - shrimp cocktail and artichokes. I was skeptical that the food would be good, but it hit the spot. The table next to us ordered some seafood entrees that looked tasty and also came out really fast.
La Bicyclette - I had a really nice lunch here with my mom during a February girls weekend so wanted to check it out again. Since they don’t have outdoor seating, we did takeout pizza that we took back to eat at the Le Petit Pali fire pit. The pizza was good, but probably not worth the premium prices to take out pizza vs. dine in :)
Stationaery - met a (former) coworker and friend here for Monday morning brunch. I’m slowly trying to get back into healthier eating so I ordered a salad with the miso salmon, which was super tasty and satisfying. We also shared a biscuit because #balance 🥖🥗
What did we do?
Not much! But that was kind of the point. We walked around town (wish I had more time to go into more of the stores - although maybe for the best for my wallet that I didn’t 😬). Walked to Carmel Beach a few times, which even in the foggy weather is stunning. I had visions of doing some longer walks/hikes, but we hit traffic on the way down and I was exhausted from sleeping terribly during our one night stay (not the baby’s or the hotel’s fault!)
What else?
Lesson learned that we should give ourselves a little more time for traffic on this route. I optimistically thought it would be ~2 hours and it was definitely closer to 3. That’s also a tough stretch for the baby to be in the carseat the whole time so probably should have built in a pit stop on the way… instead we had to pull over about 20 minute before Carmel to feed the little guy to calm him down.
Stay tuned for next mini adventure!
The hotel interior looks so comfy cozy — just the place for a gorgeous baby to be perfectly perched amongst plush pillows for a pic (like the alliteration there?). Sounds like a worthwhile trip, especially because what you learned along the way with baby Callie will help you have more seamless future mini adventures :)