We're still trying to get in as many trips as we can before the little one gets here. So, we took a road trip to Sequoia this weekend.
Friday we left around 3pm - just in time to catch the traffic on 101. Once we got out of town it was smooth sailing. The plan was to get to Fresno that evening, stay there, and continue on to Sequoia the next morning. Well, we got to Fresno really fast, and when we got there it was the most boring place ever. We had no clue where to stay and it felt too early to stop for the evening. So I called the Bed and Breakfast in Three Rivers where we had reservations for Saturday night, and luckily they had our room available on Friday too! So we kept on going, and arrived in Three Rivers by 8pm.
The B&B was so nice! It was a really cute house right on the river. Apparently a bunch of nuns used to live there, until they were exiled by the Fresno Archbishop for some sort of misdeeds. I love a good scandal so I was thrilled to learn that fun fact :)
On Saturday, we headed up to the park after packing a small picnic lunch. It was pretty, but I was expecting a little more than just giant trees. So I patiently waited and posed while Amit took pictures in various spots along the drive. We stopped to try out a couple of hikes, but as we walked down the path, we started coming across some snow. There was enough snow to make the conditions too unsafe for me to go any farther. The walkways were pretty icy. So we kept the hiking to a minimum and managed a few short strolls in the lower elevations. We continued on towards Kings Canyon, but again the snow got the best of us - the road was closed and there was no entry to the Canyon. Bummer!
So we drove back down to Three Rivers, and got back to our room by 5pm or so. I was pretty wiped so I settled in for a nap, while Amit headed out to the river, book in one hand, glass of wine in the other. That night we had dinner in a weird Mexican restaurant, watched a movie in our room, and peacefully drifted off to sleep.
The next morning when we woke up, suddenly my belly was huge! I don't know what happened overnight - the baby must have turned or something - but now when I'm walking straight ahead, I see this belly preceding me everywhere! It was pretty cool to see the sudden change. Once we were done giggling and admiring our daughter's growth spurt,we needed to come up with plans for the day.
After breakfast, we sat in the back yard by the river. I read for a bit while Amit experimented with the camera. We brainstormed ideas of what to do next, while we sat and took in the sun and our beautiful surroundings. Since most of Sequoia was covered in snow, neither of felt like going back there for a 2nd visit...so we came up with Plan B.
Once we got in the car, we headed straight west and made a beeline for Paso Robles. We picked out a couple of wineries to visit and found out way to them. Amit tasted - surprisingly I wasn't too tempted to participate in the tasting and had so much fun just hanging out with him.
We spent the day there, had delicious BBQ for lunch, and got home around 6pm that evening. It was the best weekend! Two days and 4 hours away we felt as though we had just been on a romantic, exotic, this-one's-for-the-books weekend.
