mother & son spring break road trip...

Two firsts set apart this spring break to make it very unique from years past.  Unlike other years our break from school didn't coincide with Easter.  In addition, Chris was on a business trip that took him out of town and Ashlyn found herself on the 8th grade class trip to Washington D.C., Gettysburg & New York.  That just left Landon and me.

Rather than stay home & do the same old thing I started thinking of what we could do.  The open calendar was full of possibilities.  I immediately thought of taking Landon on a road trip to Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium since he had missed out on going with his class in fifth grade due to illness.  With that as my jumping off point I booked a hotel & planned the rest of our road trip.

After booking the trip I questioned whether the whole thing was a mistake.  I didn't know if Landon would prefer to stay in town to hang out with his friends or if the thought of going on a road trip with his mom was just too lame.  I quickly pushed those feelings aside & instead told him about the trip.  He was thrilled at the idea and began counting down the days until our trip.

Once we got on the road any fears I had about the trip disappeared.  It always amazes me how easy it is to just spend time with my kids.  I love hanging out with them & talking to them about their life.  We shared good music & sang along to our favorite songs; sometimes cranking up the volume & feeling the bass deep in our chests.  Landon & I talked about friends, basketball, what Ashlyn might be doing right now & many other things.

We checked into our hotel and then ventured out to find some dinner.  It isn't always the easiest thing to find good gluten free/celiac options when on the road.  We have our favorite places around home & we know what to expect.  Since we were out of town we were at the mercy of Yelp reviews that promised tasty gluten free food.

After a bit of searching we ended up at Paprika Cafe.  If you ever get the chance I would highly recommend it.  It is a tiny one man operation that offers Lebanese/Mediterranean food, but don't let the small stature scare you off.  What it lacked in size it made up for in customer service & flavor.  It was amazingly delicious.  If it were up to me we would have gone back the following night for more!



Before heading back to the hotel we took in all the sights & smells on Fisherman's Wharf.

I'm pretty sure all the candy shops were Landon's favorites.


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Many times on this trip I was struck by the fact that this reality was better than I ever imagined parenthood would be.

More of our mother-son road trip to come...