So, we left our kids...

...even though they tried to stowaway with the luggage. Luke and I are celebrating our ten year anniversary this month, so we decided to do something we had never done and go on a little getaway. It was a big deal for me...I have a hard time being physically separated from my kids for any length of time...and I am slightly neurotic. It's a family trait; I come by it honestly.
My dear generous mother flew all the way from Boston, leaving her tulips in the spring, to come and babysit, so we knew that the girls were in the best possible hands. So I taped an envelope containing our health insurance and prescription benefits cards along with a signed and dated letter giving my mom full authority to make medical decisions for our children to the inside of our kitchen cabinet, and we were off!

We spent the first night at a resort on a vineyard in Temecula. It was beautiful and relaxing.

Our main destination, however, was Santa Catalina Island. One of the biggest reasons for us choosing this spot was the glowing recommendation of Luke's grandparents, who are pretty much our heroes when it comes to marriage. They have had a few getaways here themselves, and it was so fun to picture them here in years gone by.

On the ferry over to the island, I must admit that I felt a few pangs as I thought about the miles and miles of ocean and desert that lay between me and my babies, but then the harbor town of Avalon came into view.

gorgeous...

Our hotel was tiny and right on the water. I loved the European feel of it...no elevator, real keys (instead of key-cards that you have to fiddle with until a green light clicks on)...the sweet proprietors even had chilled champagne and a "Happy Anniversary" note waiting in our room when we checked in.





The next day I did a zipline tour. There was only one spot left on the morning tour, so my sweet self-sacrificing husband offered it to me. I took it. Carpe Diem and all that.

Here is a super nerdy picture of me in all my zipline safety gear holding the zipline contraption thing upside down...smooth.





The tour itself was amazing. I must admit the first run was REALLY high and I felt a little shaky, but it was so much fun.

My sweet self-sacrificing husband hiked up and took pictures...that's me whizzing by on one of the lower runs.

Untitled from Allison Speier on Vimeo.

In the afternoon we rented a sea kayak and explored the little coves and beaches north of the town...I loved paddling over the kelp forest...the water there is crystal clear, and the kelp looks like huge tree trunks growing down towards the bottom with bright orange and silver fish flashing through them. We got very close to a pair of inquisitive sea lions, too. No Great Whites, though...sorry Papa.











I also was kind of in love with the Casino. It is not, much to Luke's disappointment, an actual casino. It was a dance hall and theater, and it still shows movies in the evenings. I loved the outside, but I was too cheap to pay 20$ to see the interior.

I wish I could have seen it in its heyday, with Big Bands playing in the dance hall.

The Art Deco mosaics in the porch were my favorite...

The mornings were beautiful. I got to enjoy them because I couldn't sleep in. Apparently I sleep much better squished onto the ten or eleven inches on the edge of our mattress while getting pummeled intermittently throughout the night by toddler heels. So I would go for walks while my husband slept in.
It was very strange to just leave the hotel room with nothing but my room key (and my cell phone of course...Nanny might have called and I might have had to sprint down to the ferry dock or helipad and beg, borrow, or steal passage home to Phoenix immediately.) But seriously, neuroses aside, it was really nice to be able to walk as long and as far as I wanted sans stroller and baby wipes.

I have no idea why the pictures on this post are so far apart...sorry.

Driving home, Luke and I talked about when we would ever do something like this again. I said, "maybe for our twentieth", before doing the math in my head and realizing we'd be leaving a 16 year old Audrey...a terrifying prospect. Not to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, but something tells me Audrey is going to need a fair amount of adult supervision in her teenage years.
...so it was fun while it lasted! Thank you thank you thank you Nanny, and Steve and Cindy and Emily for keeping my girls happy and safe! And thank you to my wonderful husband, who has made the past ten years the best of my life!