40th Birthday: Cabin Getaway

Tags

40th birthday, birthday, cabin, cabin life, Idyllwild, mountain getaway, mountain life, romantic getaway, travel diary, weekend getaway

If you follow Jeff (@jarmstrongphoto) or I on Instagram (@amhb83), you were flooded with pictures and videos from this cabin weekend in February – but it really was THAT gorgeous.

We went after a light snow and before the giant blizzards hit our local mountains, so we got to experience just a light snow on the ground that gave everything a slightly ethereal look.

Jeff surprised me by booking this AMAZING cabin in Idyllwild, CA. They have a total of three separate listings for that property – I’d love to check out this reader/writer paradise for a smaller trip in the future.

To say Jeff and I had been looking forward to this weekend getaway was an understatement. Josh has a stomach bug a week before, Jeff was about to take off for two weeks to visit family in Germany, and there were all the standard parenting things that just seemed a bit heightened.

So when Jonny started puking all over our dinning room table the night before we were supposed to leave, we were….upset? Worried? Disappointed? So disappointed. So many thoughts were going through out heads in those split seconds when Jonny started throwing up: can we still go? Is it that bad? Is it that virus or just something he ate? We can’t get our money back. We spent a lot of money on that cabin. We really need this. Poor buddy. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Well, it wasn’t shit, but it was pretty damn close.

The night was rough, but we made it through, and in the morning Jonny seemed to be at 100%, and thankfully our moms were still willing to watch the boys (God bless them!). So…we took off like bats out of hell. We joked about it, but there was also very much a degree of seriousness when we said “we just have to be far enough so when they call saying he’s sick again…we can’t turn back.” Ha! Are we terrible parents? I don’t think so. We just really, really needed a break.

And let me tell you, it was a marvelous break. Aside from driving on the 91…that jiggly part just feels like torture (if you know, you know) (yes, I prefer to spell it out…because I’M FORTY).

The cabin

Anywho – the cabin was great, so here are some of Jeff’s amazing pictures of it:

Places we went to

We went to Idyllwild Brewpub for dinner on Friday. My stomach was feeling super queasy from a spending parts of the last three weeks with two kids puking..,and I couldn’t tell if I was starving or about to puke. I was super nervous and wondering if I’d make it to the bathroom if I got sick, so we ended up packing all our food to go and leaving half-drunken beers behind (the inhumanity! My only regret from this weekend). A huge shout out here to my amazing husband: he was so kind and patient and urged us to home where I’d feel more comfortable. So my view is a bit biased, but I couldn’t even look at the sandwich, and ate exactly 0% of it. But even Jeff, who actually ate his, said it sucked. SO, I would go here for drinks, but skip the food. They have a great patio that I can just imagine would be beautiful for day drinking during the summer.

Saturday we explored the downtown area a little bit. Jeff had scoped out a cute little bookstore that I was super excited to check out, so we hit that first. And let me just tell you, Speakeasy Books is ADORABLE. The owner curates all of the books and she has an amazing selection of all genres. It was so nice to leisurely look around! We bought a few books and even got a free tote bag (which I LOVE).

We had lunch at The Sunflower, which was recommended by our cabin hosts, and it was a great little lunch spot. We ate our sandwiches on the back patio and they were delicious!

Right across from The Sunflower is Idyllwild Gardens, which I highly recommend taking a stroll through. They have several unique and adorable set ups, including a little indoor greenhouse with seating to relax and take a moment.

We heard a bit of hype about Alpaca Coffee & Tea House so I really wanted to try it out. We stopped by on our way out of town, but it was PACKED. So we’re saving that for the next trip.