my unexpected weekend

 

sometimes you can do all sorts of planning and things just don't work out the way you intended but they work out the way they're supposed to.

my life is definitely a prime example of that - i never planned to have another relationship after taz because taz was always going to be there. i certainly never planned to be a bonus mom and grandmother at this point in my life and i definitely didn't plan on cooking dinner and doing multiple loads of laundry each week when i'd spent a lifetime avoiding most of that, lol, but here i am, living my best life...ok, not the cooking and laundry, i could do without those.

this past weekend was certainly unexpected and yet, i think it was one of the nicest weekends i've had in a loooooong time.

we were supposed to go to alabama to help a friend of chris's build a deck. i had planned the whole thing - found a great boarding place for charlie, rented a car for the long drive, packed my suitcase for the 3 days.

friday morning went according to plan - i dropped charlie off at her pet resort and wished her a happy weekend. taz and i never spent a night away from charlie so it's a little weird to board her now but i know she's getting good care. this place even has a tv in each room tuned to animal planet although i have no idea if she enjoys watching.

i came back home to pick up the rental car and that's where things fell apart. the rental company had rented out our suv to another couple and didn't have anything of similar size to give to us. we objected strongly and spent some time on the phone but in the end nothing changed so we didn't get a rental car. i was reluctant to put so many miles on my car and then we heard from family and friends about severe weather in the area where we were headed which caused us to reconsider the advisability of the trip. the final straw was when the friend called and said they hadn't been able to get all the materials for the deck and we probably wouldn't be able to work outside anyway because of the weather.

it was unanimous, the universe was sending us signs that we needed to postpone.

now the fun part - since Chris had already taken the whole weekend off from work and the kids were with their mom and charlie was already at her pet resort, we had a whole weekend together...just us. this almost never happens, i can't even remember the last time it was just us. so i quickly suggested that maybe we could run up to st. augustine on saturday, just for the day.

st. augustine was always a favorite spot for taz and me, we both loved the quaint old part of the town that reminded us of european villages and our beloved carmel-by-the-sea in california so a part of me wanted to relive old memories but most of me wanted to make new happy memories with chris in a place i love. he had been there a few times as well and was all for the trip.

one of the things i love about st. augustine is a gourmet popsicle shop called The Hyppo. they have the most imaginative flavors and it's lighter than ice cream. i pretty much propelled us straight there as soon as we were out of the car.

chris, unfortunately, was not a big fan of the flavor he chose but my blackberry goat cheese popsicle was amazing!

we spent a few hours just walking around all the shops, bought some organic soap and a very cool skull mask...we both have a thing for skulls, fun little souvenirs from our first getaway.

we were having so much fun that i didn't want to go back home just yet so i asked if we could spend the night even though we hadn't planned for it and had no luggage. lol

but finding a room was almost impossible. there was nothing in st. augustine so we decided to drive down to daytona which is where chris used to live. unfortunately this was the last official weekend of spring break and everything was sold out so i was losing hope until i made one last phone call and, yippee, i found a room! it was a hotel on the beach and the only room they had was facing the parking lot but i grabbed it.

before checking into our room we grabbed some dinner. i had been wanting to try a burger that had donuts for buns for a while now. i wasn't sure i'd like it, i was just intrigued. turns out i'm not a fan...at all. i had 2 bites and then cast it aside. luckily we'd ordered some appetizers so i didn't go away hungry.

we got to the hotel and found out they had put us in an oceanfront room and everything was perfect. it's a small place, very quiet and peaceful and each room has a small balcony overlooking the big, beautiful atlantic ocean.it was very romantic.

the hotel had a pool and we thought we really needed to go swimming so we walked across the street to get some swimming items and then chris jumped in the pool. he should have checked to see if it was heated first because he let out a scream and got right back out of that pool. i was laughing so hard all the way back to our room that he actually had to push me up the stairs because i kept stopping to laugh and then i had to catch my breath. he didn't think it was nearly as funny but i'm chuckling right now just thinking of it.

we walked on the beach, we took selfies with the beautiful background that's too dark to see, we unwound with some wine coolers and just relaxed for the first time since december. it was exactly what we needed.

of course the next day it was back to reality but at least not right away. we had breakfast at a local diner and then spent some time with chris's grandson at the flea market.

none of it was planned and yet, i'm pretty sure it was exactly what we were supposed to be doing.