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I needed a change of family pace. I read how a lot of people do these excellent jobs of keeping their families grounded and connected. When I read about their lives, there is a pace and appreciation I have some envy for. (I want to be clear I'm not harboring any bad feelings nor do I feel their shares are written to elicit envy intentionally -- you know those shares, I know these shares and I avoid them diligently hence my lack of a Facebook account)

Well our weekends can sometimes be a bit chaotic followed by a bit of flopping. We often arrange ourselves in various silos of activities and get on with it till Monday, rinse & repeat.

I'm all for down time and I mistrust people who require constant engagement, but my people were beginning to smell, growl and snap too quickly when interacting.

Thus a quick getaway to Monterey, a road trip that could be done in one day but would be given the treat of a sleepover with a heated pool was plotted.

We ended up going Sunday/Monday since those were the days my husband and I had off together. We pulled The Kid out of school which we never do, because what can I say? I'm a rule follower, my father was a teacher, my family was/is military, I'm a civil servant -- routine and discipline compel me even when I don't want it to.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh yes, our intention was to leave Sunday morning after my son's final Futsal match. I know we could've left earlier and the team probably had enough to play comfortably with subs, but! He had not missed a match for 2 seasons at this point and you know, we fall back on principle. So we knew we were going to have a bit of a late start, but so what -- company and leisure were the goals!

Unfortunately we woke up to a broken car window. Wet passenger seat from the all night rain before and glass everywhere. Our poor neighbor's car in front of ours also got hit. Our neighborhood is not good for this, we know it, we keep the deductible. But we do not have building parking, and so this is life. One year we were hit 3x in August. So you see, for us, we were focusing on the bright side, "it had been a while since the last time."

Undeterred ... We lost the match by one goal.

My husband missed the match because he was off getting the glass replaced which took us longer to get on the road, but what can you do? Good thing I have knitting with me at all times right?

We got into Monterey late to find someone forgot his swimsuit. One night... I didn't think I had to check his pack. I even asked him ...

Well you gotta stay positive (remember you can't enjoy it if you're bickering the whole time). So we made it an adventure to see if we could find somewhere with a cheapish suit (in a tourist area of a tourist town!) and walked at night around cute Monterey -- which is what we like to do anyways. We eventually found him a suit at the CVS just off the main drag. We had a lovely dinner and a lovely walk back.

The boys went to the pool and I opted to stay in for the last Downton episode. I also had horrible stress stomach catching up with me and making me less than ... amiable. I've been battling that a bit the past few weeks but nothing to worry about really, however that night, I couldn't even knit, I was so uncomfortable!

The next morning we decided instead of going to Aquarium, which we've done and which really I'd do EVERYTIME I went to Monterey if I could, but we'd prefer to use our time and money for a breakfast together and a walk down to lover's point and back (that turned out to be cost effective, ha!). They'd given us an extra hour for check out and that way we could keep our car at the hotel. Well we ran out of time and didn't make it ALL the way, but we ALMOST made it. It was a beautiful day.

The spring showers were in full force and the sky and ocean played together in the best dramatic way without being threatening to the casual walker.

We saw lots of seals!

We took the coastal highway home and enjoyed the view, the pace, the chatter and bad car radio singing. Quick stop for a cup of chowder on the way when the rain was really bad.

It started out a bit rough, but I think our gang did a good job of enjoying our change of pace and scenery. :)