June 7-10, 2010 marked the second Riding Family Girl's Trip! My sweet mother-in-law Marley decided that it was time she take all of her daughters and daughter-in-laws on a vacation! She figured we all deserved it and naturally we all agreed! Five years ago we held our first girl's trip in San Francisco, CA. It was fabulous as can be imagined but it was also five years ago which means I was a young wife with no children. The hardest part for me was leaving Dan for a few days. This time around I still had to struggle with leaving Dan for a few days but added to the difficulty was leaving my two precious children. I sincerely felt a lot of anxiety over leaving them. Luckily I have some incredible friends and Catherine took care of them twice while Dan was at work (we were driving to and from CA) and then sweet Katey also came to the house two afternoons when Dan just worked 1/2 days. I will be forever grateful of their love and care for my children
Naturally I bawled like a baby as we drove away waving and blowing kisses to my kiddos. Kriss consoled me and acknowledged my fears. After saying a prayer I felt peaceful and was able to relax and have a wonderful time. So Monday morning we took to the road. Kriss, Trisha and I in one car and Marley, Amanda & Renee in the other heading for Las Vegas where we'd meet Andrea and Melinda. We had so much fun chatting away uninterrupted until about 20 miles outside of Vegas when we heard a sudden pop and strange noise on the front tire. Our first thought was that we had blown a tire. Lucky for us it was just the plastic guard that goes around in front of the tire/under the engine (yep, I have no idea what it is called) we figured it wasn't essential but that it could be a nuisance hitting against the tire with each turn so we tore it off. Actually we tore it until it started pulling off a piece of something that looked like it should stay attached so then Trisha pulled out her scissors (this girl is amazing and has everything) and Kriss cut off the part we didn't need. That seemed to fix it and we made it fine to Andrea's house. However, we still feel bad about leaving the piece of car on the side of the road. Sorry Nevada!
Above is Andrea, Amanda, Marley, Renee, Melinda, Trisha, Me and Kriss. We loaded up and off we went taking turns riding in Andrea's or Marley's cars. I think by the end of the trip everyone had a chance to ride with everyone and seeing as how we drove for a good 10 hours there and 10 hours back we had lots of good catching up and bonding time! We drove to San Luis Obispo, CA and stayed in the Madonna Inn. Here's a shot of it from the freeway!
The Madonna Inn was really a charming, unique and memorable place to stay.
It has been around for more than 50 years and is a landmark in California. The Inn is located on 2,200 acres and now has 110 rooms, each with a different theme/decor. Phyllis Madonna decorates each room and her husband is the architect so it was kind of a cute dream of theirs that has become a big reality. They also have a little copper cafe, fancy dining restaurant and spa. They even have horses and this pasture was just outside our door. I had to take a picture of them for the kids because they would absolutely love seeing the baby horsie!
Here are a few more shots of the Inn.
We stayed in the "Pick n' Shovel" room complete with tractor seat bar stools and imprinted horse shoes in the rock floor next to the fireplace. It had Riding Family written all over it! Dan's sisters actually laughed because it had the same smell to it as Grandma Brockman's pool room! Our room was actually a two storied suite. With a great living room and small kitchenette as well as a master bedroom and bath that Melinda and Mom shared downstairs. Then upstairs were two funky bedrooms and a bathroom for the rest of us girl's to bunk in!
After checking into the Inn we drove into the quaint tourist town of San Luis Obispo for some dinner. Then that night Mama Riding surprised us all with new Pajamas. Here is Mama Riding & the original Riding Girls
Trisha, Me & Kriss - the Infamous In-laws!
I don't know what it was about the new Pajamas but they got us all giggly and we sat around being silly and laughing until our bellies hurt and we were all too tired to keep going!
The next morning we woke early and drove to San Simeon, CA where we toured the Hurst Castle which had originally been the Hurst Ranch and became one of William Randolph Hursts favorite homes and longest running projects. He hired the talented architect, Miss Julia Morgan and they spent 28 years building it! It is set up on the top peak of 90,000 acres. It was amazing!
The outside pool was one of my favorite parts, the water was so inviting it was hard to resist jumping in!
However, better than the pool were all the incredible gardens, they were everywhere!
One fascinating fact was that everything we saw there was an original. Seriously, no replicas. So when you saw all the ancient Greek statues at the pool, they were originals brought here from Greece! My poor sis-in-law Amanda was leaned up against a "stone" listening to the guide when a guard came over and asked her not to lean on it because it was over 600 years old! Oops! I was most impressed by this Egyptian statue that is over 3,000 years old, literally older than Moses!
The views were also unreal!
In front of the castle/main house were three guest houses. We just got a peek inside one of them.
Then we went on a tour of part of the main house. It was unbelievable and fantastic!
Here are a couple shots of the indoor pool and dining room. The dining room was actually used as a model when they were getting ideas to design the Hogwart's set for Harry Potter!
If this wasn't already a super long post I'd include more pictures of the billiard room, movie theater and wooden ceilings brought from a cathedral in Spain and put back together in the castle. I would also try to describe the hundreds of animals that used to live on the ranch and the zoo that housed bears, tigers, kangaroos etc . . . until the 1930's. We did however get to see a couple of the Zebra's that still roam free on the property!
We then drove along the coast enjoying the views!
We stopped in a quaint little oceanside town called Cambria for lunch where I had the worlds best Turkey Cranberry sandwich at "Sandy's Place!" These pretty flowers were all over the place and I find them very beautiful. Ten gold stars to whomever can tell me what they're called!
After Cambria we followed the coast to a lovely locals beach called Avila!
I loved that it was clean and not crowded. We walked along the shore enjoying the feel of wet sand between our toes, the delicious smell of the ocean and looking for sea shells to bring back to the kiddos. Lydia was so excited that I was bringing her sea shells and instructed me that when I found one I should first say hello and see if anyone answered. Then if a sea creature answered back I should leave it because it's their home. If no one answered then I could keep it and bring it to her! Luckily I found only unoccupied shells! I also sent Dan a text with a picture of me saying I LOVE YOU, after all it was our anniversary!
Luckily we had celebrated early with our cruise but I still missed him like crazy and called him a million times that day! Being on this vacation was yet another example of what an incredible husband I have to support me and encourage me to go have some fun. I never worry about the kids when they're with Dan because he is the best Dad in the world! I love you Dan!
We returned to San Luis Obispo for dinner and then back to the Inn where Melinda, Andrea and I all went to the fitness room to exercise. It felt so good to work out after sitting in the car so much! The rest of the group toured around the grounds and got some good pictures. They found the funniest parts of the Inn were the mens bathroom with the rock wall urinal. Once it detected someone standing at it the waterfall started running down it(thanks Renee for modeling it)! And second was the ritzy restaurant that looks like someone has thrown up pink all over it. Everything in it is pink. The tables, the chairs, the carpet, even the gigantic flowers hanging from the ceiling and lights!
Wednesday morning we woke early and traveled about an hour south to Solvang. It is the most adorable little town all settled by Danish and is now a major tourist attraction. You feel like you're in Denmark due to all the buildings, architecture and windmills! The streets were lined with specialty shops and bakeries and this was my favorite place that we shopped.
My darling sis-in-law, Kriss has never had a pedicure before so Andrea and I decided to do something about it. While everyone else shopped the three of us stopped for an hour to enjoy the massage chair and having our feet pampered. It sure made for a lovely morning!
I had a yummy crepe ratatouille for the first time and after wandering around the Hans Christean Anderson Square and local farmer's market we headed back.
That night for dinner we stayed at the Inn's Copper Kettle Cafe and sat in a darling booth and drank from funky fancy goblets! The food was heavenly and I even ordered the locals famous split pea and ham soup with grilled chicken sandwich. We all agreed that it was our favorite place we'd eaten.
I loved these giant "Alice in Wonderland" chairs in the lobby!
We were all so full after dinner that we went to our suite and relaxed on the couch. I passed out journals for each of us and we wrote nice things to each other and memories from our trip. Then we sat up laughing until our tummies hurt and finally called it a night!
The next morning we were all anxious to hit the road as we had a long day of driving ahead of us and could hardly wait to be with our families again! Marley told me that she was talking with a woman about the fact that she was taking her daughters and daughter in-laws on a trip for a few days. The woman was shocked that all 8 women would actually want to go on a trip together and even more surprised that we all got along! I had never thought anything of it, but now that I realize how rare that is I have to say that I am extremely grateful to have such a fabulous bunch of in-laws whom I love and love to be with! Thank you Marley for another memorable and much appreciate Riding Girl's Trip!
