Grape Leaf Inn - Mourvedre

DH & I had a quickie 1-night getaway since my MIL had Friday off and could babysit M for the night. So we packed half the house, so it seems, with all of M's necessities and dropped her off at the inlaws. Had a little bit of lunch, and left Fremont at 1:45 PM to head up to Healdsburg. We had not anticipated Presidents Day holiday weekend traffic on top of the usual Friday afternoon traffic. It was a long drive up to Healdsburg in mostly stop-and-go/crawling traffic. Quite painful, however slightly ameliorated by having Jamba Juice with us during the drive. I was expecting to arrive in Healdsburg around 4PM, however due to the holiday traffic and what not, we arrived at 6 PM. We got stuck in heinous traffic around Santa Rosa, and I was worried about making thi 4-6 PM check-in. I called the inn while we were stuck in Santa Rosa and they informed me that they would be there until 7 PM.

The pics above are of Grape Leaf Inn in Healdsburg, CA. We stayed in the Mourvedre room, which you can see in the 2nd pic. It's the room on the left on the upper level. The room is Octagon Shaped.

Here's what you see as you walk through the door:

This is the bathroom. There's a nice 2-person spa tub. :-)





This is the fireplace. I probably should have turned it on before taking the photo.

It's a nice cozy room. I love the shape and the high ceilings. I wouldn't mind staying in this room again.

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Since we arrived at the inn so late, we only managed to briefly check out the wine/cheese tasting in the Speakeasy, and enjoy some tea & cookies while we relaxed a bit before our 8 PM dinner reservations at Ravenous just a few blocks away from the inn. The place is always crowded so you have to make reservations ahead of time. The food is delicious. I had the sea bass, and DH had the veal. We were too stuffed to have dessert afterwards. I was hoping to get a little bit of knitting done during the trip, but only managed about 18 rows on a scarf.

DH & I both had colds, so we weren't feeling our best during this trip. We brought all our drugs with us and drank lots of liquids. Since my symptoms have migrated from sore throat to painful cough & chest congestion, we picked up some Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom caplets along the way. It wasn't until we were going to take it that we noticed the directions explicitly stating that we should "swallow whole - do not crush, chew or dissolve". How weird, I had never noticed such instructions before. Well this didn't jive with me since I have never learned how to swallow pills; I always chew mine. So I took some Theraflu instead. On the way home we picked up some Robitussin CF, which goes down much better for me since it comes in liquid form.

Didn't have time to do anything in the Healdsburg area other than taking a brief walk in the neighborhood before we checked out. It seemed like we spent more time packing M's stuff and on the road than actual veg time at our destination. Not counting sleep time, all we really had was 6:15 pm to 10:30 pm and 7:30 am to 11:00 am. DH & I were both feeling miserable from our colds. And it definitely wasn't quite the relaxing romantic getaway we envisioned having, with a possibility of working on baby #2...

The drive back was also slow due to traffic, some in Santa Rosa, but most of it stop & go between Richmond and Oakland. When we returned to the inlaws house we discovered that M definitely had a full blown cold. She had been feeling a little off for weeks with mostly a runny nose, however there was no mistaking her cold now ... she was clearly congested and had difficulty breathing & speaking. Poor girl.

The drive home was ok while she napped. I could hear her difficulties with breathing, then she woke up crying because of her congestion. Going to bed was also a bit of a painful experience, she woke up at night, and then managed to fall back asleep. She sounded bad when she woke up in the morning, and she has been spending much of the morning napping.

There is a family dinner tonight to celebrate Chinese New Year, it doesn't look like we're going to make it. M is definitely not going to survive a trip over to Fremont to have a late 6:45 PM dinner which would mean being up/out past her bedtime. Not a good thing for sick baby.

Time for me to stick my nose over some hot tea. Today I am enjoying Peet's Jade Mist Organic tea...

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