Carmel Valley Ranch - my birthday luxurious trip
It has been a while to do a post because I was on "vacation" - Hubby treated me/whole family a nice long getaway trip to Carmel Valley Ranch. It is a luxury resort with spa, golf, organic garden, pools, tennis court etc.
I was a bit skeptical about the trip at first as J only let me know he is taking me and the whole family somewhere and hope we can relax these 5 days in a "nice hotel." We normally book airbnb when we travel as it gives the whole family more flexibility for space and meal choices. That is why at first I am not too sure hotel room will work out for us with my mom and 1 infant and 1 toddler. So I was pleasantly surprised the trip went well and I was quite relaxed and had good enough sleep. He booked a suite so mom stayed in living room while we with two kids stay in the HUGE bedroom. The dipping in the tub in bathroom was very relaxing. I really enjoyed it.
The ranch offers a lot of different activities for all ages. We could drop our toddler son off to activity center. And there are different camps/activities for older kids. I also saw quite a few folks with infants too. In the early morning when I tried to catch up some sleep, J took KK out for walking - they even walked down the hill to the golf club one time and took the courtesy van back. Then we have breakfast and then go about the day's activities. Some days we relaxed the whole day in the ranch and hiked to different places. I quite like the organic garden and wish I could have my front yard like a corner of the garden. We also went outside of the resort - one day we went to Carmel by the Sea and one day we went to 17 miles drive.
One thing I quite like about the range is that it is not typical hotel layout that rooms are clustered together. Here you check in at the Lodge which is like the center, but then you will be transferred to different rooms that are spreader out more like townhomes in different parts of the resort.
Below are the photos of the swimming pool (adults pool) in the lodge and some views from walking down from lodge passing the vineyards to the organic garden.
With KK, we spent quite a lot of time in River Ranch, which has kids pool and the exercise center and activity center.
The ranch is also known for its lavenders. The official website has a great photo of deer with lavender (see below). We didn’t get to catch shots like that but we did see quite a lot deers. And my mom was happily posing in the lavender for photos. KK is quite impressed by how deers cross the road and quite often will ask us to slow down in case "mama deer and baby deer cross the road."
In Carmel by the Sea, we have tried two new restaurants and I would recommend both - one is called Tree House Cafe and the other is Affina.
Tree House Cafe is more cozy and the outdoor patio must be nice in a warm and sunny day (we only got to stay inside because we didn't have reservation but that night was drizzling so it was all good).
Affina is a bit more modern and simply designed with some nice touches - I especially like they have live music - the pianist is very good. Photos below:
Another thing is worthy to note for any parents or adults that like toys is to pass by Thinker Toys impressive window display
