Ramblings....: Idyllwild 2023

Well the last time we were here was when Pat popped the question! So happy to come back a couple years later. This time we had The Hernadez's with us again as well as The Rhodes'. I wish we could have stayed one more day, but this was a quick weekend turn around trip and we had a lovely time in the beautiful mountains. I truly do love it up there and hope we're back again soon!

This time around we booked an air bnb - my biggest complaint was it ended up actually being owned by a Property Management Company so that became quite a pain in the ass. We couldn't check in until 4, but they said come on up whenever and pop in. Since the office was in town (we had to go there before the bnb..WTF) we figured we'd just go up early and meander. Pat and I got up there 1st and we hit one of our favorite spots for lunch Idyll Awhile Wine Bar. I mean the name alone right?

Feeling very Fall finally!

We then bought ourselves some coffee, did a little Xmas shopping (Some family members may be getting some hilarious socks!) and hit up the winery I'd been wanting to check out. It was closed the last couple of times we came up here so we were stoked to find it open. MIddle Ridge Winery, Pat got a glass of Tempranillo and I did a flight. It was really good! Loved their Rose and the Meritage was bomb. The owner actually ended up chatting with us quite a bit and it was truly lovely conversation. I really want to go back and talk with him some more. He's from Orange! Tim & Jenny arrived so we didn't stay as long as I would have liked, so def a re-visit and hopefully get to chat with Chris some more!

Missing Poe

We then headed to the management office since she said come back at 3 and lord was that a clusterfuck. The woman was losing her mind and we had to wait almost a half hour before she would help us. In the meantime a line was growing and very angry people were milling about. So big fail on the check in. Geez. After all that we finally got our key and headed over to the bnb where everyone was waiting. We got in, got settled and took a breath. It was a really cool cabin! We had some cocktails and watched the sunset before heading out to dinner.

The chaotic check in to the left...

View from the deck

Little waterfall on the property

Kinda wanna come back here when it's snowing...can you imagine?

All three couples brought lots of games and we didn't play one!

Fancy oven

Just love the color of the leaves

This looked like a damn alien face coming out of the wall!

We almost had an issue with the heater in the downstairs bedroom which would have been so not good...but all worked out

Friday night sunset

Cocktail hour

We headed out to the brewery for dinner, but there was over an hour wait. That ended up being just fine because we landed a great little place instead called Gastrognome. These names kill me! We had a great time. Our waiter Stephen was a delight, the food was good and when Pat ordered the Gnome Special (a french dip) Stephan says "That's what we're gnome for..." My god I'm still giggling.

Back to the cabin for a night of lots of laughs, drinks and silliness. Unfortunately the bed that Pat & had was horribly uncomfortable so I ended up sleeping on the couch both nights. But I was always up to see the sunrise! Sat morning we all lazily got up and Mandy made breakfast.

Good morning!

We got a kick out of our "drug" area. We're all old now and have our pills, vitamins, Metamucil, etc. LOL

Got some alone time and did some journaling

Since Pat is injured and Mandy is still recovering from knee surgery there was no hiking this trip. But we did head over to the Nature Center to walk around and get out for a bit and it was just lovely.

Nature Center

Figuring out the maze

I put on a little puppet show...Pat was not impressed

Took lots of pic of trees....

Cool fence

Lil easy trail walkin

Back to the cabin to relax for the rest of the time. I was the snack girl, so I of course got my usual. Tim made us tri tip and chicken for dinner that night and it was delicious! Another night of laughter, drinks and fun.

My responsibility was the snacks...I bring it

The hot tub was rad

Chef Tim

Sat sunset

So they had this weird game where you try to hook this thing...it was on a string and so weird and seemed impossible but me and Jose did it!

Sunday morning I sat out on the deck for an hour watching the sun slowly rise. It was so peaceful. I just didn't want to leave. We then basically just packed up and headed out since check out was at 10 - and we had to go to that damn property management office to drop the key off. Lame. But I got one last group shot and Pat and I hit a little view point so I get at least get one geocache for the weekend!