The Hill Family Blog: Crystal Cove Cottage Adventure

I am learning to roll with the unexpected and try not to get upset when things don't go as planned. Take this trip for example. I booked us a cottage 6 months ago for Dave and I to celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary. It was just one night away from the kids. I thought that would be easy enough (Side note--we very rarely leave our kids overnight. I think the last time we did was a year ago when we were in Hawaii.) On Tuesday Archie was coughing and running a fever. A trip to the doctor assured us it was just a cold virus. Thursday morning (day of our trip) Carter woke up with a fever. I considered cancelling our room but it was too late to get a refund. So we dropped the boys off with Grandpa and headed to our cottage. Both boys looked a bit miserable but they were just tired and at that moment fever-free. Here's the happy part of the story. Dave and I stayed in cottage #45, which is at the start of the historical district. It was the old Soda Shack. It was absolutely charming and adorable. There are no TVs or phones. Just an old-timey radio and some really cool books. I pretended we were in Boardwalk Empire (think of season 1 when everything is still happy.) We watched the sunset and ate a very decadent dinner at the Beachcomber.

Our kitchen table... so cute, right?

After dinner, we called to check on the boys and Carter's fever returned at over 103 degrees and he did not sound well. I felt terrible. We packed up some stuff and hiked to the top of the hill where we had to park our car. We gave him Motrin and took the boys home and put them to bed. Friday morning we had to go back to get the rest of our things and checkout. It must have been the refreshing ocean air and the excitement of being on the beach because the boys seemed to have a blast for a few hours. We managed to grab a late breakfast at the Shake Shack but by that time the boys seemed to remember that they felt miserable. So our fun weekend is now being spent watching movies and wearing pajamas. But hey, we did manage to have a few hours of fun and Crystal Cove is my new favorite beach and we are planning on returning as soon as we can!