The stipulations to the surprise get-away: (1) No thinking about work, (2) Relaxing and enjoying the time there. My thoughts: Done! Bring it on!
After church, we went home to finish packing and in a hurry to make it to Castro Valley by 4:30pm. Why that time was so important was puzzling to me, but I soon forgot about his insistence when we started down a road that looked like it was leading to a farm. We even passed a sign that said something about shooting deer. But he assured me that we were not going to relax on a farm, so I said good-bye to the llama and continued to ponder about where our destination might be.
At last, we arrived at Deer Crossing Inn, a Bed & Breakfast. It gave a cute first impression with the hand-painted wooden signs. But our room wasn't very cutesy. Mr. Woo reserved what is called The Hitching Post. It's the room in a building that is not attached to the main house. And they can surely build more separate buildings if they wanted to for their 4500 square foot chalet style inn, on the creek-side 6.5 acre estate.
Yes, what you see is: a queen-size bed with canopy, a flickering faux fireplace, a flat panel TV/DVD, a spa style jetted shower with rain forest shower head, and a fully jetted jacuzzi tub for two. I had to bite my tongue to not ask Mr. Woo how much this room was costing us.
Upon our arrival, Cindi the wife who runs the B&B with her husband Rick, gave us a brief tour around the house. My favorite line that she said is "We have only one house rule: If you can see it, you can eat it."
Then we went back to our room to unpack. Mr. Woo was very pleased to find "the 4:30pm" waiting for us on the table. It was wine, cheese and crackers, and fruit. What made us even happier was the freshly baked, homemade brownies and oat bars that also greeted us. Delicious!
After munching on the snacks, we made the steep trip up to the main house for some exercise. We browsed through all the DVDs (that we were free to take to our room), played the old-school game of Operation, had a match of air hockey, and chatted with some other guests in the living room area. Later, Mr. Woo even serenaded them by playing the piano as I picked up one of the many magazines and read in a comfy chair next to the (real) fireplace. This is when we met Foxy.
Foxy is their adorable pet dog. Since we were to make ourselves at home here, I decided to adopt Foxy for the day and a half that we would be there.Before heading back to the room we grabbed some tea bags and other drinks, fruit, and candy from the old-fashioned candy machine that requires a dime (dimes were a plenty in the tray). Along the way, we saw ponds, flowers, a pool and jacuzzi, trees and greenery, and really felt like I was so much further away from home than we actually were.
We ordered pizza from Pyzano and had it delivered right to our door. They seem to make business off of the B&B guests as they're very familiar with the site. We ate, watched movies, passed on the s'mores, and discovered cable TV. Being on a mini-break for my sanity, Mr. Woo let me watch the Food Network, until I switched to the Biggest Loser - all while eating those butter-loaded brownies.
The only thing we didn't like about our stay was finding spiders. I first spotted one in the bathroom. Then we found a few more throughout the evening. I suppose it's only natural when you have a living quarter in that woodsy surrounding, but still... yuck.
However, breakfast in bed (time of our choosing - within reason), more than made up for those pesky spiders. Cindi made scrambled eggs, chicken-apple sausage, and french toast. With it, Rick also delivered a platter of fresh fruit.
Check-out was 11am but they were chill and told Mr. Woo that it'd be okay to check out an hour or so later. Before leaving, we tagged their ceiling with our thanks (we couldn't sign the walls because there wasn't much space).
Now back to work and other responsibilities. But what a great B&B mini-break! :)
