A Weekend Without Kids

My good friend Laura had finally nearly weaned her second child and was in desperate need of a break.  We'd been fantasizing for years about having a weekend escape from our parenting duties at some point, and this week she finally pulled the trigger.  We cobbled together a local weekend getaway at the last minute--she would fly here and we'd have a weekend of visiting and fine dining sans children.  I really enjoy spending time with Laura and we always have great conversation (although her obsession with fine dining is a bit of a strain on my frugal self).

So Friday afternoon I left work a bit early and picked her up at the airport.  We went to the art museum to walk around a bit and enjoy dinner in their restaurant. It was amazing to just hang out and have uninterrupted conversations and not have to worry about anybody but ourselves.  It's hard to believe we once lived entire years like this.

After dinner, we walked around outside the museum a bit more, but it started to rain, so we rushed back to the vehicle.  Then I took us to Milk Lab near my house to try their fancy ice cream.  It was an interesting experience, but the taste wasn't awesome. I'm glad I finally went there so at least now I know.

Laura spent the night in our basement guest room and after years of having kids waking her up at night, she couldn't believe how well she slept.  After breakfast with Zac and the kids, we headed out for a day of luxury.

We started with a little walk at Duke Gardens, although most of the time we just sat on a shady bench with a lovely view of the gardens and visited.

Then we went for afternoon tea (which apparently is a thing that exists) at the Duke Inn. It was fantastic.

Then, after all that eating, we headed down to The Fearrington House Restaurant in Chapel Hill for a super fancy dinner (for which I was atrociously underdressed). Laura wanted to do the tasting menu, so off we went, through many courses of weird food.  It was fun, but never something I'd do on my own.

Then, to enjoy peak luxury (really Laura's idea not mine since I hate spending money) we stayed at the Umstead Hotel and Spa that night. The best part was that before bed we ordered breakfast room-service.  Laura wanted it for the ridiculous time of 7am, but I was at least able to talk her down to 7:30am.

Sure enough, we were still both fast asleep at 7:30am (Laura forgot about the fact that there would be no kids to wake her up) when there was a knock on the door and a guy brought in a table (!) and set up our breakfast on it. It was the height of luxury to have someone fix us breakfast and we didn't have to plan it or clean up or anything. Then we just lazed about in the hotel room the rest of the morning, then went to the hotel restaurant for lunch, before I had to drop Laura off at the airport.  What a fun weekend...a taste of the life and freedom we'd given up because for some reason we thought it was a good idea to have children.