We’ve been really good about social distancing, wearing masks, and staying home. We’ve only left the house for necessities, a handful of work-related business, and a few walks around the neighborhood. After nearly six months of staying safe at home, we decided that we really needed to get away, safely. So we grabbed our masks, hand sanitizer, and wipes and packed our bags. Since we are Hilton Grand Vacation Club members, and we heard San Diego County was partially reopening, we booked a long weekend at Marbrisa in Carlsbad. With the record heatwave in LA County coming this weekend, it seemed like the best way to beat the heat.

My office closed at 2:00 on Friday so we started packing and were out the door by 4:00. There was a little bit of traffic heading down south but we still arrived at our timeshare by about 6:30. We were pretty impressed by the level of care the hotel made to sanitize, social distance and follow the COVID-19 county guidelines to keep us all safe.

As usual, we got a two-bedroom so we’d have plenty of space. So, that meant a one bedroom unit with an adjoining studio for the kids. The studio unit comes with a bed and a sofa bed so the kids each get their own bed to sleep in. Here’s a few pictures of the space:

Since we arrived late Friday night, we unloaded the car and immediately headed out to look for food. I have a tradition of refusing to eat foods I can get at home when I travel, so we found this new place:

Ebullition Brew Works And Gastronomy in Carlsbad is where we ended up. This place had 4.5 stars on Yelp and it looked like something we all would like AND since San Diego re-opened businesses we were able to dine in. SCORE! The food ended up pretty good too plus the beer was great and the service was awesome. If you’re ever in Carlsbad, make sure you don’t miss out on any of this:

And since we are food driven people (aka FOODIES) we woke up and immediately went to breakfast. Yelp to the rescue once again. This time we went to Don’s Country Kitchen. This teeny tiny place has some great food.

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On the table they had this cool map with a QR tag you can scan to take you to the interactive online map.

Now that we were all fat and happy, we had nothing better to do than lounge at the pool for the rest of the day. This was what we really needed after six months of quarantine!

I snapped this pic after we came back from the pool. It’s one of my faves. My two guys just sat on the balcony chatting while watching the sunset. This is what vacations are meant for.

I’m not sure why but I didn’t capture dinner. I think we were just too tired from the afternoon in the sun. You know, all that lounging was exhausting. I will say that we thoroughly enjoyed our usual favorite – Pizza Port. But when we came back I grabbed this shot of the moon and Mars.

The next day, we skipped breakfast and headed straight to the pool. We had scoped out the seats we wanted the day before and we were determined to get there early to nab the good seats and park ourselves there for the day.

Since Marbrisa has a new pool slide, since our last visit, we had to get a few videos.

Another beautiful sunset.

After a full day at the pool, we were HUNGY…yes, again. So, back to Yelp I went to find another food adventure. There I found the most photo-worthy restaurant on the planet – Harumama Noodles and Buns! We LOVED this place. All of us. Yes, even Brian. Check out our buns!