As an early Christmas gift, my wife booked us a night away. I’m not usually a fan of surprises. I prefer to be the one who plans these things, but even I couldn’t complain about this one! She booked us a night at one of our favorite hotels, Bedford Springs Resort in Pennsylvania. If you’ve never been there, you need to go. It sits in the small town of Bedford, Pa, just over two hours from Baltimore and Washington. It’s an amazing place that we’ve tried to get to at least once a year for the past five years.

We first discovered Bedford Springs after I missed Sara’s 30th birthday (and Valentine’s Day) while covering the Vancouver Olympics almost five years ago. Looking to make it up to her, my mom tipped me off to the resort and we’ve been going almost every year since. If you like The Homestead, but don’t love the drive, this is for you!

Sara arranged for my sister Meghann, brother-in-law Dan and their dog Ollie to come to our house on Saturday and stay with Cameron and our dog Quinn for the night. Our job was to leave by 10:30 am so we could get there, get checked in and make it to the spa for our afternoon appointments. I assumed leaving would be the hardest part; I wasn’t wrong.

We cheated a little bit and planned our “handoff” during a nap. Our babysitters arrived just a few minutes before we put Cam down for his morning nap. The idea was it would be easier on everyone if we left while he was asleep. Easier for us anyway. Probably easier on him. The plan worked, even with Sara going in to “check on him” like three times before we could get out of the house. No tears were shed by anyone; we left a very “first time parents” checklist of phone numbers and instructions for the baby and the dog. And we were off.

It wasn’t until sometime after 11 that we first checked our baby dropcam remotely to make sure Cam was still sleeping. After being assured that all was well, we focused on the rare opportunity for us to get away. Cam will be 10 months old on January 5th. Sara has never spent a night away from him (we took him to Vegas to avoid this when he was 2 months old if you recall). I have been away once, a quick overnight trip to New Hampshire in September. I wasn’t really sure how she would handle this. Even if it was her idea.

After an uneventful drive, we check into the hotel just after 1 pm and immediately get drawn back into this great place. I’m a sucker for Christmas decorations, and Bedford Springs delivered. Beautiful tree(s) throughout the place. Nutcracker guys all over the place. I think we decided this will be a pre-Christmas family tradition in the years to follow.

Our spa appointments were at 3:30 and we check in around 2:30. We do that because the locker room is a spa experience onto itself. Bedford Springs has a four step pre spa situation that is almost as relaxing as the massages that follow. Spending that hour in the deluge shower, the steam room, the hot and cold tubs is what you remember a week later when you wish you were back there. All-in-all we spend almost four hours at the spa, without phones to spy on Cameron or get any updates from my sister. We check in to confirm all is going well and head off to dinner.

The Frontier Tavern is the casual dining option at the hotel. Since I barely packed more than sweatpants and flip flops, we go there and enjoy a drink at the bar while we wait for a table. I think it was then, when we got confirmation that Cam was asleep for the night, that we able to exhale and fully enjoy where we were.

It is easy to forget how great it is to eat at a restaurant without a baby. This is something we have done maybe two or three times in almost ten months. The meal isn’t rushed, you aren’t constantly looking at the baby to make sure you don’t become “those people” in the restaurant with the screaming kid. Sara and I have gone out to dinner probably thousands of times in the last twenty years. This one simple meal, at a tavern, may be among the most memorable.

We ate too much as usual, and had to give ourselves a timeout before heading to the indoor pool around 9. Sara, who finds any body of water freezing, actually jumped in without her agonizing “dip her toe in the water for 15 minutes,” routine! I was so proud. The pool is the second thing I always look back on fondly when remembering Bedford Spings. If I’m a sucker for Christmas decorations, I’m a super sucker for indoor pools!

The most important part of the 27 hours away was the sleep part. For all the credit I get from people for taking care of Cam every day and writing this blog, it is still Sara who handles almost all of the overnight activity. Despite my “offers” to help, she is one who has the broken sleep every few nights and handles the 5:30am wake-up calls before going to work for a full day. So it was essential that she get a full nights sleep, for probably the first time since before she was pregnant.

She did that, but it didn’t stop her from sleeping on our drive back. She could sleep for like two straight days, and she would still sleep on our drive home! We get home just as easily as we got there. Stopped for gas, and Roy Rogers to grab something for dinner. We are home by 1:30, almost exactly 27 hours after we left . Cam was fine of course and looked a little confused, but pleased to see familiar faces. Hugs and kisses all around.

It wasn’t until then that I realized how much I missed him, even for just one day. A wonderful weekend, but I think I’m OK if we don’t go away again from our guys for a while.

Merry Christmas from all of us at foggdaddy.com, see you in the New Year!