Sitcom writers look no further. Thanksgiving 2022. Wow.

We were supposed to fly from Seattle to the east coast for an eight day adventure with my family. Supposed to.

Pneumonia, Covid, a broken hand and overnight hospital stay, a multi-day migraine, all the things happening to all the family members in the same two-day period prior to our planned departure. Pneumonia + croup (yes, possible in a nine year old) was the problem with my west coast crew, both trying to heal from it, and not exposing it to the east coast babies in our family. Turns out babies don’t get a pneumonia vaccine until they are two. Not helpful for the littlest family Littles.

So what’s a single mom, who’s whole — albeit sick — family is a minimum of three time zones away, to do?

Said mom first tries to keep the “getting healthy” momentum strong with the small humans. Those amoxicillin pills don’t take themselves!

Then she rebooks the east coast flights. A few times over. Shoutout to the ease of rebooking on delta.com

So if I wasn’t going east for the holiday festivities, I needed a trip that was going to be “easy.” For the record, “easy” would mean staying home but the tween girl in the house wasn’t accepting that as an option.

Away we go …

Voyage. Amour. Magie. : Lido House Hotel

3300 Newport Boulevard, Newport Beach, Ca 92663

We checked in after a short flight (about two hours) from Seattle to SNA, or John Wayne Airport, Orange County. Mimi was thrilled to start our adventure and Parker and I were tolerant.

Thursday was Thanksgiving day, and while we were so sad to not be with our family on the east coast, walking on the beach was immeasurably good for the soul.

The Lido House is about a five-minute walk to the 32nd Street access point at Newport Beach. Yes, insert joke we were in the “wrong” Newport.

It was a beautiful day and the temperatures were in the low 80s so the children couldn’t get enough of the big waves and the no-place-to-be holiday.

We had an overpriced dinner at Mayor’s Table for the holiday. The food was ok but the wine pairing was spot on.

In an effort to have an adventure, feel safe and close to nature, and just relax, the Lido House delivers. and speaking of delivery, DoorDash will bring you pretty much anything you can imagine. Queue Mr. Beast burger.

The Balboa Fun Zone is a place with no age minimum, or maximum.

Bike (15 min est), Walk (45 min est), Uber (5-10 min est), whatever, it’s worth the visit.

Great hotel, food, wine, family fun zone aside, the most magical part of this vacation getaway is the beach.

There’s still so much more for us to come back and explore (deep sea fishing info via picture below!). See you soon, MLK weekend!