Author: li***********@*****il.com

After leaving Santa Cruz, we headed up to Napa. We decided to drive Highway 1 up the coast and then over the Golden Gate Bridge to Napa to avoid driving ‘over the hill’ (Highway 17 from Santa Cruz to San Jose). It was a beautiful sunny day, so we got some nice views. Driving through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge was interesting… LOTS of cars and narrow lanes. It took a lot of concentration, but we made it!

Matt had a couple days of work in American Canyon (just south of Napa). He did work at the company that made the big blue bear in Denver. They have a mini version at their offices. (Denver version)

We camped at Skyline Wilderness Park. It’s a county campground with an interesting history. Here’s the link to the history of the park. The land was previously part of the Napa State Hospital – because before Napa had people come for its wine, people came to the mental institution there.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We were surrounded by open space, woods, trails, a native plant garden, an archery range, disc golf, and miles of trails. This place is busy – especially on the weekends.

One day we visited the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. It was really fun. We left with a new appreciation for how Jelly Bellys are made and entirely too much candy!

Matt had to fly out for a week for work while the kids and I stayed at the campground. We caught up on school, did a lot of hiking, took walks, pulled weeds at the garden with other volunteers, watched lots of disc golfers, runners, hikers, and horses all around the park. One morning we even caught the end of the draft trials of the Golden State Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Club (sorry, no pictures).

One day we walked through downtown Napa, did school, got second breakfast at the Oxbow Market, and visited the Culinary Institute of America at Copia. At the culinary institute we saw the kitchens they teach classes in, a culinary museum with an impressive collection of kitchen items, and the gardens out front that Julia Child helped design.

When we picked Matt up from the airport, we stopped to hike at Albany Bulb in Berkley. It’s a unique place with funky art and nice views of the San Francisco Bay. Our friend, Tim, had recommended it since he had been there recently. It had a very Concrete Couch Coyote Park feel to it!

The rest of the time we caught up on normal life, like changing sheets, doing laundry, cleaning, etc. Napa was a wonderful place to land for 10 days or so. And we’re also excited about moving on!

A place that will always hold a piece of my heart.

It was so good to be there.

We drove the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) up from San Luis Obispo – with the camper. We weren’t sure if we were going to do it, and it was foggy that morning, but we decided to go the adventurous route. And it was adventurous!

It started out pretty mellow, but soon turned narrow and curvy with lots of ups and downs. The spiciest moment was when we met another vehicle with trailer on one of those sections, but we all survived! Matt enjoyed the driving and did a good job keeping tabs on brake and transmission temps with his thermal camera (of course). We’ll have to come back someday to see the beautiful ocean views, but the foggy coastal mountains had their own beauty and adventure as well!

We dropped the camper off at our campground in Scotts Valley and then met up at our friends’ house in Felton. It was a Summit/Mt. Hermon reunion with the Terrell and the Smucker-Oates crews! They have a beautiful house/plot of land along the river with a big swing. Claire scraped up her feet trying the swing, but was ok. We enjoyed lemonade with lemons from the lemon tree down the street from the Smucker-Oates and caught up from many years of not seeing each other. We enjoyed it immensely.

Then we had dinner at the Frankls! Jessica and I have kept in touch, but I had only met their son after he was first born 6 years ago and had never met their daughter, so it was about time! We enjoyed seeing their house updates and just being together. Thankful for this community! We’ve been missing community.

On Sunday, I took Matt to the airport super early for another work trip. The kids and I relaxed that morning, went to the park across the street, and eventually met Jess and kids at Mount Hermon and hiked down to the creek before meeting up with many other Mount Hermon people that I hadn’t seen in years. We all brought dinner to the field and enjoyed conversation and community. Super grateful to reconnect with people here.

On Monday morning I got to trail run with Jess and Karen! I’ve had feet/ankle issues over the past several years, but Jess and I had been well matched workout buddies for years. So I taped my feet and did it! This was a huge highlight of our trip for me!

Quick recap of the rest of our time there:

Rest of Monday: Met Hank (the Corstorphines puppy), did school, had dinner at the Frankls.

Tuesday: Did the Mount Hermon Outdoor Science Extended Day hike with the kids (Bear Mountain, cathedral, Roaring Camp, Henry Cowell Redwoods, Fremont Tree, up steep trails back up!), saw Jana and Peter.

Wednesday: School at Lulu’s (coffee shop), Trader Joe’s, Farmer’s Market (got cabbage, sugar snap peas, artichokes, and dates!), and dinner at the Frankls again!

Thursday: School, Natural Bridges with Bianca (tidepools, smashball, lots of dead sailfish on the shore), picked Matt up from the airport, Taqueria Vallarta for dinner.

Friday: I ran with Jess, Matt and Reece swam at the campground, relaxed, and then went to Jana and Peter’s for dinner (met Bonnie!).

Saturday: Easter egg hunt at the campground (met some neighbors), tye-dyed Easter eggs at the Frankls, I went to a ladies get together at Jana and Peter’s.

Sunday: I went to early Easter service on the beach with Jana and Peter, hike with Matt, Easter dinner with the Bristol family (Jessica’s family).

Monday: Felton donuts with Jana and Peter and the Frankls, hiking in Fall Creek with the Frankls, Verve, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Pac Wave, and Pizza My Heart downtown, West Cliff – Surfer’s Museum and statue, dinner at Frankls.

Tuesday: We packed up and headed out.

The Santa Cruz area will be dearly missed! Until next time!!

When we left camping with our friends, we drove through LA with the camper. It was midday on a Sunday, so traffic wasn’t too bad and we made it successfully. As we were driving on 126 West, we began driving through orange and avocado groves. It smelled glorious!

At one point we were stopped in traffic and saw a helicopter land on the highway in front of us. After we were able to proceed, we didn’t see any evidence of an accident, but thought maybe it was some type of medical emergency? We are not sure. We eventually made it to Santa Paula where we were staying at the KOA for a while. The campground wasn’t the greatest by KOA standards, but it was adequate. We set up and discovered that there were many wild peacocks wandering around the campground. Quite entertaining!

Early the next morning I dropped Matt off at LAX and returned to the campground via Simi Valley. The kids and I took it easy and worked on getting school done. It was a hot day and was going to be a hot week (90+ each day!). The next day we went to Santa Paula to do laundry and get groceries.

On Wednesday we went to Ventura. We stopped at Trader Joe’s for lunch and beach snacks/beverages. Then we went by Patagonia’s flagship store/headquarters first and saw their history walls with old gear- it was neat! And we finally ended up the beach.

At the beach we built sand structures and played in the waves. It was a glorious, sunny day. We were surprised by the amount of driftwood strewn on the beach (Google says it’s most likely from winter storms). There were several areas that were cleared of driftwood – probably by a bulldozer (there was that much driftwood).

Thursday we did school in the morning and then went swimming at the campground. They had opened the pool early because of the heat wave.

Then came Friday. The day the kids and I moved the camper to a different site in the campground. Matt was still out of town. I had scoped out the area and knew turning around/backing in was going to be tricky, but our neighbor (Julie from near Quebec City!) was going to help. The first approach we tried wasn’t working great, so I tried another approach which involved a wide turn at the beginning – which ended up being too wide and the stairs scraped on a short rock retaining wall… After about half an hour of going back and forth, trying different approaches, tearing out rocks, and smashing Reece’s fingers, I finally got us unstuck. Then with a slightly wider (but not too wide) turn, the first approach actually worked and we got into place. It was intense, but it has now passed. And everything and everyone are no worse for wear.

Saturday we cleaned and changed sheets because we were having visitors arrive! Our first visitors that came to us on this trip! We picked up Lisha, Micah and Erik (Matt’s sister and nephews) in Santa Barbara late Saturday night. They stayed in a cabin right near us at the campground.

On Sunday we had brunch with Lisha and Matt’s cousin, Michael, who lives southern CA and met us in Ventura. Then we hung out on the beach again and all the kids played for hours while Lisha, Michael, and I hung out. It was a lovely time even though the coast was totally foggy. We returned to camp and sunshine for a relaxing dinner.

Monday, we headed up to the Los Padres National Forest Ranger Station in Ojai, CA. We drove back roads there and got some fresh citrus fruit from a roadside stand! The ranger gave us some good hiking advice, and we took some pictures before driving up to Rose Valley Falls (3000 feet of elevation gain). The waterfall we beautiful and the short hike in required very little coersion on the part of the mothers! 🙂 Then we hiked the Wheeler Gorge Nature Trail on the way back down and the kids played in the creek. Before heading back to camp we detoured down to see if the sun was shining at the ocean, but it wasn’t. Micah and Reece still had fun building with driftwood.

We picked up pizza and returned to camp. Lisha took the boys swimming while I picked up Matt from LAX.

The next day we all loaded up and drove to Universal in Hollywood. It was such a fun day! Harry Potter World was a favorite, as were all the rides. We haven’t done many theme parks so it was a fun new experience for Claire and Reece.

Dinner at In-n-Out rounded out the day, and we returned to camp tired and happy. Luckily Lisha was able to switch their flight times so we didn’t have to get up at 2:30 am to get them to the airport. Instead, we dropped Matt off at work before bringing them to the airport. It was a wonderful few days with family!

The kids and I returned to Ventura to meet Matt for lunch and then visit the Channel Islands Visitor Center and the San Buenaventura Mission – both in Ventura. We then got a tour of Matt’s work while listening to the random marching band who was practicing in the parking lot next door!

Thursday Matt worked again while the kids and I got school done and organized to head out the next day.

Friday we packed up, said goodbye to our neighbor (Julie), and headed up the 101 to San Luis Obispo. We luckily found a great Harvest Host site up in the hills right outside SLO.

Upon arrival in San Diego, we stayed right on the beach at Silver Strand State Beach. It was an amazing ocean spot, but we discovered that it’s a little too close to the Tijuana River that is often contaminated with sewage. So after we missed the unsafe water sign the first night and dipped out feet in (and then washed them with antibacterial soap), we enjoyed the views, but not the water.

We had a lazy Sunday morning (after the time change) and ate crepes. (Matt’s specialty) Then we flew the kite and walked on the beach. Matt and the kids enjoyed some video game time in the afternoon (with the AC on – it was 84 that day), and I walked around the bay side of the state beach. There were lots of flower and butterflies and beautiful views.

That afternoon we headed over to the Beheler’s house. I worked with Kristin at the Dale House years ago and she and her husband, and two kids live in San Diego now. We hung out, had dinner, and the kids played. It was a lovely evening connecting with old friends (and new friends for the kids)! We forgot to get a group shot picture – in fact the only one is of Claire and their daughter with Reece peeking in the background after dark – which was actually sort of late because the time had just changed.

The next day we went into Matt’s work and met the one of his co-workers and saw the office/shop space. They have an outdoor shower and a fun rooftop hangout space – very CA!

After seeing Matt’s work, we got some lunch at Oscar’s Mexican Seafood and then went over to Balboa Park. We walked through the Spanish Arts Village, saw the huge Moreton Bay fig tree, walked on the towering bridge over the freeway, and saw the old buildings that were built for two world fairs, the Panama-California Exposition of 1915-16, and the California Pacific International Exposition of 1935-36. It’s a beautiful place! (And we only saw a tiny bit of it!)

The next morning we packed up again and headed up to our next campsite at South Carlsbad State Beach. We arrived a little early, so we ended up finding a parking spot along the road at the beach and ate lunch and hung out on the beach for a bit. After checking in and dropping off the camper, we headed back down to San Diego to hang out with Matt’s old bosses (they sold the company recently and retired). We arrived at their house and got a tour of their garden and rain collection/watering system (loved it!). And then Lynn took us skateboarding. Lynn Kramer is a world class slalom skateboarder and a great teacher. She outfitted the kids and I with boards, pads, and helmets (Matt’s ankle was still bothering him so he didn’t skate much), and we headed up to the Sprouts parking lot near them. She set up cones and gave us some pointers. It was great fun!

Then we went into Sprouts (in all our gear) and got food for dinner – very CA! While dinner was being made, Claire and Reece decorated the ocean hallway in their house. I only got pictures of Claire’s jellyfish, but Reece also drew Sponge Bob’s world on an eel! Makes me think we might need a decorating wall in our house…

After a tasty dinner of fish tacos, we played a couple rounds of Rummikub and remembered to get a group shot!

On our way out we borrowed a couple of boogie boards for the next couple days at the beach – which we used the next day! We got school and life stuff done, and Reece and I hung out on the beach. It was a good day. And that evening I got to meet my friend, Jenna, for dinner in Oceanside, which made the day even better. It was so fabulous to reconnect with her after many years. I was grateful for our short time together!

The next day was also spent on the beach doing school and life. Claire joined in on the boogie boarding fun that day. After fun times at the beach, we met up with Lynn again to return the boogie boards and watch her and several other slalom skateboarders practice for an upcoming race. Check out this video from 13 years ago – the course they were practicing on looked a lot like this (except it was on a bike path right outside of Legoland in Carlsbad).

We returned to our campground to watch a final sunset at South Carlsbad State Beach, because the next morning we were moving on.

We slowly got ready and packed up the next morning. We left around checkout time and headed to Ron Casper’s Wilderness Park in San Juan Capistrano. We made a quick pit stop for some food and new Crocs for Reece (we think one of his maybe escaped from the van without us knowing). We dropped off the camper and then headed back down the hill to the beach again.

This time we were meeting our friends, the Culps, at Three Arch Beach in Dana Point. I worked with Maggie at the Dale House years ago, and Maggie and Phil started the John Muir Trail with us – also years ago. They made it about a week into the trip and Maggie’s knees swelled up, so they decided not to finish, but it was a bonding time. They now have 3 girls and live in San Juan Capistrano, and luckily had an extra campsite for the weekend, so we got to camp with them!

After the beach we returned to the campsite, found a toad, and Matt taught all the kids how to use wire strippers and about electricity.

The next day we decided to try to go rock climbing, but unfortunately the place we wanted to go was closed off with threats of fines and jail time if you violated it. We decided to go get frozen yogurt instead!

We returned to camp and played some games and ate pie (it was pi day), before heading out on a short hike in the park. After that we enjoyed taco dinner together and went to the star party the park was hosting.

There were a number of telescopes and people teaching about constellations. Really great.

We unfortunately didn’t get a whole group shot, but I think most people were captured in a photo except for Matt and I. We had such a fun weekend together!

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we stayed at a hotel in Prescott, AZ for the night. We unpacked in the parking lot and then enjoyed freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the lobby when we finished! We were very grateful for warm showers and soft beds. It was quite a treat!

The next morning we woke pretty early, ate breakfast at the hotel, continued towards Phoenix and our camper. We had ordered a part for our sway bars back in Tuscon (we discovered one of our sway bars had fallen off because a pin had popped out). We had jerry-rigged a solution back in Tuscon, but we were looking forward to having the correct part. BUT, when we arrived to pick it up, the company we had ordered it from online had never processed the order, so it wasn’t there. Luckily our fix worked pretty well, so we decided to stick with it and find another place to get the part shipped to later.

We made it to Phoenix and picked up the camper and headed west. We made it to a KOA on the border of AZ and CA. It was actually right next to the Colorado River! Like we had just worked so hard to get to at the bottom of the Grand Canyon! The sunset was beautiful there.

We decided to stay two nights to do laundry, an oil change, sway bar adjustments, and grocery shopping. It was in the 90s the full day we were there. We were thankful for electric hookups and AC! The campground also had a pool and jacuzzi which we enjoyed after getting school and projects done. Reece also got a haircut from Matt! You may notice it in upcoming pictures.

Before entering CA, we filled up on gas and then drove over to Joshua Tree, CA. On the drive over we saw a LOT of solar – like SO much. It was impressive. Driving I-10 was pretty uneventful, but then we pulled off onto a smaller highway and drove in a pretty remote area for about an hour. It was a lot of desert with mountainous areas interspersed.

We stopped at the Joshua Tree Cultural Center in 29 Palms, CA to learn about the indigenous people that lived on these lands before us. It was in impressive compilation from many tribes that are still active and upholding their heritage to this day.

We arrived at our campsite to discover we were next to a community park with a baseball field. The outfield was probably the only grass for miles. Reece and I made use of it and played some catch!

The next day we made a stop at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center in Joshua Tree, CA. Then we headed into the park. We scrambled on rocks at Quail Springs, hiked the Hidden Valley nature trail, checked out the Ryan ranch (an old homestead in the area), saw skull rock, and hiked the Discovery trail near there.

The next day we thought we might try to find some top rope climbing, but it was cold and windy, so we did some more rock scrambling off the Barker Dam trail, drove to Keys Vista (saw the San Andreas fault line and the Salton Sea), and then watched the sunset from a random rocky point in the park.

The next day we continued west and south to San Diego. After a few wrong turns and tour of Coronado, CA with the camper, we made it to the Pacific Ocean later that afternoon! From CO to the far northeastern part of the lover 48 and now to the far southwestern part of the lower 48 – we’ve covered a few miles!