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.
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