Our family trip this summer is going to be a few weeks of camping in California. We flew from Newark to LAX on Thursday, June 5th. The flight went well, but the last bit feels long and everyone gets fidgety. We got our bags, camper van, and headed to see my friend from college who lives in Manhattan Beach. She greeted us with a huge, delicious meal, beers and beds. On Friday the kids woke up at 4 am due to the time change. We snuck out of the house and walked down to the beach. Manhattan beach is such a cool area, with interesting houses, none of which seem alike. We watched some early morning surfers, played on the beach, and the girls got wet in the Pacific for the first time.
At a reasonable hour we headed home and set out for L.A. To explore. We decided to hike to the Hollywood sign. The kids were troopers. Molly even hiked most of the 3 miles uphill to the sign. We took some pictures and headed down.
Everyone was pretty wiped out. We fought the L.A. Traffic and checked out the scene at Venice Beach. The kids had ice cream while watching the body builders, hand ball games and basketball.
Afterwards we went back to my friends to sleep. Saturday, June 7th We made it until 6:30 wake up. I went for a long run along the strand on Manhattan beach while James and the girls checked out the beach and pier. They helped a local fisherman land a few ray/sand sharks.
Afterwards we met my friend and her family for breakfast at Marthas in Hermosa Beach. Afterwards we ventured to Santa Monica for lunch w my cousin Kevin, his fiancée Brittany, and our friend Evan. The kids got huge lollipops afterwards which took days to finish. We played on the beach in Santa Monica then went back to Kevin's to watch playoff hockey. Sunday, June 8 th we slept until 7! Making progress on the time change slowly but surely. We packed up and said goodbye to our amazing hostess Vanessa. We drove to Malibu and found a hike in the State park there. We did another 6 mile out and back hike to the set location from the old tv show MASH. I watched this show with my dad almost every night growing up and I found it very interesting to see. The kids liked climbing all over the old Army trucks left out there.
After our hike we relaxed on the beach in Malibu. Afterwards we headed south towards San Diego. I was feeling increasingly sick with a sore throat and fever. We were pretty run down from lack of sleep and exertion so decided to get a hotel room for the night. We had an In n Out burger feast in our rom and slept for over 10 hours.
Monday, June 9th we woke up and headed into Newport Beach to go on a whale watch. I've really enjoyed seeing all of these beach towns up close. We had the infamous June Gloom in themorning but the fog burned off towards the end. We did not see a whale but did see thousands of dolphins which was thrilling to the girls. They were in huge pods jumping and swimming right along with us.
. It was a fun change of pace to get out on a boat. After the whale watch we drove down to La Jolla cove. We all liked checking out the sea lions on the rocks and explored all around the area.
We had dinner with a friend at Rubio's and had the most delicious Mexican food. After dinner we found a campsite just outside of the city and set up our camper van for the first time. The van is great and such an affordable and fun option. But it is a process to transform it from car to bedroom. Molly, Julia and I slept in the bed inside the car and James and Casey slept in the tent up top.
Tuesday. June 10th we woke and drove to Coronado Beach to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Navy Seals we have read and seen so much about. We went as close as we were allowed and let the kids play. We spied with binoculars and we're excited when shortly after a group came out to do what appeared to be a swim test. Later a group of lower ranking trainees came running over the dune to "get wet" a few times. After a swim we went into Coronado to the Navy SEAL bar McP's to have lunch. After lunch we went to the U.S.S Midway and explored every corner of the air craft carrier. The kids enjoyed climbing on the bunks, getting into cockpits, and seeing how life worked aboard.
After that we were lucky enough to spot the SEALs training again right next to the Midway as we were getting to our parking spot. They were doing a diving exercise and getting picked up by boats. The kids played in the fountains downtown near the harbor and I hit up a laundromat.
We had delicious pizza at "Bronx" and then went back to our same campsite for the night.
Wednesday June 11th: we explored Balboa Park for a short while which really has a European feel with the plazas and museums. It was such a nice morning with no June gloom that we headed back to La Jolla Cove for a swim. At lunch time we headed out of town to our next stop. We planned to head to Joshua Tree and Death Valley but decided at the very last minute that it was just too hot. So we picked the San Bernadino National Forest and headed to higher ground. We randomly picked Arrowhead Lake which is almost at 6,000 feet. We found a cool swimming hole with cliff jumping that James did. Molly did a mini one too.
Later we headed back to our campground, made some hot dogs and hit the sack.
Thursday June 12th: I woke up early and went for a run. We packed up camp, hit a playground for a bit and started out on what should be our longest driving day. We wound our way down the mountain with most everyone feeling car sick along the windy roads. We made a few stops at silly places.
. Charlie Brown's Farm Stand which has every kitschy item and candy known to man. We drove on a musical mile which is like a rumble strip designed to play the Lone Ranger song. It was a stretch. We saw interesting landscape and trees and took a break in Bakersfield to let the kids play at a playground and splash park.
We had to wait in a pretty long line to go on the factory tour but it was free and the kids were excited. James took them through the candy store while I waited in line. Everyone has to wear funny paper hats on their heads for the tour. It started out with several iconic pieces of art work that have been recreated using jelly beans.
Then we walked around the entire factory from elevated hallways looking down on the workers.
I find factories very interesting with all of the machinery and conveyor belts getting the work done. Afterwards we continued the last hour on to Jordan's house in Mill Valley. The kids started playing immediately and were so happy for buddies and toys. James and I worked quickly to unpack the camper and clean it. We left all the kids and fought the Friday traffic to return the camper and pick up a small rental for our remaining days. We used an awesome company called FlightCar that I highly recommend to anyone for a cheap rental. When we finally made it back to Jordan's we rushed into our running clothes, kissed the kids goodnight and left them with Jordan's sitter. We met up at the running store and went for a beautiful 10k summer solstice fun run.
James and I were the only ones to do the 10k and not the 5k, the views were fantastic from the hills. The running store had a big party afterwards with local beers, a taco truck and they showed a movie about a local ultra runner doing her first 100 miler at the Western States. There was a skate ramp in the back that James had fun on.
Later a bunch of my oldest friends all went back to Jordan's and sat around the chimenea. Saturday June 21, we left the kids with a sitter again and went to wine country for the day. We all met up with Robin and Clark and piled into their mini van for the drive to Healdsburg. Our first stop was the Donelan's where Trip met us and gave us the grand tour.
With champagne on the way up and Trip pouring heavy glasses, we were well on our way to a fun day. We went to three other vineyards in Healdsburg and had a delicious lunch at the general store there. On the way home the car died and we were stranded on the highway waiting for a taxi. We made it home and everyone we knew came over to Jordan's for a big bbq. It is so fun to get to see so many old friends in one place. Sunday June 22 James and I took the kids into San Francisco for some sight seeing. We walked along the waterfront, watched street performers, rode a double decker carousel which the kids thought was very exciting,and we tried to go to Alcatraz but it was sold out until mid-July! We walked through Chinatown and the kids thought it was so interesting looking into the fish places with weird looking fish, frogs, turtles, and shrimp for sale. We had pizza on the street, rode on the trolley, where we got to hang out of the side for part of the ride, we walked down Lombard Street because it is now closed to car traffic, stopped in Sausilito for ice cream and then headed home.
Monday June 23 I went for a long run in the morning and James took the kids to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Afterwards we met Wes in Sausilito and went for a boat ride. It turned out to be very windy and we went behind Angel Island and went out to look at Alcatraz but turned around because it was very cold and choppy.
We had lunch on the water and checked out the seals. Afterwards we took the kids to Golden Gate Park to ride the old carousel there. Then we headed home for packing and dinner.
