Parker has Spring Break this week, so we took a short camping trip on the Central Coast. I would have liked to have camped even further north/longer, but the weather was pretty rainy up there this week...we got a good taste of the rain, even just in Santa Barbara! We really enjoyed bike riding and beach combing at Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos (just south of Morro Bay) when Parker was about three, and it's only about six hours away. So we headed up there with plans to camp for two nights, but fled to a hotel on our second afternoon when we realized how hard it was going to rain that day. We packed up and enjoyed Morro Bay for the evening, even getting to visit with a friend of Jared's that he hasn't seen in about five years. It rained again the next morning, but then the sun came out and the weather was beautiful. We tried a little fishing, collected a ton of sand dollars, and went to the Natural History Museum in Morro Bay State Park before heading for home in the late afternoon.
As we neared the northern reaches of Santa Barbara, Jared and I both agreed that we were disappointed that we all had only gotten to enjoy one night of camping...so on a whim, we pulled into the campground at El Capitan State Beach, and quickly decided to camp for one more night! After all, we still had enough food for one more dinner and breakfast, and there were still marshmallows for roasting :) We knew we were in for more rain, but luckily the clouds waited until after dinner and clean-up to unleash the torrents upon us. We ran into the tent by about 8:30 as the rain poured...we don't usually camp in rainy places/conditions, so we hadn't really thought this through and weren't sure how well the tent would fare...after playing two rounds of Uno while listening to the rain, we began to tuck everyone into their sleeping bags, only to discover that the seam below us all was leaking! Parker and I ended up sharing a sleeping bag, which was quite a tight squeeze, and Levi's pillow and blankets got wet, but he slept soundly nonetheless. We all did just fine considering the wetness, and I woke up feeling pretty darn proud and glad that we stuck it out!
Now we're home again with a few days left of vacation, and Jared has spent all of today working on installing a new bathroom door...one almost down, three more to go....................
Road trip!
We happened upon a hot dog stand at lunchtime at the Carpinteria Bluffs...Parker amazingly packed in a Double Dog! Two hot dogs in one!
Sunset at the beach, Montana de Oro State Park
Waking up the next morning and drying off wet shoes
Parker learning how to chop firewood
Bike riding at Montana de Oro
At Morro Rock, before the rain started
It was amazing how many sand dollars were on this beach!
Super windy and cold!
Beautiful blue skies the next day, but no fish :(
We watched this sailboat run aground soon after on the flats
We were really impressed with El Capitan State Beach--the camp sites were really big and spread out, which seems pretty rare. There was a ton of room for the boys to run around and play without leaving our site or getting close to the road. We chose one with a view of the ocean, but ended up with the tent in the middle of a lake once the rain started...
A puddle that remained the next morning--the water really was a couple of inches deep underneath the tent while it was raining.
I am in love with these vintage camper trailers! I want one so bad...or maybe I just want to sew a quilt for the bed...?
The aftermath--drying out once we returned home
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