Hey Guys! From Florida we made our way back to Texas. We could have just jumped our way back like we did to get to Florida. But, where’s the fun in that…and besides, that makes for a long three days of constant driving. So, we decided to take our time and do a couple of weekly stays on the way back to Texas.
Our first stop was in Alabama at some friend’s house. We spent the week mooch-docking in their yard so we could visit more. I’m not going to include any pics of them or their kids…I didn’t ask and not too many people are hip to having their pics up on the web.
Jerl was thrilled to have access to a smoker again. He spent the week smoking meat and giving our friend tips. We’ve missed having a smoker. The road up to Alaska chewed up the smoker we had and we haven’t found one that would work with our space requirements since then…so…no smoked meat.
Our friends knew we were into forts so they took us to Fort Morgan State Historic Site one afternoon. Fort Morgan’s military history starts with the War of 1812 and stretches all the way to World War II. That’s over 100 years of service during varying war campaigns.
The construction of Fort Morgan began in 1819 and took a total of fifteen years to complete. The total cost in 1834 was $1,026,777.41. The fort stayed active and manned until 1944 and then in 1947 the military deeded Fort Morgan to the state of Alabama where it became one of Alabama’s state parks.
We had such a good time exploring this fort with our friends! I think it was even better than most forts for the boys because they had Cam and Brie to explore with them.
We also made it to the 5Rivers Alabama Delta Resource Center where the Apalachee, Spanish, Mobile, Blakeley, and Tensaw rivers all flow into Mobile Bay. It was a really cool place! We did a short walk (it started raining on us) and spent time going through the learning center and the exhibit hall where we got to see some of Alabama’s native animals up close. If you’re ever in the Mobile area…you should stop and check it out!
We met our friends back in 2016 while we were exploring New York. We were staying in the same campground. Our kids and their kids hit it off quite well. We’ve kept in touch since then and any time we’re near Mobile, we spend time catching up. We’ve made some of the coolest friendships during our crazy nomadic adventures!
Thanks for putting up with us for an entire week L Family!! We loved visiting with y’all and meeting more of your family!
Hey Guys! After almost four months of hiding from winter in Florida, we’re down to our last two weeks in the Sunshine State. We spent two weeks in Jacksonville, FL. I’m not going to lie…we weren’t super impressed with the area we stayed in. The RV park had recently been purchased and was converting from a mobile home community to an RV park…so…it was kind of a dump. There were still mobile homes that looked like they should have been demolished twenty years ago, the roads around the park were filled with some of the biggest potholes we’ve seen, and the neighborhood was sketchy at best. But, we stayed anyway. We could tell the new owners were making strides to clean the park up and make it something less…scary. We saw them working hard every day we were there. And, we will probably give them another chance the next time we’re in the area.
We have quite a few adventures on our list for the Jacksonville area. We made it to several places, but couldn’t get to all of them.
Y’all know we love old Forts. We stopped by Fort Caroline National Memorial. Fort Caroline preserves the story of a sixteenth century French colonial settlement. The actual location of Fort Caroline has never been determined. The NPS has made a near full scale replica near the location they believe the original fort was. Honestly, there’s not much there. We did enjoy learning about the old French fort, but kind of expected more from a NPS unit.
Kingsley Plantation is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Perserve. When Zephaniah Kingsley first settled on Fort George Island, the plantation was only accessible by boat. The once one-thousand acre plantation had a cash crop of Sea Island cotton. This NPS unit shares the story of Zephaniah Kingsley, his wife Anna, and their children. Anna was once a slave of his. She and Zephaniah ended up having three children together and in 1811 he freed Anna and their three children. They all moved to the Kingsley Plantation together and Anna managed not only that plantation but several others they owned in the area. When Anna was freed in 1811 she acquired more land and slaves.
Today at the Kingsley Plantation you can walk around the now sixty acre NPS unit and learn about the stories of the people who used to live and work at the plantation. There are several buildings still standing and you can explore most of them.
Our favorite Jacksonville adventure was Fort Clinch State Park. The very first fortifications to sit on this site were started in 1736 and like most forts of that time, there were several different stages of fortifications before the construction of Fort Clinch was started in 1847. At the start of the Civil War the fort was only about 2/3 complete and didn’t have a single canon mounted yet. There was minimal work on the fort during the Civil War so it still wasn’t finished by the end of the war. Because of this, in 1869 the fort was abandoned and left empty. The US Army maintained the fort until the Spanish-American War when Fort Clinch was used as not only barracks for the soldiers, but also as an ammunition depot as well. Less than a year later the hostilities were over and the fort was abandoned once again. By 1926 the location was no longer thought to be of strategic value and the US Army sold the fort and its land to private buyers. In 1935 Fort Clinch became one of Florida’s first State Parks. At this point the CCC stepped in and started renovations. CCC Company 1420 built the campground, roads, and museum as well as the restoration of the fort itself. We’re fans of the CCC. We’ve come across their work all across our country and the stories they tell are always some of the most fascinating. It’s amazing that the work they did back then is still being utilized even today. Personally, I think our country could benefit from another program like the CCC.
Guys, this fort was so awesome. There were sooo many tunnels, and buildings, and walkways to explore! We had the best time learning the story of Fort Clinch!
We found another beach…well, there were tons of beaches, but we were specifically looking for a shelling beach. I can’t remember the name of the beach we ended up at, but there were quite a few shells. We didn’t find a huge variety…we might have been there too late for that…but we found enough to fill up a big ziplock! We now have quite the collection of Florida shells. If I have time, I’ll put together a post on how we clean and preserve our shells.
I know this is going to come as a shock, but we found some foodies. Just a few. Ha! The best/worst one was Toby’s BBQ. It was the best because the food was stellar…it was the worst because it was literally right across the street from where we were staying. So…we ate there a few times. Oh! And Toby’s gives you a free dessert with every meal. I mean…it was free…we had to eat it, right?
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park isn’t in Jacksonville…it’s in Tallahassee. We stopped for a visit while we were on the way to Alabama, but I thought I’d stick it in with this post. Guys, this place… So. Many. Pretties! And, the best part about this SP…there are pretties that bloom all year! This SP was once the winter home of Alfred Maclay and his wife who were, like us, hiding from the winter in Florida. The Maclay’s bought the property in 1923 and set out to create the beautiful gardens you can walk through today. The SP is used as a setting for weddings and events throughout the year, but the most popular season is around February/March when the camellias are in full bloom. In fact, the day we went, there were two weddings taking place later that day.
And that, Guys, is the end of our Florida winter! It’ll be two years before we head toward the east coast again. I’m not sure when we’ll winter in Florida again…it’s difficult to find places…but, really, it’s hard to find places that will take us in Arizona (which is another great place to hide from the cold) for the winter too…so, we’ll see!
Hey Guys! While I was planning our Florida loop to hide from the winter, I really thought we’d have nice warm days the whole time. Well, maybe not the entire time, but for 90% of it at least. But, no. This year, the weather has decided to throw in some storms and cooler (50s & 60s) temps and Guys…that is not beach weather!! Not for me anyway! So, we didn’t get to have a “beach day” where we stayed at the beach and played while we were in Estero or Sarasota.
Such a bummer.
We stayed at the Myakka River State Park for a week and loved it! This is another state park we will definitely be revisiting! And…this one has full-hookups available in one of the camping loops! If you go and need full-hookups you’ll want to reserve a spot in the Palmetto Ridge loop. This park is another difficult one to snag a spot in and I can totally see why now that we’ve spent time there. The whole area is really pretty and the park itself is really close to town so, there’s great cell signal. You can see our “yard” in the picture above. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it’s a really generous space with some great shade trees.
Some of you might not know what I mean when I say “full-hookups”. This means that there is water, sewer, and electric available at each spot. We can make it two weeks without a sewer hookup before we really need to go find a dump station. In Koreshan State Park we only had water and electric hookups, so anytime we needed to wash up or take a shower or go use the privy…we had to use the park facilities. Which is ok when I can snag a spot that’s not too terribly far away, but sometimes that means walking a mile to get to the latrine…day or night. That can be quite a walk (no matter how close we are) in the middle of the night…you know what I mean?
We were able to walk around two beaches while we were in the Sarasota area…even though it was too cold to actually stay and play. And we totally hit the jack-pot with shell collecting! So. Many. Shells! We would go pretty early in the morning (well, early for us…so we’d be there by 8) to try and get the better shells. Walking along a beach is not a bad way to start out the day. I think if we had a home near a beach I would probably be there daily.
This is a small portion of the shells we found on one of the beaches. I did my homework and found a method to clean, brighten, and preserve the shells, so Nicholas and I worked on that pretty much every day we were there. I’m a little OCD when it comes to organization…so all of our shells are grouped together in bags from the beach we found them. Each bag is labeled with the name of the beach, the town the beach is in, and the date we went. So…when we were cleaning/brightening/preserving the shells, I had to keep each group separate so none of the shells mixed with shells from a different beach. I know, I know…I’m weird. It’s a thing. We just ignore it.
I actually found this little guy on one of my morning walks down by the river (I’ll show you pics of that later), but the resident was still very much alive, so I left it there. Did you know it’s against the law (in Florida) to collect live shells?
Myakka River State Park is one of Florida’s largest state parks and is known for it’s wildlife. It’s also one of the prettiest state parks we’ve seen. One of the big draws to this park is Florida’s only “Wild & Scenic River” that you can explore with canoes and kayaks or on a guided tour. Just be careful…gators are abundant here. Big gators. Big!
One of the hikes in the park is the Canopy Walkway. How cool does that sound? Canopy Walkway. I was expecting greatness! But, it wasn’t very big…and the view at the end was…ok. I’m not going to lie…it was kind of a letdown.
The wildlife in the park was definitely not a letdown. There was such a big variety of different birds and raccoons, hogs…
deer, gators, and squirrels… There was always something to watch. It’s really hard to see, but in the left pic are some deer and in the right pic you can see two gators being lazy on the shore. Every time we left our campsite, we saw wildlife of some kind!
One of our family goals for 2019 is to have more campfires. As a family who lives in an RV and is outdoors more than the average family…we rarely have a campfire. We really enjoy them. But it never seems to happen. So, for 2019 we are making an effort to spend more time under the stars with a cozy campfire and less time inside playing games.
We found two foodie spots. One was called Smacks Burgers and Shakes…you can see a burger in the pic above. They were really tasty burgers and Alex and I had to have a bit of a sweet treat after lunch and each tried some of their frozen custard. I didn’t get a photo of it…but it was so good! The other place we found is called Der Dutchman Sarasota and Guys…oh…my goodness! It was so good! I got zero pics of it…but if you’re in the area…just trust me and go. It’s a buffet and it’s all home cooking. Like the good kind of home cooking…not the kind where Aunt Lola brought a mystery casserole and everyone is afraid to try it. No, everything on the buffet was really good. Make sure you save room for dessert…and get the Dutch Surprise…you’ll thank me. I would have paid them for the recipe…I tried…more than once.
I usually end my posts with some pictures of pretties I’ve found in the area…but let’s talk about the best part of this park instead. The sunsets. Guys…look at these gorgeous sunsets!! I have soooo many amazing sunset pics from our one week staying in Myakka River State Park! In the bottom left pic above, if you look closely, you can see two gators. I think Florida might have been showing off just a bit. She did a great job of it.
I thought we’d end the year with a quick post to share some of our favorite memories from this year.
Our year started off…well…not the best. We spent last New Year’s Eve driving through an ice storm to get back to Missouri so Jerl could have eye surgery and our home-on-wheels could get a new engine. It was a stressful start to the year, but it got loads better!
We made it to twenty-one different National Park Units this year! Twenty-one! Two of those were revisits, but nineteen were new for us…so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that seven of our top ten memories for this year are about National Parks.
Let’s start with our honorable mention…Sparky’s Burgers in Hatch, New Mexico just missed our top ten, but we all like it so much we decided it really should at least get an honorable mention! We’d been eyeing Sparky’s for a couple of years now. We found out about it in 2015 while we were in Alamogordo, but didn’t want to drive that far in the time we had in the area. This year, however, we made it! And Guys…it’s so good! We got there right as they were opening and it’s a good thing because when we left, the line was already starting to curve around the block. Alex had to try one of Sparky’s famous green chili shakes. He chose chocolate and raved about it the whole time. I think next time I may have to get one too!
Our number ten spot isn’t a foodie or city or state…it’s not a National or State Park…it’s a view. The Columbia River Gorge from the Portland Women’s Form State Scenic Viewpoint in Corbett, OR was spectacular even though the smoke from some nearby fires was wafting through. We had this entire viewing area to ourselves…well…there was one other person there and he was busy having a conversation with himself…so…yeah. But, that view!
Sequoia Park Zoo comes next. We found this little zoo in Eureka, CA and made time to visit right at the end of a day of exploration. We got there just in time for the red panda feeding and zoo talk. We’ve been to some of the top rated zoos in the country and this little zoo is one of our favorites. Happy animals, clean and big exhibits…what more does a zoo need? What it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in heart.
One of the things we love is a good view and what better place to get a view than atop one of Colorado’s tallest mountains. Pikes Peak is the most expensive mountain we’ve explored…but Guys…that view. When we were there, the summit was torn up for construction of the new Summit House. It’ll be fantastic when it’s done! We just might have to go back and see it completed!
One of the states that Jerl has been looking forward to the most is Colorado. The mountains have called his name for many years so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Rocky Mountain National Park is on our top ten list. We were only able to spend one day exploring this giant park and hope to go back one day to see more of it.
Yosemite National Park is in the number six spot on our top ten list for 2018! We were there right before the busy season, but there were still so many people. The few days we ventured into Yosemite Valley the crowds were insane! It wasn’t our thing…all of the crowds. But, when we drove Glacier Road and Tioga Road…the crowds weren’t nearly as bad and the views were ah-mazing!
One of the places I’d been looking forward to visiting is Redwood National and State Park! These two parks work together to preserve one of the largest tracks of old growth coastal redwoods left in the US. And! There’s Fern Canyon! This canyon has fifty feet walls covered in several types of ferns. It was so fun to wade down the small creek! If traveling isn’t your thing…you can take a look at Fern Canyon without leaving your home…it was used to film parts of Jurassic Park II.
We made it to Oregon right as the burn season was revving up. We could see the smoke from one of the fires at the park we were staying in. We were worried we wouldn’t make it up to Crater Lake National Park due to the fires. I’m so glad we did! Crater Lake is gorgeous! The blue of that water!! There’s a bit of lore that says the blue bird used to be black before it dipped into the waters of Crater Lake.
Olympic National Park rests in the number three spot on our top ten list for this year! This place…Guys, I could totally spend a season or two in this area of Washington. There is so much to love about Olympic National Park! You get beaches, mountain vistas, and forests of moss covered trees to hike through!
This next park is not only in our number two spot, but was the biggest surprise for us. We weren’t entirely sure of what to expect from Kings Canyon National Park, but we loved it! You get the gorgeous tall trees and you get to explore a huge canyon! We somehow ended up taking an old forest service road to get into the park and in doing so drove right through one of the largest groves of redwood old growth left. We had it to ourselves and it was fantastic! The canyon was a total surprise. There are views for days, hikes and waterfalls to explore!
Our number one memory of 2018 is Sequoia National Park! We heart tall trees in a serious way. We can’t get enough of them. We stayed in the Sequoia National Park area for two weeks and we spent every spare minute we could up the mountain, in the park walking amongst the tall trees. I’m already trying to plan our next trip to Sequoia.
We’ve wrapped up our State Tour. Y’all haven’t seen the last few posts about those explorations yet, but they’re coming! We hope that each of you have a wonderful New Year’s Day and a blessed 2019! Thank you for being a part of our crazy nomad journey!
Hey Guys! We spent one week in Salem, OR exploring the area.
When we left Central Point we were surrounded by wildfires. The RV park was filling with smoke, it was extremely hot and dry, and Guys…we were just so ready to head north to try and get away from it all. When we started out to our next spot, we headed up I-5 and the smoke started getting worse. We got a little worried it would get too thick to drive through, but as we got up out of the valley, the smoke cleared and it turned into a beautiful day.
One of the things we always love to see is what each state looks like…topography, agriculture, different architectural styles…sometimes it surprises us. Like Oregon. We saw so many huge hay fields. Hay as far as the eye could see! It was all mowed down and ready for harvesting, but it still looked really neat. And dry. It’s no wonder why Oregon is a fire hazard every summer.
The main reason we spent time in Salem was to visit the State Capitol Building. Right from the start, I liked this one. Most of the SCBs look something like the National one in DC so it’s nice when we find one that’s different. I wasn’t expecting a dome, but check this one out! I love the patriotic theme of it. The Oregon SCB wasn’t flashy and it wasn’t huge. It didn’t have every square inch covered in decoration but, there were some very nice murals and they used marble from all over the country. It was very tasteful and simplistic. What decorations there were all had meaning.
We added our Oregon sticker! The map is looking kind of full! It’ll be a month before we get to add the Idaho sticker as we start making our way south for the winter.
We heard about a Silver Falls State Park a few weeks before we got to the Salem area. It wasn’t too far from where we were staying so we went to check it out. The most popular trail there is the Trail of Ten Falls. It’s a ten mile trail that takes you by ten falls.
The day we went it was over 100 degrees. It was so so hot. With no breeze. We decided we’d check out two of the falls, but it was just too uncomfortable to try to do all ten miles. We did see some of the local wildlife. This guy wasn’t interested in us at all, he was trying to find place to cool off.
This area of Oregon was shaped by lava flows. Some geologists think there were around eight different lava flows layered up one on top of another in the Silver Falls SP area. Some layered up to as much as 600 feet thick. One of the coolest things about this SP is that the trail actually goes behind some of the waterfalls! Not only was it neat to walk behind a waterfall and look through it…the cooling mist coming off of the waterfall was very welcome. We might have lingered longer than necessary. Ha!
Foodies! Some friends of ours (waves at the McConnels) told us about a BBQ place in the area so we went to check it out. It was so good! Check out that tray full of food! Yum!
It’s getting harder to find pretties…this summer season has been so hot and dry the flowers are either all dried up or too far away to get a decent picture of.
We enjoyed the Salem area more than we thought we would! We would totally visit the area again…during cooler weather.
Hey Guys!! We spent one very full week in Myers Flat trying to spend as much time among the tall trees as we could. Our RV park was actually on the Avenue of Giants road. There were some pretty nice sized redwoods right in our neighborhood that week.
The Avenue of the Giants is a 31 mile scenic drive through part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The huge trees line the road as you drive through one of the largest remaining old growth redwood forests in the world.
The coastal redwoods can live a loooong life. Some reach upwards of 2,000 years old. See the marker closest to Alex? That marks how big the tree was when the Viking’s discovered North America in the year 1000. The last one…was the year the California State Park system was established in the year 1928.
We saw some really big trees when we were in Sequoia National Park…we saw some tall trees while we were in Redwood National Park…but this tree was our first taste at just how incredibly tall the coastal redwoods can get. The Founders Tree stands at 346.1 feet tall and has a circumference of 12.7 feet.
Have you ever heard of an albino tree? No? We hadn’t either, but in one of the brochures I picked up there was a mention of albino redwoods hidden somewhere within the many groves of redwoods along the Avenue of Giants. We asked around and actually managed to lay eyes on one. An albino tree has to grow off of another tree. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t spot it on the picture on the left, they’re kind of hard to see. This one was growing almost two hundred feet off the ground out of the side of another redwood. We looked for others as we explored, but we never found another one.
Redwoods can grow to weigh more than 500 tons and reach a height taller than the Statue of Liberty, but their root systems are amazingly shallow…which is why most of them die from toppling over from either wind or to much water from storms. I think we might have seen just as many redwoods lying down as there were standing tall.
The Dyerville Giant once stood an astonishing 370 feet high. Guys, that’s 200 feet taller than the Niagara Falls! This tree was considered the tallest tree in the world until it fell in 1991 as another tree fell into it during a storm. The Dyerville Giant was so big that when it fell it shook the ground hard enough for a nearby seismograph to pick up the tremors. We walked the length of it a couple of times marveling at the sheer size of it. In the upper right picture, you can see the hole the Dyerville left in the canopy when it fell. While standing, the Giant had a crown spread of seventy-four feet.
A redwood’s trunk can grow up to twenty-two feet in diameter with a bark that can be more than twelve inches thick.
The Big Tree area of Humboldt Redwoods State Park is in the Rockefeller Forest section. Some of the trees in the Rockefeller Forest are close to 2,000 years old.
This is Tall Tree. It stands at 359.3 feet with a circumference of 42 feet. It’s big. I took way more pictures of trees in this one week than I’ve ever taken in my life. Trees. It’s hard to explain why these titan trees fascinate us so much. There’s something about standing next to a living thing that’s been in the world for so long…
We did other things too. We found a great little zoo in Eureka. Nicholas just told you all about that though, so I won’t go into it. I will say, that the red panda exhibit was the best we’ve seen yet!
We found a great little pizza place in Miranda, CA…right down the road from where we stayed.
Well, I could ramble on forever about tall trees. I took enough pictures of them to fill several posts. If I ever talk Jerl into going back to California it will be to see the tall trees.
Hey Guys!! We spent one week in Myers Flat so we could spend some more time amongst the tall trees we’ve come to love so much.
When we got to our RV park we realized that the Verizon service they’d promised on the phone wasn’t there. I couldn’t even pull up Facebook on my phone and Jerl had a real bugger of a time trying to work. If we’d been planning on staying for more than a week we would have had to find a place with better connectivity and move.
Redwood National and State Parks are home to the world’s tallest trees. The two parks protect almost half of the remaining old growth redwoods left in the world. We spent some time in the midst of the giant sequoia trees earlier this year while we were in Sequoia National Park and completely fell in love with tall trees. The first full day we had in the area we went to Redwood National and State Parks. We started in the National Park with the Lady Bird Johnson Grove trail where we spent some time tripping on things in the trail because our necks were craned back looking up at the tall trees.
The coastal redwood is the tallest living thing on earth. It’s hard to believe that something so big can grow from something the size of a tomato seed.
There’s a good sized herd of Roosevelt Elk in the area. We’ve seen a lot of warning signs in our travels, but this was the first time we’ve seen a sign like this. Don’t mess with the mamas. They will hoof you.
Fern Canyon. You might recognize it from Jurassic Park II. I can’t remember where I first heard about Fern Canyon, but I knew right away it was a spot I really wanted to see. In all of the pics I saw of the one mile gorge, there were little bridges over all of the water crossings…but when we got there…there weren’t any bridges. None. Plenty of water in the little creek that runs through the gorge though! At first we tried to keep our shoes dry by walking on strategically placed rocks and logs.
It wasn’t long before we realized we were going to get wet so we rolled up our pant legs and waded through the water. We had the best time! Fern Canyon has fifty foot walls that are draped with seven different kinds of ferns. When you’re walking through it, it’s easy to imagine huge dinosaurs rambling through the canyon munching on all of the ferns.
When we know that we’re going to be out all day exploring in remote areas we like to pack a picnic lunch. Most times we end up eating in our car somewhere, but check out the view we had at this picnic! Not bad, right? It was a gorgeous day for a picnic by the ocean.
On the way home we stopped at Patrick’s Point State Park. We walked the trail out to Wedding Rock. The view was pretty amazing. And check out that black rock! We’d seen some black sand beaches around…I guess we know where the black sand comes from.
We also walked out to Agate Beach. We were told you can find agates there. We picked up some rocks, but I really don’t know if they’re actually agates. It doesn’t matter though…we love them. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the sand was a black-ish sand.
So, I’ve only told you about one day of the week that we spent in Myers Flat. Instead of making one really long post, I’m going to break this week up into two posts. We found the pink flower in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. There were several trees with the blooms on them throughout the trail. Bright pops of pink in a sea of green. It was pretty magical.
Hey Guys! Remember when we had to change all of our plans because of engine trouble and eye surgery? Bodega Bay wasn’t originally in our plans, but when I was reworking our schedule I added it in on a whim. It’s just north of San Francisco and I don’t usually have such small travel jumps, but something about the area called to me…so I answered.
Bodega Bay is, as you might guess…right on the water. It’s kind of a white knuckley drive down highway one to get there, but Guys, we loved the area! The RV park we stayed in was near enough to the coast that we could hear the boats and water, but far enough that we were somewhat protected from the wind that seems to be a constant on the west coast.
We only had one week in Bodega Bay. That means we really only had one full day of exploration. We started out early in the morning and headed down to Point Reyes National Seashore. When we took off that morning it was a gorgeously sunny day with just a few specs of clouds but as we drove south to Point Reyes NS the clouds and fog started creeping in.
By the time we made it to Point Reyes it was sooo foggy and windy!! We tried to go out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, but Guys…it was so incredibly windy and foggy we could barely see the road that you have to walk up to get to the lighthouse. We talked to the Ranger sitting in his car up at the lighthouse gate (it was bad enough that even he didn’t want to get out of his car) and he let us know that the lighthouse was open, but it was about a half mile walk to get to it. We opted out. As much as we love lighthouses…it was just too windy, wet, and cold. We did stop at Drake’s Beach! Love those cliffs!
I always try to give you a size comparison. Here’s a shot of the boys standing next to those cliffs on Drake’s Beach. With the weather being kind of…miserable…we didn’t have to share the beach with too many people. I mean, really, what kind of a nutter goes to the beach when it’s in the 40s and is super windy with fog? Well, the nomad nutters do. Yup. When you have a set time at a location, you go explore no matter what the weather (within reason) does or you miss out.
We found several sand dollars, a few shells, and some tide pools! They weren’t big tide pools, but we did enjoy the little sea anemones in them.
While I prefer to have beautiful sunny days to explore, I have to admit…I’m kind of digging the moodiness that the fog gave my pictures of Drake’s Beach. I guess it’s ok to have mood…sometimes.
The weather was so miserable that day we almost gave up on adventuring and went home. I’m so glad we stuck it out and headed up to Fort Ross State Historic Park which was about an hours drive north of where we were staying. We got there later in the day and only had about an hour to explore it. We do love our forts. It’s not unusual for us to get lost in a fort for half a day or more. So, we really had to rush through this one.
Fort Ross was established in 1812 for the primary purpose of finding food and hunting sea otters for their furs to support the Russian outposts in Alaska. Some of the buildings have been reconstructed and decorated to look close to what they would have looked like during the time the fort was up and running. There’s so much history that can be learned at forts like this. Most of what we’ve learned by visiting all of these forts isn’t taught in the general history books, but history is an important lesson.
On our way home from our foggy day of exploration we stopped at this pull-off to take in the view of the spot where the Russian River dumps into the pacific ocean. We noticed a crowd of people down on the beach all ogling a particular spot on the beach in between us. Guys! Seals! There was a ton of them! We found out later that the beach is called Goat Rock Beach and apparently, the seals are there often.
This is another shot of Goat Rock Beach on a different day. We tried to get out each afternoon during our week in the Bodega Bay area to get some more exploring done.
There are tons of pull-offs to take in the amazing views all along this section of highway one. We spent most of the afternoons at one of the pull-offs or beaches in the Sonoma Coast State Park. We loved our week along this rugged coast. I don’t think any of us were really ready to move on.
Let’s talk foodies. Right in front of where we stayed was this great little Mexican restaurant. We stopped in our first night and kind of wished we hadn’t. It was really good and way too close…we walked there. We also found a place right on the wharf where we got some great fish-n-chips! We’re getting our fill of all of the coastal fish-n-chips while we can.
I started seeing these in the supermarkets when we were in San Diego, but I kept resisting. We found them for sale singely at a little market in Bodega Bay though…so we tried them. Guys…do you see the two oatmeal cookies? These were so wrong that they were so right. I thought I’d be safe enough…we only had one more week in California at this point. I was really hoping I wouldn’t be able to find them once we got out of California…but, we’re in Oregon right now and…I saw them in the grocery store here! I may have to grab a box before we leave…I’m trying to be strong…but y’all know I’m a sugarholic… The struggle is real.
I love love love these pink and purple pretties! We found these at Fort Ross.
Hey Guys!! We spent two weeks in the San Diego area and didn’t even scratch the surface on everything in the area to do. I went through most of what we did in our post Seen in San Diego, but there is a little left to tell you…so let’s get started.
We went to La Jolla to see the seals. I have mixed feelings about this. On one side, it was really neat to see the seals chilling out on the beach! But, on the other side…people were actually making their children touch and sit right next to wild seals. I mean…really? They’re wild animals! And they will bite! Sheesh people!
One of my favorite things we did while in the San Diego area was a hike at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve where they are preserving one of the nation’s rarest pine trees, the Pinus torreyana. I mean…Guys…look at that view! We spent an entire morning hiking around on various trails, soaking up the sun and enjoying the view.
We spent quite a bit of time near the ocean in 2016 as we explored the east coast. We’ve missed it. I don’t think we realized how much we missed it until we were standing there looking at that view and feeling the ocean breeze on our faces.
One of Jerl’s favorite breweries is Stone. We made it up to Escondido to take a tour. We’ve been to a few other brewery tours, but none were on the scale that Stone was. They brew hundreds of gallons at a time. That’s a lot of beer! It’s always fun to see the differences in the breweries and hearing the stories of how they got started.
One of the main reasons we visited San Diego was to go to the zoo. Nicholas had been looking forward to this zoo visit for a very long time. The San Diego zoo is by far the biggest zoo we’ve visited so far. We spent the entire day there and we still somehow missed a whole section. There is a bus tour you can take if your feet get tired. And, there’s a skyfari that you can ride from the back of the zoo to the front! There are some shows…but we missed them all. I think you really need two full days to see this entire zoo.
Nicholas, of course, was all about the panda exhibit. He’s doing a whole zoo review next week so I’ll let him give you all the details on the zoo visit.
And…the pretties! When we were in New Mexico and Arizona I kept looking for tons of spring flowers, but didn’t see very many so when we got to San Diego…and there were flowers everywhere…I loved it!! I was in flower heaven! I can’t believe I got a picture of a hummingbird feeding in the top picture!
Well, that’s it for the San Diego area this time. We left so much undone that we will have to come back at some point.
Hey Guys! We made it back to Arizona! The drive to Tucson was blessedly boring. Our toad obediently followed along behind our home-on-wheels the entire time.
The last time, back in 2015, when we were in the Tucson area we stayed at an RV park right downtown. We didn’t care for it much. In fact, in our opinion, the only thing Tucson had going for it was Saguaro National Park. This time we tried out a state park that’s just north of Tucson. Catalina State Park is totally the way to go if you’re going to visit the Tucson area! We loved it!
State Parks are some of our favorite places to stay while exploring an area. One of the best things about them is that you’ve got trails right outside your door. Unfortunately that means you’ve got wildlife right outside your door too. We met this guy (left picture) out on the trail early one morning. He never rattled at us but we gave him a wide berth on the trail. It was also the last time we walked the trails for this park because I was just coming off of the whole “chased by a rattlesnake down the trail” by someone at a previous park and…we’d been told they were getting more active. I like to walk trails, but I don’t like snakes. At all. Not even a little. No thank you. There were tons of these little ground squirrels! (right picture) I had a hard time getting a photo of one because they were in constant motion. This little guy’s home was in our yard for the week. Our cats thoroughly enjoyed stalking all of the little squirrels.
We spent an entire day driving the Sky Island Scenic Byway up Mt. Lemmon. We hadn’t planned on spending the entire day doing it, but there were tons of great pull-offs that had small hikes where we could get out and climb around on some rocks and scenic vista points with amazing views.
We started at around 2000 feet and drove all the way up to 9000 feet. The temps dropped 40 degrees on us. It was 90 in Tucson and 50 at the summit! At the summit is a little ski town called Summerhaven. There were a few shops and restaurants nestled in between all of the ski lodges. We didn’t stick around because it was pretty crowded and we were getting hungry since the drive up took a few more hours than we’d planned. I hadn’t packed a lunch and teenage boys need food…often.
Oh! And just in case I thought hiking wouldn’t be as dangerous up on the mountain vs. the desert trails at the state park…It’s bear country. Bears and snakes?
It was hard to be upset at anything with views like that though. Every corner we turned we were wowed. Even when we were going back down the mountain…we were still wowed.
We made it back to Saguaro National Park! Did you know that the saguaro cactus won’t start growing an arm until they’re at least 75 years old?
The boys had already done the Junior Ranger work at Saguaro NP so this time they did the Not So Junior Ranger work and got a new badge! I believe Nicholas (rvkid04) put up a picture of it on his Instagram if you’re interested in checking it out.
We ended up driving down a dirt road we’d somehow missed the first time (back in 2015) and had it pretty much to ourselves. We stopped at an old CCC picnic area right around sunset. This is the view from one of the picnic areas. (right picture) Not a bad view! We didn’t see any snakes here…but we were being super vigilant about watching for them. Did you know that there are six different species of rattlesnakes in Saguaro National Park? Six!! Because one isn’t enough?!
Let’s talk foodies! When we were in Tucson the first time we all tried the Sonoran Dog. What is a Sonoran Dog? (top middle picture) It’s a hot dog wrapped in bacon topped with mayo, mustard, tomatoes, jalapeno salsa, pinto beans and onions all on a bolillo style hot dog bun. None of us were really impressed last time, but I wanted to give it another try. It was better than last time. I would totally get it again! It was a little sweet though. The bun is a sweet style bun and makes the whole thing almost like a dessert rather than a lunch. We also gave In and Out Burger another chance. (bottom right picture) We first tried In and Out while we were in Carson City, NV and none of us liked it. Not even a little. We’ve spent the last three years wondering what everyone sees in this place. I’ll be totally honest here…I really wanted to give it another try just so I could have this shake. A Neapolitan shake? Yes please! And Guys…it wasn’t as bad as we remembered it to be. And it was cheap! We all ate…and got full…for less than $50! Oh, and the shake…it was worth it. Every week we take one of our boys to lunch. It’s a chance to spend some one-on-one time with each of our boys. While we were in Tucson it was Charles’ week and he wanted New Mexican food. We found a place and boy-howdy…they did not mess around with the spice!(bottom left picture) The restaurant is called Goyita’s and it’s in Oro Valley, AZ if any of you are interested. Everything we had was fantastic! I got the stacked enchiladas and they were as good as anything I’ve gotten in New Mexico. Maybe even a little better.
Ok…I’ve held off as long as I can to talk about the pretties. Everywhere we looked there were pretties just starting to bloom. The ocotillo is a favorite cactus of mine. (bottom left picture) Let’s take a closer look at the ocotillo blooms! (middle right picture) I just love them! They give a splash of bright orange color throughout the Sonoran desert! I also found these little yellow beauties. (top right picture) These were pretty prevalent as well. These guys were at the very beginning of their bloom cycle. (top left picture) I was lucky enough to find three different plants in bloom, but most of them were still tightly closed up.
I have no idea what this bush is, but I love the pink wispy puffs!
We had a great time in Tucson and just like last time, we left with more items on our “to-see” list than when we’d come. Ha!
