On Friday, we headed west again with the Pacific coast as our goal...
I couldn't believe how mountainous it was all the way to the coast! As we crossed over from one of the flat areas in between the mountains, there were windmills. There had to be thousands of them surrounding us, catching the gusts between the mountain ranges. It looked like a picture from a sci-fi movie. Weird.
As we crossed into California, one of the "Hundred Mile Treats" was cheap dollar store sunglasses. They made for a cute picture, but most of them broke during the rest of the day's drive.
Somewhat by accident (only because our GPS took us a weird way through the suburb neighborhoods near Los Angeles), we happened upon Saddleback Church where Rick Warren is the head pastor.... that was kinda cool. Then I thought, we ARE weird. Most people look for famous movie stars near LA, we look for churches... hmmmm
We've been able to have campfires just about every night. And what is a campfire without s'mores and pudgy-pies. Obviously, Gracie hasn't adjusted to staying up late. She's fallen asleep a couple times with chocolate all over her face after enjoying her s'more.
We arrived at San Mateo State Park on the south side of San Clemente, CA. It was a great campground. We were actually separated from the neighbors by trees and bushes! When we got in, we just spent the evening cooking dinner and hanging around the campfire. Because it was such a nice camp, we decided we'd like to stay the next night too. Paul went to let them know, but they said that our site was already reserved for the next night. So, whether we stayed or not, we'd have to pack up our camp and move, and because it was going to be Saturday night, they would have a lottery for the open sites. Paul went down the next morning to get in the drawing and was picked for another site. Yay... but we had to pack everything up to set everything up again fifty feet away. Ahhh, well, the joys of camping...
The next day, we went to the beach!! We walked about a mile down a trail, past a no trespassing sign (that's the path we were instructed), over some railroad tracks, and onto San Onofre Beach (one of the most popular surfing beaches on the CA coast).
The waves were huge, and the water was freezing cold, but it was soooooo much fun!
As we were walking to the beach, we saw bunches of surfer dudes riding their bikes or skateboarding with their surfboards in tow. It was exciting to watch them "ride the waves" and wipe-out.
Nathan wasn't so thrilled with the cold water. He stuck to throwing sand onto our towels as soon as we shook them off.
The boys had a blast jumping the big waves, while the girls looked for pretty rocks and shells, and outran the waves as they washed up on the sandbar.
We even found a dead baby lobster (or whatever it was) up on the beach. Seth was brave enough to hold it for a picture.
Today, Day 10 of our vacation, is our 12th Anniversary. We are going to spend it travelling to a campground near the Sequoia National Forest. It's only a "short" 5 hour drive which is usually more like 7 for us)!!
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