I’m working on putting together our first book retreat for our book club. What’s our book club named? I’m so glad you asked, because I think it’s pretty great: The Literate Lushes! We’re going on thirteen years of book clubbing, which seems pretty incredible. And yet we’ve never done anything more than a Saturday or Sunday brunch. I’ve been wanting to plan one of these for a LONG time, so I was so glad when some members expressed interest in a weekend book retreat. Needless to say, I’ve sent a lot of emails, maybe even a Google Form (I definitely sent out a Google Form)…
I plan on sharing some more details about this planning process and our final weekend plan later on, but for now I want to share: PUZZLES! The idea is to have a puzzle set up somewhere, and people can puzzle if and when they want. It’s crazy how many puzzles you can find, and how many don’t hit the vibe you want. Or how many puzzles don’t have cats or dogs (no offense to those, just not what I was looking for, and HOLY COW, most puzzles have a cat or dog). Or how many puzzles have vintage cars…
I was looking for some that were either book-ish, or giving general cozy vibes. Also, since we’re going in October, I figured some Fall-themed puzzles could work as well. Here are my top favorites:
Autumn Cottage Nature Landscape Art, 500 pieces
Cozy Study puzzle, 1000 pieces
Fleurs, 1000 pieces
Magic Treehouse Forest Puzzle, 1000 pieces
Magic Bookshelf, 1000 pieces
Petals and Pages, 1000 pieces
Wildflower Pages, 1000 pieces
Stacked Vintage Books, 1000 pieces
I haven’t actually completed any of these, but I DID buy Cozy Study and Autumn Cottage for our book retreat. Do you have any favorites from these, or other book-ish puzzles that you’ve loved?
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This summer we decided to explore Mammoth lakes and revisit some of our favorite surrounding places. I’ll cover some travel and camping details, and list what we explored and places we visited and ate at.
Quick Camping Details
Site: New Shady Rest Campground, sites 124 and 125 (although we mainly occupied site 124 and used 125 for parking)
Type of camping: we dry camped with a fold out trailer
Dates: Saturday, June 8, to Friday, June 14, 2024
Total spent on gas (with a trailer attached): $463.92
Quick Glance Camping Menu
Our campsite was right at the beginning of downtown Mammoth, so there were lots of options to eat out and easy access to a grocery store (Vons), but I did prep the following meals at home for quick meals:
Slow cooker pulled pork with Hawaiian rolls
Slow cooker carnitas tacos
Marinated Greek chicken
Other meals that were not prepped but were quick fixes:
Hot dogs
Burgers
Spaghetti
Quick list of places we visited in and near Mammoth
Mammoth Lakes (we did a look around Twin Lakes, Lake Mary, Horseshoe Lake)
June Lake and surrounding lakes
Lee Vining (lunch, dessert, Mobile station is always great for clean bathrooms, food, snacks, keepsakes, and gas – although the gas is pricey!)
We camped at New Shady Rest Campground, and booked it through the Recreation.gov app. We were a little late on booking sites this season, but I think we still got a decent site. Bathrooms were a deciding factor this time around, so we skipped a lot of the campsites that are around or on the lakes, that don’t have vaulted bathrooms. This campground is right at the entrance of town, and very close to everything (Vons, coffee shops, sports stores, etc.). It was nice, on this trip, to be close to all the amenities we made full use of. The campsite is still surrounded by pine trees and definitely plenty of outdoor/nature feeling. There was definitely some traffic noise early in the morning, but none of the boys seemed to be affected by that (to be young and a deep sleeper!).
We hauled our trailer with us, which was nice to have beds and a kitchen, but there are no hook ups at this site and we didn’t fill up the water tank before we set up the trailer, which I wish we had. The campground does have a dumpsite where we could have filled up, and will definitely remember this for future trips. It would have been nice to shower mid-week ;)
On our way into the campground, we picked up about four bundles of wood from the camp host, which was cash only.
There seems to be an infestation of some kind with a lot of the trees in the area, so lots of wood chips around the campsites from all the trees they’ve had to take down. The kids loved finding pine cones and branches, and even picked up whittling, ha!
There are also a lot of moths in the area, which are definitely harmless and didn’t bother me, until it was time to go to sleep and they kept smacking the trailer ceiling. So definitely keep your doors/screens closed during the day! Jeff and I become serious moth hunters at night!
One of the favorite activities the kids enjoyed while at the campsite was kicking their soccer ball around on the road in front of our site, so definitely plan on taking some sports equipment. We also LOVE these glow in the dark balls from the Dollar Tree. I’ll usually buy at least one or two per night for our trips – the kids love them and they’ll play with them for quite a bit each night. Our major snafu was not bringing our bikes. I had advocated for it since I read that Mammoth had great biking trails, many of which were family friendly, but I didn’t quite convey that to Jeff, and he was concerned about the space they would take up. It definitely became a running joke throughout the week because there are A LOT of bike trails, and LOTS of families on bikes. We could have rented e-bikes, which seem to be very popular, but we never got around to it. Next time, though…
Our campsite was right across from the Welcome Center, which was fun to walk to and check out.
One thing I noticed that was different about this camping trip was the crowd. The boys always make friends at our campsites (and we exchange contact information and then never follow up), but this area seems to be more for the younger traveler than families with kids. Lots of early 20s and older folks that have long ago raised their children – all out adventuring on their amazing e-bikes, ha! This is near the Pacific Crest Trail, so you also have a lot of avid hikers. It was a bit of a bummer for the kiddos to not have any kindred spirits on this trip, but it was also nice to seem them just playing with each other.
Our Camping Itinerary
Saturday: packing and travel day
I had to work all week, so we felt a bit rushed packing up and trying to leave on Saturday morning. But we were also antsy to be out of the house and on the road. We decided if we were ready to leave by 11 a.m., we would head out, and if not, we’d wait to leave until Sunday. Leaving much later than that would have us arriving and setting up after dark, and not something I was wanting to do.
I’m so thankful for my packing list (which is available on Etsy!) – it helped me stay relatively calm during a pretty frenzied morning. We ended up leaving shortly the house shortly after 11:30 a.m., and probably closer to 12 p.m. since we stopped to get In N Out before we hit the road, but we were passed the point of no return at that point.
Although we had several pee stops, generally the boys are great travelers and we did great. Given our late arrival time, we decided for a quick dinner stop at El Pollo Loco in Bishop, CA, so we wouldn’t be hangry when we pulled into our site and had to set up.
We arrived at our campsite around 7:30 p.m. with plenty of sunlight still available. Unfortunately we had some major electrical hookup issues with our trailers, so we couldn’t get the side pull out to work, so it was pretty tight quarters inside for the first couple days. Not to mention, we couldn’t reach the second bed (which we didn’t need until my in-laws joined us a couple days later) or the pantry. Not being able to reach the pantry/closet was a pain, and we ended up folding out that side of the trailer so we could jump in through that fold out (with a ladder). Not ideal, but it worked. Our oldest boy was stressing for a bit, so I had to keep reinforcing that although not ideal, we still had a place to sleep and were in a beautiful place. Everything else would either work out or we’d make do.
Jeff went to a couple places that night to look for the fuses we needed to fix our problem, but none of the places had the exact fuse we needed.
Since our fridge wasn’t working at that point, I had to move all of our food into the cooler.
Daily miles and gas: 334 miles, $188
Sunday: Troubleshooting and Mammoth Lakes
We decided to grab a quick coffee at one of the many adorable coffee shops in town, and go on a hunt for the fuse we needed for the trailer. We went to Looney Bean Coffee where we enjoyed our self-serve drip coffee and a delicious blueberry scone. All three boys really enjoyed the kids corner that had a mock coffee shop – it was so cute seeing the three of them work together to run their little cafe!
That same shopping center has a store called DIY Home Center, so we checked there for the fuse. We grabbed a few, and enjoyed watching the in store pet: a cat!
We swung by Kittridge Sports to get our fishing licenses and to get some info on where to go fishing. The guy that helped us was super friendly: he gave us a map and highlighted some areas that he recommended we try. Since we were staying there all week, it made the most sense to get the annual license for Jeff and I, since it’s basically the same price as a 10-day license (the other option being a two-day license, for half of the cost). Kids under 16 don’t need one, so at least we saved on that!
We headed back to our campsite where Jeff tried out the fuses, but they still kept blowing. We made lunch at our site (grilled chicken kebabs that I had marinated at home), and packed up to head up the road and view the lakes.
We headed back to our campsite where Jeff tried out the fuses, but they still kept blowing. We made lunch at our site (grilled chicken kebabs that I had marinated at home), and packed up to head up the road and view the lakes.
We drove up Lake Mary Road, and I was blown away by the view we go to Twin Lakes Vista. It’s definitely worth pulling over to the viewing area on the right – there’s a convenient parking lot to pull into. The waterfall was in full effect, the lake looked beautiful, and we even crossed the street to view the river under a walking bridge. We piled back into the car and then took the turnout on the right for the scenic drive to Twin Lakes. Jeff and I realized this is where we camped during our honeymoon. There was a little bridge to cross the lake, where we spotted a patch of snow, so we decided to check that out.
So glad we did! The boys played in the snow for a bit, and we stumbled upon Lake Forest Chapel, where Jake decided to officiate an impromptu wedding for Jeff and I (it was as adorable as it sounds!).
After this we followed Twin Lakes Loops Road back out to to Lake Mary Road, and continued down that to the Twin Falls Overlook (stay to the right on Lake Mary Road). I enjoyed the view from from Twin Lakes Vista, but it was cool to see the rushing water and the expansive view of the lake. We continued down Lake Mary Road all the way to Horseshoe Lake, which I read had a good beach. The trees in the parking lot are all dead and it looked a little apocalyptic, so we didn’t even get out. We went back down Lake Mary Road, and did a loop around Lake Mary, which is BEAUTIFUL.
We found the restrooms that are located across the lake, and the boys again found a patch of snow that was worth playing in. We scoped out a couple fishing areas for the following day, and decided to head back down the mountain for some pre-dinner snacks at Mammoth Brewing Company.
It was a little windy outside, so we skipped the outdoor patio (which looked very nice!) and instead requested seating upstairs. The vibe was a little weird, and maybe it was the time of day also (post-lunch, pre-dinner), but in retrospect I might have preferred to brave the wind and sit outside. Jeff and I grabbed a beer, and we ordered fries and brownie bites. It was all delish! We also got cookies for the boys (they come with the kids meal, and when I asked if I could just buy three cookies without the kids meal, they just gave us the cookies for FREE!). I asked if the cookies had any nuts, and was informed they have a nut free facility, which I don’t think I’ve encountered before. Jake is the only one allergic to nuts, but it’s always in the back of our mind, and I gotta say, it was such a nice feeling to have a 100% knowledge that there was ZERO chance for any kind of cross contamination.
When we got back to our campsite, we decided to explore the trail that runs along our campsite. It follows the Sawmill Cuttoff road, and it was SO pretty. It’s about a mile each way. There was no one else around and we were slightly worried about bears, so we kept the kids pretty close, but Josh really enjoyed riding his razor on the trail (bikes would have been the chefs kiss, ha!). We stopped when we hit a skate park, which was a huge highlight for Josh. The smile on his face was pretty incredible. And the view for the rest of us was pretty spectacular. We did hear some thunder while at the skatepark, and saw some ominous clouds moving in, so we decided to head back to our campsite.
That night we fixed burgers and hot dogs on Jeff’s grill – I was starting to re-arrange our meal plan based on not having a fridge and trying to prioritize food based on what was going to last longer.
Daily miles and gas: we stayed pretty local this day, so I think we only drove about twenty miles between our trip into town and up and down to the lakes.
Monday: Fishing Along Lake Mary
I had prepped pancake batter at home before we left, so I fixed them on Monday morning, just adding a squashed banana to the mix (it’s the only way we eat pancakes at home). Note to self: DO NOT FIX PANCAKES WHILE CAMPING. I always forget this, and try to make pancakes on every camping trip, but they just don’t come out right at the higher elevations. They don’t cook quite right. If you have tips, I’m all eyes and ears!
After breakfast, we prepped to head out for a fishing excursion, and I packed us some sandwiches for lunch so we wouldn’t have to leave to get lunch. After a few years of camping and family trips, I feel like I finally have this packed lunch thing nailed down. I use one ziplock bag for all of our sandwiches, and label everyone’s sandwich on the paper towel I use to wrap their sandwich (I know this is ridiculous, but everyone takes their sandwich a little different. Jake: cucumber and mayo. Josh: mustard and meat. Jonny: meat and mayo, maybe cucumber. Jeff and Alex: meat, mayo, mustard, cheese – possibly different cheese/meat combos for each of us, based on what we have available). Folks: I am to please! I used a separate ziplock bag to fill with ice, and that was my ice pack. I intentionally bring an insulated lunch bag so I can pack up our food. The large ziplock I use for our sandwiches then functions as my trash bag. Dual use!
Folks, I’ll say it now: the fishing was a HUGE disappointment for us on this trip (and every prior camping trip). I think we have bad juju or something. We tried a couple different spots that had been recommended to us, and got nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada. I think Jake got one bite, but that was it. The most frustrating part was that there WERE fish – we could see them, they just weren’t biting. Pretty sure they were mocking us.
We decided to ease our disappointment with ice cream, and headed to Hugs in the Mammoth Village. I really appreciate when there’s a combo of unique flavors (like strawberry melon and banana chocolate chip) and regular flavors (chocolate chip, chocolate, vanilla). Our kids are always a little let down when they’re excited for ice cream and all the flavors are funky flavors. Jeff really enjoyed the banana chocolate chip, and Jake was a huge fan of the strawberry melon. I think Jonny got chocolate and I got chocolate chip – both were great.
I fixed some quick and easy carnitas tacos for dinner – I had made the carnitas just before we left, and had pre-chopped cilantro and onion (which always makes the fridge/cooler stink, but saves me some work…). Love these quick, but yummy, meals while camping!
Tuesday: June Lake and Surrounding Lakes
We decided to drive the twenty minutes or so to June Lake and see if we’d have better fishing there. The employee at Kittredge recommended Gull Lake or Silver Lake for fishing. Both of those are in the June Lake loop: Gull Lake is just passed June Lake, and Silver Lake is a few miles further back. We decided to start with Silver lake since it was the furthest back, and then check out Gull Lake and June Lake.
We pulled over in a parking lot towards the middle of Silver Lake and walked down a quick little trail to the water, and HOLY MOSQUITOS BATMAN. I mean…I’m now used to mosquitos back home in Orange County, but this was something else. They were hovering all around us as soon as we got close to the water. We turned right back around and got back in the truck, ha!
There was a promising section further down the lake, but it was packed. There were people fishing EVERYWHERE, and that just didn’t seem like it would work in our favor. We decided to head back towards Gull Lake, but turned around rather than continuing down the loop, since that takes you all the way around and back out to the 395. We got to see some pretty cool waterfalls on our way back!
We weren’t sure where to go around Gull Lake, and we ended up pulling into a parking lot by a playground – I think it’s the Gull Lake Community Park. It was a good stop for some of us to change into shorts, get sunblocked, for all of us to use the restroom, and the boys played on the playground for a little bit. The shore fishing seems difficult because there are reeds all along the shore in this area – I really think next time we need to rent a boat to head out into the lakes if we want to catch anything.
We headed back towards June Lake, and again: we were at a loss as to where to do any effective shore fishing around the lake, so we decided to just go to the beach. Parking is $10 for the beach access. We had brought our chairs and packed a lunch, but didn’t have any sun cover, so we were happy to have cloud cover for most of the time we were there. The boys waded into the water and took turns coming out to eat their sandwich (which we had to eat quickly before some weird gnats got on them, ha!).
The scenery here is absolutely stunning: looking out into the lake, with snow capped mountains in the foreground. I was a happy gal! The boys loved playing with an inflatable in the water, and I got a little reading time in. The water along the beach is shallow for quite a bit, so the boys were able to adventure pretty far without having to get fully in.
There was some weird yellow stuff floating in the water that I was concerned about at first (is it some weird fungi??), and I kept telling Jonny to stop playing with (because of course, he was sitting ALL up in it, and trying to gather and collect it). Thankfully someone nearby heard me saying something about it, and he informed me (very nicely) that it’s just pollen from the pine trees! Carry on, Jonny Boy, carry on.
We decided to head up to Lee Vining. We fueled up at the famous Mobil station (clean bathrooms, lots of food and snacks, and great place to get some mementos), then got ice cream at Mono Cone. I felt a bit overwhelmed with the ice cream options and feeling like I didn’t know the right lingo to order correctly (I definitely didn’t, and it showed on the cashier’s fairly impatient face). But alas, we got our cones, and sat on the back patio, which was lovely. Jake raved about his strawberry shake. Bathrooms were nice and clean, so took that opportunity as well. Heads up: this place is CASH ONLY.
We drove down Hwy 120 to check out some of our favorite fishing spots, but again, no dice. Everyone was a bit tired, so we called it a day. Jonny and I enjoyed some reading time while the boys tried to fish.
We headed back to our campsite and waited for Jeff’s parents and nephew to join us. That night we had pulled pork sandwiches (also prepped at home), with a Classic Suddenly Salad and a can of baked beans (and seriously, I went to Vons almost every day…I was NOT on my A-game for planning side dishes on this trip).
That night I had the WORST panic/anxiety attacks I’ve ever experienced. I experienced this for the first time in 2020 on the eve of the pandemic, and then right before traveling to Guatemala with the kids last year. I experienced it again before our trip to Tulum in May, but this was something else. Maybe it’s something that just comes with age, but I. DON’T. LIKE IT. No, thank you. Please go away. I felt like I was up all night spiraling in all sorts of directions, and my mantra was “I’m fine. Everyone’s fine.” I had to work so hard to remind myself that what I was freaking out about was so illogical…but alas, the mind does what it wants. I really, really hope this isn’t a new normal for me.
Daily mileage and gas: approximately 165 miles
Wednesday: Lake Mary and June Lake
We tried Lake Mary again for fishing, now with the full gang, and no one got a thing! Jonny and I enjoyed some more lounging and reading while everyone did their best to catch a fish, or unhook their lines.
We went to The Stove for lunch, which was good. Although it was a bit warm inside, the service was great and everyone enjoyed their food. Within our party we tried the tacos, tuna melt, club sandwich, and kids chicken fingers. I’d love to check out their breakfast next time. I’m super bummed I didn’t get to try one of their pies – they looked so good!
After heading back to camp and packing up, we headed back to June Lake. But this time we brought the canopy! I must confess that I find beach trips exhausting: lugging everything to and fro, sand in everything, worried about getting sunburned, etc. BUT, snowcapped mountains and boys having a blast makes it all worth it. The canopy was a challenge because it was quite windy, and although there were plenty of rocks to try to hold it down, the winning feature was eventually a piece of string from one of our rafts, that we used to tie the canopy to a rock. We inflated our two-person raft and the boys had so much fun paddling on it. Jonny walked out a couple times with us, and then enjoyed chilling by the shore.
We had dinner at Giovanni’s that night. There are A LOT of pizza places in Mammoth – something we noticed when we first got there. So Jeff did some research to see what was the best one, and Giovanni’s was the winner. Although our waitress seemed to be having a bad night, and Jeff’s beer was passed the “enjoy by” date by a couple years, the pizza was delicious! Jake ordered buttered noodles and I literally had to DRAIN the butter off of his plate.
We took it pretty easy for the rest of the evening; I think we might have even skipped the campfire this night!
Thursday: Bodie Historic Park, Lee Vining
We really wanted the boys to see Bodie Ghost Town, so we had a fairly quick breakfast, threw the camp chairs in the truck so we could attempt to fish later, and headed out. It’s about an hour drive from Mammoth to Bodie, and what feels the longest is probably the last three miles. The road is unpaved and it. Is. Rough. I’ve been to Bodie twice before; I think I have one more visit in me to catch the Sawmill Tour, but after that, I think it could be a one and done thing (or, you know…a four and done thing). We’ve never timed our visit right to catch the tour, so you know…you like at some old buildings and you’re pretty much done. It’s usually pretty hot, so it’s not like we stay there for hours. Don’t get me wrong: it IS cool to walk around the town and imagine what life was like back in the day, but it’s not a long visit. The drive into Bodie is pretty, though: some rolling hills, usually a flock or two of sheep. Driving out was extra pretty with the snow capped mountains to look at.
I’m pretty sure the Saw Mill Tour is offered daily at 11 a.m. We missed it by half an hour or so, and then we all got hangry, so it was time to go! Although you can pay for the park entrance fees with a card, the self-guided brochure is cash only ($3).
We went back to Mono Cone in Lee Vining, which my in-laws and nephew were really looking forward to. They think the Ortega burger is the best one! I got a regular burger, and it was also good. We had to keep an eye out for a table this time – it was pretty crowded! While you’re there, you can also check out the Upside Down House, which is just down the block.
We made one more attempt to fish near Lee Vining, but eventually called it quits. We did get to enjoy the scenery from one of our favorite campgrounds in that area, although there are really too many mosquitoes and ants and not-clean-bathrooms for us to camp there with kids.
We stopped by Vons (again!) when we got back to Mammoth, and I fixed a pretty simple spaghetti dinner. We had originally planned to do the Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls hike on Friday, but after reading the logistics involved (can only get there by shuttle, running every x minutes at y locations, bring lots of water and sunblock), we decided….we were ready for our own beds and showers at home, ha! So…we did all the things on Thursday night: finished our s’more fixings, opened all the glow in the dark balls, and the boys used these fire color-changing packets that Josh recognized at the Mobile station from some YouTube video.
Jeff, his nephew, and the boys had such a great time playing catch with the remaining glow in the dark balls. Those things are always so much fun!
Daily miles: approximately 260 miles; we filled up at the Mobile station and spent $85 on gas
Next Time
Along with the Devils Postpile and Rainbow Falls, here are a few other things I had on my list but didn’t work out on this trip:
Silver Lake Resort for lunch
Convict Lake
Parker Lake hike
New and/or Favorite Items
Jonny was really upset that he didn’t have a CamelBak like the boys, so I ordered one at the last minute for him. These would have probably been great if we did any real hiking on this trip…but we didn’t. I filled them up one day in the hopes of going on a hike, but we really just wore them to the Visitor Center and…that was it. I, however, used my hydration backpack every day. It has enough space to carry some stuff in it, and I didn’t have to worry about carrying a separate water bottle.
Next up: our Memorial day weekend trip to Tulum, Mexico!
Also: I never blogged about our Spring break trip to Guatemala in 2023! Probably because I was in shell shock for a while, but now I can look back and admire all the good things from that trip, so I’ll try to get that together soon-ish.
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We’ve used a trailer on our camping trips for the last couple summers, which provides a lot of comforts. We went back to tent camping for our recent camping trip to Big Sur, and I wanted to work out a few kinks. (Also, I used “short cuts” in the title because I feel like “hack” is severely over used, but yes, the tips at the end would be called “camping hacks” by anyone else.)
Kitchen
I loved having a kitchen and kitchen storage in the trailer. During our prior tent camping experiences, I felt like I was constantly going through bins trying to find what I needed. I also put our camping stove on the picnic table that almost all camp sites come with, which made eating at the table either cramped, or needing to be switched around before and after eating.
For the organization part of it, I resorted to a Pinterest idea and bought this clear shoe organizer to sort everything. A big key here is that the pockets are clear, so you can see through them and easily know what’s in each pocket. This one also had some very wide pockets and stuff hung out pretty far, so I grabbed my stapler and tucked some of those in before we took off. I used the hanging hooks that it came with and hung it from our tent canopy, which was serving as my kitchen. This worked out SO great – even Jeff and the boys commented on how convenient it was to find the things they needed (smore skewers, lighter, flashlights, napkins, etc.). Knowing me, these pockets will eventually be labeled, but for a maiden voyage, it worked great.
One thing to be weary of is loading it up before heading out. I didn’t want to pack everything separately and have to sort it into the pockets, so I just folded it over and over until I could stuff it into a bin. I had to remove some of the longer items and lay them horizontally, but it worked out fine.
Another Pinterest idea was to use a bungee cord for a makeshift paper towel dispenser. I bought a set like these from Dollar Tree and it worked out so great! I initially used a smaller bungee cord to hang the paper towels, but it was too tight and didn’t allow it to roll, so I’m glad I had a variety pack so I could find the right size.
I also bought large clips from Dollar Tree to clip down my tablecloths (sorry, couldn’t find a link, but they’re HUGE), and this set of carabiners just in case (which did come in handy).
I also took a large folding table and table cloth that functioned as my kitchen counter. This kept our picnic table open for just eating and hanging out. To make this space functional, I brought a round container to hold my cooking utensils (spatula, tongs, wooden spoons, etc.), a bucket for utensils, and a folding wire rack to hold some dishes. Plates went under the folding wire rack, and bowls and mugs went on top (upside down to prevent them from getting dusty).
To wash dishes, I moved the stove top and table cloth aside, and placed my collapsible washing buckets on the table. I have two of these buckets: one for washing, one for rinsing, and a collapsible drying rack like this one.
Ambiance
I really wanted to make our campsite feel homey, so again I researched some ideas on Pinterest and added the following:
Twinkle light strands from Target: I bought two of these, so I used one outside (even though they’re indoor – we did eventually put the battery pack inside our tent through a corner pocket), and one was strung back and forth inside our tent. I LOVED how this looked and the vibe it gave our camp site and the inside of our tent as we got ready for bed. Make sure you buy batteries as well!
Solar lights from The Dollar Tree: at $1.25 per light, it doesn’t get much better than these! I bought six of them, although apparently I left behind the stake for one of them at the store (they stick to the display box, so make sure you get the light AND the stake when you pull it out of the box), and we placed them outside on either side of our tent. One of them went crazy on the first night and was just blinking constantly, so that $1.25 went down the drain, but the rest of them worked really well, even with the fairly low amount of sunlight that our site got throughout the day.
A candle! I had a random candle on my desk, and decided to pack it up at the last minute. I would light it as it got dark and leave it on our picnic table, and it just added a little extra ambiance to the area.
Meal Prep
Last summer I took advantage of cooking meals prior to our trip and freezing them, which made cooking super easy. I made carnitas and spaghetti sauce and meatballs, and froze them in Ziplock bags. For the carnitas meal, I took some rice in a Ziplock bag and cooked that to go with our meal and warmed up some tortillas. I had pre-chopped the onion, lime, and cilantro, so that was ready to go too. For the meatballs, I just had to boil up some noodles, warm up the sauce and meatballs, and our meal was ready!
This was the first time where I pre-made our pancake batter so I could make pancakes for breakfast. I have tried the “ready to go” pancake mix where you just add water, and it’s just not for us (call us pancake snobs, I guess, ha!). I added everything to the batter except a mushed banana (we only eat banana pancakes in this house), which I added the morning I made them. I made pancakes our first morning at our campsite, so it only had to hold for a day. I thought I’d be able to put the banana in and mix up the bottle, but it wasn’t very easy. I think next time I’ll pour the batter in a bowl to mix it in more easily.
Another Pinterest find was to pre-crack some eggs and take them in a jar. I had the perfect glass jar from some cherries we had just finished up from an ice cream social, so I cracked six eggs into that, and made scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast on our second morning. This worked out really great too: no cracking eggs, no wet, soggy egg box, no accidentally cracked eggs in the cooler.
I have to say, this was the BEST camp set up we’ve ever had. The amazing campsite definitely helped, but I think all of these little additions were HUGE.
What are your favorite tips and tricks when you go camping?
This summer we decided to head north to Big Sur, a place I’ve heard only great things about. At the beginning stages of planning our trip, I was thinking of making a day or two jaunt to San Francisco so we could show the boys all the classic San Francisco stuff, but then realized we’d be stretching ourselves thin – like we’ve done on our last two camping trips. Those trips were great, but we were constantly on the move: setting up camp, exploring for a day, packing up and driving to the next spot, and doing it again. As much as we got to explore a lot on those trips, they were also a lot of work. So this time we decided to stay put and just explore all the things Big Sur had to offer. In retrospect, this was a GREAT decision. This is one of the first trips we’ve gone on where I felt satisfied in checking all the boxes of things we wanted to do/see.
Reservations
After some research, I decided Pfeiffer State Park was the campground for us (you can check the current fees here). But, it’s also the preferred campground for a lot of people. The sites are booked six months in advance! So this destination definitely requires some planning ahead. I looked at the calendar and set the dates that we wanted to travel, then calendared back six months and set myself a reminder to book the site. I also did lots of research ahead of my booking date: I reviewed the campground map as well as online reviews to find the best sites. I’ve relied heavily on Campsite Photos the last few years to get a visual on individual sites, and a handle on what are considered the best sites (they have stars on the photos for the best sites).
A day before my booking date, I made a list of my top campsites that I would want, and compared them to what was showing as booked for any of my dates through Reserve California. Although no reservation could be made for my initial date at that point, you can make reservations for “add on” dates: if my initial reservation date is January 14th, I can book my site from that point forward, even though I couldn’t book a site starting on January 15th. So someone else could have already reserved some crossover dates on the sites I’m looking at.
The reason it’s good to know what sites won’t work before your booking date is so you don’t waste any time trying to reserve sites that are already booked. You have to log in and be ready at 8:00 a.m. to book your site: they go FAST. So I check the available reservations the day before and the morning of my booking date, before 8am, and whittle down my list, and pick which site I’m going to aim for first.
For Pfeiffer State Park, after walking around the campsite we noticed there are very different kinds of sites. The ones highlighted in green are the ones that are surrounded by coastal redwoods (which is what we wanted). The yellow areas were more open and had oak trees instead of the large pine trees – I would have been really disappointed if we ended up in one of those, to be honest.
I will say, however, that the bottom green area is VERY shady, so our site never got a ton of sunlight and remained pretty cold in the morning, and cooled down quickly in the afternoon.
With that said…
Saturday
Started off reading books, definitely ended with tablets
We left our home in Orange County, CA, at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday – we had packed up the truck the night before, and I highlighted the few items we still had to pack that morning on my packing checklist, just to make sure we didn’t miss anything. We made it to San Luis Obispo for lunch, and stopped at Mr. Pickle’s. It was a bit pricey but it was good, and included free chocolate chip cookies!
We had to take the road up through Monterey since Highway 1 is still closed due to a landslide, but we arrived at Pfeiffer State Park around 3:30 p.m. The drive IN to the campground is already stunning: no matter how many times we drove through it, it always took my breath away. We picked up a couple bundles of firewood at the entrance gate after we checked in ($12 per bundle, cash only), and made our way to our campsite.
Our campsite was BEAUTIFUL! We explored most of the campground during our visit, and I really think we got the best spot.
We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening setting up our site, exploring our surroundings, and hoping our dinner would defrost in time!
We were so tired that we forgot to clean up our site, and all night we heard animals scavenging through our stuff. I was pretty sure our entire snack box would be gone in the morning. Jeff looked out at one point and saw a skunk going through our trash (yes, we forgot to dump it out), and wisely decided to leave them alone. Thankfully they didn’t get into our food bins and ate all the gross stuff from our trash can, so I really just had wrappers and paper towels to pick up in the morning. The rest of the nights we made sure to dump the trash and leave all our food bins in the truck (no bear boxes, here).
Sunday
Since Saturday was such a long driving day, I planned for us to explore the campgrounds and state park on Sunday. The nights are cold, and our site was pretty tucked away in the shade, so early mornings did not happen for us (so hard to get out of our warm cocoons!). I made pancakes (I prepped the batter at home), the boys explored, and we just enjoyed our surroundings. Once we were ready, we explored the Pine Ridge Trail. This trail was a bit stressful with the kids since it’s very narrow and has a big drop off. We didn’t make it all the way, but enjoyed the parts we did, although our favorite part was the very beginning.
We got back to our campsite for lunch then drove to the Big Sur Lodge at the entrance of the park to look for some essentials. While there, we explored Warden’s Path and the Nature Center. There is a VERY cool river cross walk that we loved – although we did take the bridge on the way back so we wouldn’t have to take off our shoes again (I sacrificed my sweater so everyone could dry their feet after we crossed – small price to pay, to be honest).
The Nature Center is pretty small, but kept the kids entertained for a few minutes and had bathrooms nearby, which we needed.
We took a walk around the campgrounds after dinner, and explored a little bit of the Big Sur River Gorge trail – I do wish we’d come back to this spot again, it was so pretty! Other campers had brought their drinks and camping chairs, put them in the water, and enjoyed the sunset. Like pros!
Monday
This was our day of exploration and driving to Carmel and Monterey. On the way there we stopped at Andrew Molera State Park and Point Lobos Natural Reserve. The great thing about both of these was that our camp site permit gave us admission to these parks as well, so we didn’t have to pay any park fees to get in.
At Andrew Molera we walked through the dirt road and went over a beautiful river crossing, then took the Creamery Meadow Trail to get to the beach. I think it was only a mile walk, but it was interesting to see how much the landscape changed throughout the trail. The boys had so much fun on the beach adding to driftwood teepees that are scattered throughout the beach. Jonny wasn’t as big of a fan: it was pretty cold and windy, but we hung out for a little bit.
By the time we got back to the truck, we realized it was already almost 12:00 p.m. and we were starving. My plan was to have a picnic in Carmel, but the Andrew Molera parking lot was just as good! We all climbed into the back of the truck and ate our sandwiches, chips, and drinks that I had packed that morning. I had a pretty emotional moment at this point just watching our boys eat their lunch, watching the squirrels, and being so thankful for these memories we get to make with them.
Our stop at Point Lobos was pretty quick: we went straight for the Sea Lion point since we wanted to look for sea lions. The parking lot is right next to the trail and it’s a short walk to the viewpoint. There were only a handful of sea lions lounging on the rocks below – I think they were the lazy or injured ones that got left behind, but I was thankful for them anyway!
Point Lobos had a pretty long line to get in when we drove by on Saturday on our way to our campsite. It wasn’t nearly as busy when we went on Monday, but if you go on a weekend, be prepared for crowds. I do think we left a lot unexplored at this park.
Our final agenda item for the day was checking out the 17-mile drive around Pebble Beach. There is a fee to get in to this gated area, $11 and cents. As long as you have your receipt, you can use it to get in and out throughout the day. We entered through the Highway 1 gate, then exited at the Pacific Grove gate to head to Ghirardelli for ice cream and a quick walk around Cannery row, then entered again through Pacific Grove gate to finish the drive. If you are pressed for time or have small kids, I would stick to just the coastal part of the drive – the first few stops were not very exciting. On the coastal side, we got to see sea otters and deer, and some crazy outdated mansions!
Although I’m not sure we’d do the 17-mile drive again, we’d definitely do Ghirardelli again! It’s not cheap, but it was delicious. Jeff and Josh shared a monstrous thing that had two brownies, vanilla ice cream, whip cream, salted caramel and a cherry. Jake, Jonny and I shared the “world famous” sundae, which was SO GOOD.
I had originally planned for us to have dinner around Carmel or Monterey, but the timing didn’t work and looked a bit fancier than we were up for. We decided to find something on our way back to camp, which was an hour back south. We ended up at Fernwood Tavern and OH-MY-GOODNESS. Must dine in the back patio: cool, wooden furniture, green trees all around, view of the river below, and lights strung up across the patio. The food and drinks were also delicious, but definitely a bit pricey. We spent $150 for the 5 of us: a beer, a margarita, three Shirley Temples (we decided to let the kids live a little, but in retrospect, this was too much living: they could have shared one), two pizzas (shareable size), fries, and a salad. HIGHLY recommend.
Tuesday
This was another day that we planned to stay fairly local-we had a few other points of interest to check out. We headed south from our camp ground towards the road closures, looking for Pfeiffer Beach. There is NO signal around there, so I couldn’t map us and really had no idea where it was. We ended up making it all the way to McWay Falls, which was on my list anyway.
The fog just a little south and north of our campground was crazy-I’m so curious why our little pocket of woods didn’t have any fog but was basically surrounded by it. Either way, it gave McWay Falls a cool, mysterious look, although it also blocked us from having a clear view of the falls (you can kiiiiindaaaaaa see them through the fog).
This was another park where we didn’t have to pay the fee. If you’re not camping at a state park and need to pay, it was unattended when we got there so you had to have cash to leave in the pay box. It’s a short walk to the lookout, and unfortunately the waterfall trail was closed, but looked beautiful.
We decided to head a little further south, but ended up turning around and heading back north, still on the hunt for Pfeiffer Beach. We thought it was past our campground but alas, it was not, so we turned around AGAIN and thankfully had a pocket of service where I could map us and find out that the turnoff was exactly a mile south of our campground, so Jeff kept and eye on the speedometer and counted down: “half a mile, .8 miles, .9 miles…” and then we saw the tiniest, almost u-turn street on the right, called Sycamore Canyon. There were NO signs on the highway that indicated the beach was down this tiny street, so I’m not surprised we missed it (several times)! We drove down that street for two miles, and you have to drive pretty careful since it’s a narrow road and cars have to pull over to let each other pass.
Pfeiffer Beach doesn’t take any of the park passes, so be prepared to pay to get to the parking lot, which I think was $12. We were told this beach had purple sand, and although there were some hints of it, it wasn’t as prominent as the boys had expected.
After this, we had a grandiose plan to raft and tube down the river at the campground, and let’s just say: if no one else is rafting all the way down the river, there’s a reason why…the bruises on my feet will definitely remember that next time we will just pick a section of the river to hang out in. By the end of the ordeal, we were ready for ice cream and drinks, so we headed to the Big Sur Lodge right outside the campground. Highly recommend their beer battered fries. Then we did a quick visual of Pfeiffer Falls trail. We didn’t have the energy to actually do it, but the beginning part was beautiful!
Wednesday
We had our campground booked through Thursday, but we also had a site booked at Cachuma Lake in the hopes of breaking up the drive on the way home, and giving the boys a chance to fish. We debated staying at Pfeiffer or heading home, and reluctantly decided to head out Wednesday. We took our time packing up since we only had a 3.5 hour drive, but by the time we got to Cachuma Lake around 5 p.m. we had no desire to set up our tent again in 90 degree weather (and the site couldn’t compare to our Big Sur site), so we decided to keep going and just head home. I think in the future we’ll just plan on driving straight from Big Sur to home. We did pull off at Bixby Bridge to get some pictures.
Eating and Groceries
If you don’t bring groceries from home (which we did), then you have to stock up in Monterey/Carmel, because there is not much in Big Sur proper. There was one night that I wanted to do burgers and I didn’t want to buy ground beef too early and take it from home, so I planned on buying it there. The best we found was some off-brand bacon, so we had BLTs instead. There are lots of little general stores with basic supplies and snacks, and maybe we could have checked some other general stores, but I don’t think they would have been much different. I will say that the property was gorgeous: they had Adirondack chairs in the river and I wish we could have just spent the evening there!
I was really glad I had purchased all of our groceries before we left, and had pre-cooked and frozen two of our meals ahead of time (carnitas tacos and spaghetti and meatballs, always favorites at home and camping!).
Favorite Camping Items
You can click here to read about some of the camping tricks I tried on this trip and the stuff I liked (as well as my kitchen setup, which I feel in love with), but here are a few new items I purchased for this trip:
If you follow Jeff (@jarmstrongphoto) or I on Instagram (@amhb83), you were flooded with pictures and videos from this cabin weekend in February – but it really was THAT gorgeous.
We went after a light snow and before the giant blizzards hit our local mountains, so we got to experience just a light snow on the ground that gave everything a slightly ethereal look.
Jeff surprised me by booking this AMAZING cabin in Idyllwild, CA. They have a total of three separate listings for that property – I’d love to check out this reader/writer paradise for a smaller trip in the future.
To say Jeff and I had been looking forward to this weekend getaway was an understatement. Josh has a stomach bug a week before, Jeff was about to take off for two weeks to visit family in Germany, and there were all the standard parenting things that just seemed a bit heightened.
So when Jonny started puking all over our dinning room table the night before we were supposed to leave, we were….upset? Worried? Disappointed? So disappointed. So many thoughts were going through out heads in those split seconds when Jonny started throwing up: can we still go? Is it that bad? Is it that virus or just something he ate? We can’t get our money back. We spent a lot of money on that cabin. We really need this. Poor buddy. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Well, it wasn’t shit, but it was pretty damn close.
The night was rough, but we made it through, and in the morning Jonny seemed to be at 100%, and thankfully our moms were still willing to watch the boys (God bless them!). So…we took off like bats out of hell. We joked about it, but there was also very much a degree of seriousness when we said “we just have to be far enough so when they call saying he’s sick again…we can’t turn back.” Ha! Are we terrible parents? I don’t think so. We just really, really needed a break.
And let me tell you, it was a marvelous break. Aside from driving on the 91…that jiggly part just feels like torture (if you know, you know) (yes, I prefer to spell it out…because I’M FORTY).
The cabin
Anywho – the cabin was great, so here are some of Jeff’s amazing pictures of it:
Places we went to
We went to Idyllwild Brewpub for dinner on Friday. My stomach was feeling super queasy from a spending parts of the last three weeks with two kids puking..,and I couldn’t tell if I was starving or about to puke. I was super nervous and wondering if I’d make it to the bathroom if I got sick, so we ended up packing all our food to go and leaving half-drunken beers behind (the inhumanity! My only regret from this weekend). A huge shout out here to my amazing husband: he was so kind and patient and urged us to home where I’d feel more comfortable. So my view is a bit biased, but I couldn’t even look at the sandwich, and ate exactly 0% of it. But even Jeff, who actually ate his, said it sucked. SO, I would go here for drinks, but skip the food. They have a great patio that I can just imagine would be beautiful for day drinking during the summer.
Saturday we explored the downtown area a little bit. Jeff had scoped out a cute little bookstore that I was super excited to check out, so we hit that first. And let me just tell you, Speakeasy Books is ADORABLE. The owner curates all of the books and she has an amazing selection of all genres. It was so nice to leisurely look around! We bought a few books and even got a free tote bag (which I LOVE).
We had lunch at The Sunflower, which was recommended by our cabin hosts, and it was a great little lunch spot. We ate our sandwiches on the back patio and they were delicious!
Right across from The Sunflower is Idyllwild Gardens, which I highly recommend taking a stroll through. They have several unique and adorable set ups, including a little indoor greenhouse with seating to relax and take a moment.
We heard a bit of hype about Alpaca Coffee & Tea House so I really wanted to try it out. We stopped by on our way out of town, but it was PACKED. So we’re saving that for the next trip.
The non-professional photos…
Recording the first episode of a podcase that might never be published, ha! Great little welcome giftsI have these crazy ideas about writing a couple books…got some work done here which was pretty amazingUp in the trees!
Do you have a favorite getaway location? Jeff definitely knows me well, because a mountain getaway was perfect for me!
Some Instagram links for an inside view of the cabin:
I mean, this year doesn’t really count, right? Our anniversary is in September, so things were not as awful as they were in early 2020, but it was still hard to find things to do locally. We tried to walk around at a local outdoor mall, but there were SO many people and we weren’t quite ready for it, so we ran away.
We decided to go to Irvine Regional Park, thinking it’s a nice, big open space, and we can just hang out and enjoy each others company. But, bees had other plans, so we ran away from there as well.
We ended up having a beer at Chapman Crafted brewery and some food truck snacks and calling it a day. Although not glamorous, we got to spend time together sans kids and honestly, that’s the main point of our getaways. Not that we don’t love our kids, but we rarely get to focus on each other in between the mundane tasks of keeping the kids alive. So, just being able to joke around with each other without interruptions was pretty great.
2021
Oh man, I want to go back to this anniversary get-away every year. After 2020, we decided to splurge on our Air BnB and found this gem in Carpinteria and holy cow, it was amazing (and maybe a little haunted?). The house was AMAZING, as was the location. We noticed right away that this house was incredibly unique. Even my untrained eye could tell, but Jeff, as a wood-worker and general MacGuiver, could really tell by the way the house was built that this was a passion-project house, not a contractor job.
We were so intrigued by this that I decided to message the hosts and see if they’d be willing to join us for an early evening happy hour. I didn’t tell Jeff I was doing this because I knew his immediate reaction would be to tell me not to do it. I figured if they responded with “um, no thank you, weirdo,” I just wouldn’t tell Jeff and that was that. But they said yes, and it was such a lovely conversation with this couple, that it was one of our highlights (including Jeff’s). We found out that the two aging mules on the property had been used by them when their children were little to literally pack up the mules with all of their camping gear so they could hike out to campsites. So cool! Moral of the story: it doesn’t hurt to ask!
We spent most of our time hanging out at the house, but we loved these places:
Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve – We arrived in Carpinteria a slightly before our check-in time, so we checked this area out. Took some pictures along the bluffs and walked a little of the trail.
Lucky Llama Coffee House – This was a great little coffee house. I also ordered a yogurt parfait and we discovered honey is a magic ingredient. This has actually become a family favorite snack for everyone but Jake (because he’s super picky about EVERYTHING).
A couple other places to check out if you go to Lucky Llama:
Wardholme Torrey Pine – It’s right across from Lucky Llama and it’s 134 years old! It’s definitely a quick photo-op, but worth it if you’re already there. Jeff had a cool picture of me here, but then he dropped his phone in Havasu last Summer and all those pictures are gone….gah! Here’s some interesting info on it from the World Wide Web:
IT STARTED AS A SEEDLING in 1888, planted by local Carpinteria resident Judge Thomas Ward as part of a contest to see who could grow the largest Torrey pine tree. The Wardholme Torrey Pine now stands a proud 126 feet tall, with a 130 feet branch spread and a more than 20-foot circumference, making it the largest known example of its kind.
The Torrey pine is a rare tree, only found in San Diego County and certain parts of the southern California coast. In 1968 the towering Wardholme tree was designated as the First Official Landmark of Carpinteria, a quaint beachside community located a few miles south of Santa Barbara. The celebrity tree later marked its 100th birthday in 1988 with a local celebration.
AtlasObscura.com
Heritage Goods and Supply – If I remember correctly, this was in the same building and just next to Lucky Llama. It’s a great little shop! Not cheap, but ethically made items rarely are. They have household items and cute items for everyone in the family if you need to bring something home (or if you want to buy yourself a cool t-shirt as a memento of your trip!).
Rincon Brewery – We had dinner here and it was great. We sat on the patio and enjoyed a good beer while people watching. It was funny because Jeff was looking at the building and said “this building looks like an old bank from the 70s,” and sure enough, we looked around inside and they still have a giant safe door!
Visiting UCSB – It had been a while since I’d visited my college stomping grounds, probably at least 10 years. It was great to walk around campus, my old dorm, walk past buildings I vividly remembered taking classes in. But I wasn’t ready for how strange it would be to walk around Isla Vista. I had originally thought we’d grab lunch at Freebirds, but I felt SO uncomfortable walking around all those BABIES. Obviously the reality was that it made realize how much OLDER I was, and it was not a feeling I was comfortable with. So we did a pee and coffee stop at Starbucks (where I had applied but never been hired, despite my years of experience as a Starbucks barista, whatever, no hard feelings), and high tailed it outta there. We ended up grabbing sandwiches at a new fancy deli in an area that I did NOT recognize. But so it goes…
My one and only apartment at UCSBFreshman dorm!
We walked State Street for a bit and it was eerie how many places were closed or empty. I hope many of those places have recovered at this point.
Then I had a surprise in store for Jeff:
Float Luxury Spa – I had made a reservation for a couples massage here. They have a cool waiting area and had set up an outdoor area since COVID regulations were still pretty strict. It was still pretty sweet!
One final note about this anniversary that was pretty funny, is that I was totally off on the math and kept thinking it was our 13th anniversary when in fact it was our 12th. We were married on September 12th, so this should have been our golden anniversary which we totally wasted by lying to anyone that asked and telling them we were celebrating 13 years….I don’t think I realized it until the Facebook memory popped on on Facebook with “12 years ago…” ha!
2022
This year, our anniversary was sandwiched between our trip to Portland to visit family, and camping in Bishop with Jeff’s parents. SO, we had a day out instead of a weekend away. My cousin came to stay with the boys and they had an entire nerf defense castle set up in our living room, ha!
We hit the beach, did some ax throwing for the first time, grabbed a coffee at Tierra Mia, and rounded out our evening with book shopping sans children at Barnes & Noble (heavenly, but realized later I’m pretty sure I’d already read the book I bough, doh!) and drinks and dinner at Habana (equally heavenly). We sat next to the giant palms/ferns and it was so magical as it started raining. I loved having a Cuba Libre with Guatemalan rum while listening and watching the rain.
I’m still not sure if the girl in the background was intentional or not, ha!
Oh I should also say I had planned a day trip to Catalina Island, but there was a possible storm brewing and we were already a little weary of the boat ride out. Maybe another time!
Up Next?!
I’m not exactly sure what we’ll do this year. We’re doing a pretty big family trip to Guatemala for Spring break that is going to take a big chunk of money. I’d love to do a trip a bit further away with Jeff, something like Tennessee, New Orleans, Austin…so many cities I want to explore! But flights and longer trips cost more money, so who knows.
Do you have any favorite anniversary destinations?
This summer we decided to explore a little out of our comfort zone and head to Utah! (Did I continuously make the joke: “I LOVE YOU-TAH!”? Yes, yes I did).
Breakfast: cereal, bagels Lunch: expensive food at park – pack ahead next time! Dinner: carnitas tacos – made at home, froze, defrosted a couple days before using. Had pre- chopped onions and cilantro ready to go! BLTs: brought everything pre-sliced
Breakfast: cereal Lunch: pre-made and packed sandwiches, chips, fruit (we brought a small cooler to fit in our backpack) Dinner: BBQ chicken with fried potatoes (onion pre-sliced) Spaghetti and meatballs – had made at home and brought frozen
Preparations: this is a shameless plug for my Google packing template: I use it every time we go on a trip and it’s a life and stress-saver.
LAKE MEAD
After a day delay and two trips to urgent care for antibiotics, we hit the road on Sunday towards Lake Meade. This was definitely my least favorite part of the trip; at least we got it out of way at the beginning! We stayed at Lake Meade RV Village Boulder Beach. Check in staff was super friendly, but it was just HOT and dry and HOT and not very pretty. I will say that they were great about not charging us for the last minute cancellation of our Saturday night reservation (and also so glad we didn’t end up staying here for two nights). Daily rate for full hook ups with lake view, including taxes, was $67.80. Jeff got some good shots of what’s left of the lake, but you really couldn’t stay outside for more than a few minutes at a time. Grateful for full hook ups! I would highly recommend getting a spot with a lake view – it was the only redeeming quality of being there for a day.
We even decided not to pull out both sides of the trailer to try to help keep things cool in a smaller space, and instead pulled down the mattress to the middle of the trailer, which is where Josh, Jon and I slept. I use the word “slept,” but really I was up all night freaking out that the wind was going to flip the trailer over. It was INSANE and scary. I was laying there picturing how I would hold on to the kids and which way I’d try to lean to avoid hitting….I don’t even know. It was not fun.
Monday morning we went to Hoover Dam and took the Power Plant Tour (lots of “dam” jokes from all of us). I would have preferred the Dam Tour, but all members of your party have to be over 8 years of age. The Power Plant tour was still pretty cool. It did save us some money though: at the time we took our tour in June of 2022, the Power Plant Tour was $15 per person and the Dam Tour (gets me every time) was $30 per person. Kids three and under are free, and there are reduced rates for kids ages 4-16 ($12 per kid for the Power Plant Tour). Both tours start with a brief presentation about the making of the dam in a cool theater (which was really interesting), and then the tours break off.
The Power Plant Tour is thirty minutes long and includes a platform overlooking a working area of the dam and a section of the power plant. The Dam Tour is an hour long and based on the description the only additional thing from the Power Plant Tour is “a stop in an original inspection tunnel inside the dam.” Which I’m sure makes up the extra thirty minutes! Our tour took us on an elevator that seemed to descend down the dam at hyper speed and into a cavernous area of the dam. It was pretty cool, but even as someone that is not generally claustrophobic, I couldn’t help but think how far we were from the surface if something happened. On the cool side: water dripping along the walls! Oh wait, maybe NOT a good sign? I dunno…
Oh quick heads up: no weapons allowed! You have to go through a checkpoint to get to the parking area for the dam where they stop every vehicle and make sure there are no weapons…so you know…leave those at home.
Josh was obstinate about wanting to go to the water, so even though about five different people warned us, we headed down. The water level is so low that it’s quite a walk (in the heat) from the parking area (which used to be part of the lake at one point), to the water’s edge. It’s kinda creepy to be walking on crusted dry dirt with seashells all around…and the water’s edge is super muddy. One family that was walking back said two of their kids had their shoes stuck in the mud and needed help getting their feet and sandals out. As I wrote in our trailer journal: 10 out of 10 do not recommend. BUT, Josh was satisfied, so we were free to head back, pack sandwiches, and hit the road for greener pastures.
ZION
We pulled up to our spot at Zion River Resort RV Park and boy was this a doozy to back in to. We knew it was bound to happen, but our communication skills definitely fell through on this site. Aside from the trickiness to get settled it, our spot was great. Again I selected a spot that backed up to the river, which I LOVED. You couldn’t actually see the river because there is a rock wall between the sites and the river, but you could hear it, and that is a beautiful sound to me. RV parks are a little new to us: although they lack the feeling of being in nature, it’s nice to have all the amenities: paved roads for the kids to ride their razors, a pool you can go to and get frustrated that your kids don’t swim, a cool area to mine for gold, a store to buy all the basics and more.
We met some great neighbors from Germany, enjoyed dinner, and tucked in to hopefully get an early start into Zion National Park the next day. Early didn’t end up being super “early,” but we made it there. I kept reading that parking in Zion was pretty difficult, so we parked in Springdale and took the shuttle to the park entrance, where we got to cut the line with our park pass. We bought hiking sticks for the boys in the gift shop which were great! Then we waited in the Disney line inside the park to get the shuttle to the end of the park. I didn’t think we’d actually do the narrows so I didn’t bring extra shoes, but at the last minute I did grab our water socks, which I’m glad I did. (I bought these for the boys and these for Jeff and I). Oh, I’m also very glad we all wore quick dry shorts, so we didn’t have to change shorts after. We made it to the end of the paved Riverside Walk and decided to go for it, at least for a bit (even though it was lunch time). Jon wouldn’t let Jeff carry him so I carried Jonny in the ring sling.
The two minutes Jonny let Jeff carry him
It was so beautiful! There was one deep water part that was rough for Jake, but overall very manageable. We were all getting hot and hungry, so we picked a random spot to turn around. Jake refused to pee in the river (unlike other members of the family) so Jeff rushed ahead of us on the River Walk with Jake to get him to a bathroom. The hike out carrying Jonny and walking with a tired Josh was a bit rough but we made and came up with a new little walking mantra with Josh: slow in the shade, and fast in the sun! I still can’t believe we hiked The Narrows! Or at least a part of it :)
We bought a super expensive lunch in the meadow, which mostly got thrown away, then enjoyed the beauty of the lawn and amazing views. The boys decided they were up for one more adventure so we hiked the Lower Emerald Pool trail. We were all exhausted but it was so beautiful.
We slept in a bit on Wednesday, then headed out. Decided to add a stop on our way to Bryce and took a detour to get to the Coral Sand Dunes per a friend’s recommendation. We thought we were lost because the road was empty and there was NO signal, but it was worth the pitstop. We set out some chairs and our little grill in the parking lot and had hot dogs for lunch.
BRYCE
We stayed at Ruby’s Inn RV Park and got a great premium pull through spot with full hook ups. There are a variety of types of campsites here, and I’m glad we got one with plenty of pine trees around us, and across from a little lake. The pine trees in this area were truly unexpected but so so welcome. We fixed a quick dinner then decided to drive in to the park to see if we could do some star gazing (Bryce is actually popular with astronomers because of how dark it is).
Sunset Point was beautiful, but we decided to check out Mossy Cave for stargazing. We started hiking in at dusk with blankets, water, three kids…then realized it could be a bit dangerous with wildlife at night with three little kids, not to mention hiking out in the dark with sleepy kids, so we star gazed from the back of the truck in the trail parking lot, ha! It was not idea since cars were driving past constantly, but even more than that is the fact that it took so long to get dark, that the boys were pretty much over it. It was still a cool experience and definitely got to see lots of stars and even some satellites.
We got a semi-early start into Bryce on Thursday and decided to again take a shuttle into the park. I had read that parking was difficult in the park, but it seemed to not be an issue. We stopped at the Visitor Center and got junior ranger workbooks for the boys and headed back to Sunset Point, and hiked down Wall Street. It was breathtaking! The switchbacks down were a bit scary but well worth it. I was wearing Jonny again, so Jeff held my backpack at times, after I slipped on my butt once (and only once). I put Jonny down for five minutes once we reached the bottom and of course he fell and skinned his knee pretty good.
We found a good spot here for an early lunch before hiking back up and out (we learned our lesson on Zion and this time came prepared with sandwiches and chips). I was so glad Jeff carried Jon up, I don’t think I could have made it! Our boys rocked the hike too – so amazing! Our shuttle driver was so great, sharing facts and trivia throughout the drive.
We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day, so we headed back to camp, changed, then took the scenic drive to the other interest points in Bryce. We wanted to check out the tunnel but didn’t get to, hopefully next time (or maybe that was at Zion?). Then we headed into Ruby’s Town to get our traditional ice cream. We made dinner back at our site, then walked along the meadow and the lake next to the campsite. We got to see a deer super close!
VEGAS
Jeff and I decided we didn’t’ want to set up the trailer again, especially in Vegas, so we splurged and cancelled our last RV spot and booked a room at Excalibur instead. On the way there, we took the path less traveled again and decided to go through Duck Creek Village (it looked more green on Google maps than the alternate path, and I always prefer green). The views DID NOT disappoint. We even stopped to take a few pictures of the lake.
We parked the truck and trailer in the large vehicle lot and tried to remember to take everything we would need in our backpacks. Our room was basic, and dirty, and dated, but had a great view of the strip. The boys got such a kick out of that. We walked the strip a bit but it was H-O-T. There was a cool water feature we enjoyed, and bought overpriced candy at the Hershey store (which I threw out six months later). Jeff and I grabbed a beer, we saw the water fountain at the Bellagio (the boys were not impressed), and I tried to shield the boys from the naked butts walking around for photo ops. We ate dinner at The Crack Shack which was overpriced chicken that no one ate. We bought Rubio’s at the hotel which again…the boys didn’t eat (they’re picky, I’m not sure why I waste money on them eating out). Back in our room, we watched the lights go on across the strip and the boys were super entertained watching all the helicopters flying by coming in from what I assume are day tours.
CALICO
We did a quick lunch pitstop at Calico Ghost Town on our way home. It was interesting but not something we’d feel the need to do again.
We’re having a hard time deciding on summer travel plans for 2023. Part of me wants to do a city trip, or just stay put in one place for a week rather than packing up every couple days, but we haven’t been able to decide just yet. Any suggestions?
Ladies and gents: IT CAN BE DONE! I know other people have done it…but WE did it. We took a trailer and did a road trip with three kids (ages 7, 5, and 1.5) and survived to tell the tale!
I did a lot of research and planning for our trip, so thought I’d share what worked for us in case it’s helpful for anyone else.
Our first destination was Sequoia RV Ranch, in Three Rivers. It’s a short 15-minute drive to the Sequoia National Park Foothills entrance, and maybe an hour to the Giant Forest Museum.
SATURDAY. The temperature at the Ranch was 108 degrees when we arrived a little after 4:30 p.m. – yikes! The great thing about this campsite is FULL HOOK UPS. We got to use all of the trailers amenities, including A/C. Honestly, with that kind of heat (and a low of mid-70’s at night), we were checking out surrounding hotels on our way there in case the A/C didn’t work. Thankfully it did, and we left that going while we went to check out the local swimming hole. I highly recommend getting a site closest to the swimming hole, or even a site that has the river next to it – the river was our salvation for that heat! After heading back to our site for a quick dinner (see below for our meals), we went back to the river a little better prepared: camping chairs for Jeff and I and the 1 year old (Jonny), water shoes for everyone, and most importantly: beers (no glass allowed, so we poured into cups and took down).
SUNDAY. We headed out as early was we could with three kids to get ready. I packed a quick lunch and put that in a small cooler I took specifically for days like this one. My oldest is super picky, so I write everyone’s name on a paper towel, wrap their sandwich in it, and then place all the sandwiches in a large ziplock. I sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and placed in a separate ziplock to add to our sandwiches later. I also know us well, so packed plenty of bars, chips, and snacks. And water, of course. We bought these canteens for the boys, which not only got lots of attention from everyone, they also allowed the boys to carry their own water without complaining ;) We also waited until 9:00 a.m. for the office to open so we could check in, since it was already closed when we drove in on Saturday. Office employee was very nice and pointed out a kids scavenger hunt and treasure chest. They also had a bunch of board games in the office – I imagine you can hang out there to get out of the heat, if needed.
Sadly the Giant Forest Museum was still closed due to COVID, but we took the Big Trees Trail which was just passed it, and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT. We took the stroller with us which worked out great for Jonny: the entire trail is paved, although there are some stairs from and to the parking lot on either end of the loop of the trail, so definitely need a couple people to carry up and down the stairs. After we crossed the street on the trail to the meadow, we found some people climbing on a giant log, and I’m so glad we saw them, otherwise we would have walked right by it! A little sketchy, but beautiful view from the top!
Oh Joshy…
The meadow itself was absolutely breathtaking, we even saw a black bear sprint through it! I highly recommend taking the full loop around the meadow – it’s not very long and every angle of this meadow is stunning. We were quite hungry at this point, so we found a log and some shade in the parking lot to scarf down our sandwiches before heading to Crescent Meadow.
The beginning of this road is super narrow and a little sketchy, but widens a bit later on. This meadow also has a fully paved path, so again great for strollers (or for using the stroller to carry all your waters when your one-year old doesn’t want to sit in it). We saw a buck on this trail, which was pretty exciting! We were trying to make it to Thorps Log on this trail, but we turned out right before we got there – everyone was getting tired and grumpy. I later found out the log we climbed in the first meadow was probably more impressive, although less kid friendly, than Thorps Log.
We ended our day by waiting in line for a ridiculous amount of time to get our photo under the Tunnel Log. A couple notes: you have to pass this in order to get to Crescent Meadow and there was quite a back up when we got there – we had to wait in what is supposed to be the bypass lane, in order to turn off left to keep going to Crescent Meadow. We decided to wait on the way back for the photo op. A note to future travelers: please be considerate if there’s a line and make it quick! People were taking forever and doing full photo shoots while 20+ cars waited in line.
I really wanted to check out the General Sherman tree, but Josh and Jon were both asleep by the time we got there, so Jeff and Jake literally ran down and back. My request for photos was forgotten during the quick sprint, ha! Next time!
We stopped for ice cream at Reimers Candies & Gifts on our way back to camp. This was a win-win: the kids love ice cream, and it killed some time on getting back to our hot campsite. We turned on the A/C as soon as we got back to camp, and repeated our schedule from the day before: dip in the river, then head back to camp for dinner. Since everyone was pretty tired and we could use the trailer TV, we opted for a movie night instead of going back to the river.
MONDAY. We had a quick breakfast and tried to pack up before the heat really got in. We were still sweating by the time we headed out. Our next stop was Cedar Bluff Campground, next to Bass Lake (I used the recreation.gov app for two of our reservations and was really impressed with the app). We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Fresno to stock up on some food and other supplies, and found a local pizza place for lunch. I figured eating out for lunch on travel days would break up the monotony of sandwich lunches. We rolled in late in the afternoon and did just the basics, then headed to the lake with our fishing poles, since Josh (our 5 year old), had been dying to fish since we left the house. We tried fishing by the dam, as was recommended by a couple people, but had no luck. Easy night of dinner, campfire, and s’mores.
TUESDAY. Again, we TRIED to head out early, but it’s hard to wake up sleeping kids. The drive from our campsite to the Yosemite National Park entrance was only 21 miles, but there was already a line of cars to get in that took an extra 30 minutes or so. I will say – there are worse places you could be stuck in: the trees were just beautiful! We played some hangman, built some legos (I bought two giant pencil boxes and had the boys pack legos before we left the house), and tried to keep a one year old entertained. This is COVID-era specific, but you had to purchase your pass ahead of time, as they only sell a certain amount per day. The passes are valid for three days, so although they didn’t have any available for Tuesday when I was purchasing it, they had one available for Monday, that was valid for Tuesday and Wednesday also (phew).
The drive in to the valley was…you guessed it…beautiful. We pulled over after the tunnel for the classic look out photo, and then pulled over a little further down the road where we could scramble down to the Merced River and drop in the boys fishing lines. We decided to eat our packed lunch here, which was a bit of a challenge with a one-year old, but it was beautiful. No dice with the fish, so we continued on.
I had to use the bathroom at this point, so Jeff turned off at the Swinging Bridge. I used the loo, then we walked over the bridge, and let the boys get their feet in the river. We realized the paved walking/bike trail was right there as well, and decided to bike around rather than try to find parking deeper in the valley. Best. Decision. Ever.
We biked to the Lower Falls Trail, locked up our bikes and headed to the falls. Scrambled over some rocks to dip our feet in again, and then Jeff had to carry all three boys back over the rocks to the trail. I’m excited to hike up closer to the water fall when the boys are a little older.
Is Jeff wearing a Pokemon backpack, you ask? Yes, yes he is. #bestdadever
We continued around the trail and ended up at Degnan’s kitchen/cafe, where we filled up our canteens and water bottles with fresh water, picked up some ice cream, and a beer for Jeff and I. We sat outside and relaxed a bit before biking back to the truck. On our bike back, a little alcove caught Jeff’s eye, so we all turned back to explore it – wow!
We toured the rest of the valley in the truck, and decided to head home. We were hoping to check out the Mariposa Grove on our way out, but everyone was pooped.
Back at camp, the boys made friends with neighboring campers and stayed up late throwing around a glow in the dark football I bought at the Dollar Tree. It was a HUGE hit. Dollar Tree for the win!
WEDNESDAY. I had originally planned to drive into Yosemite Tuesday and Wednesday, but as the week took shape and we realized how beautiful Bass Lake is, we decided for a “staycation” on Wednesday, and just spent the day around the lake. We headed to The Forks to check out their boat rentals (the original plan was for Jeff to take the older boys on a small fishing boat, while Jonny and I went into town to do laundry, gas up, and…maybe do some antique shopping…?). The woman at the counter was incredibly friendly, and upon seeing the age of our boys suggested we take a larger boat out, as the smaller fishing ones can be pretty scary with that age group. Unfortunately their boat fleet was a little limited and out of our price range, so she recommended we check out Miller’s Landing, which had a little more variety in size and pricing. The staff at Miller’s Landing was equally helpful – the cashier even gave the older boys each a quarter for a gum ball machine, and gave Jonny his first lollipop. We did a two-hour rental of their cheapest patio boat available. It still was more than we’d hope to spend, but figured it would be worth the experience. The staff there did mention that the cheaper boats (less horsepower, cheaper boat) are reserved way in advance, so next time to call at least a week ahead to reserve it, or even A MONTH ahead for holiday weekends! (Noted.)
I’ll just say: it was worth every penny! Even though, again, we caught no fish. Also, kids are funny…they want to fish, but really, they just want to cast their line over and over again. Which is understandable – what kind of fun is leaving your line in and WAITING? Josh had again but asking to fish all morning, but as soon as we stopped somewhere on the lake he was ready to head back to camp to find his new friends, ha!
We fixed hot dogs for lunch, then packed up and headed out to find a little beach spot on the lake. Bass Lake has a bunch of little turn offs where you can park and walk/hike down to the lake, so as you drive around the lake you’ll find canopy’s and chairs lining the edges of the water. You can also pay $10 at the ranger station for a day use permit and park in the parking lots they have around the lake. We found a nice little turn off that even had shade, so we didn’t have to lug our canopy down. We all enjoyed staying out of the heat and by the water for a few hours, although I will say the smell of that water is something else…we all got wash cloth nature baths when we got back to camp.
The boys enjoyed another night of playing with their friends, and we enjoyed getting to know all the parents. I do think camping folks are the happiest folks!
THURSDAY. We started packing up early since we had a long drive to our next site. The boys spent most of the morning playing with their friends while all the parents worked frantically to clean everything up (we decided it will be nice when they are all teenagers and can pull their own weight, haha). Us parents exchanged contact information at the insistence of all the kids – I do hope we get to see them again!
Our next and last stop was Reyes Creek Campground. This was another 4+ hour drive. We stopped at a WalMart again for some basic supplies, including a lot of water since this last site has NO water, and grabbed some El Pollo Loco for lunch. The drive from Bass Lake to Reyes Creek was…interesting. Has anyone driven through Taft, CA before? Weird, desolate, oil lands. This was the campsite I was the most worried about, since it has no water and only vaulted toilets. But I picked it because it broke up our drive home, and technically was only 2.5 hour from home…
Again, I think our site was the best around: we had shade and the creek ran at the end of our site. But, it’s dirt camping which is not our favorite, and there were ants EVERYWHERE. We took a very quick bike ride around the grounds, and decided one night here would be enough. Our site was right across from the bathrooms and wow…that smell was something special when the wind kicked up! Jonny was too tired for the campfire, but Jeff and the older boys had a great time being silly and spitting kernels into the fire (the result of a failed Jiffy Pop attempt).
FRIDAY. We made one last ditch effort to catch some fish by hiking through the creek to a little waterfall area, and dipping our feet in the water. We packed it in after a late pancake breakfast, and hit the road around noon. There was no service when we left, so we couldn’t map our way home, and assumed we’d keep going down the road that brought us to the site…which actually took us through the entire Los Padres National Forest. As scenic as the drive was, it was a little longer than we’d hoped. We also didn’t take into account Friday afternoon traffic in LA – we’ve now learned this lesson the hard way, as our 2.5 hour drive home turned into 5 hours. We even considered staying at a hotel near Malibu just to break up the dreaded drive, but it was hard to find something reasonably priced that wasn’t a shit hole, and therefore trucking on to our comfortable home and beds was more appealing.
Although the final leg of our trip was a little disappointing, the trip overall was AMAZING. The kids, and us, had such a great time, and I’m so thankful for all the memories we made on this trip. We can’t wait to travel again! We’re thinking our next trip will be to Zion, with an overnight in Vegas on the way there. As much as we love camping, I think our next trip will involve hotels ;)
MEALS.
We stuck to easy meals. The Friday before we left we made pulled pork in the slow cooker, which we had for dinner and knew we’d have lots leftover, so we packed that up for Saturday nights dinner. I also prepped teriyaki meat skewers on Friday and packed those in a ziplock back for Sunday’s dinner. I prepped the veggies and packed those in a separate ziplock, and threw them in with meat to marinate on Sunday morning. Monday night we fixed pork loin with boiled corn and leftover Suddenly Salad from our lunch, and Tuesday we ate at a local restaurant since we got back late to camp from Yosemite. Wednesday we did burgers for lunch, and Thursday we fixed breakfast burritos for dinner. Lunches were sandwiches, hot dogs, or stopping somewhere during our drive. Breakfast was mainly cereal, yogurt parfaits, or packaged pastries. I also took bagels and cream cheese, but we only had access to our toaster the first two days when we had full electrical hook ups. I also pre-made ranch and onion dips before we left, and those were great to pack up with our to-go lunches or when we needed an afternoon snack at our site. We also double down on all things snacks: bars, cookies, chips, cuties, apples. You can imagine which snacks the kids prefer.
Cooking with a one-year old was…fun?
PACKING. You may know I love lists. Going camping gives me the opportunity to use a list that’s been perfected throughout the years for our family. Every trip there’s something that gets added or updated as the kids get older and the items I need for them shift. I have a master packing list on Etsy in case it’s helpful to work off of and personalize for your family (there are different tabs for different destinations).
RESEARCHING CAMP SITES. I did a LOT of research to find out where to stay and which sites to choose (that were available). Aside from our last stop, I think it paid off! Things I looked for where: location and driving times between sites and places we wanted to see, amenities (hook ups, water, bathrooms), and with the trailer, the size of the site was important. On the Recreation.gov app, each site tells you the max size of a trailer/RV recommended for the site. I also checked Yelp and Google reviews for each site, especially if there were particular sites recommended. General Google searches also helped with locating campground maps to see where the sites were located and to find random sites that have campground reviews. It’s definitely a rabbit hole that at some point you have to pull yourself out of, and just pull the trigger on a site!
And now…the good photos from the professional! All credit to Jeff Armstrong Photography ;)
I hope some of this was helpful, or at least entertaining! What are you favorite places to visit with kids? Any tips or advice to add?
TEN YEARS!! Holy cow. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that all of our friends were dancing their butts off at our wedding. But apparently….it’s been a decade!
A couple years after Jake was born, and most importantly: after we started making enough money to be able to splurge a little bit, Jeff and I decided to make our anniversary weekend a priority for the two of us. I feel like it was a really smart decision for ourselves and our marriage. We don’t have regular date nights or a ton of opportunities to travel or go off on our own, so setting this one weekend a year where we really just focus on each other has been really great. Every year we end the weekend realizing we still love spending time with each other, which is pretty huge after being with someone for so long.
I’m also feeling pretty good about us reaching ten years (thirteen together!)…apparently the average first marriage that ends in divorce lasts eight years...so we’ve made it past that point. Side note: a kinda funny statistic from that same website: the five professions with the highest divorce rates are bartenders, dancers, massage therapists, gaming cage workers, and gaming service workers – I’m sensing a pattern, haha.
We’ve also passed the “high risk” years of years 5-8 – woohoo! Now we just have to get through the “low risk” of divorce through years 15, and then apparently a spike to “average” risk in years 15-20.
So – with all of those positive statistics on marriage, I’m glad we make it a priority to focus on our relationship and our marriage, at least once a year.
Here’s a recap of our past anniversary escapades:
2015 in Solvang
Heading to San Diego in 2016
Palm Springs in 2017
Laguna Beach in 2018
This year we decided to cut the weekend back to a day, unfortunately. We couldn’t decide WHERE we wanted to go, and the cost of hotels in the areas we were considering was a little much considering we now have preschool payments for Josh AND childcare payments for Jake. So instead we decided to have a local day date – and it was great.
We started with breakfast at Le Peep (Jeff indulges me on our anniversary weekends with breakfast…it’s not his favorite meal…but I LOVE breakfast).
Then we had planned to do some shopping for US. We went to the Irvine Spectrum first just because it was such a beautiful day, and an outdoor walking mall sounded better than an indoor one, but all we found was stuff for the boys, haha. We did have a delicious and refreshing lunch at the Cheesecake Factory though, so I’m glad we started there (we both had salads, and although we were hungry later, it was the perfect warm day meal). We headed to the Shops at Mission Viejo after to continue our quest to find something for US, and we both lucked out with new shoes! Jeff found some great shirts as well. I can’t really shop for clothes at this point, so I was really happy to find some shoes that were comfortable and to get me ready for Fall.
At this point we were starving…so what’s better than an ice cream break? We headed down the street to Handels Homemade Ice Cream, and were not disappointed. The only disappointing part of this visit is that they only have a couple tables outside, and it was HOT. So we ate our ice cream in the car, haha.
Jeff is a purist when it comes to ice cream…I’m a rabid animal.
After this treat, we headed to Laguna Beach to walk the shops and check out some of the artsy places that are too risky to enter with the boys, haha.
At this point, Jeff knew it was time to feed me, so we walked around a bit and lucked out finding Brussels Bistro. And we REALLY lucked out, because apparently for most places in Laguna Beach on Saturday night, you should really have a reservation. The food was delicious, and the ambiance was really great too.
We headed home after this. The boys were staying with grandma, so it was nice to head to a quiet home and watch a move that isn’t Hotel Transylvania or Woody Woodpecker. We actually watched a great movie called Long Shot (the romantic comedy one with Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron, not the true crime one on Netflix, haha). I was surprised with how much we enjoyed a movie we’d never heard of before! It was REALLY funny, and equally endearing. Plus, I’ve always been a Charlize fan…
We also got a quiet, mellow morning on Sunday! No kids needing to pee, or needing to be fed…just lounging in bed, catching up on Facebook and all those lame things we like to do when we’re not tending to children. Although by 8am we were ready to see our boys again, haha. We decided to get them donuts before we picked them up at grandma’s…just in case they had too much fun without us!
What’s your secret to a happy marriage? What’s your favorite romantic destination?
I recently got back from an almost one-week, kid-free, trip to Florida. I was fortunate enough to be in the bridal party for one of my best friend’s weddings, and it was amazing.
A few observations from my trip:
Flying as a mom, and without your children, is now terrifying. I hadn’t been on a plane since our trip to Germany in 2012, so it’s obviously been a while. I’ve never been afraid of flying, but I was pretty close to panicking on that first take off. I kept thinking “I have kids…what will they do without me if something happens? How does this thing even stay in the air?! so many things can go wrong!!!” In talking to fellow mommies that I was rooming with I realized I wasn’t alone. It still amazes me how much motherhood/parenting can change you.
Uber can be strange. I’m a married mother of two living on Orange County, so I don’t think it’s too much of a surprise that I’ve never used uber before. I took my first uber from the airport in Tampa to our resort. The driver was asking me for relationship advice before I buckled in, and shared how his ex had just filed a restraining order against him just as he was getting pulled over. Thankfully the rest of our uber drivers for the week were much less….blog-worthy?
Alone time is great. I’m not gonna lie, one of the things I was looking forward to the most on this trip (other than obviously celebrating my amazing friend and her husband!) was being alone on a plane and reading, ha! I’ve been doing audible lately but I’ve really missed reading reading (that’s not a typo). I finished my Literate Lushes book on my two flights to Florida, plus the end of my awkward uber trip (“uhhh…is it ok if I finish reading my book real quick?”). I had a second book for the way home, but it wasn’t as exciting so I still have quite a bit to go on that one. I also really enjoyed some solo time on the balcony of our suite, just looking out at the golf course, drinking my coffee, and thinking thoughts. The one day that we didn’t have much planned, I decided to go exploring on my own and was so proud of myself for doing so. I ended my adventure by drinking a solo-beer next to the water, and it was amazing. I forget how much we/I need this time…which is so hard to come by in the madness and routine of home and kids.
True Friends are Awesome, and so are their Friends. And life stuff. I met Sheena in college, and from the moment I met her, I’ve admired and respected her to no end. She’s an amazing human being with so many professional accomplishments that I couldn’t even begin to list them. I’ve sometimes wondered why she’s kept me around, haha. Since graduating, we’ve never lived in the same place, not even the same state, really, so our friendship is one of those that has survived the test of time and distance. We both make the effort whenever she is in LA visiting family, and I think that’s a huge part of it: we both recognize each other’s importance enough to make the extra effort when we can. It’s no surprise that her friends are equally as amazing. I know Sheena has high standards for who she keeps around (I imagine all her friendships are equally as difficult to maintain since everyone lives all over the place-so she truly values those she keeps around), and I’ve been lucky enough to meet many of them through the course of my friendship with Sheena. I was truly honored to be among such great women: not only professionally (from a state senator, a diplomat, to an OB, to a college professor, etc.), but also just a human beings–they were all super kind and considerate, and every single one of them was willing to lend a hand when needed. It is times like these where I feel slightly insecure and wish I could honestly say I’m still an attorney. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job for where I am in life right now–the flexibility and time off with the kids is so great–but I know it’s not my end point. My major flaw is that I’ve never had the drive or sacrifice to “reach for the stars.” That shit takes work and I’ve never been able to fully commit. I’m hoping life gives me lots of years to keep exploring and get to the point where I feel like I’ve reached my full potential.
Coming back ain’t easy. I thought I would come back home from this trip feeling refreshed and invigorated and ready to be super mom again. I don’t think it took more than five minutes on Monday morning for me to see how wrong I was. I got way too used to not having to feed kids and change diapers and force an almost four year old to brush his teeth. I know: my kids are adorable and awesome. Yes, you’re right. BUT, they’re also normal, haha. So Jake is pushing boundaries and I have to say his name 5 times, with the final “JACOB. WYATT. ARMSTRONG!” before he even cares to glance up, and everything is “I can’t” or “why” or “but just a liiiiiiiittle bit longer?” And Josh is my Josh. He never stops. Never stops moving. Never stops putting shit in his mouth. Never stops opening drawers he shouldn’t be opening (oh child proofing you say? Yeah, I should try that!). I also came back to several scheduled doctor’s appointments which meant I had to get them ready and out the door early. Today I decided to cancel my original summer plan for the day, and just take it easy, and it was amazing. Maybe some times I can just be mom, and not super mom, and we’ll all be a little more sane because of it.
It takes a village…and a really great husband. If you’re wondering who was watching the kids that whole time…it was Jeff. He took time off from work and stayed home with them, and ROCKED the stay-at-home dad gig. I also came home to a clean home, and to a husband who appreciates all the little things I do for our family. *swoon*
See, this is the problem with not blogging often…every blog turns into a novel. Sorry. As a reward for making it this far:
Read this if you want to cry happy tears. Someone I know is being a surrogate for one of her best friends, and it’s just happy heart emojies and googly eyes everywhere.
The book I couldn’t put down on the plane is The Song of Achilles, by Madelline Miller. It’s such a great book! Love, war, and obviously Greek tragedy. Woof.
Finca Cielo Azul 