Let's start with a little history..
Here's a couple of pictures of our previous home of almost 3 years. It was a gem of a property on an acre of land in coastal Encinitas off Requeza Street.
Here was where we raised 2 cats(Fat and Skinny), our German Shepherd (Gia), 10 chickens, a 4 bed vegetable garden, and our 2 year old Cedar. We were sad to leave what we created as our "shangri-la" but if we weren't forced to leave, we would have never been able to have this awesome opportunity to travel the country.
Since this was a tear down, we were lucky enough to able to throw a proper bon voyage party for our beloved home.. here are some pics of the chaos that was the Shred Ranch...
This was our pool...
Skullcandy got some taggers to come out and help us "decorate" the house for the Built to Shred season 3 wrap party!!
Cedar loves his new backyard...
Our new home is a Class A 34 foot (technically 35 ft) National RV SurfSide bunkhouse.
After weeks of power searching, our hearts were set on the unique floor plan this coach had to offer. Most "bunkhouses" have the bunks that are in the hallway that lead to the master bedroom but this one actually had a 2nd bedroom which we deemed incredibly important for our toddler since he was just learning the importance of having his own space. His bedroom is equipped with two beds (bunks) and each bunk has it's own TV. Needless to say, Cedar LOVES his new room. It was also nice for us because unless we set up the dinette bed or couch bed daily, he wouldn't have a place to sleep let alone our being able to relax in the living room after he went to bed.
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| Cedar watching tv in his new room (and new Christmas PJs) |
So.. so far we have gone to Cardiff State Beach, Carlsbad State Beach (OK so we didn't go that far from home but we needed a test run before we were fully on the road), Anaheim Resort RV Park, Dockweiler State Beach near L.A. and El Segundo, Soladad Canyon in Acton CA, and now Morro Bay... For all those who are planning on taking a tour of Cali, here's a review of the parks we've visited...
1. Cardiff State Beach
Nice campsite with some hookups.. probably less than a handful. If you want to get a site here, make sure you make a reservation because all the good ones are always gone. Also, (for us) we just didn't feel like the energy was right at this campsite so we probably won't be returning to this one but for those who want to tent at the beach or camp in Cardiff, it's a really nice campsite with an awesome town right behind and to the north (and south) of it.
2. Carlsbad State Beach
Okay, so we spent Thanksgiving here. We were lucky enough to get a campsite here since apparently it gets packed during the holidays. We were also able to get an ocean side campsite for all four days we stayed there. Such nice people at the help kiosk which really made us feel comfortable here. I think Karen was here name... anyway, she was sooo helpful and you could tell that she enjoyed her job and interacting with people so that's always nice. The campsites vary in size but they are pretty big for the most part. They are also really private which is always a plus. It's almost like you are on your own little piece of land overlooking beautiful Carlsbad State Beach. We saw dolphins surfing almost everyday and the weather was gorgeous (and it was November!) One slight drawback is that it is a dry campground..meaning no hookups.. but no biggie. Carlsbad is generally a really warm place all year round so there was really no need for hookups in our coach. All in all I would say STAY HERE!! Staff is wonderful, campsites are wonderful, location is wonderful, energy is sooo wonderful! :)
3. Anaheim RV Resort Park
After Carlsbad, we had a pretty late start to the day so we decided that we needed to set up camp. This was surprisingly a pretty clean and neat little campground. It's not really the most nature-y place but it was clean, staff as really nice (as you can see I really value this in a campground) and we had no problem doing a walk-in without a reservation. We only stayed here a night though.
***off-note: We got some Indian food in this little town of Naples ( I think it was in LA county but not sure). What an awesome town!! A mix of Encinitas and San Clemente with boats... A must-stop on a road trip! Indian food was also pretty good.. We got the buffet for only 8 bucks at this place called Natjar Indian Cuisine... yum!
4. Dockweiler State Beach
Pretty nice campground!! We were initially going to stay at the Malibu RV Beach park which is supposedly pretty nice but they are dog racists and wouldn't allow our German Shepherd Gia to stay with us. So we decided on Dockweiler and I'm pretty happy with our choice. Also we were due at a party in West Hollywood for Skullcandy's Mix Master Mike's signature headphone debut and it was close by so that was nice. It's pretty much a parking lot with full hook-ups at all sites but the neat part about this is that it's directly on the beach! It's behind LAX so you get the occasional plane that roars above you but I really enjoyed the vibe and feel! I mean staying right on the beach for 55 bucks a night! And it's really safe too... There was the town of El Segundo not too far but it would be about a half hour walk. Pretty nice... Here's some pics of our sunsets at Dockweiler..
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| Sunset at Dockweiler |
Okay.. so change of pace.. we decided to try out a non-beach campsite and head for the hills of the Angeles National Forest which is about an hour east of L.A. By the time we got there, it was pretty dark thanks to the recent time change so it was pretty hard to gauge where we were. Anyway, we got to our campsite and it was "rural" enough. There were nice mountains views which was a welcome change. At night we could hear coyotes howl, which I've never heard before. During the day families of quail explored our campsite. There are some cool hiking trails, but to be honest it was sort of boring. Cedar was stoked though since there was a playground close to our site.
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| our wild bear.. heehee |
So.. now we are en route to Northern California to visit some friends and explore.. Today we drove up the 101 to land in Morro Bay. I must say the drive is absolutely beautiful. Much better than the I-5 route to the Bay area. Some places that I am making a mental note to visit in the near future are Summerland, Montecito, and Avila Beach. Looked pretty awesome from the road. :)
Stay tuned for adventures from Morro Bay....
