Death Valley was beautiful in February.  So many different colors and textures of rock and the rock formations were amazing.  We saw Mosaic Canyon, the Pup Fish, Granite Falls, gosh I can’t remember everything (now that’s May), we hiked, drove around and had a lot of fun with Craig and John.  None of us feel like we have a need to go back…been there, done that…but so glad we did!

 

Bought a boat this summer and love it.  These pictures are from Thanksgiving weekend where it was so warm we were able to go to Pyramid Lake twice.  She’s all tucked in for the winter…looking forward to a lot of boating next year.

 

 

 

Well, this wasn’t our favorite place to go.  First of all it’s 18 miles off the main road in Santa Barbara hills I guess.  We went up up up only to go down down down…finally ending up on not much more than a goat trail.

The entire park is on tiers and we were up on the third tier…without cell service or Wi-Fi. At $75 per night, I wasn’t thrilled to be off the grid.  It’s a panicky feeling if you’re a mom and grammy with 5 grand children and twins scheduled to be born anytime.  Well, we could hike down to the adult lodge where in the east corner you could get some signal so we did that the next day and let everyone know to rely on each other in case of an emergency.

We spent some time down there, checked out the pool and store and dropped a couple of rocks.  Then we had to hike back up. YIKES, that hike is not for the faint of heart!  It also explains who nobody was out and about….that an the fact that it looked like about 80% of the people there lived there full time.  They weren’t friendly either…since we were invading their space.

Never again and not recommended.

 

Our second time here and wondering why we don’t go more often.  An easy 3 hour drive and a beautiful park.

Good friends joined us for this trip, Craig and John, Candace and Craig, Connie and Jim, and Mary Beth and Dave surprised us by crashing the party on Saturday night!

We visited Cambria with Craig and John on Saturday, ate at a great barbecue restaurant, and shopped downtown in art galleries, boutique pet stores, and tea shops.  Check out the interesting plants we found growing in Cambria.

We came across some very interesting art in Cambria too…

Mary Beth and Dave were also in Paso and we saw their posts so contacted them but never looked at our phones again! All of a sudden at dinner we looked up and there was Mary Beth!  She came with lots of wine and lots of fun.  We played at the outdoor bar/campfire for hours, drinking and laughing.  They ended up spending the night and hangout the next day.  Such a great time!

We wine tasted on Sunday at Castoro and Peachy Canyon and got some great pictures.

The true owners of the wineries 🙂

Lunch in downtown Paso with Craig and John then back to camp for another nice evening.

Dinner on Friday night with the group was appetizers, Saturday was Greek chicken by Connie and Candy, and Sunday Tri-tip sandwiches and fixins by us, Craig and John.

A little trouble with Craig and John’s transmission on Monday delayed our departure but the park was great about it and helped us find help.  After getting it moving, they dropped their rig off in Bakersfield on the way home and had it back by Wednesday fixed, at a cost of course.

 

It was another wonderful trip!  Needs to be a regular destination.

In hopes of finding that “perfect” beach camp on the coast of California…we tried Dockweiler RV Park.  Yes we knew it was close to LAX but were in no way prepared for the noise of the jets that took off every 1 to 2 minutes. YEOWZZZAAA!!

We had a lot of fun with our friends the Machin’s which included a visit from Debbie’s daughter on Friday night, and a surprise visit from our Daughter-in-love Emily and grandbaby Marlowe on Saturday night!  That was the highlight of the trip!

I driving Grammy!

The beach was beautiful for sure, but the noise from the planes and the wild partiers all night was too much to take!  Won’t go back there…so the quest for the “perfect” beach camp continues…

I had wanted to go to Kern River forever, when friends asked us to come along with them and some others to Headquarters.  What a great time making new friends and seeing new sights.  The river was rushing pretty good so we could hear it at night as we slept with the windows open.  The weather was perfect during the day and crisp at night.  We played games at night and hung out by the campfire.  We were in site 29 which was a big site for an RV but sites 20 and 25 are right on the river…note for next time!  Kern River is definitely recommended!

Laying in the hammock with my sweet friend Kay – beautiful view!

One of the highlights was walking through giant sequoia trees.  Shocking how old and huge they are…

And my favorite picture, taken out of Larry’s truck window (while moving) of smoke that had rolled in from the Northern Pacific Fires that burned for weeks.  Breathtaking.

A busy and very hot summer kept us home a lot, but this came up and we couldn’t resist! Now in-between camping trips we will be on the lake. Who are we??