Radical Sabbatical: AYear of Living

Well we've been a lot of places since my last blog post. Death Valley was amazing. One of my favourite landscapes so far. Phenomenal swirling mountains with breathtaking colours. We happened to visit during the annual 49ers weekend. They are a bunch of old timers that reenact the gold seekers that got stuck in Death Valley in 1849. I don't really understand the point of the whole thing but whatever floats your boat. We stayed in Stovepipe campground beside the sand dunes. We could hear the coyotes at night. It was pretty cool. We also went to visit a ghost town called Rhyolite just outside the park near the Nevada border. It was very STRANGE. There were some crazy art installations that made absolutely no sense in their setting. The old buildings were interesting though. After a few lovely nights in Death Valley, we made our way to Bakersfield. Donovan needed some reliable internet to do some work so Bakersfield so where we ended up. On our way to Bakersfield we stopped at a hole on the wall mexican restaurant for some lunch. We almost didn't go in, it was that sketchy. Inside was immaculate and they still had their breakfast menu up so we decided to give it a try. So very glad we did. I had the eggs rancheros. OMG!! I think I died a little. As part of our random acts of kindness, we left a very generous tip. I love random acts of kindness. Trying to do them throughout the trip. Bakersfield was spent in the Terry. Catch up on schoolwork for the boys and for Donovan. After D finished his assignment we bolted. We made it to Fresno. Got to stay in the lovely Walmart parking lot, thanks to the lovely state park system of California. We drove for over an hour in the dark on winding roads to get to a state park that apparently was closed but was not listed as closed on the California State Park brochure. Walmart again. blah!  Next stop Whiskeytown! It is very close to Redding. Again a lovely adventure finding a camping spot but a beautiful area. Unfortunately we didn't have any Whiskey to commemorate the stay. Next day off to the northern coast of California to see the Redwoods.

The Redwoods didn't disappoint and being near the ocean wasn't so bad either. We stayed in Patrick's Point State Park. The price to camp at state parks in California is ludicrous but we decided to stay because you could the ocean from our site and it was a wee jaunt to Agate beach. We hiked the Lady Bird Johnson trail in Redwood National. It was majestic. We went to visit Paul Bunyon and his bull Blue, many beaches, and stopped for clam chowder and fish and chips in Crescent City. And of course, the boys got their ranger badges. 

We decided to take HWY 101 through Humbolt State Park until we could get back onto the Coast Hwy to head over to Fort Bragg. Another hair raising drive but it was worth it. We stayed at a crappy little RV park but the views were amazing. Right on a cliff overlooking the ocean and next to a working harbour. We stayed in Fort Bragg for about a week. It rained alot but it stopped long enough to do some tidal pool exploration and some beach glass hunting. We also went for drives up and down the coast through Mendocino county. Beautiful and quaint little seaside communities. The kind that I dream of living in.While we were in Fort Bragg we decided to get a Thousand Trails membership. They have family friendly campgrounds throughout the country. A little pricey on the initial investment but they were having a sale so we decided to try it out.

We left Fort Bragg for Cloverdale. A tiny little town in Sonoma county about 2 hours north of San Francisco. We stayed in a Thousand Trails campground to test out of new membership. Glad we got it. The site was okay but we met 2 other traveling families there. It was nice to know that we weren't the only ones crazy enough to do this. One family even had 6 kids!!!!! We really enjoyed talking with the families and the boys were thrilled that there were other kids to play with. From Cloverdale, we took some day trips. We went on an organic farm tour where we got to hold baby chicks and pet pigs. We went to a Farmers Market and into Santa Rosa. We went to Bodega Bay on the coast. We got some clam chowder from the Bodega Market and slurped it up watching the waves. We went to the Korbel distillery so mommy could get some champagne. Lots of good days.

After we said goodbye to our new friends we headed over the Golden Gate. Asher had been talking about the Golden Gate since Idaho. We was just thrilled when we went over it. We stayed in Pacifica, a seaside town just south of San Fran. For the first few days we holed up in the trailer so Donovan could study for his exam. The boys got some school work done. As soon as Donovan's exam was done we hit the town. We went to Japantown for some sushi and walked around. They have a Daiso so I was thrilled. What is a Daiso? Daiso is a japanese dollar store. Oh how I love Daiso. There is also a Daiso in Richmond.  Next day, we went to a Farmers Market to stock up on produce and other local goods. This farmers market was amazing. We got tons of fresh fruit,honey,walnuts,veggies and sugar cane. Then we headed to the Embarcadero. We walked down the Embarcadero to Pier 39. We decided to buy the San Francisco City Pass so we could see everything at a discount. We went on a boat ride around the harbour,around Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate. After the cruise we hit up the Aquarium of the Bay. A small aquarium with some cool exhibits. The boys got to touch rays and sharks. We strolled until dark and then headed up to the old Ghiradelli factory for some sundaes. Oh yeah! Caught the tram back to the truck and headed home. The next day we went to the California Academy of Sciences. They have a rain forest, a planetarium, an aquarium and a natural history museum all under one roof. It was really educational. The third day was spend at the Jelly Belly Factory. We went on a tour of the factory and got to sample lots of jelly beans in different stages of completion. It was awesome!  Our final day in San Fran was spent at the Exploratorium. An insanely cool kids science centre. We were there practically all day. On the way home we decided to go down Lombardi Street. Crazy cool!

Next stop Pismo Beach. I had read that the monarch butterflies winter in Pismo Beach so we decided to check it out. We stayed in a RV park that bordered the Sand Dunes. We spent our days on the beach. We love the beach. We also went sand sledding on the dunes. We boys were thrilled that they could go sledding (even if it was sand and not snow).

Ramona was our next stop. To get to Ramona, we had  to drive through LA on the I5. We thought because it was a Saturday that the traffic wouldn't be that bad. We were wrong. Ramona is a sleepy town near San Diego. It was kind of rainy the first day we were there so we hunkered down at the local library and got some schoolwork done. Good friends from Whitehorse were staying in nearby Escondido so we went to visit them at the resort they were staying at. We were thrilled to see familiar faces and spent hours getting caught up. The next day we ventured into San Diego to go to Seaworld. We went to the all the shows. Got to see Shamu and I convinced the older two boys to go on the water coaster that they have there. We got absolutely drenched but it was tons of fun. I don't really like going to places like Seaworld because I get sad when I see the large animals in tiny spaces. But the boys got to see whales and dolphins and so I was happy about that. On the way home from Seaworld, traffic came to a grinding halt which was kind of strange because we took the back roads to get home. We finally reached the cause of the slow traffic after about 30 mins of bumper to bumper. Someone hit a freaking mountain lion. Not a little one either. New for us. It is usually a moose or deer.  LEGOLAND was the next on the to do list.The boys had been wanting this from the moment we told them about it. We went with our friends from Whitehorse. Aidan said it was the best day of his life. Kiran said it was the best day of his life because his best bud Tristan was there with us. Great day with great friends. The next day we stayed in and recuperated from Legoland.

Next blog post: Palm Springs for Christmas with my dad and Trudy, Organ Pipe National Park,Tucson,Saguaro National Park,Kartchner Caverns, Tombstone and Bisbee. And probably Texas.

more pics were added to flickr too
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52945342@N02/