Mothers Day

I had the most amazing Mother's Day thanks to Gregg and Adam.
It started with some beautiful flowers, coffee, and a delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage and grapefruit. Then we packed up for the day and headed into San Francisco! We took the streetcar into Pier 39 and walked around the shops and saw the sea lions. Then we had hamburgers for lunch and an ice cream then walked along the bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked up to Fort Mason and down the other side to a nice little park where we laid on the grass and played. Adam loves getting airplane rides from mommy :) and wrestling with Daddy. The park had a beautiful view of the bay, the bridge, and Alcatraz! After this we walked back to the streetcar to head home. On the way we stopped at an Indian restaurant for dinner. By far the best Indian food I have ever had!! We got home around 730 and got adam ready for bed, he went down very easy after a long day out on the town! Then we stayed up to watch a movie :)
Thank you Gregg and Adam for making Mother's Day such a special day!!

Santa Cruz, CA

Ah, Santa Cruz. Yet another town that will forever hold a special place in my heart!
This is the small surfer town that we had been looking for. Although, Santa Cruz can't really be called small. They do have the vibe and characteristics of a small town. They are pretty anti industry so there are no big building, skyscrapers, box stores, or condos. All of the houses seemed to be pretty moderately sized and funky architecture. Santa Cruz had that stereotypical Californian vibe of surfers, skateboarders, hippies, and a chill attitude. They are very environmentally conscious with tons of natural/organic grocery and clothing stores, a biodiesel gas station, and alternative energy companies.
We stayed here longer then any other town we have been to on this trip. We stayed for a whole week! During this time we went to their first Friday art walk, a regional burning man event, visited lots of beaches and parks, and had the RV worked on. Thankfully it was nothing major, and the owners were really nice. They let us stay in their lot with access to electricity and water.
I just love visiting towns that show qualities of a place I would love to live. A place that shows importance of the arts, music, the environment, children, and local businesses.  Bravo to Santa Cruz for achieving this!!

Monterey, CA

We stayed in Monterey for only a day but we packed a lot into one day! We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, played on the beach, and walked down Cannery Way.
Adam had a great time running around the aquarium. He had fun looking in the tank and seeing the big fish. Although, I think he was more excited about all the stairs he could climb.
His newest favorite thing to do is collect rocks. He loves to give them as gifts and to carry them around. I find rocks constantly throughout the RV that he has collected.

Big Sur

To get to Big Sur we needed to back track a bit down the central coast of California. We missed a big chunk of the coast due to heading inland for sequoia and yosemite.
The central coast and Big Sur were more beautiful then I could have imagined. Route 1 hugs the coastline with its steep climbs and a winding roads it really makes sure you don't miss an inch of the scenery. I had read about a free campsite that was in the Los Padres NF right off of route 2l1. It was supposed to have beautiful views but could be hard to get into, since you had to drive up a steep mountain. It was easy to find but the road was very steep, and the views of the ocean and coastline were breath taking. We kept driving higher and higher because the view kept getting better and better. We finally found our stop at a meadow high above the water and it was full of beautiful yellow flowers. Adam loved pulling the petals off of the flowers! These were the types of views that I dreamt about when i thought of California. 
The next day we headed down the road to a small beach called Willow Creek. It was a mostly rocky beach with a little sand and really big waves. We watched the surfers while adam played in the water. We got to witness a couple whales playing in the water very close to shore, one approached a surfer as if he was trying to say hello. We spent our whole day here then returned to our mountain side for the night.
The next day we headed towards Hearst castle. On the way we saw elephant seals! Unfortunately the males were migrating still but the females still very big and very interesting animals. There were tons of them stretched along the beach sunbathing, swimming, and talking to eachother. I loves the noises they make! We stayed in San Simeon for the night and will be headed north in the morning.

Sequoia National Park

We spent two days in beautiful Sequoia Park. Sequoias are so amazing to see, they look like huge legs of giants coming coming out of the sky. We walked through a grove of Sequoias and hiked out to seem General Sherman, the biggest of Sequoias. These trees are estimated to be about 3000 yrs old!! And they are constantly growing.
We spent the night at a little campground in Sequoia,  we were at about 7000ft and when we woke up it was freezing rain and snowing!!

Bakersfield and Easter!

It was time to head inland a bit to see Sequoia and Yosemite but it would take us a couple days of driving so we stopped in Bakersfield. It was easter weekend so we figured we would treat ourselves to a campground for Saturday and Sunday.  We stayed at bakersfield rv resort, it was very nice and had a pool and hot tub. :)
Adam loved swimming in the pool.  He is a pro at going underwater now. When he jumps in the water I let him go under before picking him up and he likes to kick off of me and swim on his own,  which is completely underwater. It doesn't bother him a bit anymore! He knows how to hold his breath and wipe the water from his eyes when he comes up. He Is a very confident swimmer too, a little too confident at times.
We had a nice spiral ham dinner for dinner and adam got a few new toys for easter.

Rincon Parkway

We spent the day driving down up the Pacific Coast Highway,  what a beautiful way to explore the Pacific coast! After a couple hours of driving we found an amazing place to stay right off the highway and right on the side of the beach! We have been so lucky to find such beautiful (inexpensive) places. We fell asleep listening to the sound of the waves :)
In the morning we went to Rincon beach which is a famous surf spot. Gregg was able to some surfing while adam and I hung out on the beach. Adam spent most of his time throwing rocks in the waves and giving rocks to throw in the waves. He must have worn himself out cause he fell asleep on the beach while I was nursing him. It was so sweet but unfortunately that meant I had to carry a 30+lb baby back to the rv, what a workout!

Yosemite

We spent two nights in Yosemite and luckily we got into campsites in the park for both nights.  We didn't make any reservations and i didn't think it would be a big deal since it was the middle of the week.. but when we got there we got one of the last sites available in the park. We stayed in Wawona, it was very pretty. We were very close to a stream so we brought Adam down to it so he could throw rocks, this is one of his favorite things to do. We were at a pretty high elevation so it got pretty cold at night,  but there was lots of firewood around so we were able to make a nice fire. We haven't had many fires on this trip since the drought has made it way too dry to have one. Adam was very excited about the fire, he wanted to help his daddy stir it and throw in everything he could find.
The next day we headed to glacier point. They had just opened the road a week before we got there so on our way up we saw snow!! The road was very steep and winding but the old Dolphin made it up and we were able to marvel at the beautiful view. We even had a chance to see a coyote.
After glacier point we headed into the valley. The valley was full of beautiful waterfalls, one of which adam and I hiked out to. We also got to see El Capitan up close.
We were hoping to stay the night in the valley but we found out they were booked up, but they had a waiting lists. We were told to come back at 3pm sharp to try and get a spot. This is when we everyone who made a reservation is supposed to have checked in and if they don't then they pass their sites on to others who are there. We had a few hours to kill so we went over to the stables. Adam loves horses!  As soon as he saw them he "neighed" it was so cute.
The highlight of this trip for me was when gregg suggested that I take a 2 hr horseback trail ride. I love horses and used to ride and I have missed it alot so this was a big deal for me. I was so excited to go!  I was assigned a mule named Brandon, and we headed out to mirror lake and back. We got to see amazing views of half dome and went through lots of varied landscapes. I really enjoyed the time with my mule but also the time to myself to really take in the beauty of Yosemite without distractions.

Los Angeles (I am so far behind)

We spent about 4 or 5 days in LA, most of it we spent in a little part of town called Culver City. We really liked LA, it's a huge city that has a lot to offer. Including, Amazing weather, the ocean, mountains, and beautiful parks.
I feel like most of our time here we spent doing everyday chores which in an RV take more time and energy. We did our laundry at a local laundry mat, found a place to fill water tanks and dump, and we made an improvement to the RV. We had been wanting to add a cargo carrier to the back of the Dolphin to carry our bikes and a generator. A few days before the we discovered that the spare time that we had our bikes attached to originally was becoming loose and pulling the bolt amd washer out of the back of the RV. So, we needed a replacement quickly but we had to hitch to attach a cargo carrier. After examining a couple other RVs like ours and talking to some professionals we decided the best thing to do would be to have our old rusty bumper taker off and have a couple 2 ft beams extended out beyond the back of the RV. Then, gregg built our own cargo carrier out of wood. It looks great and is exactly what we needed.
Our last day in LA we drove down Sunset BLVD and Hollywood blvd just to check it out. The houses on sunset blvd were huge and beautiful and hollywood blvd was pretty busy and hectic so we decided not to stop but I'm glad we were able to experience it.

Venice Beach

Our second day in Los Angeles we decided to spend the day at Venice Beach. It was a beautiful sunny day, a perfect day for walking around the beach. Gregg bought a skate board and adam fell in love with it! He cried every time gregg skated away on it. He pushed it around mostly, but he tried to climb up on it one time. Once the skateboard moved he decided it wasn't a good idea and continued to push it around.
Venice Beach has so much to see and do from a huge beautiful beach, a skate park, muscle beach, a long bike path, and tons of little shops. Everything was very reasonable priced, I was pleasantly surprised considering everything in CA is expensive!!
I think we would all like to come back here some day.