Day 4 & 5 NorCal to Oregon

All spring I'd been waiting for this moment.  The ocean.  We were in Carlsbad area when covid was announced over spring break.  We headed home knowing that the country was ripe for over reacting. I knew that I was going to need the ocean again soon, but we drove back home to the desert and waited 3 long months before I could put the sand under my feet and feel the waves wash away my rage.  After camping in the redwoods and recharging with water I was fulfilled and restored.  We ate snacks and played on the beach (I'm working on my west coast guide for my patreon so if you're curious where this beach is exactly you'll need to become a member there, starting at $1 a month) after our beach time we headed to our camp site in Oregon.  While I'm not sharing any details here on the blog, I will say even if you knew where it was I wouldn't recommend it,  we drove for an hour through farms to get to our site, which happened to be packed.  I hate camping like that back to back with neighbors, but for the waterfalls we wanted to see this was the closest spot.  When I travel with my kids I want sites that are easy to find and guaranteed, no driving around aimlessly.  And I will say this spot gave us that.  A designated campsite, bathrooms and a kitchen table - so I can't really complain, but I also can't suggest it in good conscious.  The waterfalls though, that was worth it.  We went there because a friend suggested it and it was a super simple hike with kids, we walked down to enjoy our food on the shore, we snuck past the caution signs and wooden fences, we took the risk and it was worth it.  

beach selfie.

snack attack.

the head lamps might have been overkill but we were all well illuminated. 

mermaid spoon! so pretty I almost didn't want to cook with it. 

Emily making cold brew for the morning. 

full tent.  don't mind the angry eyes V. was just hungry. 

flowers blooming on the trees - not sure what kind of tree it was, but I guess I should google now. 

reaching for those branches. 

Oregon breakfast.  Homemade sourdough topped with egg cheese and tomatoes. 

foxglove flowers adorning the trails - beautiful but toxic.

don't know what these are, but I think they're silver bells, can anyone confirm?

the waterfall!  There's actually like 10 on the hike and trail area but this was the main easy one. 

Have you been to Oregon? What is your favorite place?  It's slowly growing on me more and more, and I'm always looking for more places to explore.

 

     

Our Adventures in Arches (part 2)

We woke up bright and early on our second day in Arches.  Sonja asked all morning about the Juniper berries which I found out are actually not berries at all but tiny seed cones with small scales that look like a berry.  They are covered in white wild yeast, and too hard to eat, but can be ground up into a spice which has a bitterness perfect for cutting down on the gameyness of meat.  And of course the main ingredient in distilling gin (besides the vodka)

I made breakfast burritos while husband slept in, and then we set off on our hike...

We chose to attempt Devil's Garden with everyone even though the girls didn't have great shoes and mine we're slippery, not great for sandstone boulders.

pretty impressive canyon to walk into.

Architect Arch was the first arch on the trail, it's so frail,

Cairns.

Water

team work and all those balance beam and gymnastics classes finally paying off.

It was right about here we decided to tun back, almost half way, but with the incline of the boulders, it just wasn't practical to keep pushing the kids any further.

I forgot my sun hat, so I spent the morning walking around looking like it was winter and not 70 degrees outside, oh well, back we went...

I'm not tired | hello apparel   +   Galaxy Leggings | Baby Teith

Arches aren't just in the rocks if you look for them, you'll find them everywhere.

Ravens.

we don't let the girls take home anything from parks so they're always asking me to document their treasures before they return them.

Since we got back to camp a bit earlier than everyone else, I did some rock top yoga, thanks to my six year old for documenting.

but after just a few minutes it started sprinkling, so we ran down just in time to get all the tarps set up and mostly stay dry.

It didn't last too long, in fact it cleared up with just enough time to watch the sunset

Ran out of bungee cords, so we pulled the strings out of our hoodies and tied the tarps to all the trees.

next up we prepped some firewood and started cooking dinner.

Sonja learning how to chop wood, and prep some kindling. 

It's not easy starting a fire after the rain, the air is so wet, but after a few tries it caught and we had heat.

What are your favorite memories from camping?  Anyone else do a happy dance every time it rains? just me? Tomorrow, I share our morning in Arches and drive back a four wheel trail and some wild horses.