Memorial Weekend Camping

In the past, we've gone to Big Sur for Memorial Weekend but due to reconstruction after fires, Big Sur was closed so we had to find a plan B.
Enter Henry Cowell State Park.
Beautiful.
Near coast.
Big redwoods.
Best part...Only an hour and 15 minutes away. Who needs Big Sur anyway?!?

We packed the camper up and took off on a Friday afternoon. We went with the Callaways and their cousins (Britt's sister Kirsten's family) the Greenlaws. The kids all got along fabulously and the adults talked and laughed and lounged around (the lounging was hard to get used to!)
Enter Bikes.

We all brought bikes and we hit the beautiful trails. There was some complaining and whining (only among my brood) but once they got a hang of the different terrain, they were loving it!
We had one little casuality. (He's doesn't like to use his breaks if he can help it!)


We had a tough hill that we all made it up (eventually)...

And got to the lookout tower where we could see the ocean and pat ourselves on the back.

We did some Junior Ranger activities where we learned about "Decomposers" otherwise know as the F.B.I.--Fungus, Bacteria, and Invertibrates, complete with a very catchy song! The woods didn't disappoint either...We were finally able to see the much anticipated Banana Slug right in our own campground. The kids were thrilled!

After some bike-riding, we headed over to Roaring Camp to ride the stream train and see a Civil War Re-enactment complete with live cannons, gunshots, fallen men, Abe himself, and of course call girls. Yup, there was an old bath house with call girls waiting. Good times.

The kids loved it.



And the adults too.
Ooooh, the train...




The gang...




The girls with their bonnets...

Then we went to the Roaring Camp Nature Center and hiked the little Redwood trail. The kids got to go into some pretty big trunk caves and had fun exploring.



Our last day, we were itching to do a coastal bike trail, so we headed to Wilder Ranch State Park, had some lunch, and then headed off in the wind to conquer the beautiful trail!

(No helmet, but I got my hood on!)


It was beautiful!! Views of the ocean all around, wild flowers and wind. It was spectacular!
We parked our bikes and hiked down to a beautiful cove where we let our toes touch the surf, we climbed the rock walls, explored sea caves, and laid in the sand...



"JOHN + ANNIE"

Alex was the most adventurous wanting to climb everything treacherous!

Don't worry I followed and spotted him everywhere!

We made a train in the sand laying on each other's bellies. And then laughed. You should try it. Therapeutic.

Ahhh, it was blissful!

After that we headed over to Brighton Beach (which was a heck of a lot warmer!) to visit our friends the Smyths. The kids finally dared to get in!



It was a wonderful weekend!
Go HERE to Britt's blog for her BEAUTIFUL scrapbook pages of the weekend.