Back at Jojoba with side trip to Mexico

We have been at Jojoba, our home base for a few months. We have spent time working on our lot, storage and motorhome, getting together with friends here in the park, doing some voluntteer work. Joe has been gong to doctor's appointments and we went to a memorial liunch for Brock's mother who passed away when we were up north with Kristi and Brock taking care of Mom and Dad's wishes. As life goes on with the passing of our parents generation, the latest generation continues to grow as both Heather and Kori are pregnant. Such good news!!!
We did take off for around 10 days to go down to Puerto Penasco with Larry and Orene, as they needed to take care of some last items for our Mexican Connection trip there which will be in early Febrary. We stopped one night at American Girl Mine, a boondocking site near Yuma that we have stayed at a number of times. We then met Larry and Orene at Organ Pipe National Park at the campground where we will stay for the pre rally. It is a lovely park with lots of desert plants.I didn't take many pictures this tirp as we have been here a few times.We got there just as it started raining. It had rained the night before and Orene had called us at a place right before the campground where the water was running across the road and they had to wait until someone checked it out before they could cross. It was okay when we got there.  We just spent one night here before heading over the border. The crossing was easy both coming in and gong out with few questions which was nice.

Border Crossing

We arrived at the Reef and met with Gas who runs the place. He is a great guy and has been very helpful to Orene on arranging some events for the Rally/ This is a wonderful place to stay and we wouldn't mnd coming back here on our own sometime. Orene and Larry also like it a lot and are thinking of spending a month here next fall.
The front rows were almost full but we got a beach front site and Larry and Orene one right behind us. Thanks Larry and Orene for letting us having a beach site!!  The views are great and we had some awesome sunsets and absolutely lovely weather.

One night Gus's family had a birthday party for one of his family's kids next to our site. Plus we got another great sunset.

Ella, Larry and Orene's dog

We ate out a number of times. We had to check out some places for the rally. Yeah, someone has to do it. :)

We met several nice couples. One, Mike and Tanya come down here a lot. They took us to one of their favorite places for breakfast. The first one, in Chola Bay, was closed that day but we went to their second favorite, Rosey's right in town. It was delicious. It will certainly be one we will recommend to those going to the rally.

One day we drove over to a lovely hotel outside of town wher Larry and Orene stayed before. I should have taken more pictures. It is on the water and there are a number of pools, outdoor bars and a few steps down to the beach with lots of seating both on the patio and the beach. The inside was very nice as well. I did get the one picture below of the lobby area.

Along with some other restaurant outing including the Wreck which is right next to the campground , we shared a few meals at our sites. Larry cooked breakfast one morning, I made Jambalaya which included some of the shrimp we got from a fish market in town. Larry also steamed some clams he got in town. It was definitely a foodie trip.

All and all it was a great trip and we are looking forward to the trip in Febrary. Orene and Larry are doing a great job of setting up the trip and I think everyone who is going to this sold out trip will have a wonderful time.
We are back in Jojoba and will be busy this month. We have three Ducks games this month and hope they will be turning around their losing streak to a winning one. There is a birthday party for Amber, her second on the 21st. We are thinking on staying at ONeil Park for 5 days as it is close to Kristti's and not far from Anaheim as we have a game on the following Tuesday. Then of course Thanksgiving the following week. We couldn't get any reservations anywhere but will go to Kori's and Nick's on the 28th for the family thanksgivng holiday.

Stay tuned

Back in California

We are back in Jojoba Hills after a couple of weeks traveling through California. We made a few new stops but spent most of the time at two of places we have been before and like a lot. We first had a long day drive heading towards the Jenner area, which is between Bodega Bay and Mendicino. It was getting late and we didn't want to travel on Highway 1' in the dark so we started looking for a plaace for the night. We first traveled up a windy road to a commercial campground we read about but it was full when we got there. Luckily the manager there told us about the local Fairgrounds and so we made our way there and we able to get a spot for the night in their parking area.  There were some people there who had been evacuated from the big fire up in the Napa area fire. It was also being used as a staging area for some of the firemen who have been fighting the fire. The next morning we drove  towards the Coast. We drove through on some roads that were narrow and windy including the Coast highway which has some pretty hairy turns. At least we were on the hillside most of the way. Not looking forward to leaving where we will be on the Ocean side with big drop offs. Anyway we finally got to Ocean Cove Campground which is about 17 miles north of the city of Jenner. This is a great campground on a bluff above above the Ocean with wonderful views. We are glad we got here before the weekend as it was pretty busy already. We got a good spot with an ocean view.

This is actually a big fishing area. There is a boat launch down a short path from the campground and also a fish cleaning station near where we are camped.

We walked down to the boat launch and watched some of the people fishing from kayaks and other types of boats and also some catching fish while wearing scuba or snorkeling gear.

Savannah had a nice time also

One day we drove to one of the Sonoma State Beaches just south of Jenner. There were two beaches down Goat Rock Rd, Goat Beach and Blind Beach. We stopped at Blind Beach which is dog friendly.
They were some nice rock formations. Oh and we have been having lovely weather, warm and sunny.

Below is a picture of the confluence of the Russian River and the Pacific Ocean.

Our next stop was a meetup with Kristi and Brock and their good friends, Wally and Jeannie. We had made plans to scatter our Mom and Dad's ashes in the ocean near Pebble Beach per their wishes. This was my Dad's favorite golfing spot and both of them loved this area. We decided to stay at Laguna Seca, which is a raceway that also has a nice campground. It is about a 20 minute drive from the Monterey/Carmel area. We had a nice place with nice views of the hills. There are some spots that overlook the race track which would be nice when races are scheduled.

We met up at Tickle Pink Inn where Kristi, Brock, Wally and Jeannie are staying. It is a beautiful inn in the Carmel Highlands overlooking the Big Sur Coastline. They both had rooms with awesome views.

We all then went to dinner at Carmel's Bistro Giovanni, a very good Italian restaurant.
The next day we met at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterrey for our boat ride to Carmel to scatter Mom and Dad's ashes. We walked around the Pier, where we have been a few times before in past trips to this area. It was a Tuesday but was still very busy with lots of tourists.

Wally as well as Kristi and Brock and ourselves got on the boat for our 3 hour trip to Carmel and back. Jeannie didn't go but will meet us back in Monterrey after our ride. It was a nice trip though a little choppier than boat rides we have had in the past. Kristi took some seasick medicine before we left and ended up taking a little more when we were on our way back.

One of the two person crew who made sure we were taken care of

On the way to Carmel two birds followed us for quite a lot time. Both Kristi and I said, it is Mom and Dad.

The shoreline is just gorgeous and we know why Mom and Dad loved this place so much. We scattered their ashes and also Whitney's, their beloved Yorkshire terrier per Mom's wishes.

Once we got back to Monterrey we met up with Jeannie and we all had dinner at one of the many restaurants on the Wharf.
We left the area the next day with plans to meet again in Pismo Beach where they are staying one night on their way back to So Cal. We are staying at the San Luis Harbor Camping area in Avila Beach, which is between Pismo and Morro Bay, It is one of our favorite places to stay. We are glad we decided to head here on Wednesday instead of closer to the weekend as we got the last spot on one of the spots right above the beach.

We continue to have great weather with temps in the low to mid 80's. I think this is Savannah favorite spot where she can be off lease on the beach below.

We enjoyed our time at Avila. We were pretty lazy and didn't kayak as we have done in the past at this beach or even walk on the Pier or even go into the town of Avila. The weekend was really busy with some events going on and the parking areas were full and people everywhere. We did meet up with Kristi, Brock and Wally and Jeannie for another dinner in Pismo. We met them at their hotel which not as spectacular as Tickle Pink, still had some views. In fact, we enjoyed a lovely sunset.

We did go to the Avila Valley Farm which is a pretty cool place. You can buy fresh local produce, items from their bakery and many other interesting food products. They also have farm animals and hay rides and so a popular place with families. We got blueberries, butternut squash and spaghetti squash, cilantro, some jars of dilled green beans, pickles and a bbq aioli sauce. We also got some different types of squash to decorate our motorhome for fall.

 avila

I'll finish this post with some more pictures of Avila and some more sunsets which I can never get enough of.  We did make an one night stay on the way back to So Cal at Rincon Beach in Ventura where all the sites are parallel to the water.