Mostly Sunny Days in Avila Beach and Back to So Cal

We got to Avila Beach late Thursday afternoon. It is after Labor Day but this place is still busy. We had to park in the Overflow area up on the hill. Still nice views but we like being down below with the short walk to the beach. There is some morning fog on Friday.

Joe was on the phone on a work related conference call when I noticed someone leaving on our favorite spot where we were last time. I tell Joe and jump in the car to go down and stake out our new site. Hurrah!!

Joe gets the MH ready and drives it down and we set up in the spot we will stay in for the next 11 days

There are more paddle boaters and kayakers than we have seen here before. I don't know why but we never do out boating ourselves. Maybe we need to go back to our hard shell boats that we don't have to set up.

We had a nice time just enjoying sitting out reading, listening to the waves, taking walks along the beach, and people watching, We had to go into Arroyo Grande to pick up the new router for our computer. The other one died and we had no wireless available. Joe could get his computer to work with an ethernet cord but I couldn't use my ipad. We had to send the broken one back first and they fixed it and sent in back. We also did some shopping,including at a local farmer's market style store up the road. They have great produce and an inside section with other food products. There are also some farm animals on site and it is very popular, especially on the weekends. We walked down to the end of the San Luis Harbor Pier for dinner one night. Good food and good views of the water. One area has tables that you can look through and see the water below.

 

 

 

We had a nice clear night with a Harvest Moon above.

 

As I said before we had a good time just walking on the beach, Savannah loves this place and had fun chasing her ball and finding a few new ones she found on the beach and brought back home with her. She has a small ball but seemed to like the bigger tennis balls lately. I am a big dog now she says. She had fun touching noses with other dogs and sniffing out messages from others.

 

 

Below picture shows our MH taken from the beach.

Humm, some sea creatures in the picture below or maybe just scuba divers.

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed our time at the beach but are now back at Jojoba Hills where we will be until at least February. We got back Thursday and got together with our friends, Terri and Nancy for some appetizers and some adult beverages. Friday there was a lasagna dinner in the Friendship Halls. We ran into some of the people we met in the spring and some new ones as well. We had bought a golf cart from a friend of Chris's during our time away and Chris, Karol, Michael and Casey all came over to deliver it. It was good to see them again. Kristi's birthday was on the 2nd of October but we drove down to Irvine to have dinner with Kristi and Brock on Tuesday. Also there were my two nieces and their hubbies. Both Kori and Heather are pregnant and both are having girls!!! How fun to go through this together. Those cousins should be close. Heather is due the middle of December and Kori early next year. They already have picked out names. Heather and Ryan's baby is named Amber Nicole(middle name is Kori's middle name)and Kori and Nick's is Kayla Lynn(middle name isHeather's middle name). We had a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory at the Irvine Spectrum. I had a yummy pasta which was huge. I had enough left over for dinner the next night for both Joe and I. Of course, one of the reasons I didn't overeat was to enjoy some pumpkin pecan cheesecake. The birthday girl got a dutch apple cheesecake with a candle and singing was involved. We both shared ours with some of the others. Both the preggies are being good with what they eat. Before we met them for dinner we stopped for a short visit with my Dad. They had a lady there that comes once in awhile and sings and plays the piano for the people at the home Dad is living at. It was nice. Dad was singing along on some of the show tunes. Very cute. We got to talk a little and will be able to see him more often while we are in the area. Well about 2 hours away but closer than we are most of the year.

Well that's it for now.

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Around Washington and Down to Oregon

Another catchup post brings us to South Beach Olympic National Park Campground. This campground serves as a sort of overflow campground to nearby Kalaloch campground. We think it is better as all sites overlook the ocean. We first tried to park at one of the sites immediately overlooking the beach but it was not level at all. We decided to park at one in the next row up but as Joe drove around to get to the spot I noticed he had stopped at the other end. I at first thought something was wrong but found out he was parked in our new perfect spot that someone had just left. What good luck. We are right overlooking the beach with a nice short path that goes to the sand below.

 

 

 

As this campground is first come first serve we are set up for Labor Day weekend or so we thought. More on that development later. Before we left Lake Quinault, we drove 45 minutes south to Aberdeen to do some grocery shopping. A lot of the small towns on the Washington Coast don't have much in the way of grocery stores, mostly just small food marts you see at gas stations. So we are set for the week. The beach is a great one for walking with all the drift wood over the beach, including some large trees. Savannah was so happy to be off leash and started running around with a happy look on her face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks like someone made a little shelter out of some of the driftwood.

 

But Wait!! Take a look at this "cabin" created by some ambitious builders.

 

Check out the window and bench in front of the cabin. Even the inside was decorated. A drink anyone?

 

While we were busy checking this out, Savannah decided to continue her walk by herself. I had to chase her down as she would look back at me and continue on. She is becoming like Terra, wandering off on her own. Well i finally got close enough to tell her to sit and she did. Back on the leash for now.

 

 

On the way back, we saw some fishermen and they were actually catching some fish.

 

 

We had two great days then our good luck ran out. First we were having a problem with our refrigerator that would just stop running. It looked like we were going to have to take the motorhome in to a repair place. It did start working again but we had another problem. After a couple of nice, cool but nice days, the rains came. And came, including inside our motorhome. We had a problem with a leak on the driver's side near the front before but thought it had been fixed. It was worse than ever. We had towels and plastic over the steering wheel and front area as it was leaking in several spots. As rain was forecasted for the next few days, we sadly decided to leave our beautiful site. We stopped at a repair place where Joe got some caulking material for the roof. The refrig is working okay now and the repairperson gave us some info on what was wrong and what to do if it stops working again. We spent one night at a Casino and called an Escapees Park that is in the Port Townsend area and found out they have some boondocking spots available for the weekend. That was a relief. It is only $5 a night so a good deal. It is a nice park, all on one level but surround by trees. Very pretty. This park, unlike Jojoba has a lot of park model units, not just motorhomes and fifth wheels. Some are very nice.

 

 

 

We met one gentleman who has a place in Jojoba. In fact, he is one of the original Jojobans who helped built the park. He is also the main chef in charge of the different events in the park that involve food. And Escapees are famous for their love of food I am told. We left on the Tuesday after Labor Day and headed south back into Oregon, trying to get away from the rain. We spent a few days at Clackamette RV Park, in Oregon City, near Portland. It is a nice city park right on the Willamette River.

 

 

 

 

Savannah found a nice spot to sit and watch people and boats go by.

 

We went into Portland to do some shopping including a Trader Joe fix. We haven't been doing anything real exciting lately, just enjoying the great views. We spent a few days at Lake Emigrant in Ashland. This is another campground we have been to before and is one we could have stayed at longer. Last time we were here it was really cold. In fact, we woke up one morning to snow on the hills. This time it is very warm, in the 90's. However our spot has two trees and so with shade and a slight wind, it was very pleasant to sit outside reading and enjoying the view of the lake.

 

 

The water is down here as you can see by one of the piers in the picture below.

 

We were shocked when we left and drove through the Lake Shasta area. The water level was way way down. Anyway, we are now back in California headed to one of our favorite spots, Avila Beach.

 

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