December 10, 2015

Dillon Beach - Camping trip #6

November 2015

Yes, we went camping again! Trip #6. Our first 5 camping trips were all within 11 weeks of each other! It was insane and crazy and totally fun! The summer just flew by.

It has kind of become a Thanksgiving tradition to go camping at Dillion Beach. We couldn't miss out this year so we packed up again and headed off. We left on Saturday, 21st after Evan's last soccer game. Luckily he had an early game that day so it worked out good.

We arrived, set up camp, made dinner and just hung out. Nice and relaxing. The weather was beautiful!

Sunday, 11/22

Trevor woke up with a fever that morning. He was lethargic and felt so yucky. Everyone else went off to the beach to play while I stayed at the trailer with T. He never takes naps anymore but he took 2 naps that morning. Poor baby! 

Around 11, Lorraine and the girls came back to make lunch. T work up and we decided to try to head to the beach for a little bit. He did pretty good but wasn't 100%.

The weather was once again beautiful! Sunny and warmish, for the beach. Sometimes we freeze but this was just right. You were fine in shorts and short sleeves or pants and long sleeves.  Of course, I had my standard layers on (I am always cold) but it was really nice.

Fun at the beach


This time they built a huge sandcastle.

On one side Kayla made a ramp all the way from the top to the bottom. The kids made sand balls and rolled them down. It was pretty cool!


Bella, the Mickelsen's dog, is 1 year older than Cooper. They are best buddies. Cooper just follows Bella everywhere!



A little fun with the camera ~ the boys being attacked by a sand bucket!


The sunset that night was just beautiful!


Monday, 11/23

T woke up feeling all better, thank goodness! Back to the beach we went! This day was cooler. A storm was blowing in for Tuesday so we wanted to be outside as much as we could be before the storm hit.


Nik found a sand crab.


We walked down the beach and found this. It has Chinese writing on it so they think it washed over from China, pretty cool!


We totally dig up the beach when we play!


Today's creations:






Another beautiful sunset to finish off the day!




Tuesday, 11/24

We woke up to the sound of rain hitting the roof of the trailer - so nice! We knew this day was going to be a rain day so we headed over to the Mickelsen's trailer, ate breakfast and watched a movie, Inside Out (love that movie!).

After the movie we needed to get out of the trailer for a little bit. We had planned on driving up to Bodega Bay for a little clam chowder for lunch. That was a good way to get out of the trailer and still be out of the rain.

We went to Lucas' Wharf and had to take a picture with Charlie Brown!



That afternoon/evening (after the rain had stopped) the tide was WAY out so we headed down to the rocks and tide pools.




Notice all the green algae? That is normally not there. This year the ocean water stayed warm longer than normal and messed up all the balances in ocean. This algae puts off some chemical that isn't dangerous to the ocean life but is dangerous to humans if we eat the ocean life living in the algae infested water so we were not able to catch crab this year like we usually do. It was so weird to see it all covered in green.








Wednesday, 11/25

Our friends, the Smilanick's and Brown's, have a house/cabin at Dillon's Beach. They usually go down for Thanksgiving so we contacted them to see if they were going to be there and they were so Wednesday morning we headed over and spent a couple of hours there. It was so fun and great to catch up with them. The kids had a blast playing with their kids too!

We then went back to the trailers, locked everything up and left for home. We left the trailers there because we were going to come back on Friday. We didn't leave until about 2 pm which meant that we hit some MAJOR traffic. The usual 2 hour drive took us 5 hours! True, we stopped for dinner in those 5 hours but still, it was ridiculous!

We quickly did the laundry and got ready for Thanksgiving.

Thursday, 11/26

We spent Thanksgiving with my dad, Karen and her family this year. It was super yummy and great to get to know her family a little better.

Friday, 11/27
(Also our anniversary - #16 baby!)

We didn't want to get stuck in traffic again so we left early (7:30) Friday morning to head back to the beach. We decided to make a stop at Point Reyes Lighthouse on the way back. We had been there years and years ago. It is known as one of the windiest places on the Pacific coast and last time it lived up to that reputation. It was foggy and the wind was blowing sideways. We were not prepared for that weather so we were freezing. This year I was determined to be prepared!

And so, of course, that means that the weather was beautiful! As you can see from the picture, the ocean was so calm. There were whales swimming by so we watched them come up for air several times and could see their tails. It was pretty awesome!


There are over 300 stairs going down to the lighthouse. Going down isn't so bad. Coming back up? Well, let's just say, we got our workout in that day! Great way to burn off all those Thanksgiving calories!


That's little T at the bottom of the lighthouse.

Happy Anniversary Honey!

When we visited the Visitor Center we heard that there were elephant seals at Chimney Rock so we decided we had to stop there to check it out! We drove to the trailhead and hiked out to the lookout. It is really hard to see them in the picture but there are a lot of elephant seals on the beach. We could hear them making noise and see some splashing in the water. It was kind of far away and they weren't that active so it was a little anticlimactic but still fun.



On the drive to Chimney Rock there were TONS of deer! And we saw a coyote that was watching the deer. The deer were watching him too so he eventually gave up and walked away.


At Chimney Rock there is also the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station which is where the Coast Guard set up shot back in 1927. Kayla really wanted to go check it out so we hiked down to this building.


Inside the building:




While we were in the room reading these signs, a lady came in and said that the building wasn't actually open. Apparently you can rent the building and "camp" in it. Neat! So the people that were there had rented it and we just walked in. Whoops! We weren't the only ones in there. Maybe they should have locked the doors? Or maybe there should be a sign saying that it was closed? Anyways, they were really nice and let us look around before we left. 

By the time we left there it was around 2. We hadn't had lunch and hadn't thought we would be gone that long so we didn't think to fix lunches so we stopped at a little town on the way back to the trailer. We got there about 2:30 and unfortunately that little town closes down from 2 to 5. WHAT? That's just crazy! So I ran into a grocery store to grab some crackers to hold us over until we got back to the trailer. 

Saturday, 11/28

We decided to climb the big sand dune again. If you remember from out December 2014 trip, Evan and I had to stay at the trailer last time our group climbed it because of his surgery so we wanted a turn to conquer the dune.

That's Hailey getting a head start on us!

We made it to the top of the dune! What a steep hike!

Those people (one in black and one in right) kind of in the middle but to the right? That is Marty and Lorraine. They stayed at the bottom with the younger kids. Look how small they are!

Even Cooper made it to the top! He was one tired pooch.



Me and Hailey

Kurt and Hailey

We went all the way up there!

Resting after our hike!

T playing in the fresh, unmarked sand. He ran in circles and circles and circles!


After lunch we went down to the dock to play at the beach again. Marty threw the ball for the dogs. Cooper is good at getting but not so much at returning with the ball. If he got it before Bella, he played keep away. Usually Bella got it first so Cooper spent his time running after Bella. They had a great time. That water is Tomales Bay. The tide was going out and rushing from the bay into the ocean. It was all fun and games until Cooper decided to get in the water. We all freaked out! He only went in to where it was a few inches deep but we were worried that he would decided to swim (because he loves the water) and would get sucked out to sea. After that he got leashed back up.


Kurt and Hailey took a walk and took this cute selfie!


Then they came back and Kurt buried Hailey's legs. You aren't at the beach until someone gets buried, even if it is just their legs.

That night we watched another movie in the Mickelsen's trailer. When we went to leave we found T sound asleep like this. The boy was out cold!



Another fun trip to the beach!

And I think it's our last trip of the year but I never put it past us to spontaneously pack up and head out again. Always a possibility!

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