Don’t worry about the picture below. Ava sits in a car seat. All the time. No exceptions. I am sort of the seat belt police whenever we drive anywhere. I have a thing for following the law. Dan makes enough fun of me for being a rule follower so I don’t need any more comments from the peanut gallery. Plus, if you don’t wear your seat belt and you get in an accident, you are not only hurting yourself but the others around you too… and that’s selfish. Sorry, I think I was just possessed by McGruff the Crime Dog. Back to the story.

Once again we hit the road at Ava’s nap time and once again she didn’t nap. Ava actually did try to fall asleep a couple times but when she started snoozing, her cowboy boots started to fall off. And that in turn caused her distress. You see, she has a thing for shoes and there is no convincing her that it is okay to take them off when we are in car. Oh oh. I think Dan has another rule follower on his hands.

After a little bit of LA traffic, we arrived at Newport Dunes RV Resort mid-afternoon. Dan backed up the rig and set her up pretty quickly. Each site had full hook-ups. It was so so nice to be directly connected to the sewer. Long hot showers everyday. Yeah!

We were situated in the second row but we still had a decent view of the bay. There wasn’t much privacy between each site. Just a fence with some trailing plants but it is much more than what we experienced at the other RV resort we stayed at in Gila Bend.

Southern California has been getting lots and lots of needed rain for the past month or two. And sure, we Californians love to complain about our drought reversing rain, but our mouths stay shut once the sunshine returns and we get a sight of the local mountains. It is so surreal to have the Pacific Ocean on one side of you and the snowy capped mountains on the other. It almost seems photoshopped. But it’s not. And, our property tax bill proves it.

(Photo courtesy of FamiliesOnTheRoad.com)

Being in an RV Resort usually means that there are a lot of amenities available to its residence and Newport Dunes RV Resort was no exception. They had a decent size pool and hot tub.

We were planning on going to the pool during our stay but the pool wasn’t heated. Yes, we are Californian wussies. Thin blood. Blah blah blah.

The RV Resort also had a Market Place for groceries, RV supplies, and even offered golf cart and Segway rentals.

Being that it was our first rally, we had no idea what to expect. We just thought we would maybe meet up with the families officially once, maybe twice, and the rest of the time would be free time. But boy were we wrong. Rallies mean lots of gatherings and activities. We were pleasantly surprised. Here we are at the Meet and Greet that occurred at an empty site that we all chipped in for.

(Photo courtesy of FamiliesOnTheRoad.com)

As soon as we got to the event, we were asked our names… with the caveat that we can add anything we liked to our names to describe ourselves. Dan was ‘Surprise me Dan’ because he is a smartass. I was ‘Just Marlene’ because I have pregnancy brain and that was the best I could come up with. And Ava was ‘No nap Ava’ for obvious reasons.

Every night, the families gathered around the beach and held a bonfire. We unfortunately didn’t attend these bonfires. Dan spent the evenings working and I was in bed by 8pm. That night, our friend Nicole stopped by. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant down the street and headed right back to the Airstream for some sticker fun…

… and to drill this book into Ava’s mind since she is not longer allowed to bounce on my belly. Watch out someone else’s belly. You know who you are. Hehe.

the end,
marlene

Related Posts:
FOTR West Coast Rally: Day#2
FOTR West Coast Rally: Day#3

We ended up camping at the San Mateo Campground in San Onofre during New Year’s week for 5 nights. If I had to rate this campground, I would probably give it just an average score. We haven’t been to too many sites so far with the Mali Mish Airstream but Catalina State Park in Tuscon, The Shady Dell in Bisbee and El Capitan State Beach just outside of Santa Barbara are still my top three campgrounds so far. And if these are my references, San Mateo is just “alright”.

We ended up staying in three different sites during our stay. Everyone and their mom wanted to stay near the beach for New Year’s so we had to book three separate sites in order for us to be able to stay for as long as we did. It wasn’t too big of a deal. Dan is getting really good at backing in the Airstream in one shot. Yes, one shot. I don’t know how he does it. I couldn’t even drive into that spot forward in one shot.

As you can see, the campground had decent foliage for privacy to the left and right of us. The first spot we reserved actually backed up to another site. You can see another camper peeking through just behind our Airstream. It’s a little awkward for us to have neighbors so close, especially since our “dining room” is at the back of the Airstream.

For most of our stay, we had spots that bordered the road, which we actually preferred. I guess I would rather look at trees and birds while I eat my dinner than people going about their business. I don’t like of idea of people watching us through our panoramic windows. Right? Or is it just me?

The road is not a busy one so there wasn’t too much car noise to worry about at all. But there was another type of noise that was a little annoying.  Gunfire. There is a firing range close to the site, and the sound of gunfire echoes through the camp most weekends and some evenings. It didn’t bother Ava too much though, unless it was reading time. Shhhhhh.

I always tell myself that I must take more pictures of the actual campsites we are staying in but I somehow keep forgetting. But I had a decent excuse or two. We actually didn’t end up spending too much time at the campground itself. There was way too much stuff for us to do in a short amount of time. We do, after all, have a handful of good friends in the area… and a beach just a mile down the road that was calling our names.

Not sure how San Onofre Surf Beach is during the warmer months, but in the winter it is only sprinkled by a few surfers and handfuls of seabirds. A perfect place for a picnic.

And most people who know where San Onofre is, also know that is next to a nuclear power plant with a silly nickname. A nickname that I will not type out for you because I don’t want people googling for that word to end up here. Let’s just say it starts with a B and doesn’t appear to need a bra anytime soon.

A major complaint we had about the campground is the Wi-Fi service. Or the lack of it. Don’t tell anyone but it was actually kinda nice to relax and watch movies after dinner during this holiday season instead of blogging. I did realize that it is a lot harder to blog about things after the fact. It’s not so fresh in my memory, I guess.

Dan does a lot, A LOT, of blogging about connecting while you are on the road but he has somehow not committed to any just yet. I guess we aren’t full-timing just yet and that extra $60 bucks or so a month is not something we want to add to our budget. So it off to Barnes and Noble to blog, twitter and facebook.

The Barnes and Noble was located at the Irvine Spectrum. This outdoor mall has really grown in the past few years. It now has a carousal and train ride for the kids… and over the holiday it even has a mini-skating rink. I tried to get Ava to nap while Dan was on the internet but it was a no go. Too many Christmas lights. Too many water fountains. Too many people. Too many distractions.

For New Year’s Eve we headed to our friend Nicole’s place to bring in the new year. We packed up enough stuff to get us through the night (which is a lot of stuff when you have a toddler who loves shoes), threw Yoda into her cat carrier (yes, she came too) and left the Airstream at the campsite for one lonely night (just one).

Thanks for visiting our blog. More posts are on their way.

the end,
marlene