From Groveland to Pacifica, CA: Saturday, May 8th

‘Phineas the Camper’ needed some work, it’s very tough to schedule this as, obviously, it’s our house and we need it! Dave managed to find a place in Manteca, CA which is about half way between Groveland and Pacifica. They had said on the phone that the work would likely take about 4 hours so I googled and found a few things that we could do in the area.

I was happy to finally be able to make it to a Target. My friend, Melissa, is a super-blogger about many things, from religion to children, food to fashion and many things in between, you can check out her blog at: www.girlymama.com. She had mentioned on her blog weeks earlier about the ‘maxi dress’, I loved the look of it and Target had it for a bargain price. I could’ve tried to order one online but that’s so tough, knowing exactly when it’ll be delivered and where we’ll be, so figured I’d take my chances and wait until I could look at one ‘live’: score! I had wanted black but they only had gray, I still love it, it’s long enough for my 5’8” height and reaches all the way to my toes, yay! Dave saw it and informed me that I’d be way smarter than anything he could ever hustle up from the contents of his camper closet, that’s OK too, I’m happy to have it even if I don’t have a good occasion to wear it just yet!

After a quick bite to eat, we made our way to the movie theater. The kids were so excited, we haven’t been to the movies since seeing Ice Age 3 last July before we began the trip (well, we haven’t, Aunty Helen and Rae took the kids to see Toy Story in the UK while we were there). They’ve seen trailers for ‘How to Train your Dragon’ on the TV a number of times and a few friends had recommended it – they were hooked. Going in that early in the day was also a little cheaper: bonus! We all enjoyed it, it’s a great storyline, days later, they were still discussing it.

Next door to the theater was a Bass Pro Shop, we had never been in one, heard so much about them so felt we should at least enter its hallowed doors! The place is enormous, such a toy shop for big boys! There were games areas, sections for various hobbies, clothes, food, pretty much anything you could think of for the outdoor enthusiast, cool place.

We collected Phineas mid-afternoon and were back on the road again, ready to hit the 4-lane highways and increased traffic, heading into San Francisco. If this trip has shown us at least one thing, it’s that we’re not big city fans! Staying in beautiful, quiet, tree-filled campgrounds really emphasizes the noise and chaos of cities. Regardless, we made it to San Francisco RV Resort in Pacifica before 6pm, so plenty of time for the kids to explore, quickly find the playground and leave us to sort and clean!

The campground is right by the ocean, unfortunately there was no easy access point. A relatively new walking path had been put in that ran between the campground the cliff edge, sadly, the cliff continues to erode and it was very clear that an enormous chunk of the cliff had dropped onto the sand below quite recently. Thus, the path has now been closed - we had heard from Mona that part of the cliff actually fell while they were staying here, for this reason, we chose not to request an ocean-side campsite!

There were a couple of spaces still open by the cliff edge though, so we were able to get easy access to the Ocean. We spent quite some time there before bed, watching a para-glider swooping by on the wind currents, he had some control but at times, he sped by and we were worried he would crash. The little ones thought he was so cool, he waved to them a couple of times as he passed and even landed quite close to us for a few seconds, before taking off again, flying in the air. It looked absolutely incredible but I'm sure I'd be fearful that I'd drop at any point! You know, one of those: great to watch, sports.