Santa Cruz to San Fran and back to Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is a beach town on Monterey Bay with a happening down town area, boardwalk with an amusement park and a fisherman’s pier. One of my dearest friends lives right in Santa Cruz and works for a NOAA lab analyzing biological salmon samples from around the state. Laney Bird lives in a garage turned into a one bedroom apartment. We have such a fun time together. 

Brian and I camped at probably one of the worst campgrounds we have encountered this entire trip. It was only 10 minutes from Laney’s abode and seemed like a nice place on the outskirts of town. No. It was a creepy, cash-only, RVs that never leave kind of park. Someone also riffled through the truck and stole my cell phone charger and sun glasses. I’m sure the truck was not locked so that is bad on our part but we’ve just never encountered an unwelcome sort of park before. We also woke up to a water line leak. I tell ya. Luckily there was a local RV repair shop that had the parts Brian needed to fix the issue. Though, we only discovered more problems with the trailer and we have an appointment at a place in southern Oregon, which will be our end destination for this trip. Nothing too serious so don’t get worried but I just don’t think the type of trailer we have is made for constant use. But fixing it is the best option and we are determined to finish the trip with the ole Hideout. 

Anyway, back to the good stuff. We spent Friday and Saturday with Laney wine tasting, hiking, biking, eating out and eating in. On Sunday Brian and I drove north to San Francisco just for a night. We visited with his high school buddy, Brett and his girlfriend, Michelle, they moved there about 3 months ago. We toured around the city a little bit and of course drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. This was the night of the super moon eclipse, it was so spectacular, I hope everyone got to see at least part of it. On Monday we drove back to Santa Cruz so Brian could fix the trailer, which was really nice of the guys at Santa Cruz RV to let us leave the trailer there. We camped on Laney’s floor for a couple nights, which was fine with us because we had some more fun and adventures, including sky diving (yep, skydiving!). It was AMAZING. This was my 4th jump, Brian’s 3rd and Laney’s 2nd. The view from 10,000 feet is like no other. Patchwork plots of strawberry fields, the edge of the coast, the San Jose Mountains in the background and the sun painting the clouds pink and yellow as it dipped behind them. Since there are only two jumpers in the plane at one time, Brian went up solo and let Laney and I dive together. It was just awesome. 

We are on the road again now, heading north to Napa Valley. We are going to spend our anniversary here and get re-grouped. From there we’re going to Redwood National Park and then over the border to southern Oregon. If you are reading this, send us some good road vibes, we’re hoping to finish this trip strong regardless of all the bumps in the road (pun intended). 

SKYDIVING:

All the skydiving photo credits go to Brian! 

San Francisco:

Santa Cruz:

Next Stop: Napa Valley, CA

Big Sur, CA

After leaving Pinnacles, we stopped in Monterey for the afternoon and biked around the Bay. We had lunch on the fisherman’s wharf and visited the aquarium, which was by far the best aquarium I have ever been too, it was amazing. Our favorite part was the open ocean section that had a huge tank with Bluefin and Yellowfin tunas, Hammerhead sharks, Mahi Mahi and big  Loggerhead sea turtles. I think we stared at the tank for half an hour at least. 

Driving along highway 101 is exactly how you would imagine the California coast. Steep hills and a sharp winding road skirting along the edge of our continent. Big Sur is right on the boundary of the vast Pacific ocean and backed by acres of protected land. It was beautiful.

Brian and I visited Jade Cove during the day and relaxed at Sand Dollar Beach. It felt like a different country entirely. Jade Cove was cool because you can see the jade inlaid in the rocks. I combed for a few pebbles to keep as a souvenir. Other than that we enjoyed the scenic drive, stopping at various turnouts. 

Our nightmare story was getting into our campsite at Fernwood Resort. All the campgrounds in the area were down extremely steep and narrow drives. It was terrifying with our 30’ trailer. I really wouldn’t recommend it to anyone traveling with an RV or trailer over 30’ entirely. We are about 55’ overall in length with the truck. Tenting or traveling with a much smaller trailer seemed preferable. 

Our fun story is that my friend, Hannah, and her friend from Scotland, Jade, were making their way down the coast on their road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles and stopped to camp with us in Big Sur. We caught up and had some laughs, dinner, and drinks at the Fernwood Pub. 

The California coast

Sand Dollar Beach

Jade

Jade, me, Hannah

Monterey Bay Aquarium: 

Next Stop: Santa Cruz, CA

Pinnacles National Park, CA

Pinnacles was inducted as the 59th National Park in the U.S. in 2013. The park is located near the San Andreas Fault and is a product of tectonic plate movement. It's believed that 23 million years ago the Neenach Volcano was split by the fault, carrying Pinnacles north. The erosion from wind and rain on these volcanic rocks has formed the unusual rock structures you can see today.

The temperature swing in the park was absurd. We arrived in the early afternoon when the thermometer read 105 degrees and woke up the next morning to a cool 50 degrees. Brian and I got up really early and biked to the Old Pinnacles trailhead and hiked the 5.5 mile loop before the rays got too strong. Crawling through the Balconies Caves was a very cool experience and we wanted to see a little more so we biked to Bear Gulch to see the reservoir and more boulders.

The campground at the park had a pool, which was a nice treat. There were few campers and there was no cell service, so Brian and I enjoyed some peace and quiet and jambalaya for dinner all while watching the deer, squirrels and quail roam about.

Next Stop: Big Sur, CA