Big Sur

Here are the specifications I was given by my sweet, loving family for the trip they wanted to go on for this past weekend.  Ashley - had to be at least 2 nights long.  Me - not too hot.  Robie - not too cold, must involve tubing in a river (i know, bizarre), Brooke - copying from Robie that it must involve tubing and must be 2 nights, Lauren - must involve tent, Fox - must involve dirt and throwing rocks in a river.  Mission accomplished (although it was pretty close to Robie's "must not be too cold"... oopsey)  After 3 days of attempts, I got a last minute campsite at Big Sur, which is on the central California coast just south of Monterey.

 Famous for its old, giant coastal Redwoods and cool climate, there is also a river that is commonly tubed (checkmark).   The traffic on the way up was ridiculous (Los Angeles needs to just disappear), so we had a few of those "is this really a good idea?" moments, but once we got there, we had a great time.  It was in the 60's, and we didn't see the sun come out at all for the first day.  Did the kids care?  Nope.  I could not believe they were in the water tubing - although technically it was probably just barely colder than the ocean and they go in there all the time, so I guess they have really built up their immunity.  

This $4 Big Lots floatie was onen of the kids' favorite things to use, even on dry land.

 One of my favorite quotes of the trip came from Ashley when Robie and the girls were taking off to head down a little farther (they had been tubing just right in front of our campsite, thendecided to go about 1/2 mile downstream and I would pick them up). So as they are leaving I hear Ashley say, "So did they make it so it wouldcome back out here?" (meaning, is it going to circle around back to our campsite, like the Lazy River at the waterpark).. um, no. 

Robie got a new tent for his birthday and that thing is huge and awesome.  It goes up kind of like an umbrella, so it sets up in like 5 minutes and fits 4 queen size airmattresses inside (or in our current case, 2 queen size, 1 twin size and a pack n' play.  Of course, Fox didn't have any interest in the Pack n' Play so he was in with us on our air mattress.  Next time we'll just add another to our air mattress collection (best $10 ever spent, if you ask me :))  Anyway, the tent made everyone comfy (last time we camped all 3 girls were on one queen size air mattress - not fun!) which means good times had by all.  

I really wanted to go see the McWay Falls.  Since we planned this all the week before, I didn't really get a chance to do much research, but this is the one thing I knew I wanted to see - and its basically a stroll from the main road.  The rest of the family was honestly pretty much happy just hanging out at the campsite (which, for the record, is what our camp neighbors did, literally, the entire time - they didn't move from their chairs except for to make themselves some more potato salad)  Anyway, I thought the falls were beautiful and the rest of the fam even admitted it wasn't THAT bad.

Sunday night we looked up and we could see stars - hope started seeping in that we might just see the sun after all.  Sure enough, Monday was beautiful.  We had to leave by 12, partly because that was checkout and partly because we still had a long drive ahead of us.  More river tubing ensued in the morning, even if they had to stand by the fire when they were done!  It really was a beautiful place.

 We went through Monterey on the way home (totally out of the way, but still saved us time from our adventure on the way up). Clam chowder, fish and chips, and checking out the seals - a nice little stop.