Montana de Oro - notes

I've sat down three times now to try and blog our whole trip to the beach, but it's not working. So here's a shortened version. Lots of pics are on my Facebook if you care to look through them. Pictured above is the beach we camped by, Spooner's Cove in Montana de Oro.

*Montana de Oro State Park is absolutely worth the 18 hours we drove to get there. Beauty, adventure, wildlife, and it was all so peaceful.

*Morro Bay is a rockin' cool little town near the park. All the locals were so friendly - not like some snobby beach towns at all.

*Lina G's All The Trimmings boutique/yarn store is fantastic. I was absolutely thrilled with it - haven't seen a store that cool in a long time. If hubby and kiddos hadn't been patiently waiting in the car for Mommy to yarn shop, I could've spent hours (and hundreds of dollars) walking around just looking at everything.

*We saw sea lions, sea otters, quail, great egret, starfish, sea anemones, sea urchins, an eel, rock crabs, hermit crabs, turban snails, raccoons, loons, pelicans, and lots more. It was a fantastic homeschool field trip on so many accounts.



*Shrimp (which are actually "sand crabs" according to Wikipedia, but the guy on the beach called them shrimp) crawling all over the sand where you're wading are really gross.

*My seven year old - who claims she is afraid of heights - climbed rocks fearlessly the whole time we were there. She also poked her finger in a sea anemone, got soaking wet in the ocean when it was barely 55 degrees out, and (kind of) tamed a gopher/packrat/mouse kind of thing that lived outside our tent.




*My two year old was never entirely sure about the water, but truly loved the "sandbox". The beach at Estero Bay made for one enormous sandbox, for sure!






*I had fish and chips for the first time. I don't generally eat sea food. It was actually pretty darn good.

*Fog can come and go in about ten minutes in the Morro Bay area. We had no idea how much there actually was to see until the fog finally cleared and the sun came out!

*Contrary to popular belief, sun is a rarity at the beach in California. At least it is on the Central Coast. Temps never got above 65, and were mostly a lot chillier than that.

*Raccoons are shameless little buggers. One was sniffing around at our table while I was standing next to it. They also stole our Oreos. I finally give in and buy Oreos, and a stinkin' raccoon steals the whole package... either that, or some other camper with a sweet tooth.

*If you let Two Little Girls run wild at the beach all day, they will go to sleep at eight o'clock in the tent, no questions asked.

*If you have a DVD player in your car, Two Little Girls will sit for eighteen hours, with only three stops, and will not complain.

*California Fruit Depot in Bakersfield is worth a stop if you're in the area - super friendly staff, tons of samples, and decent prices. We brought home dates, almonds, pistachios, cherries, and a case of 88 oranges.

*Governor Schwartzeneger wanted to shut down Montana de Oro State Park. Thankfully some people rallied against that. It's way too beautiful to shut down!

*Tide pools are fascinating. So many interesting things to see, if you're willing to sit still and look closely. I found myself having to say, "For heaven's sake, would you please stop squishing the sea anemones?!" Never thought I'd have to utter that sentence!

*Don't drive from Vegas to Southern California on Memorial Day. It's a bad idea. Trust me. Three or four hours of crawling, bumper to bumper traffic, and I've learned my lesson.

Over all, a fantastic trip. It's good to be home. We're back to the real world now, where inch worms are eating the kohlrabi at an alarming pace, my closet is vomiting laundry all over, little girls are "bored" again, and I've got enough kitchen work to keep me busy for two weeks straight.