Rambling Plans

As some of you may know, Matt and I gave our first family camping trip a shot earlier this year... A first for even Matt and I, but then you factor in the animals.

A bunch of us headed up to Icehouse near Tahoe on Memorial Day Weekend for a summer kickoff! ...And proceeded to get snowed on. We lasted for a night, and were promptly out of there by 10am. Much respect to those that lasted longer.

I blame it mostly on our inexperience. I rode up to the site in shorts and a tank top, and had packed only two pairs of long pants and a sweatshirt. Of course, it was late May, and me being a So Cal girl - how was I to know? And then, we only brought two sleeping bags and a few blankets. So us and the cold, hard ground got acquainted pretty well. No amount of beer or Jack D could soften or warm it. ...And the poor dogs. The poor dogs were not even equipped for this kind of wild.

So never being ones to back down, and hopefully having learned our lesson, we're going out into the unknown once again. For Thanksgiving, we're driving to Southern California to spend some time with my family, and since Matt has taken a combined total of 2 days off this year, we've decided it might be cool to stop off along the way and spend some time in the wilderness.
We were shopping dog-friendly camp sites last night. And we think we've settled on Big Basin Redwoods State Park... I haven't been to see the Redwoods since I was a kid, and there seems to be plenty of trails and dog-friendly activities to keep us busy. Not to mention this Santa Cruz beach about an hour's drive away that allows dogs off-leash after 4pm! (Probably one of the things I'm most excited about...)

And we've better prepared... Air mattress-armed, I'm bringing a mattress pad, our dog's beds, every blanket in the house (I guess the low will be like 47 degrees - nothing we haven't seen - right?), long johns, 20 pairs of socks, and maybe even old sweaters for the dogs to sleep in. ...Seriously, we vowed to never dress our dogs up - but people, these might be extreme circumstances. And dammit, my dogs are spoilt.

I know I have a list above expressing all my excitement (if you know me, you know it doesn't take much)... But the pictures... It's the pictures in my head that I know I'll get the chance to capture that is making me crazy with anticipation...

Wish us luck on our crazy adventure. Even though it's a ways off.... It shall be an interesting one. To say the least.

(photo by Purple Almanac Blog)