It’s been an exciting start to our world schooling adventures as we travel up the California Coast! We left Ojai with a great send off from our Lighthouse School family, who stocked us with goodies, games, and gift cards to get us started on our almost four-month journey around North America.
We headed up the coast, stopping for dinner in Buellton. We used the Roadtripper’s app to find some food options along our route. Gino’s was a casual pizza place that hit the spot.
After a loooong night drive, we finally made it to our motel in Redwood City, just south of San Francisco. The Budget Inn was…. a place to sleep. We pulled in close to midnight, so we weren’t going to be too picky, but I wouldn’t stay again. Pros: beds, friendly owner, great water pressure. Cons: high ick-factor.
We got out pretty early Saturday morning, but driving around the Bay Area towing a pop-up trailer is not the easiest. We had quite a challenge navigating the streets just finding our way into San Francisco. Once we made it into the city, we had to figure out how to park. We were visiting my childhood friend, James, who lives in the Mission District. After unloading our bikes at his condo (he assured us they would be stolen if we left them on the truck, even locked), we drove all over looking for a spot that would fit both the truck and the trailer. We finally found a spot and started our tour of San Francisco.
We ate a delicious late brunch at Tyger’s Coffee Shop and then stopped at a fancy market to buy mochas and to admire their chocolate and cheese selections. Mickie referred to it as “the Rainbow Bridge of San Francisco.”
We took the BART back to James’ neighborhood to experience Dandelion, a small-batch chocolate shop and Paxton Gate, a taxidermy and oddities store. Both offered new and exciting cultural experiences for our family.
After visiting a bit longer with James at his condo, we grabbed our bikes and headed back on the BART to our parked vehicle. We enjoyed our whirlwind tour and Daisy was thrilled to cross the Golden Gate Bridge as we drove north towards Mendocino.
We ate dinner at Five Guys in Petaluma, and left the area after 8:00 at night, with over three hours of driving ahead of us. Night driving up PCH is not recommended if you have any sort of anxiety. The kids, however, confident in their parents’ ability to get them safely from point A to point B, loved the windy, dark, tree-lined corridors and the moonlight on the sea once we were driving along the coast.
Due to our late departure from the Bay Area, and the fact that I got us lost somehow, we ended up getting to our camp site on the Mendocino Coast very late on Saturday night. We pulled into the KOA and set up camp around 11:30. The girls were extremely patient as Jon and I tried to quietly set up the pop up without annoying our neighbors in their fancy RVs. We finally got situated and got a good nights sleep!
Sunday was spent exploring the area. We visited Mendocino for a late breakfast at the Goodlife Cafe & Bakery. Fantastic food and wonderful service. We sat outdoors and enjoyed our food and coffee beverages. Garlic bagel with lox platter and a spicy Mexican mocha for me! Jon loved his green chili and cheese roll with a bowl of clam chowder. We would definitely return to this lovely spot!
We headed up to Fort Bragg for a little more exploration and our first shopping trip to try to stock our cooler a bit. We have a few days of camping ahead of us before our cruise to Alaska departs from Seattle, so we’re trying to stock up appropriately- not too much, not too little. We don’t want to throw away food before the cruise, but we also want to avoid eating too many meals out, which gets expensive fast!
Dinner at the campground was pasta, made in the camp kitchen, and then the girls and I enjoyed a late swim in the heated pool and hot tub. A little time around the campfire, and we were off to bed.
We woke up this morning and got another slow start to our day. The girls biked around the campground while Jon and I packed up. We finally got on the road around 1:00 (two hours after check-out time) and headed back up north to Fort Bragg for lunch. We enjoyed delicious sandwiches and lively conversation with the friendly owner of Cirino’s sandwich shop.
We left Fort Bragg and started a stretch of coastline that neither Jon nor I had ever experienced. The view of the forest was incredible as we headed north on PCH. Gorgeous scenery, some art and poetry and math in the car (it is a school day after all), and a stop at a cute roadside cafe and general store completed our day.
However, another late start meant another drive in the dark on the windy, mountain road. And, to make it even more exiting, we started getting some rain and fog just as it got dark. After two hours of intense mountain driving, we decided to give up our reserved camp spot at Jedediah Redwoods State Park in favor of a motel in Crescent City. The idea of setting up camp at 10:30 at night, in the rain, held no appeal! Fortunately, we found the lovely Coastal Inn & Suites, a few miles from our campground, for a very good price on Booking.com. We’re now snuggled in our comfy room while the rain pours outside. If it’s dry tomorrow, we’ll try to adjust our itinerary in order to spend the next two nights camping in the redwoods!
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