sabine8

Well....I got back from camping in the Bodega Bay Dunes on Sunday evening. I have since been doing tons of laundry!!!

The trip was ok. The campground was...interesting. I've never camped at the beach before. It's always been the mountains, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. The campground was about a mile away from the beach. You had to park in a lot and hike up and over the dunes to get to it. We didn't have any sunshine the 3 days we were there. It was FREEZING!!! I had looked up the weather forecast before going and packed accordingly. I threw in a few extra warm things just in case. Apparently the meteorologists who do weather for that area don't actually know what they're doing. They were off by at least 10-15 degrees!!! WTF????
At night we were freezing. In the morning and evening before bed we were freezing.
The other bad thing was that in the late evening a mist would start from the ocean and get everything wet. In the morning our chairs and table would be soaking wet.

Gavin had fun despite the cold. It was his first time seeing the ocean. He was a bit overwhelmed at first. I had to stand at the edge of the water and hold him, because he was afraid to stand alone that close to the water. I had to convince him to take off his shoes and socks so he could walk in the sand with me. We walked around the beach looking at thousands of tiny little hollow crab-like creature bodies. There was a lot of kelp laying around that fascinated him as well.
The trip to the beach that day ended after a few hours as he wet through his diapers and jeans AND onto my sweatshirt!!

At the campsite we went for walks around the loop and into the trees over the dunes. We played frisbee and ate a lot and roasted marshmallows (which Gavin didn't really like...weird kid )
He LOVED sleeping in his sleeping bag. The first night HE ASKED if he could go to bed!!!!!

I really wish I had a large SUV type vehicle for camping or some kind of trailer or camper. I had to borrow my grandpa's Buick, because there was no way to fit everything in my Bettle. We had trouble fitting everything into the car. We had to leave a lot of stuff home that we could have used.

All in all, it was a fun getaway.













and here's how Gavin was sleeping last night when I checked on him.....



EDIT: Ok, so I forgot to tell you all about the skunk! The first night, after Gav was in bed I was sitting at the picnic table in front of the fire. I look over to my right and about a yard and a half away was a skunk smelling the firewood! I got up REALLY slowly, so as not to scare it and get sprayed. It moved under the picnic table and wandered around, with me moving slowly away from wherever it wandered. Finally it wandered out of my site.
The next night, it came back. I was sitting at the picnic table playing cards and looked over at the wood and there it was again! I have to say that being a few feet away from a skunk is too damn close!
That night, I got up in the middle of the night to pee. I walked behind our tent into the trees and there it was again! So I got to pee, hoping that the skunk had gone and wasn't aiming at my ass!