Tobin James Cellars

May 15: It was a nice drive over with no issues. Deb and Sam are going with us and actually left before we did. It seems to take us longer to get ready all the time. We parked in a big mowed, field under right by some impressive old Oak Trees. After settling in we walked over to the winery, social distanced, and bought a case of wine and 4 travel plastic glasses. Deb bought a shirt. Their tasting room, what we saw of  it, looked very nice with a gift  shop and everything. We bought one of the bottles chilled and sat on their pretty patio and enjoyed that before walking back over to our camping spot. The rest  of  the evening was nice weather and so comfortable that we sat outside playing Rummikub until bedtime. 

May 16: The next morning Sam and Deb drove us over to Morro Bay for a view of the ocean. It was sad to drive by Morro Strand State Park and see it vacant, other than the hosts. We got lunch at Giovanni's since we love their seafood. We more or less social distanced in the line as we waited to purchase, take away only. We drove back to a public park that  was open and ate there at a picnic table. The oysters were especially good. It is strange that they have the bathrooms at the park locked. Yet they have a porta potty set up and a hand washing station. I don't  see the logic there. I guess the porta potty people come and  clean that and the city employees stay home collecting their regular pay? We also saw a sign where NO BIKES on the trails due to Covid-19 but yet people are allowed to walk on the trails... no commen sense required I guess. The ocean views were great and we headed back toward James Tobin. We had snacks and played Rummikub again until bedtime. 

Harvest Hosts

Due to the Covid-19 virus all our state and Nat'l campgrounds are closed. It is very discouraging. Meanwhile, Deb and Sam joined something called Harvest Hosts. This is a group where farms, wineries, breweries, golf courses, and other places allow you to spend one night free. By staying they do ask you you to support the venue by purchasing something. That's not a problem. Anyway, due to not finding anything else, we joined and we have several nights booked. Most of the venues are not open but they will allow you to stay anyway and I'm sure they will sell us a bottle or two of wine. Anyway, we are heading out tomorrow. 

Happy New Year

We decided to go on up to Millerton with the family (minus Steven, Saira, and newborn Jayden). It was cold but not so bad. We had great spots. Sam attached tarps to the pergola that blocked the wind, etc. I caught a bad cold. The worst I have had in years! I felt so lousy we came home before New Years Eve, missing the celebration. We did have some fun playing Yahtzee and Uno for the couple of days we were there. 

Kings Canyon/Sequoia

September 4-10

We went up early and got 2 campsites. Deb & Sam arrived, then Jeff, Miranda, and Julie arrived. Before the rest of them got there the four of us went to the Grant Grove Restaurant and had a meal. After that we cooked at the campsite, steaks and all the side dishes to go with them - plus S'mores and other snacks. Played lots of horseshoes, with several ringers! Enjoyable time for all. 

Washburn and Morro Strand

June 8 to June 17, 2019

We have our annual, long, Father's Day weekend booked far in advance but we wanted to go over a few days early. Nothing much is available. The only sites I found were San Simeon Washburn campsites. That was fine and we are happy to get them, even though we have not been there before. 

We had a drip develop on our water tank cap. Two trips into town to get a new cap and washer to stop the drip. 

One one of our walks along the beach we saw several dolphins just hanging around the area, feeding I guess. So enjoyable to watch. 

We had a visit to the near by Mexican Restaurant. We always enjoy that. It is not as good as Old Juan's Cantina but still good.  

We drove into Cambria several time to enjoy a nice lunch and then also fix that dripping water cap. Besides that we played cards and relaxed. I did get a little bit of scrapbooking done. We did need gas but shocking it was $4.75 in Cambria $4.29 in Morro Strand just 30-40 minutes apart. We should have waited! 

We moved to Morro Strand. Deb and Sam were the first to arrive with some of the boys and one of Spencer's friends. We went and ate dinner that night at House of JuJu. After that it was mostly kids, chaos, busy camping sites, and they are small to begin with. We need at least 3 sites next time. Deb & Sam love their new trailer. The tents so crowded with people walking by - it was hard to sleep for some, which made Jeff grouchy.

Most of us took a drive down to Pismo to enjoy lunch at Splash Cafe. The pier is finally open so we took a walk as well. Of course, we would not be that close and not stop at Avila Farms. Julie and Miranda had a lot of fun feeding the animals.

We got oysters from Giovanni's again but they were so very small... too small really. Next time we will go for medium. Our special dinner was to be at Schooner's and it was. However Sierra and Matt left because they would not allow their dog Doug to be on the patio. I was surprised. So upsetting to Deb that they left. 

We wanted to stay on a few more days but it was not to be as EVERY PLACE is full up!

Trip to Reagan Library

February 25 to March 1, 2019  

We wanted to visit the Reagan Library to see the Pompeii Exhibit. 

We traveled down on Hwy 5. I dreaded it but it was really quite smooth and easy. There was very little traffic, only congested when we left 5 for 405, but we got to the campground safe and sound. Oak Park Campground in Simi Valley is just a couple of miles from the Reagan Museum. There aren't a lot of sites, we were in Campsite 4. The hosts were very friendly and nice the one time we saw them. It was with dread that  we realized there were railroad tracks just next to the campground. What have we gotten ourselves into? However, the trains were short, commuter-type trains. Thankfully, they did not run through the night. Plus, our Casita is well insulated from sound. 

We got Doggie Daycare for Tony at the nearby PetSmart when we went to the museum, that made it easier for all of us. My back is really bothering me so we didn't stay at the museum as long as we planned but we did see the great exhibit and a few other things. All the things like Air Force One seem so out-of-date, which of course they are. The Berlin Wall exhibit meant more to us since we have now see the actual wall in Berlin. It made the exhibit come alive. We hoped there would be a nice place to eat lunch at the museum but that was not the case. We had a boxed salad that was good enough. I still hope to get to Pompeii one day! So fascinating!

The next morning we left 9:45a, it started to rain when we left. The drive was easy we stopped in San Bernardino for gas and pulled over and made a chicken salad sandwich for our lunch on a croissant. It wasn't raining then so John took Tony for a nice walk. It is really lovely along 101 most of it is so bare along the way with undeveloped property. I always wonder why? I'm sure they could sell that property for a lot of money and put on it for a big price. As we got to Pismo area it started to rain again. We went to Pismo North Beach campground first and it is closed for restoration we found out later it will open mid May. I hope they made enough improvements to keep it flooding during the rainy seasons. We went on to Oceano where there were vacancies. It is finally open now and it's really quite nice with nice, new, roomy restrooms, and showers. There were plenty of vacancies but only for one night we have to check in the morning if we can have the same site tomorrow. It is not supposed to rain tomorrow so we might stay but if we have to move we will not spend another night and just go home that's too big a pain in the behind. We set up with just a little bit of sprinkles and then have stayed inside due to the rain it's not pouring down but it is constantly sprinkling and we just don't feel like getting wet and sharing our space with a wet pup! The next day we did a nice drive along the dunes, went to Avila Farms, ate at Old Juan's Cantina, and generally had a nice time. 

I wanted to add, when we went through Ventura earlier in the day, there were information centers for the Channel Islands. If they weather had been better, we would have liked to stop and gather some information. I would love to go visit those islands. I will have to research and see what I can find out. There must be some sort of transportation, a ferry, or something to get out there for the day. I'm pretty sure you cannot stay overnight out there and even if you could it would be tent camping. I think we saw the islands from the shore as we drove along. I could be wrong and I could not look at my phone while driving. We didn't have a map handy. It was a nice little winter vacation. 

Millerton New Years

Our last trip of 2018 and the first trip of 2019, combined in one. December 28, 2018 to January 1, 2019. It was pretty cold but we had a good time despite that. We played cards a lot. Jeff had to work one of the days so he came back into town but returned. Matt and Sierra came up for the day on Sunday. We took everyone up to Chukchansi for the buffet then we played horseshoes at camp. We welcomed in the New Year around the fire. Miranda was too tired to make it to midnight.