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We stayed in Castro Valley near San Francisco two nights with our friends Donyelle and Cherry. The general consensus was to lay low and enjoy hanging out at home, eating ice cream and watching movies. Fun!!

As you can see from previous posts, Peter and I both agree that free campsites are the way to go. Many times they are more comfortable (many campgrounds make you pitch your tent on a slab of concrete), quieter and, of course, cheaper. Friday night we were on our way to San Francisco and realized there was no way we were going to be able to make it there that night. We started looking for a campsite, but kept moving on because all the campgrounds we went to were either full or $25. We soon found ourselves farther down the coast with the sun about to set. We hadn’t seen a campground for miles. We arrived in Elk, CA and Peter decided that he would stop and ask someone if there was a place that we could camp nearby. He talked with 3 people from the area and they started to tell him of a campground about 12 miles away. After talking with them a little more and telling them a little about the trip, a lady named Barb offered her backyard if we wanted to pitch our tent there. A little awkward, but sounds great. Barb later told us that she has a little bit of empty nest syndrome and enjoys the company. She even made us roast beef sandwiches for dinner! We had a good time drinking tea and talking with her for a couple hours. Too bad we don’t have a picture of her.

As we crossed the boarder into California we were assaulted with a barrage of signs reminding us how California is different from any other place we have been. Littering, Fire Regulations, etc… We were looking forward to seeing the Redwoods but the day was getting late so we had to head straight to our camp site. We stayed at Nickel Creek, a free camp site I (Peter) stayed in while traveling up the coast with friends a few years ago. The site is a half mile hike from where you park. We made a second trip to get our food and take pictures.

Our site came with a bear box, picnic table, and a arbor of wild roses. In the morning we hiked down to the beach for more drift wood to cook our breakfast over. It would be a great place to stay several days!

We spent the day driving into the Redwoods.

The Oregon coast was spectacular. We enjoyed looking at so many gorgeous beaches that were free of people and Espresso drive-throughs.

A top campsite for sure. Bring the temperature up about 20 degrees and it would have perfect. We left our scooter up by the road and hoped that it would still be there in the morning. This is a post from our scooter trip from Southern Michigan to Los Angeles via Olympia Washington.

Watching the kids jump and jam pile on Chris made us want 5 of our own… (we will think about that more after we have our first!)

Ariana took us out to a great French restaurant for breakfast. Quite a step up from our Indian food MRE’s from Trader Joe’s, but we enjoy those too.

We were so thankful that our battery decided to die on us while we were in Portland not in the middle of Montana. A half a mile walk down the road from Ariana and Jeff’s house to a battery store solved that problem. An easy fix. Thank you God.

After getting the battery replaced, we drove about 30 miles south of Portland to visit Amanda’s Aunt Jan. We were impressed that she still had energy to visit with us after breaking her wrist the previous morning and having surgery on it the night before!