For my 40th birthday this year, we extended our spring break adventures to California by doing a road trip home to Oregon up the Pacific Coast via infamous highway 101. I've always wanted to do this drive, and this seemed like a good time (and excuse) to finally cross it off my bucket list.
My son and I took the Amtrak "Coast Starlight" train route from Portland to Sacramento in a private bedroom unit for his spring break, where my parents met us at the station and we hung out around the area for 10 days. We cruised around in my dad's corvette, hit the putting greens, did some sight-seeing, visited my 91-year-old grandmother (finally!), visited some old friends, and lounged pool side. We spent one night visiting Squaw Valley, where my husband and I got married. We took a quick trip over to Lake Tahoe to say hi to the lake before we left, as the weather was sunny in the low 40's. The snow levels were still enough for the skiers, but the trees and roads were bare as evidence of spring was all around.
Stop #1, April 2nd: Harbor RV park in Fort Bragg, CA (the city they filmed Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds), right on the beach off Hwy-101. Although the park itself was slightly sketchy with mobile homes also on site and residents yelling in the middle of the night, the weather was surprisingly cooperative and mild, albeit still chilly. The individual RV spots weren't private at all and didn't have fire pits, but they had full hook-ups (water, electrical and sewer), and we were only staying for one night, so we weren't too upset when we had to leave.
Stop #2, April 3rd: The next morning (my actual birthday), we drove about 4.5 hours north to KOA Redwoods RV park in Crescent City, CA, a mere 15 minutes south of the Oregon border. Also with full hook-ups, this park was way better, with mostly private sites, fire pits and family-friendly on-site playground. Nestled in the redwoods right off the coast, there were also hiking trails within the campground that would've been fun to explore, had we more time.
Finally, we headed home on 4/5, which was only an hour and 45 minute drive (instead of the 4-5 hour drive average we had been doing in the days before). The weather was gorgeous when we got home around 1pm, just enough time to clean out the camper and relax the rest of the afternoon.
In light of the absence of fire pits along the way, the hubby ordered a portable, propane fire pit online when we got home so we never have to go without another fire again (or another camping night without smores!).
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Although most of our time was spent on the road and the child and dog often got a bit stir crazy, overall, we had a good time and it was cool to see all the sites along the way. The weather was cooperative, as well as the traffic, and we were fortunate that our trip was incident-free.
Along the way, we saw a tv/movie filming, a herd of wild elk, giant redwoods, California and Oregon beaches, forests, lakes, orchards, mountains, sand dunes, and countless lazy beach towns. We laughed, we stressed, we bought about $600 worth of gas, visited some new restaurants, barbecued, and got to spend some quality time together as a family. It was nice to get out and see new things and remember what's really important in life: making memories with the ones you love. 💖👪💖
