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Weekend Camping Meal Plan
We recently went camping at Shaver Lake and want to share our camping meal plan. One of my 13 Tips for Camping With Toddlers and Preschoolers is to make sure meals are easy and this menu definitely qualifies.
Friday Camping Meal Plan
- I’ve found that green smoothies in kid’s CamelBak straw cups work really well in the car. The ones we make are packed with kale, berries, and bananas to make sure they get something healthy while we travel. I pack these in a small soft cooler with enough ice to make it through the day. We swear by our Vitamix when it comes to making yummy and nutritious smoothies.
- We also stopped for In & Out, a California classic! It was our first visit and we approve!
Saturday Camping Meal Plan
- Oatmeal packets are so easy for breakfast, just heat up the water and you’re good to go! We also heated up some milk for hot chocolate and we were good to go.
- I forgot the mustard for our lunch sandwiches, don’t be like me! I try to buy special bread for our camping sandwiches, recently it has been the sliced french brioche at Trader Joe’s.
- If you haven’t ever eaten raw green beans as a snack, go buy some today! They’re healthy and delicious with a very satisfying snap. The kids love them! We do watch the kids carefully because it would be easy to choke on these.
- After a fun day of camping, nothing beats roasted hot dogs and s’mores!
- I’ve developed some hot dog snobbery and I always buy Hebrew National. They’re 100% beef and so so delicious.
- Pro tip: Set your graham cracker with chocolate on a rock near the fire. It will start to get delicious and melty while you roast your marshmallow.
Sunday Camping Meal Plan
- I used this basic recipe to make pancake mix that just required milk and then we tossed in a few blueberries. I prepared the mix in an empty plastic container with a lid, then we shook the milk to combine. You will need a camping stove, frying pan, and some spray oil for this.
- Sandwiches the second day are not as exciting, so I like to pack a different sandwich meat and cheese to keep things interesting. Adding a special snack like fresh cherries (we bought ours from a roadside vendor, so wonderful) helps keep this meal exciting!
Pretty simple right? Easy to shop, easy to prepare, no problem to pack, no problem to store. Exactly what a camping meal plan should be! We may start branching into more complex meals, but for now, we’re only camping every couple months and we’re loving this go-to plan!
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Raising Multilingual Children in a Monolingual Home
This post contains affiliate links.
Before I was even married I stumbled upon Little Panda Mandarin Immersion School in Durham and got super excited to send my future children there. Fast forward to the present: My daughter is almost 4 (what?!?), my son is two, language education has been a priority, and we are well on track with both Spanish and Mandarin!
Why Pursue Language Education
So why bother? Language education is a lot of work and it’s not always cheap. Are the benefits really worth it?
Switching between languages is an exercise for your brain and actually makes it stronger and smarter! Being bilingual can improve memory, slow the onset of Alzheimers, and even help you recover from a stroke! Knowing a second language even makes you better at math!
And that doesn’t even mention the fact that being bilingual means you know another language! You can speak to more people in the world, you can apply for more jobs (maybe even make more money), and the door to the world opens just a little bit more! When you travel you’ll be able to have deeper and richer experiences then those of us who are struggling with google translator!
Why Pursue Language Education Now
The best time to start learning a language is always right now, but especially with babies and toddlers! The human brain is so flexible at birth, but it doesn’t stay that way. Learning languages is easy and painless for my children, whereas it’s confusing and frustrating to me.
How to Pursue Language Education Now
My children are going to spend years in the classroom and right now I just want them to play. The solution is to give them opportunities to play in another language! Here are the resources we’ve used to make this happen!
These go from birth to elementary school, but the ones in the middle can be introduced in any order!
#1 A Full-Time Nanny
Silvia was such a gift to our family for the 3 years she worked with us. She loved my children, played with them, fed them, did crafts with them, and spoke to them in Spanish. My daughter started hearing Spanish from Silvia when she was just 4 months old and my son from birth.
A nanny is not for everyone, but they are fantastic ways to pass on language. Second only to having parents pass on a language, a nanny is the best way to introduce a language early and often.
K with our beloved Nanny at his 1st birthday fiesta. #2 Immersion Preschools or Day Cares
If you’ve never looked, you’ll probably be surprised how many of these there are in the US! They are a great way for kids to learn languages. The big advantage over a nanny is that preschools generally have multiple native speaker teachers so the kids can pick up on different ways of communicating with the same language. One disadvantage is the kids like to cheat and speak English a lot!
When my daughter was 2 we enrolled her in Little Panda two mornings a week. We had no way of knowing whether the little songs she started singing were actually Mandarin, but we just had to have faith that she was really learning something! My son joined her at 19 months old and my daughter ramped up to 4 mornings per week.
Now that we live in California and I am a stay-at-home-mom, my kids attend a Spanish immersion preschool 3 mornings per week. They are learning quickly and I am excited to see their progress.
HJ getting ready to hand out Valentines at Mandarin immersion preschool. #3 The Library
On Thursdays we travel 25 minutes to attend Mandarin Billingual Storytime at the library. They sing songs, read books, play games, and do crafts primarily in Mandarin with a little English as well. Since my children are no longer attending a Mandarin Preschool, I make this a priority to keep the Mandarin fresh in their minds.
Our neighborhood library offers Spanish storytime, but it conflicts with preschool.
When we lived in North Carolina we had these options as well! Check your library to see what they offer; we could also attend Russian, French, or Japanese storytimes in our area!
#4 Activities
We enrolled HJ in a Mandarin ballet class this year and she loved it! It was only 3 lessons since I didn’t find out about it until the end of the semester, but it was a great way to reinforce the language while wiggling her body and doing something she loves. We will be signing up again in the fall.
The next town over offers a “Mandarin, Movement, and Music” class that we are planning to sign up for in the fall as well. Music is a great way to learn a language and this class will just be another fun thing we do, that happens to be in Mandarin!
San Francisco has a Spanish immersion Soccer Team for toddlers! What a wonderful way to have fun and learn a language! I would sign up in a heart beat if it were closer!
More so than the preschools, activities in other languages will be mostly found in densely populated areas or areas with lots of non-native-English speakers.
We attend an English service at a Chinese church and the kids go to AWANA every Friday night. Officially the AWANA program is in English, but the teachers are all native Mandarin speakers, so the kids pick up a lot of words!
Learning ballet and exercising her brain at the same time! #5 Date Night Sitters
We don’t get to hire a sitter as much as we would like, but when we do we always make sure they are a native Spanish or Mandarin speaker. So far I’ve used care.com but I’m thinking about trying out urbansitter.com, they seem to make it easier to find native speakers in a given language. When we have a Spanish babysitter I set aside a pile of all our bilingual Spanish books for her to read to the kids. When we get a Mandarin sitter I’ll have to go to the library!
#6 Music and Podcasts
You don’t have to understand a language to reinforce it at home! Riding in the car is a great time to put on some music in your target language. You might even learn something yourself!
- One CD we have and love in Spanish is De Colores and Other Latin American Folk Songs by José-Luis Orozco.
- Podcasts can be a great way to listen to stories in the car. They can be difficult to find for English-only speakers, but search around and take advantage of friends who speak the target language to help you find these. This link will help you get started in Spanish.
- We recently purchased some books with read along CDs in Mandarin for only $3.99 each.
- With your Amazon Prime membership, you can stream Little Dragon Tales CD in Mandarin for free!
Going somewhere? Time to jam out to those Spanish tunes! #7 Television
Everyone’s favorite controversy! It’s true that you cannot learn language from TV, but it can help reinforce what you are already learning! I try to limit my kid’s screen time to 1-2 shows a couple times a week, but if they’re going to watch something it might as well be in Spanish or Mandarin!
- Almost every Disney movie can be toggled to Spanish (or French). This is a great way to use the movies you already own and know the children will love.
- Dora La Exploradora is not the same thing as Dora the Explorer! Dora La Exploradora is entirely in Spanish and much better for kids working on learning Spanish.
- El Mundo de Elmo is great for kids. They used to have it on Hulu but seem to have taken it down.
- A friend recently introduced me to 巧虎 and the kids love it! Apparently they used to watch it at their Mandarin preschool. It’s on youtube and I’m told is a little bit like Daniel Tiger. The songs are super catchy!
- We’ve tried Little Pim in Mandarin and my kids found it boring, but it might work for younger kids or to have on in the background while they play.
Watching a little Spanish TV. #8 Apps
My kids love to get their hands on my iphone! I try to keep apps loaded for them, especially for flights or long car trips. They also have a Kid’s Edition Kindle Fire which HJ calls her “ipad.”
We have:
- Gus on the Go: Spanish for Kids, Spanish for Kids with Stories by Gus on the Go, & Gus on the Go: Mandarin Chinese for Kids. The Gus on The Go series is great for language education. You unlock one city at a time in the target country and play games that practice vocabulary. They also have Russian, French, and English.
- Fun Chinese is similar to Gus and encourages the kids to play games that practice their vocabulary.
- Endless Spanish has cute little monster animations and allows you to toggle between “Spanish Immersion” and “Spanish with English Translation.” Much like the English version, Endless Alphabet, this also helps them practice recognizing letters and sounds.
The children’s app page. Yes, snapchat is for them! #9 Public Schools
Starting in Kindergarten we are planning to enroll the kids in public language immersion school. Both Spanish and Mandarin language education programs were available in North Carolina and are options here in California. The real question is which language will we choose? I’m leaning towards Mandarin because I think Spanish will be easier to reinforce on the side.
Many of these programs have quotas and allow 50% native speakers and fill the rest of the class with nonnative speakers. Most programs start at 80-90% in the target language in Kindergarten and transition to 50-50 with English by 5th grade.
The difficult thing is that most of these programs allow admission by a lottery. Our chances of getting in are going to be a big factor into our decision of which schools to apply to.
Check out the Mandarin Immersion Parents Council for information on Mandarin immersion schools all over the US and Canada.
If there are no public immersion schools in your area and you can afford it, look into private schools. There’s one with a great reputation near us that teaches kids Mandarin and French through immersion. It costs all the money though.
# 10 Travel
What could be a more effective tool for language education then immersing yourself in a country that speaks that language! We haven’t done this one yet, but we are definitely going to! China is locked into the schedule for October 2018 and a Spanish speaking country is also on the agenda for spring 2018, either Costa Rica or Spain. On both trips, seeking out opportunities for the kids to interact and play in the country’s language will be a priority.
In the future, I would love to live abroad with the children so they can learn from real immersion!
The kids playing with a little friend they made in Pattaya, Thailand. I can’t wait until they can make friends in Spanish or Mandarin! So that’s everything we’ve been doing these past 3.5 years. What else should we be doing? I’m always open for suggestions, especially on Mandarin resources which are harder for English speakers to find then Spanish.
Also, if you like this post, check out another I wrote on 5 Ways to Raise Great Travelers, without leaving home. Spoiler: language education is one of the five!
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AirBnB Disaster Story
For Memorial Day weekend we had a 3 day trip to Santa Barbara planned. We were going to meet my Aunt from LA and spend the weekend exploring the area and we were all really excited about it!
The first thing that went slightly wrong was my Aunt forgot about it and double booked for the weekend! Oops! Oh well, we could still have a really nice family vacation.
We made good time getting out of the Bay Area thanks to our new favorite travel hacking strategy and we made it to the coast just in time for a beautiful sunset! We were feeling pretty positive when we rolled up to our AirBnB just a little past 10.
AirBnB Problem
The first problem we ran into was difficulty finding the address. Google Maps struggled a bit and we ended up parking in a couple different places and getting out to confirm addresses.
Once we found the apartment, the host had instructed us to enter a code at the gate. Red flag: there was no gate! We confirmed and double confirmed that we were at the right address and then called the host. She didn’t answer so we left a voicemail, sent a text, and sent a message through the AirBnB app.
The lack of gate was really giving me a bad feeling. I knew that the host had multiple properties and I suspected she had gotten her wires crossed.
As we waited we poked around and found a key under the mat to let ourselves in. I had expected a bare bones 2 bedroom apartment because that’s what I had paid for, but it was totally trashed! There was cocaine on the table and knives spread around the apartment, there was gross underwear lying on the floor, and the toilet looked like it needed more then a good cleaning with bleach.
These are the images I shared with airbnb. I almost didn’t want to post them on my pretty blog! The host finally returned my call and confirmed that she had mixed up which property we were staying at. Evidently the apartment hadn’t been cleaned since the last time it was rented. She clearly didn’t know what to do so she hung up and offered to call me right back.
We immediately started looking for a hotel. At this point it was after 11 but we were pretty wired. The kids, of course, slept through the whole thing.
Instead of a call back I received a text from the host offering to pay for a hotel for the night and get the property cleaned in the morning. She also offered to just let us stay for free that night. In retrospect, the the first option would have saved us some money, but we were feeling pretty wigged out and we asked for a full refund and planned to find accommodations for the weekend elsewhere.
The host agreed and airbnb offered an addition $50 credit if we booked another property instead of requesting a refund. Nothing available was less then $400/night so we requested a refund.
Finding Alternative Lodging
Night 1
We used Priceline’s “Last Minute Deals” to find a 4 start hotel for $165 + taxes. After taxes and the mandatory $28 “Hotel Fee” (?!?) we ended up paying $228.97 to stay at Kimpton Goodland in Goleta.
The hotel was very hip but not the most comfortable for a family of 4. They did provide a rollaway bed for the children and we took full advantage of the pool the next morning.
When we arrived home and reviewed our credit card statements, both the hotel and Priceline charged us the full amount! I’m in the process of working this out with Priceline, but I am not a happy camper.
Splashing at the Kimpton Goodland. Night 2
As soon as I got up Saturday morning I started browsing Priceline for a place to stay that night. Prices had gone way up! I ended up selecting the 1 star Cabrillo Inn near the beach in Santa Barbara. This was probably our first 1 star ever and after taxes it cost us $260.99! This meant that we had already spent our entire refund from the 3 night airbnb and we had still had one night to go!
We spent the day checking out Mission Santa Barbara and playing on the beach before we checked in and took a family nap. Afterwards we splashed in the pool a bit, headed to State Street for dinner, and then played on the beach at sunset.
Although I was super grumpy about paying this much for a 1 star hotel, it ended up being our favorite one! The pool overlooked the ocean and was heated to a comfortable temperature, and they had the most imaginative breakfast buffet I’ve ever seen! They had twinkies, several kinds of rice krispies, and quiche, but only one of each item! Weird. My Dad thinks they must have a deal with a neighboring restaurant where they get the leftovers from the night before.
We really did have a great time splashing in the pool here and, even though it wasn’t as glamorous as the Kimpton’s, we felt like we fit in a little better and weren’t disturbing everyone with our fun.
The room was very basic and we could hear every work of conversations held outside our room, but it was the cheapest we could find and we all slept well.
Sunset at Santa Barbara’s Sycamore Creek Beach. Night 3
Sunday we spent the day exploring Santa Cruz Island and made the decision to get on the road afterwards. We had been planning to spend all day Monday driving home with frequent stops at beaches and Missions, but we decided we could start that from a little farther north where the hotels were cheaper.
We switched over to Expedia to find a hotel and discovered I had a credit for $23.75! Score! I selected a 2 star Motel 6 in San Louis Obispo and paid $119.74 after applying my credit.
The Motel 6 was exactly what you would expect, very bare bones, but reasonable. The craziest thing was they don’t provide shampoo in the shower! You have to pay extra! We didn’t and just stayed dirty. ?
It was just a short 10 minute drive back to Pismo Beach in the morning, so we were able to get a good in-land price and still have access to the shore!
Playing at Pismo Beach. Follow Up
We really did have a great trip, but I was bummed to have spent an extra $120 that was not in the budget! Plus, we had expected to have separate rooms from the kids and instead we were crammed together every night.
I reached out to AirBnB to complain about the experience and they have provided a $50 credit that I can use anytime in the next year. It doesn’t completely close the gap on the extra $120 we had to shell out, but it helps.
So the million dollar question, would we use AirBnB again?
Prior to this trip, we had stayed with AirBnB 10 times. These stays were a combination of private residences and single rooms in someone’s home. We even used AirBnB for a month long stay while our house was being renovated. We have always had wonderful experiences and have decided we will continue to use them.
With one caveat, I will definitely think twice before booking an AirBnB during a surge pricing weekend. There’s just too much risk that if it falls through at the last minute, we could fall victim to outrageous prices again.
Also, Chris and I are about as laissez-faire as couples with young children get. I will stop recommending AirBnB to my Type A friends after this!
What do you think? If I’ve somehow convinced you to try AirBnB for the first time, use this link for $40 off your first stay. I’ll get $20 and maybe I can slowly make up for the extra money I spent on this trip! ?
Tips to Avoid this Happening to You
Read reviews thoroughly!
Some people will leave 5 stars but mention in passing something that might be a big deal for you. Likewise, someone might leave a 1 star review complaining about something seemingly minor. People are different and have different expectations and trigger points.
Pay attention to how many reviews have been left.
This particular AirBnB only had 7 reviews whereas others we’ve stayed at have had 45-200. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, since I’ve stayed at 1 property with only 4 reviews and we loved it!
Note that AirBnB will not allow you to leave a review if you do not stay at the property, so we could not leave a review after this experience! Cancellations by the host will be listed with the reviews though, consider these red flags!
Confirm right before your stay.
On this trip I reached out to the host the day before to let her know what time we’d be arriving. Next time I’ll include more specifics in my confirmation. ex. “Just wanted to let you know that we’re planning to arrive at xxx address as scheduled on xx/xx date at xx:xx time. Please provide any details needed to access the property.” If I’d done that, I don’t think any of this would have happened.
Anything else we could have done differently? How would you have reacted?
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Asheville, North Carolina: For Architecture and History Buffs
I recently wrote an itinerary for visiting Richmond, VA for my Mother-in-Law and her foreign exchange student. Juan is an architect student from Columbia who is interning in NC for 6 months. Naturally he wants to experience as much as he can while he’s here and see some of the best architecture in the area!
I’ve been to Asheville several times, but it’s been a few years and I learned a lot writing this post, so I’m eager to go back!
Asheville suffered more then any city in the United States when the stock market crashed in 1929. Asheville owed more, per capita, then New York, Chicago, Atlanta, or any other US city. It took them 50 years, but Asheville paid off all their debts, and became a unique and wonderful town for architecture and history. How? When major towns and cities all over the US were bulldozing old buildings to make room for improvements, Asheville was still up to its nose in debt and couldn’t afford to participate! You can read more about it here and here.
Saturday
Breakfast
Grab breakfast at Sunny Point Cafe, but get there early because the wait can really add up! They open at 8 and that’s probably when you want to be there. They have 4.5 stars and 995 reviews on yelp, so I think it’s safe to say you won’t be disappointed!
Morning
Join the Asheville By Foot walking tour “The Asheville Insider” at 10 am for a 2 hour introduction to Asheville’s history, architecture, and culture. Adults are $25/each and the tour will take 2 hours.
Asheville is a beautiful and unique city. Exploring it on foot ensures you catch all the little details. Photo by Flickr user David Wilson. CC 2.0. Lunch
Mmmmm ? I love Tupelo Honey Cafe! From the moment I started this post, I knew Tupelo Honey was going to come up! They have 4 locations in North Carolina now, and I’ve been to 3 of them! The original is downtown Asheville and it’s the one I remember the most fondly, but long waits are definitely associated with this restaurant! My advice: either make a reservation at the South Asheville location or grab a couple of lemonades and prepare for a long wait downtown. Personally, I’d wait downtown! You had a big breakfast anyway right?
Oh, and 1397 people on yelp will agree with me, or at least give it 4 stars. ?
My favorite spot to eat in Asheville, but Tupelo Honeys are popping up from the Georgia to Colorado. Photo by Flickr user J.H. Fearless. CC 2.0. Afternoon
After lunch make your way to the 1840s Smith-McDowell House Museum, the oldest surviving house in Asheville. Admission is $9/adults and $5/students with ID. It is open Monday-Saturday 10-4.
The Smith-McDowell House is a unique brick home from the 1840s. Photo by Flickr user Danny Thompson. CC 2.0. Next head to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. The tribute to this American author is staged in his 1880’s Victorian home. Tours leave every hour on the half-hour and cost $5 for adults. The house has been largely unchanged since 1916, so will provide terrific insight into the domestic architecture of the time. The last tour leaves at 4:30.
Visit the childhood home of Thomas Wolfe and see where the author was influenced and based some of his works. Photo by Flickr user Danny Thompson. CC 2.0. Dinner
Breakfast and lunch were pretty heavy, so why not check out the vegetarian and vegan offerings at Rosetta’s Kitchen & The Buchi Bar? The menu looks yummy and they have 4.5 stars with 268 reviews on yelp.
If it doesn’t fill you up, you can check out the French Broad Chocolate Lounge for dessert! They have 4 stars and 381 reviews on yelp, so they must be doing something right!
Evening
Head to the famous Grove Park Inn for drinks on their Sunset Cocktail Terrace. You’ll be able to see the lobby of the over 100-year-old hotel and watch the sunset from the porch. I’ve eaten on the porch and it’s a truly special experience, but it doesn’t come cheap! If you can afford it go for dinner and drinks!
Parking will be free if you self-park and stay for less than 3 hours. Expect to pay $8-20 for a glass of wine and $5 for a Bud Light.
Any meal at the Grove Park will be luxuriousPhoto by Flickr user Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose. CC 2.0 Share Alike. Sunday
Breakfast
Grab something quick at the Liberty House Cafe and check out their 1920s cottage while you are at it! Expect locally sourced, fair trade, and outdoor seating. They have 38 reviews and 4.5 stars on yelp.
Morning
You can’t come to Asheville and not visit the largest private home in America! Maintaining a house and grounds like this is no joke, so don’t expect this to be a cheap visit. Adult tickets cost $65 during the summer but $75 and reservations required on Saturdays. You can save $10/person by booking online more than 7 days in advance.
You will want to be at the gate to the Biltmore promptly at 8:30 am to beat the crowds. The house doesn’t open until 9, but this will give you just enough time to park and begin to marvel at the building and the grounds.
Your admission will include a self-guided tour of the house, exhibitions currently on display in the home, access to the gardens and grounds, access to Antler Hill Village, and wine tasting at the winery. Expect to spend 1.5-2 hours in the house alone and the entire morning at the estate.
A visit to America’s largest home can’t fail to impress. The landscaping alone is worth the visit! Photo by Flickr user Blake Lewis. CC 2.0 Share Alike. Lunch
After touring the estate, cross the street to Biltmore Village and have lunch at the Well-Bred Bakery and Cafe. They have 4.5 stars with 124 reviews on yelp, they have mouth watering pictures on their website, but mostly they just have a hilarious name! What better motivation could you ask for?
Afternoon
Take a break from the museums and tours and experience the history and culture of Asheville through art! The Southern Highland Craft Guild’s Folk Art Center is a great place to browse some wonderful art and watch demonstrations by the artisans. Demonstrations take place daily between 10-4 and admission is free. The Folk Art Center is open until 6 pm.
The Folk Art Center is a great place to browse, shop, or learn something. Photo by Flickr user Perry Quan. CC 2.0 Share Alike. After the folk art museum, point the car back towards Durham but stop for an early dinner and some wine at the Silver Fork Farm to Fork Eatery. Food is served Saturday and Sunday 12-5 and the Winery is open until 6 pm. From the tasting room and grounds, you’ll have views of the vineyard and the majestic South Mountains. They have 4.5 stars and 12 reviews on yelp.
Can you imagine a better end to a full weekend then wine with a view? Photo from the Silver Fork Winery website. -
Shaver Lake: A Weekend Adventure
Wow! What a great weekend we just had! But also, looking back, what a stressful weekend we just had! The plan was to make the 4 hour drive to Shaver Lake and camp for the weekend at Dorabelle Campground. All of that happened, but it was a bit of a bumpy ride!
The Journey
We kicked it off with our new favorite traffic hack and the kids and I spent the afternoon in Gilroy before picking Chris up from the CalTrain station. I’m happy to report that according to Google Maps, we beat traffic again with this strategy!
The kids and I spent most of the afternoon at Target enjoying the air conditioning and touching all the toys. K is in the middle of some intensive potty training so I grabbed some extra pullups and undies. In true potty training mode I made a big deal about letting him choose his undies and then let him carry them around the store. I swear I was watching him, but somehow he swapped them out for some size 5 Mario Kart ones and I didn’t figure it out until hours later. He wears a size 2. ?
I also let the kids pick out hats from the $3 bin, these were a huge success!
The train pulled up exactly as scheduled and we rolled out with the hopes of making it to the campsite by 8:30. Once we cleared the small amount of traffic that always seems to bunch up in Gilroy, we ran into the horrible but unavoidable delays associated with traveling with young children.
I’ve already mentioned that K is in the throws of potty training and he desperately needed to poop. We stopped twice and gave him nice long chances, but he’s struggling with that, and ended up going in his pullup. So of course we pulled over again to change him.
In Los Banos we stopped to grab dinner (our first ever In & Out experience!) and then hit the road with the hopes of making up some lost time. It was not to be.
HJ suddenly felt the need for multiple bathroom stops and we, once more, found ourselves on the side of the road. At least she is fully potty trained and delivers what she promises. ?
We even made friends with two dogs who came to check out all the action!
We use this travel potty and it is fantastic for exactly these situations. You can buy disposable liners, use gallon zip lock bags, or just let the pee fall through onto the ground.
One advantage of these time consuming stops was we got to really appreciate the beautiful sunset!
We finally pulled into Dorabelle campground at 20 past 10 and set up camp. The kids went to sleep immediately and Chris and I settled down on our completely deflated air mattress that had evidently sprung a leak.
A New Day Dawns
After all the frustration of the day before, I woke up feeling incredible. The sun was shining, we had a great camp site, and we were going to spend the day at the lake!
I had grabbed the kids their own camping chairs at Target the day before. [That’s an affiliate link, but they were $12.99 at Target and right now they are $28.74 on Amazon. Shop around! Amazon isn’t always the cheapest anymore.] They loved them and it kept them off our laps during breakfast!
After oatmeal and hot chocolate we explored the cave and rocks behind our campsite. I think the kids would have been OK if we’d stayed here all day!
Chris needed to get some work done, so we headed to town in search of a coffee shop with wifi. We found one that mysteriously has no web presence and I can’t link to it! But if you are in the area it shares a deck with Young’s Sporting Goods and is a little blue building. Here’s the street view on Google Maps.
The Errors
Once Chris was safely caffeinated and plugged in, the kids and I went back to the campsite to pack for a day at the lake. The hike to Osprey Cove was supposed to be a mile with a gentle downhill slope, so I didn’t worry too much about overpacking. I made sure I had lunch, sunscreen, swimsuits, a picnic blanket, a floatie for the lake, the travel potty, and the Tula and away we went.
We got a good start and were all feeling positive, when we encountered the first fallen tree in the path. It wasn’t much so we quickly sidestepped it and continued on our way. The trail appeared to drop from a wide dirt trail to a narrow bent grass trail, but we optimistically continued on until the trail disappeared completely.
Happily content on the well defined path. I had begun to think that the bent grass was never intended to be a path, so I doubled back to the first fallen tree. This time I looked more carefully to see that the path actually continued underneath a whole mess of about 5 fallen trees. Past the brambles, the path looked clear and inviting.
I naively decided to wade through the brambles and take 1 kid with me at a time. It took probably 10 minutes for me to maneuver through with K in the Tula and another 15 to go back and lead HJ by the hand. My ankles got pretty scraped up, but I managed to keep the kids in one piece.
At this point I was proud that I had overcome this obstacle but also pretty sure I’d made a bad decision by even attempting it. I should have continued cross country when the path disappeared and just forced my way in the direction of the lake.
I continued down the path which promptly dead ended into a mess of 20+ fallen trees. At this point I was hot, worried about the kids getting burnt, and there was no shade in sight. My options were to go through this new mess of trees (not happening), go back through the original mess of trees (also, not happening), sit and cry and beg Chris to come rescue us (close, this almost happened), or just cut towards the lake in the most direct route I could find. I chose to cut straight towards the lake which involved climbing over just 1 fallen tree. I left HJ and climbed over the brambles with K in search of some shade. By the time I made it back to her I was fully panicked that she had been eaten by a bear since she’d been by herself probably 3 minutes.
No one was eaten by a bear and the worst HJ and I had was a light dusting of sunburn. Still, I would definitely not do any of that again.
HJ celebrates, we made it past the fallen trees! Shaver Lake!
We took a break for lunch in the shade before we continued onto a trail I had found. We followed it around the lake for awhile before it started veering off into the woods. At this point we just pushed our way through the tall grass to the lake and rejoiced that we had finally made it! That “1 mile gentle downhill” to the lake had taken us 2.5 hours!
Shaver Lake! Now how do we get to it? I’m happy to report that from here out the weekend was smooth sailing! Shaver Lake is beautiful and the weather was phenomenal. We splashed around in the water, sat in our doughnut floatie and, after the initial shock, the water was perfect for swimming!
We could see dozens of little sand beaches around the lake, each with 0-1 families enjoying it! Somehow Shaver Lake has managed to avoid the crazy crowds found so many places in California. There were even empty campsites at Dorabelle this weekend!
Chris joined us after an hour and we dragged our picnic blanket into the shade for family nap time. All four of us slept at least a little and HJ had some quality talks with Daddy once they woke up. They even concocted a plan to float all the way back to the campsite in the doughnut floatie! We didn’t make it the whole way, but it was fun!
On the return trip we walked along the beach until Open Street Map told us we were right in front of our campsite. We just happened to spy a tiny bent grass path which led right into Dorabelle campground! What a difference the route makes!
We spent the evening exploring the rocks around our site, roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, and finally falling asleep under the stars. It was truly a wonderful evening!
Kayaking on Shaver Lake
Sunday morning we made pancakes and hot chocolate before breaking down camp. It always takes so much longer to pack everything up then I imagine, but we were able to be in the car by 9:30. We took the short 5 minute drive to Shaver Lake Watersports at the Marina to rent kayaks. It cost $10 to enter the marina and $25 to rent 2 kayaks for an hour. We chose one single person kayak and one double, and each kid got a turn in both kayaks.
It was the kid’s first kayak trip and they had a great time! The weather was perfect and the water was shining like diamonds with all the sunshine. We took the kids to each of the closest buoys they touch and we landed on a nearby beach to search for subjects to rescue (we were the royal family).
I think we could have stretched this out to a half-day rental, but we wanted to get home early so we loaded up the car and headed down the mountain. The kids fell asleep immediately and we made much better time going home!
Can you spot the lizard in this picture? 
Here he is! 
Even though we had a rough start and some bumps in the road, Shaver Lake was incredible and we had a wonderful weekend. This was our first just-our-family camping trip in California and I’m calling it a success! Check out my post on tips for camping trips with toddlers or my post on tips for beach trips with toddlers for some of the things that helped smooth the bumps in the road!
We like to check out new places, but I’m also scheming how to get back to Shaver Lake before the summer ends! It’s an incredible spot!
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La Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad
We visited La Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad “The Mission of Our Lady of Solitude” this weekend as part of our return from Santa Barbara. We are working on getting to all 21 California Missions and Soledad made #5.
The location was selected primarily to shorten the distance between Missions, it lies between Mission Carmel and Mission San Antonio. So it was never a large mission, but today only the the South Wing and Chapel of the original quadrangle remain. The existing structure was restored in the 1950s but the ruins of the North Wing remain preserved in their original location.
My research is failing to tell me if this is the smallest mission, but it is certainly the smallest we have seen so far.
Soledad was the first Mission we visited without a set donation for visiting the museum. The museum was small, but it did have a great display of all 21 California Missions in diorama.
Before we take the kids into churches we have a little talk about being respectful and quiet because people are worshipping. HJ walked into this chapel, sat meekly in a pew, looked around, and loudly said “No one is worshipping God in here!” I’m just hoping the family that was walking in at the time didn’t hear her.
The altar was beautifully painted, but the highlight for me was the ceiling. So simple but such a statement.
Although the sides and back of the Mission are dusty and dirty, the front is landscaped and full of flowers. Considering the mountain views and imagining California before development, this really isn’t a bad spot for a little Mission.
The backyard includes the graves of Governor Arrillaga and Father Ibanez, the ruins of the North wing, and this fountain. In every direction there are dusty roads and fields with the mountains on the horizon.
After the Mission we stopped at what is becoming our favorite milkshake stop, Lolita’s in Soledad.
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Stop In: Pismo Beach
We made two stops in Pismo Beach this weekend and both were fantastic! I’ve definitely added a full weekend in Pismo Beach to my list of trips I want to take. That list just keeps growing. ?
Sunset over Pismo Beach
Our first stop was Friday night in Spyglass Park. We had been booking it to get to the coast in time for sunset, and we made it just in time! We had just enough time to marvel at the sunset and snap some grainy selfies! The park had a great playground and clean bathrooms so we stayed a little bit even after the sun went down. Once it was too dark to play, we continued to Santa Barbara.
Update: here’s a picture from a stop at Spyglass Park at the end of July. We love to be here at sunset! Breakfast and Beach in Pismo Beach
Sunday night we stayed at a hotel in San Luis Obispo (our lodging situation for this trip was a disaster, that post is coming!) but we ran back to the coast for some breakfast and beach time.
We grabbed our best meal of the trip at Mon Ami. Crepes! It’s hard to mess crepes up, but these were especially yummy with pesto and sauce. The kids shared a Banana Dream with Nutella and whipped cream. There was a beautiful patio to eat on and everyone was happy! We arrived pretty early, but it was crowded when we left so keep that in mind!
From there we just walked down to the beach and set up for a couple hours of fun. The pier was under construction, but the beach was huge!
It started off overcast, but the clouds burned off and it was a beautiful sunny day when we left around 11 am.
The kids dug holes, found little crabs, splashed in the waves, and swung on the swing set. Personally, I made friends with a little girl who wanted to try on HJ’s shoes. ?
One thing that stood out to me was the relative lack of crowds. You can see in the swing picture that there were definitely people there, but it wasn’t wall to wall like I would have expected on a holiday. We had plenty of room to spread out and it was easy to crop people out of my family photos!
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Planning a trip to Pismo (or any other) Beach? Be sure to check out my packing list for visiting the beach with babies or toddlers!
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California Missions: Mission San Miguel
We have been listening to a podcast about California history, and Mission San Miguel came highly recommended. So we were excited to make this our 4th Mission visit on our quest to see all 21 California Missions. K was sleeping when we arrived, so we made this a mother-daughter visit while Chris stayed in the car with him.
I love this sign! You can tell the padres have a sense of humor! 
There aren’t many people in San Miguel, but there are plenty of views! 
Nothing like a little girl with a giant succulent! 
The courtyard when you first walk in is filled with old stone ovens, grist mills, and many antiques I couldn’t identify.
Once we passed through the gift shop, we had a look at the inner courtyard. It was very beautiful and green and had noticeably more lawn then we’ve seen at other Missions. I’m sure it’s not very drought friendly, but I wonder if they keep it this way because they still keep livestock? We did spot some chickens in a mesh enclosure just to the right of this photo.
The museum had a replica kitchen complete with a stone oven and dried herbs hanging from the ceiling. HJ listened to me point things out in this room and was able to identify the other ovens scattered across the property.
There are three bells in the bell tower, and HJ doesn’t think it’s fair that only the padres get to ring them.
The chapel is ornately painted and has an especially beautiful raised pulpit with a dove hanging above. The center of the altar displays the “All Seeing Eye of God.”
When you exit the chapel, the sign will ask you to close the door tightly. I recommend only touching the handle because I got a gigantic splinter by touching the door itself.
The dove is real! I thought it might be a statue at first. 
After we took the tour, we still had to visit the horses we’d seen! There were two mommies with babies in a large enclosure next to the Mission.
She did not want me taking pictures of her foal. It’s an easy Mission to visit since it’s just off Highway 101. The town of San Miguel is tiny, less then 3000 people, but that makes the volunteers who run the museum even more impressive!
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How We Avoid Bay Area Traffic
When we were talking about pro/cons before moving to California, traffic was #1 on the con list. We decided to come out here, on the condition that we would not participate in the Bay Area traffic. We have now been here 3 months and I can safely say that we are not! So how are we doing that?
Driving Less
The biggest way we avoid traffic is just not getting behind the wheel. In NC we were driving 570 miles per week, just getting to and from work.
Here in CA, we’ve dropped down to just 1 car and Chris is biking to work every day. It’s only a 2.7 mile ride so there’s no excuse not to make that trip daily. It’s not like we get a lot of rain or snow here! If we do get some bad weather, he can take the shuttle provided by his work, but that hasn’t come up yet.
3 times a week the kids attend Spanish Immersion Preschool in the mornings and I run them there in the jogging stroller. It’s only 3.6 miles round trip and I’m getting faster! I still mostly walk on the way home and I always drive to pick them up.
Within a mile of our house we have 3 grocery stores, multiple playgrounds, the library, the pool, downtown restaurants, the bank, and the post office. By the time I get the kids in their carseats and go to these place by car, it’s hardly any quicker then walking. During rush hour, it would definitely be slower!
Our church is 2.2 miles away, but so far we’ve always driven, I need to work on that!
Once a week I take the kids to a Mandarin story time at the library in a nearby town. That trip is 15 miles round trip and I grumble about the distance every week! This is the only time I see some traffic during a normal week.
All of this might sound amazing, but it’s available all of the Bay Area! It’s just about the choices you make!
So the main time we drive is when we are searching for adventures: beach, festivals, hiking, trips. We just make sure we schedule these outings for non-traffic hours. For weekend trips we like to wait until 9pm on Friday and then make our move after all the traffic has died down.
Traffic Hacking
All of this has been working great, but Friday I was torn between my desire to get our 3 day weekend started and my horror of sitting in traffic! After pouring over google map projections and train timetables, I finally hatched a plan.
Friday after preschool, the kids and I had no obligations so we hopped in the car and drove to Gilroy. The kids napped on the way and then spent the afternoon playing at the park. We left Menlo Park at 12:54 pm on the Friday before Memorial Day and Google Maps estimated the trip would take us 1 hour and 6 minutes. We hit some traffic and it ended up taking us 1 hour and 19 minutes.
I checked the same route again at 4pm to see how long it would have taken us if we’d waited, 1 hour 44 minutes. If you assume Google was optimistic by 13 minutes again, that’s 38 minutes of savings! Instead of sitting in traffic for 38 minutes, the kids were running wild and free through fields and playgrounds.
Meanwhile, Chris worked until 3:30, biked home, walked to the CalTrain station and took the 3:56 pm train all the way to Gilroy. He has an unlimited CalTrain pass through his work so this option was free, and it got him to Gilroy exactly 1 hour and 32 minutes later. That’s 12 minutes better then Google’s estimate, and 25 minutes if you include the 13 minutes (at least) I think they were optimistic by.
Instead of sitting in traffic, Chris was comfortably cruising along while catching up on some work emails. When he walked off the train, we were waiting with the car gassed up and ready to go!
So what did we do on the way back? We stopped at the beach, we stopped at playgrounds, and ultimately, we sat in traffic. ? Any suggestions would be welcomed!
Wild and free! Not in Bay Area traffic! 
Sitting in his car, but not in traffic! -
Mission Santa Barbara
We continued our quest to visit all 21 California Missions this weekend and crossed 3 off our list! The first one was Mission Santa Barbara where the I Madonnari XXXI Anniversario festival was taking place.
Mission Santa Barbara is the “Queen of the Missions” and its easy to see why as you drive up. The mission is white and pink with beautiful double towers flanked by mountains. The mission is also supposed to have a beautiful view of the ocean, but I’m not sure where this is, maybe the bell towers?
Our tour started in the courtyard where a sign informed us they are renovating the garden to be more drought resistant. Whether or not these improvements had been complete, I wasn’t sure, but the garden was beautiful. They had many cacti planted around the perimeter and K delighted in showing me which ones were pointy.
Passing through the courtyard, the tour then led us to the graveyard. The graveyard itself did not have many graves, but there was a mausoleum in the graveyard. If you want to be buried there, they don’t restrict it to catholics, but rather “All people of faith and goodwill.”
From the graveyard we passed into the chapel which was relatively simply decorated and the chapel was large. The back of chapel had two alcoves feature life sized statues of Biblical events.
The museum displayed relics of the lives led by the Native Americans prior to the Mission period, a display of the kitchen as it existed in Mission times, and many artifacts and artworks depicting the time period. My kids were mostly excited about the historic bell with a sign encouraging touch. They always take full advantage of any opportunity to touch something in a museum.
Magnets From Everywhere
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Magnets From Everywhere 