Thursday, August 09, 2012

Camping Trip

San Onofre State Beach is in northern San Diego County.  Tucked into the coastal area of Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps Base, it is the perfect place to spend a week camping in August, which is where we were last week.

1. We biked every day.  One day we rode north to San Clemente with our lunches.  That was an ambitious trip for me.  But I did it!  The beach views were stunning and fortunately it was easy to be distracted from the many ups and downs of the bike trail by the scenery.


2.  Camping just isn't camping without a campfire.


 And s'mores.


3.  San Onofre is close to San Juan Capistrano which is about 20 miles north past San Clemente.  We decided to tour the old California Mission San Juan Capistrano, famous for its faithful swallows.  Years ago, we had visited the mission but we returned and spent several hours walking around the ruins, gardens, and museum listening to the audio tour guide.  It's just an incredibly beautiful place.


4.  The last evening we were at San Onofre, our youngest daughter MamaMia brought the two little ones up to camp overnight.  Neither child had ever been camping, so they were very excited!  What excited MamaMia most? (not really, but her enthusiasm was obvious!)


"Oh Daddy! Oh Daddy!  Thank you for the booze!"

Note: MamaMia is an adult :)  Nevertheless, I did 'card' her before allowing her to choose her own mini-drink.  It ain't easy bein' a foster mom.

5.   Is there anything more lovely than a beach sunset?


These were the highlights of Willow's Week. It was a great getaway and we returned to Willow's Cottage happy and contented (and a little bit dirty, smokey, and sunburned) and grateful for the opportunity to enjoy one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Here is the link to Friday Fave Five on Susanne's blog Living to Tell the Story.

17 comments:

nikkipolani said...

Oh! Had I known, I'd've waved to you as I drove from Chula Vista. I didn't know there was a campground at San Onofre. Views of the Mission are also lovely.

Tracy said...

S'more and splendid scenery... oh, yeah! ;o) ((HUGS))

Faith said...

WOW....you visited one of the places I have on my "places to see" list...the Mission where the swallows go..i have ALWAYS wanted to go there but being out here on the East Coast...ugh...don't know when that'll happen! and we used to camp ALL THE TIME until we sold our pop-up camper last spring. We would go for a week or just 3 day weekends...we all loved it! (til my girls hit their teens..lol....). Well it sounds like you had an amazing week! have a great weekend!! (those smores and drinks.....YUM!!)

Barbara H. said...

I'm not a camper at heart, but my husband loves it. That scenery is just gorgeous.

Brenda said...

Ahhh, I love all of your pictures of beautiful SoCal. Looks like such a restful restorative trip.

roxie said...

You da gurl! You do so much better than I do with camping. And what a wonderful place and time to go. Good on you.

Thank you, thank you for sharing with us.

ellen b. said...

Sounds like a perfect week for you...the beach and bike rides. We used to camp at San Clemente when I was young. I remember being there when the Grunion were running.

Susanne said...

They are gorgeous and I would love to be distracted by scenery like that while biking! I am now craving smores.

Laura@OutnumberedMom said...

We have a friend who lives in San Juan Capistrano -- it is SO beautiful. This sounds like such a fun week. Love that mission statement below, too.

Thanks for your email, and have a great week ahead!

Dorothy said...

I love camping and yours camping trip sounds perfect!

Annette Whipple said...

The Mission looks incredible...and sounds like quite the story, too!

Good for you to do all of that biking. It's tough, but worth it.

Have another great week!

Gattina said...

Looks as if you had or have a wonderful trip !

Bethany said...

What a perfect way to spend a week! I'm so happy you got to do that and your photos are really great!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

What a lovely trip! Visiting tghe Mission at San Juan Capistrano was the highlight of our California trip last year --I fell in love with it! I never finished blogging about that trip and will have to follow up one day. My Mother's passing caused me to stop and I never got back to it. We traveled up the coast from SD to SF. I was about to blog about the Hearst Castle....someday I will! :)

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

How cool that you got to be there when the kids camped for the first time! That's such a priceless memory. I love your shots of the coastal terrain. It makes me wish I had some time off to go and explore too.

Cindy

Aqeela said...

You have taken some beautiful photographs, looks like a lovely break away. We dont have s'mores here in England but i hear American bloggers mention them often, what exactly are they?
Aqeela xx

Barbara said...

I agree a beautiful spot for camping and did you swim?

How I remember the Smores around the fire at summer camp in North Carolina.