Monday, July 18, 2011

Camping At Van Damme

This weekend we went camping at Van Damme State Park near Fort Bragg. This used to be my absolute favorite place in the world. I must say that I still really like it there but I've found many places that I like more.


Van Damme is across the street from the ocean so there tends to be very little sunshine and lots of fog and it can get quite cold and windy. The afternoon we arrived was one of those cold, foggy afternoons. We immediately put on sweatshirts and fixed some hot cocoa.




We were camped on the upper circle of the campground and took many walks 'around the circle' scoping out campsites for future trips, counting banana slugs and just enjoying family time.

I don't know what it is about this area, but banana slugs are plentiful and the kids loved playing with them and collecting them. Who knew that banana slugs eat paper?!?! The papers hung on every information board had big, ragged chunks out of them.



One good thing about Van Damme is that there is quite a variety of activities available in the area. We drove checked out the other campgrounds in the area (If you ever want to check out my camping binder or get information about campsites, let me know!), walked the boardwalk at MacKerricher State Park and saw the tide pools, seals and squirrels,




Check out all of the squirrel holes in the side of the cliff... They must have one fancy house going on behind those walls! And who knew that squirrels eat flowers? That astounds me about as much as the paper eating banana slugs!


On Sunday we were blessed with AMAZING weather! The skies were bright blue and sunny and it was warm. I didn't put a sweatshirt on all day. Even sitting by the fire that night the skies were clear and you could see a million stars. I had been a bit worried about the fog and the mist and how wet everything would be packing up Monday morning, but with this sunshine and clear skies at bedtime, I was convinced that we'd be able to get up the next morning and leisurely pack up our DRY gear.


Unfortunately I awoke Monday morning to the drip, drip, drip of rain or a VERY heavy mist. I jumped out of bed and realized what was going on. Not knowing how long this rain/mist would last and not wanting to pack our gear in the rain, I woke B and the kids and we rushed to dry stuff of and get packed up. We had camp dismantled, packed up and were on the road in record time, just under an hour!

We still had some drying out to do when we got home, but I know it was MUCH better than it could have been!



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