Wander 002 - Felton, CA (near Santa Cruz)

August 24-26, 2012

Our second trip!  And... Hank's first :)  Hank's not one to "rough it" so he was grateful for the comforts of home.

We stayed at Smithwoods RV Park in Felton, CA.  It was a nice park tucked inside a redwood grove... but there were A LOT of other trailers.  Our spot was very small (as you can see from the picture).  I think we may need to start "exaggerating" the size of our trailer when we make reservations so we can have a little breathing room at RV parks!  Who knew!

I've developed a little morning ritual on our trips.  I usually wake up before Brian so I get up, make a pot of coffee and cuddle up in the front of the trailer and enjoy the view out the front window.  I've decided to start snaping a picture of that front window view as a way of commemorating those lovely quiet moments.  Here's the first:

Not bad!

On Saturday, after enjoying our coffee, we got up headed to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park for a hike:

There is a display of a very very old redwood tree.  When it fell it was one of the oldest known coast redwoods.  It began growing more than 2000 years ago!  The display includes labels on the rings to mark significant world events such as the Declaration of Independence and the Civil War.  Fascinating!

We also stumbled on a charming tourist trap called Roaring Camp.  I'm sure the pictures will speak for themselves.

On our way out of the park we walked by what appeared to be some sort of dress rehearsal.  We deduced that it was some sort of thank you celebration for the volunteers and donors to the park.  This was the park staff, dressed in their disco best, dancing and singing along to disco classics.  Hilarious.

Back and camp for the evening.  Beautiful redwoods towering over our little trailer!

Messing around with the camera...

Hank has never been a fan of cold weather...

Cozy dog...

So cozy he doesn't notice that we put a big chunk of grilled chicken a few inches from his nose...

So cold he doesn't even want come out of his covers to drink!  Poor privileged dude :) 

Cozy moment on Sunday morning before it's time to pack up and head home:

Made a quick stop on the way home and I noticed these signs... lucky for the neon sign maker that donuts and bagels are the same shape!  Ha!

Another fun trip in the bag!  Next time we'll try our hands at "Dry Camping".  We're headed to our favorite camping spot, Gualala.  No RV hookups or services.  We'll see how that goes :)

Trailerlove - BEFORE!

I decided to take a bunch of photos of the interior of the trailer now.  As I make changes I'll post updates.  Here he is in all of her stock glory:

I've already made one immediately necessary change:  I tore out and tossed these horrible mock curtains!

Looks better already!

Wander 001 - Sonoma County Wine Country

August 10-12, 2012

Friday, August 10th was my birthday and, as luck would have it, it was also the day we got to pick up the new trailer.  Before the trailer was a twinkle in our eyes, we'd planned on heading to Sonoma for my birthday weekend.  But, as soon as we found out we'd be picking up the trailer on that day we knew we had to change our plans.  So we canceled the cozy luxury suite in Sonoma (the city), and started looking for a place to take the trailer in Sonoma county wine country. 

For our first trip we decided we wanted to stay somewhere with full hook-ups so we could really get into the RV experience.  But... we were trying to make reservations last minute, which turned out to be somewhat of a challenge.  Thankfully we found a KOA with plenty of room for us.

The Wine Country KOA!
 

A KOA wouldn't have been our first choice, but we had a great time.  Our spot was a bit small, but thankfully no one was in the spot next to us so we were able to spread out a bit. 

On Saturday we ventured into Geyserville for wine tasting. 

First stop: Meeker.  Delicious!  We'll definitely find our way back here someday.  The tasting room is located in an old (very old) bank.  They use the vault for wine storage!  The most memorable wine we tasted that day was a white dessert wine.

Next stop was Diavola pizzeria for lunch.  The pizza was tasty, but the BREADSTICKS!  Oh the breadsticks.  Skinny little things of beauty. 

After lunch I wandered through a few antique shops.

At one of the stores I found this little gem:

Our next wine tasting stop was Route 128.  Fun place to stop, but we weren't that excited about the wines.  

Our final wine stop was so great I wish we'd gone there first!  Locals is a tasting room that represents 11 local wineries.  There is no other way to describe our experience than saying it was a journey.  The server poured four tastes for us and asked us which we liked best.  Based on our answer he poured four more tastes.  Again he asked which was our favorite and poured four more tastes based on our answer.  It went on like this until he'd helped us identify several bottles that we really really enjoyed.  So fun!

After a day full of tasting we headed back to the campsite to relax.

On Sunday we stopped in Healdsburg so we could have lunch at Bear Republic. 

Pulling our new toy across the beautiful Goldengate! 

 Our little beauty parked in front of our house for the first time.  Here's to many more adventures.