Around Cape St Martin, north of San Simeon, we happened upon heaps of cars and RV’s parked. Figuring that there must be something worth looking at, we stopped and discovered hundreds of Elephant Seals. Whilst watching the juvenile Elephant Seals playing, flicking sand and sun bathing, we met three Aussies. Two (Amy and Nicole) were on holiday from Melbourne and were being shown around by Di (who came from Australia, but had been living in LA for many, many years). She knew the sights and had inside knowledge of places to see. We took some photos of them for our blog, as well as Kit and Chayse feeding squirrels, but when we got back to the van, realised we had lost them all. So back out to the Elephant Seals Kaitlin and Trev went (to get some last minute photos).

An interesting fact about an Elephant seal is that the juveniles come in to the shore whilst the adults spend 8-10 months of the year in the deep ocean fattening up for the breeding season. They can dive 1000 to 5000 feet deep for periods of 15 minutes to two hours. They migrate thousands of miles, twice a year. They come to shore to breed, molt and rest.

Kaitlin even had a very friendly squirrel jump onto her lap. There were signs telling people not to feed the animals, but it was evident from the size of the squirrel that people ignored this sign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on past Hearst Castle (which I think we would have loved, but a fair hike for the young ones (and maybe not so exciting for them). We saw San Luis Obisapo, passed Santa Maria through to Santa Barbara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to do some shopping at Carpinteria, then realised how late it was getting, so made our way to Carpinteria State Beach. We were literally camped right on the beach. About 10pm that night, Trev couldn’t find his Visa Card and thought perhaps he had left it at the shopping centre, so we pulled all the slideouts in and went off to look for it. It must have looked very funny with 6 kids running around the carpark at night looking for a Visa Card. No luck, so drove back to site only to have Jai “discover” that he had removed it accidentally from dad’s wallet earlier when getting some money out. At least the kids could sleep now that their little adventure was over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning heralded blue skies, frolicking seals and young surfers braving the water across from our camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids all put on bathers (in contrast to their Aunty Lynda, Uncle Alan and Cousin Scarlett who were rugged up from the snow in Pennsylvania!) Our kids found some other kids to play with and soon we enjoyed some peace and quiet in our deck chairs watching them playing on the beach and in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They say that the best way to meet people sometimes is through your kids…………..and how true this was for us. Our kids had befriended Nick, Mitchell, Olivia and Lucas. So, in turn, we got to meet their parents Chris and Darnell. What a blessing this was, as they turned out to be an absolutely beautiful family who we thoroughly enjoyed being with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids got along famously and found many things to do on the beach……none of them involving electronics!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They invited us over after dinner to share some ice-cream with their family. We made a cake (because it was Chris’s birthday) and took it along. We had a lovely evening eating cake and ice-cream and getting to know our new friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s funny how the Universe has a way of guiding you in the right direction. (We had only planned to stay one night, but Trev had got the checkout times wrong, so we ended up staying for another night.) Had we not done that, we would never have met the Martinov family and made what would later prove to be a friendship that was meant to be! We organised to see Chris, Darnell and the kids on our first day at Disneyland, then were on our way.

We had a few things to take care of in town, then drove onto Malibu RV Park in Malibu (via the Canyon). It was very different going from the seaside town of Carpinteria to very busy Mailbu. But more of that in our next blog…….

 

We interrupt this normal broadcast of blogging due to a breaking news story! Chayse Howitt, part of an Australian  family of 9, travelling America, has reached another milestone. Today, on the 14th November, he has turned 4!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This young boy, Chayse Camden Howitt, celebrated his birthday in Escondido, San Diego after enjoying a day at the San Diego Safari Park yesterday. He started his day with pancakes, cooked by his oldest sister, Kaitlin. From there his other sister Amber, and older brother Kit, entertained him in the heated swimming pool with proud dad, Trevor, looking on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chayse was presented with a cake fit for a four year old, also cooked and decorated by his oldest sister. The candles took a while to blow out, as he did them one at a time, but other than a few spurts of saliva on the cake, the procedure was completed without any major mishaps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main finale, the opening of the presents, was completed with precision-like timing and all presents were opened and accounted for within 15 minutes. The cards were read  and with a careful look between the pages in case something called money appeared within.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No party can be complete without tasting the birthday cake. Luckily it was big enough for all members of Chayse’s family to have a piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chayse was then taken for a tour of the shops at his older sister’s insistence and he had the opportunity to buy something special for his birthday with the generous donations given by family members still living in Australia. Whilst he didn’t spend it all, he managed to field off intense suggestions from his brothers and sisters as to what “they” thought he should spend his money on. After much deliberation, he bought a small remote control car that can spin forwards and backwards and even do jumps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of Chayse’s celebrations included a family meal at the Food Court at the Mall. He was given a huge range of foods to choose from, but opted for the humble hotdog. What seemed to be a litre of Sprite, was successfully swallowed and finished in record time, to the detriment of the awaiting hotdog and wedges. His parents breathed a sigh of relief that this episode only happens once a year.

So, until the next birthday (which happens to be his sister Amber, in January), Chayse’s family can once again get back to some sense of normality in their RV trip around the USA.

We thank you for watching our “breaking” news story  and will now return you to your normal blogging broadcast……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well here we are in Santa Cruz. There were some nice homes in this area leading to famous Santa Cruz pier. Many of the rides were not operating as their busy Summer season was over, but our kids didn’t care as they had fun playing in the Game Centre. They even roped us into having a few games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trev found some “old” style games such as Pacman and Space Invaders (there will be quite a few among you who remember those first video games). Our kids had NO idea what Trev was talking about. Some of us had fun riding machines, others shooting targets and others still finding out what their “pretend” child would look like if they were matched!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others had too much fun and forgot to let us know when they needed to go to the toilet! (Have you ever tried to “discreetly” clean up a mess without drawing attention to what you were doing!?) Try it sometime. It’s F-U-N (not!)  Mmmmmmmmmmmm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked past the Volleyball on the beaches and onto the Pier. This was a lot busier (so I could just imagine it in Summer!) There was a lot of excitement out in the ocean as people spotted a whale. Some tried to get a closer look on their yachts and paddle boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were content to watch from the jetty and have closer looks at the seals sunning themselves below. We had fish and chips on the Pier before heading back to the RV to find a camp ground for the night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at Santa Cruz RV Park and met some lovely people just as we were leaving the next day. We had a good chat with Bob and Laurie and found they were very knowledgeable about California and what there is to see and do here. We were almost tempted to stay another night just to spend some more time with them, but alas, the road beckoned. (In other words we had already packed up and the kids were ready for the next leg of our journey).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove south and stopped at a place Bob and Laurie had mentioned, called Moss Landing. There was a wonderful fruit market there (and we bought about 7 bags full!) That would get us by for a day or two! We also sampled their yummy smoothies and with full bellies, then travelled onto Monteray, where we stopped for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled along a very scenic and beautiful coastline, until we came to a campground that sat atop a cliff and looked over a gorgeous view of the bay. It was Limekiln State Campsite, so very cheap. The only downside is that it’s first in, first served. We met a German guy who told us that this was a very popular site and hard to get into. (We must have been very lucky). The sites weren’t powered so we enjoyed the campfire in the evening (after going for a walk) and we played board games in the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the “Great Spur” area and enjoyed lovely scenery on our way down the coast.

Our next blog brings new sights and experiences and more importantly new friends…………Until then……………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did the touristy thing in this blog. We drove through the Avenue of the Giants, beautiful Redwood country. They really are magnificent trees. And it was great to be able to see these forests up close and personal. Anyone thinking of visiting California really must come along the coast because it is just beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were many touristy places to see, most of them costing money, even if it was just a donation. But we didn’t mind.This is the livelihood of the folks that live around here. One of the first attractions was the “Eternal Tree.

This one-time giant of nature has endured over 2,500 years before being reduced to a surviving stump. The still-living stump contained a huge cavern caused by fire centuries ago that had been used first by Indians and later trappers, hunters, travellers and their livestock for shelter. In the early 1900s, Harry McLeod, an expert wood splitter hewed out the interior with an ax and adze. The 20-foot room was refined in 1950 and a gift shop was established inside the stump.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later we stopped off at the drive through tree, which in this day and age of conservation, wouldn’t have been allowed, but this particular tourist attraction has been going for over 30 years. Our RV wouldn’t fit through the tree, so we all walked around and through. The guy running this little enterprise also carves his own animals and furniture and talked to us how he went about that. The chainsaw is only the first part, then things get a lot more intricate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Shrine Drive – Thru tree was around 5000 years old, was 275 ft and can be found at Myers Flat in California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were other great carvings and tree houses, which we would really like in our backyard. The inside provided lots of entertainment for the kids to climb up. Even Akaisha (who hadn’t been well got into the action.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaitlin was keen to see the Log house which had been hollowed out in 1946 from a single log. The famous One-Log House was created from a redwood tree over 2100 years old! This section alone weighed 42 tons. It took two men eight months of hard labor to hollow out a room 7 feet high and 32 feet long. Enough chips came out of it to build a five-bedroom house! This special log home includes living, dining, & bedroom areas just like any other trailer or motor home.

Another amazing thing about this “house” is that its actually on wheels. Art Schmock, the creator, intended to have it tour across the country but ran into problems because of its size so it rested in Clam Beach for a time, then the town of Leggett for 25 years, and then twenty-three years in Phillipsville. Ready to travel again, it moved in 1999 to its current home on US Highway 101 just south of Garberville near Richardson’s Grove State Park just on the edge of the Humboldt county/Mendocino county line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped for lunch on the coast where a little river ran into the ocean. It was very scenic and we stayed for quite a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trevor organised a boat race with the winner being the first to reach the ocean. Boats had to be made of natural material found on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a KOA campsite at Westport. It was right on the beach and had WiFi (fulfilling two of our major requirements when searching for a campground) The kids found a new friend (Colleen) and spent their time playing chasey on the beach and lighting campfires.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on to Fort Bragg where we visited a Pharmacy for Akaisha. No joy there, so I rang a NIS (Neuro Integration Systems) Practitioner and found one fairly close by. It would mean though, that we’d have to leave the coast and travel inland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So inland we went. Unbeknownst to us, our journey was to take us through the Napa Valley (wine region). Whilst this might excite some (and ordinarily Trev and I), travelling with 7 kids wasn’t the best recipe for visiting wineries. Oh, well. Another time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed towards Anguin where a Practitioner called Lynn Sander worked. We cut through Albion and Cloverdale, but stopped at Calistoga for lunch. We arrived at Anguin and the Practitioner worked on Akaisha for over an hour. She had a viral and a bacterial infection (and had been very out of sorts). The next morning, Akaisha was a different baby. Yay! Now we could get back to enjoying the trip instead of worrying about her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We camped at Petalyma KOA which was North San Francisco. We drove past the city (after having breakfast at Denny’s) and headed towards Santa Cruz, which will be the subject of my next blog! Until then….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following is Trev’s account of our experience.

We were camping right on the beach at the base of a hill in a little town that was near a town that was smashed by a tsunami in 1964 killing 12 people. This was all due to an earth quake in Canada. Our camp ground also sat just below the town’s fire station. So in the early hours of the morning, we awoke with a jolt when very loud sirens went off.

Cathy jumped up in major panic and yelled, “A tsunami is coming! We got to get out of here!” … and she was dinkom!

Well you can imagine what panic that caused in the RV. Kaitlin jumped out of bed as fast as lightning and started pulling in the slide outs on the van (now Kaitlin is usually the last out of bed!). Flynn almost fell from his bunk looking for somewhere to run and all the other kids sat starry eyed wondering what was going on and why their mother was frantically running around.

Cathy yelled at me to get out of bed which I did in a hurry. (now that was something as I had badly bruised my ribs the day before trying to sand board and my body was in pain). I tumbled outside to see what was going on.

We had kids’ bikes and skateboards everywhere and all our cables, hoses and septics were plugged in, so I had to make sure Cathy didn’t drive off with everything in disarray. Nobody in the neighbouring vans seemed alarmed. In fact, apart from the siren, all was calm.

Suddenly the siren stopped and you could hear a mass of police and ambulance sirens heading off out of town (obviously an accident down the road). The ocean was as flat as a pancake.

There wasn’t going to be a tsunami today! By Trev

 

 

 

 

 

 

So………..in my defence………….when you see signs like the one at the top of the blog everywhere, read about the neighbouring town being destroyed by a tsunami in 1964, park 200 metres from a beach in a low lying area, dream of tsunamis all night, then get woken with a start with a tremendously loud siren blasting 3 times, I think I can be forgiven for jumping out of bed at 100 mile an hour and yelling at the family to wake up and go as a tsunami’s coming!

But, thankfully…………..a false alarm! It was funny afterwards to remember the faces of everyone as I raced around moving things so the slide-outs could go in, and we could hightail it out of there! Honestly, we have never seen Kaitlin move so fast (maybe even faster than me)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left this area, stopped at Brookings for morning tea. It was great travelling along the coastline – much more interesting than travelling the highway. We passed through the Oregon border into California and so started our journey down the California Coast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The visitor Centre is nearly always the first port of call when we go into a new state and this was no different. Luckily, there was a lovely playground to keep the kids busy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped along the way and found another colony of sea lions. This time Trev got up close and personal to get the “perfect” shot. The kids followed him for a while, but then the smell got too much for them and they left him to watch from the comfort of the RV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled further towards a town called Klamath. On the way we drove up a steep, but scenic road to see if we could spot the Grey Whale migration. To our disappointment, we didn’t see any (although Chayse insisted that the “rocks” were really the whales and that we had a really good view!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the evening was drawing near, we set up camp at a very scenic spot in Klamath. Whilst it didn’t have all the facilities we needed, the view more than compensated and the kids had fun playing the Horse Shoe game which is like Aussie Coyts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back into town which seemed to be an Indian community and visited the Indian Museum and Mystery of the Trees. It had some great icons outside of the building, and we managed to spend around an hour inside learning the history of the native Indians in this area and other parts of America. It was touristy, but very well set up. We also loved the signs made of natural materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on until we reached the Redwood National Park. Redwood trees are supposed to be the tallest trees in the world. They can reach over 350 feet in height and can live for up to two and a half thousand years. We had to bypass the actual drive that went on for a few miles as a huge Redwood tree had fallen across the tourist drive and would take over a week to clear. We came in from the other end at the Elk Prairie Visitor Centre in the State Park. There were several trails visitors could take to really get a feel for the forest and the magnificent trees, and we chose what we thought was a simple one so we could take the pram (or stroller as it is called in the US). The Forestry Department won’t tell people where the tallest trees are in the forests as they have a shallow root system and would probably die if tourists found them. But the ones we saw were pretty tall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst on our walk, we couldn’t work out why we were the only ones on the trail. We even saw signs saying to only come this way in Summer, but on we went. Then we came to a dead end and found out why this trail is best in summer only……….there was a little river blocking our path. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but we had the pram with us, the water was thigh high on Trevor and the water was freezing! So Trev found the shallowest part (which didn’t have an actual  path to the water’s edge.) We managed to fight our way through the undergrowth, roll up our trousers and walk through the water at it’s shallowest point. I’m sure all of this took just as long as if we’d turned around and found another trail route, but Trev insisted on us having an “adventurous spirit”, so across we went!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it and continued our walk through the forest. It would have been nice to see the tallest tree in all it’s glory, but the trees we saw were good enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We camped nearby Redwood town and met the first Aussies we have seen on our travels so far (two girls working in Canada).

The next part of our journey takes us through some more touristy Redwood tree icons and a campsite on the beach. From there we go inland on my search for a Natural Practitioner to help Akaisha as she wasn’t very well. But more of that in our next blog. Until then…………………