On Day 2, we drove from Mendocino to North of Arcata with beautiful redwoods along the way. Before we left, we had lunch on a windy (!) beach, where we hid behind a big rock to stay warm. Constraints make the world such a wonderful place! At 2 yo (and 38 and almooost 40) we didn’t need much to entertain ourselves. (Isn’t that what we love about camping anyway?) We made rock mandalas and dug up sand with a plastic rake and shook a whole bunch of rocks in a bucket. What a satisfying hour! Before leaving we had a perfect lunch. We put out a few lawn chairs, popped up the top, made a few sandwiches and crudite, and voila a good time…!

We were satisfied for the next 2 hours of driving. When Ada woke up (and after some wails, songs, book reading subsequently thrown on the ground when finished) — we took our first big break at the redwoods. We walked through a big redwood tree, amazed ourselves with the ‘redwood gift shop’ and its offerings, and ran around a big grassy field tagging trees and playing ‘chase me, chase me!’ where we discovered a bog with dragonflies, and amazingly colored green blue grass. Here’s a few pictures of our redwood stop.

The American family vacation, our iconic picture!

Ada in a big redwood tree

Happy girl on vacation

That night, after a few more hours we arrived at the beautiful Patrick’s Point campground on the coast. Gorgeous! The ocean cliffs were just across the pathway. We were surrounded by beautiful mossy pines. We were so excited… Mainly, because this night, we had gotten wood for a campfire and s’mores, s’mores, s’mores!! Ada would soon know the joys of s’mores. (Okay, she only wanted 1/2 a bite, but I enjoyed the joys myself. Interestingly, I found myself ravenous the whole time. Memories and flashbacks of camping: licorice, pudgie pies sweet and savory, popcorn, pickles, chips, s’mores…. so much of my camping memories are associated with foods. It was hilarious – I could not stop eating!!! Roar!! Good thing, it went away as soon as we got home. Funny how hardwired we/my brain is…)

Ada loved the campfire. It was late. She sat all cuddled up on my lap, wrapped in 2 blankets, wearing her little pom-pom winter hat, practically falling asleep. 10:00pm in the redwoods. A daughter, husband, family, redwoods and s’mores. Life doesn’t get any better!

A video of Ada & Hamid at our campsite:

The view of the sunset and our campsite from our bus: