We arrived back in Oceanside on Wednesday, September 8th, and checked in to Woods Valley Kampground in Valley Center, CA. Not our first choice but sometimes our only option. Our arrival was the start of 2-ish months in Southern California. My volunteer commitments were spaced with a week between each. The week we arrived, I had a golf committee meeting; the next day, we had food distribution. The following week, we had no commitments, and the week after, we were volunteering for Sicily in September. A dinner fundraiser where the winner of the 8th season of the TV show MasterChef, Dino Luciano, and 15-ish active duty Navy/Marines cook dinner for the guests. The second week of October held my last golf committee meeting, the online auction piece of the golf tournament I was in charge of, food distribution, and the golf tournament on the 22nd. November was another golf tournament we were volunteering for but had nothing to do with putting together.
We started our visit at Don’s Country Kitchen in Oceanside, our go-to breakfast and lunch spot whenever we are in town. The food is delicious, the servers are fantastic, and the owners became friends. While eating breakfast one morning, we learned that one of the owners was playing percussions for a play at the Moonlight Amphitheatre. They invited us to Friends and Family Night for the dress rehearsal. We met them there and enjoyed a lovely evening with lovely people while tapping our feet to the beats of On Your Feet: The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan. The show was toe-tappingly good.
With time to spare, we visited Channel Islands National Park. We booked a room at the Hampton Inn at Channel Islands Harbor for a night and set off for an adventure. We had tickets to the islands for the 21st, so on Monday, September 20th, we moseyed over to Ventura Harbor to visit the Channel Islands Visitor Center and a stroll through the harbor after checking in to the hotel. While strolling the harbor, we found Top This Chocolate, and Liv exclaimed, “It’s like a real-life Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!” as we entered. The girls made their own candy bars, then we set out in search of real food. We climbed the stairs for a late lunch at Margarita Villa and enjoyed a meal overlooking the harbor. I also received a call from the Executive Director at VANC with the news that we had to postpone MasterChef.
Tuesday morning, we made our way back to Ventura Harbor to ride to the Channel Islands. We would have a few hours at Santa Cruz and a few hours at Anacapa. First stop, Santa Cruz Island. On the way, we enjoyed a ton of dolphins around the boat. When we arrived, we were met by a park ranger who went over the rules. The National Park is only about a quarter of the island, and The Nature Conservancy owns a large portion. We chose to hike toward Pelican Bay, knowing we were not likely to make it in the time we had. Part of this hike is on The Nature Conservancy land and typically requires a guide. Due to COVID-19, they allowed the guides to stay on the trail but allowed each party to travel at their own pace to keep social distance. We made it through many uphills, switchbacks, rock scrambling, and beautiful views before needing to turn around to meet our ride. We stopped for a snack on the island’s shore while waiting for the boat to board.
When everyone boarded, we set off for Anacapa Island. When we made it to the cove with the dock, a concrete platform with short ladders we would be required to climb. The Captain wasn’t sure he would allow us to get off the boat. I don’t know anything about boating, but I know that cove seems really small for that big boat. He was afraid that he would let us off, but we wouldn’t be able to get back on to go home. In the end, he let us off. Getting off required climbing that short ladder I mentioned while the boat rocked in the waves. Not a slight rocking. More like hurry up if you don’t want to get caught between the boat and the ladder. Then, we had to climb the 150 stairs to get to the island’s top and begin our hike. There was a heavy fog surrounding the island, and we couldn’t even see the ocean over the cliffs. We could hear the foghorn and see a few birds when they were close enough. Boarding the boat was a little more exciting than disembarking. About half of us made it on the boat, and the Captain had to back out and take another go at it before boarding the rest of the passengers. Dolphins joined us for part of the trip back to the harbor, then we drove back to our home in Valley Center.
October was an event-filled month. It started with a hike at Volcan Mountain in Julian, CA, with our friend David. As we neared our car at the end, the apple orchard owners were out taking care of their trees and tossed each of us the most delicious, freshest apple I’ve ever had. After a long hike, we refueled with food and a flight at Julian Hard Cider. As we ate, David raved about the apple pie and vanilla ice cream at Julian Apple Pie Company, so of course, we had to stop for dessert. The next day, we installed our new 21-foot awning to replace the one we lost to the wind. If you’re reading this, thank you for your help, Richard. Three girls and Tom aren’t always tall enough and/or strong enough to complete what we think we can. We couldn’t have completed it without your help. It was tall, long, and heavy. We had a hard time holding it against the RV while Tom screwed it in. We went from manual to electric, and I’m glad we upgraded.
October was also the biggest month for our monthly volunteer commitment. The golf tournament we had been planning all year occurred on October 22nd. The online auction was my responsibility, and that ran from October 8th through the afternoon of our tournament. The entire event was a huge success raising around $43,000 for the Veterans Association of North County. With the golf tournament behind us and relaxing on our minds, we ventured over to Rancho Guajome Adobe for Tierra Caliente Academy of Arts’ Dia de Los Muertos event. We watched many talented dancers and viewed altars created in the adobe.
When moving between campgrounds, we discovered an issue with our airbags and made an appointment to have them looked at/fixed. Since we had to find a hotel room anyway, why not find one in a fun place? So I booked us a yurt just outside Yosemite National Park for 2 nights. We arrived at the shop to drop off our home; the manager came out to look and determined he couldn’t fix it. He got on the phone with another local shop, and they could work us in. It might take an extra day, so we would need to find sleeping accommodations for one more night. With our home finally dropped off, we took off for Yosemite. We arrived later than we were hoping, checked in, and set off for The Rush Creek Tavern to enjoy a delicious dinner. The next day, we discovered we didn’t miss fall. The colors were all over. The waterfalls were flowing, and we got to explore a beautiful park. On our way home, we stopped overnight in Santa Clarita.
November brought our MasterChef fundraiser with VANC and an end to our 8-month road trip to Galveston, TX.
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