California baby! (including San Fran, Yosemite and Carmel)

So we left Vancouver Island and our lovely NCT friends 3 weeks ago and it seems like such a long time. They showed us what an amazing lifestyle one can achieve with the help of deserted beaches, a kayak and multiple snacks. We are now working our way down the Californian coast stopping in various beautiful places along the way and I thought it best time to update my records and anyone who is interested by what we’ve been up to.

Firstly I need to apologise to the tiny little old lady who happened to go past us at the security gate at Vancouver Island airport just as Emmeline let rip with one of her characteristic high pitched screams for some reason or another. I will always remember her utterance of ‘Mother of God!’ as her left ear drum burst. It sounded so Canadian and just like I imagine Marilla Cutherbert spoke in Anne of Green Gables. Anyway our 17 minute flight to Vancouver was mercifully short and uneventful and we then arrived in San Francisco a few hours later.

I chose an Airbnb in a place called Muir Beach which is about 3 miles from Muir Woods, home of the stunning and absolutely enormous Californian Redwoods. They really are freakishly tall and awe inspiring and we managed to spend about 2 hours walking around on the boardwalks. You have to book your parking in advance (this trip is really testing my forward planning skills) and obviously the only slot available was at 8.30am when I booked it the night before. Not really a problem since the kids haven’t slept past 6.30am since we got here. So we rock up along with quite a few others to spend some time there. The problem with that time is clearly those who are that keen to be there so early have decided to do so on account of the peace and quiet. WRONG. Not so on Monday 9th September folks when the Greens are in Muir Woods town! We scrapped and screached and fought our way around the peace and serenity that is this ancient woodland. There was even a sign that said something along the lines of ‘please observe a low level of noise in order to best enjoy the sounds of nature’ FML! Anyway whatevs, this is the soundtrack to the trip and the trees were beautiful so I’m glad we went.Muir Beach is also stunning and our Airbnb was a little 2 bedroom beach house right on the beach. We could walk or scoot in Sebby’s case along the board walk straight onto the beach which we did loads. The sea was freezing and super windy so we found a little lagoon at the back of the beach that the kids could splash and swim in. The big waves kind of freak me out and luckily Willow saw a sign warning about sharks and Sebby got dumped by a wave so their desire to sink off into the sunset on each beach we get to seems to have been temporarily quashed which is far more relaxing for me.

After poo and bear spray gate, I was hoping for a bit of a reprieve from stressful blog fodder incidents and all was looking well until we went to collect our car from the car park near Pier 33 following a most successful trip to Alcatraz. (Willow got her first National Parks Junior Ranger badge and was sworn in so she was very chuffed).

Anyway, again I booked a super early trip to Alcatraz and so we found ourselves in said car park at 8.15am ready to catch our 9.15am boat to Alcatraz. Suffice to say there weren’t many other cars then so we sailed into an available space tucked nicely away to the side. Kids were getting a little tetchy by the time we got back to the car so we were keen to leave and get going to induce some car nap time. The vehicle gods could obviously smell our desperation so decided it was high time to make sure people had parked either side and in front of us (within their designated bays) but close enough that our large 4 x 4 literally could not come out of the space . It did not matter how much we inched backwards and forwards, slight turn this way and that. Kids going mental, me running from the front to the back of the car, ‘nudging’ the cars in our bid to exit. After about 25 minutes, we admitted defeat and I had to go and tell the car park dude that perhaps we had overestimated our ability to handle an American size car. Literally the nicest man in the world told us to remove all children and he spent 30 minutes going forwards and backwards on tiny little angle differences and finally managed to get the car out. He triumphantly got out of the car and announced smiling ‘there’s no way you’d have been able to do that’. Sir, I could have kissed you and entirely agree with your summary of the situation. The beneficiary of this incident (apart from the amazing parking man who we tipped) was the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Francisco who have a car park with valet service. The next day we merrily handed over our car keys and trotted off to dim sum safe in the knowledge that for the princely sum of $30 dollars (£25 sob!), extracting ones car from a car park is someone else’s problem! FYI it’s seriously expensive with the crap dollar exchange rate here. We need to get to Asia asap.

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So we left San Francisco, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and the ridiculously steep hills that it should be illegal to push buggies up and headed to Yosemite…

I have so much to say about Yosemite and I feel like I’ll be judged if I don’t mention first of all how utterly stunning it is. It’s also a bloody long drive (for a Brit with three kids to entertain). It really is rugged and enormous and the views are nothing like you’d ever see even in the most beautiful bits of the UK. That being said, it was pretty hardcore to take the three kids camping there for 4 nights in unheated tented cabins. We aren’t really a camping family. As in we have never been camping. My advice would definitely be do 2 nights not 4. That being said, it is an experience I wouldn’t have missed as the kids loved it even though they woke up every morning being able to see their breathe in the tent. My memories (some favourite, some less so) are as follows:

Hiring bikes and cycling through Yosemite Valley with the little kids in a trailer having an alfresco nap and waking up at the Merced River for a picnic and swim

Surviving 4 nights in a tent where the early rising smallest Greens managed to stay reasonably inaudible during quiet hours (10pm-6am)

Andy cracking a smile only after we’d been there over 24 hours. Horrified.com!

Kids grubbing around in the dirt from morning until night

Communal eating in Curry Village dining room and negotiating communal showers with a 3 year old and 1 year old who had never had a shower

Muchos deep fried food and resultant dodgy tummies in communal loo blocks

I also had a fight with a family in the next door tent who thought it was socially acceptable to have their kids play hide and seek under our tent at 9.30pm. Not cool.

But in spite of the above, I can highly recommend camping in Yosemite or one of the other National Parks but I’d defo say do it for 2 nights and maybe pick a slightly warmer time of year unless your kids want to experience sleeping in every single item of clothing they own! On re-reading the above, it sounds like some sort of paediatric endurance test for both kids and adults but it was genuinely fun and I am so pleased we got to experience it. Home schooling lesson for Willow was Bear box management which she took very seriously. Absolutely no food in the tents. I was reprimanded every time I lobbed Cheerios in Emmeline’s direction in a bid to keep her quiet until 6am. No bears were seen but plenty of deer and squirrels.

And so we moved onto Carmel which I’ll write about on another occasion as kids have finished napping and are starting to go feral (again)

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PS I have worked out how to put images on the post now via the laptop. Good times!