Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Camping at Jalama Beach

We like to take one camping trip each year. I'm sure my husband would go once a month if he could, but I can't handle that much roughin' it, so we have settled into our once a year tradition nicely. We left on Thursday morning with our two dogs and headed to Santa Barbara where we ate at Crush Cafe which was super delicious and very dog friendly. If you ever happen to go, get the Mexican hot chocolate. It is to die for.

After our halfway-there-pit-stop, we continued on to Jalama. I lost service on my phone about 20 minutes away from our final destination and I started to have crackberry withdrawal. Seriously. I took a few deep breaths and enjoyed the ocean view and we headed onto the campground. Our first order of business was a trip down to the beach. Ruby has never much like water and the beach has always kind of scared her, but Jackson loves to play in the water so we had high hopes.


As you can see, Jackson had a great time playing in the shallow water.

 
Ruby, on the other hand, avoided the water as much as possible.


The beach was just gorgeous and  we enjoyed the amazing sunsets each night.


It was extremely windy the first day and night (as you can tell by my wild hair) and we were worried it would be that way the whole weekend. We couldn't leave our chairs or drinks unattended or they would blow over instantly. We played cards with extreme caution and lots of rocks used as weights.


Sitting by the fire enjoying our first night!

 

The next morning, we took our coffee and headed down to the beach. We were very please that the wind had died down considerable and the sun was shining.

 
Ruby loved to lay on the picnic bench and watch her crazy little brother.

 
After some breakfast and more coffee, we headed back down to the water to read and relax. There were lots of surfers who were also camping and enjoying the waves. We also got to see a pod of dolphins playing pretty close to shore. In the picture above, you can see a mama and baby dolphin swimming side by side!

 
The dolphins look much closer than they actually are because the sand dips down a bit before it meets the water.

 
This surfer was enjoying the free dolphin show!

 

Here I am reading with the pups napping at my feet. It was pure bliss.

Right before dinner time, our friends Paul and Jackie finally arrived with their puppy (and Jackson's brother) Marlowe!

 
Puppies playing at sunset.

 

I smell a Christmas card picture!

 

I look pregnant in this picture, but I'm not.

That night, we had our ice chests out, but closed with latches. We knew that raccoons were out each night (they got into our trash the first night), but didn't worry much about them getting into anything as we packed it all up and took the trash to the dumpster before going to bed. Well, raccoons are really smart. They opened a cooler, lifted the latch, go out the eggs and opened the hard plastic egg case (not some flimsy cardboard one, the read deal with another 2 latches) and stole all the eggs. Some were broken on the second cooler, but most they carried off to eat. Good thing the Jalama market has just about anything, including eggs!

The next day was much more cloudy which wasn't terrible, but wasn't ideal. We headed to the beach again anyway and it turned out to be quite warm, even with the cloud cover.

 
There was lots of digging in the sand.


 
Ruby got a face full of sand and just tried to grin and bear it.

 
The puppies loved chewing on the seaweed. Jackson is on the left, Marlowe on the right.

 
How cute are they?? Marlowe is on the left, Jackson on the right.


 

Jackie with an armful of fluffy puppies!

 
This picture should be in a magazine.

 

Possible Christmas card picture...

 
Look at those teeth! Getting viscous!

 
Ruby finally joined in on the digging. We're so glad they picked up this habit at the beach...

 
Ruby in her prayer shawl. She's meditating.

 
Marlowe attacking my face.

Later that afternoon, we decided to take a short hike up to the train tracks. My husband told me we could lay pennies on the track and when the train went by they would get smushed and we could go retrieve our flattened pennies. Paul's dad (his parents had come up to visit for a few hours in the afternoon) told us that this was very illegal and dangerous. We decided to risk it (don't call the cops on us!).

 

On the way up, we had an incredible view of the sun glistening off the blue waters.

 
We laid our pennies on the track and headed back to camp. A little while later, we heard the train go by (it did not derail, thank goodness) and we hiked back up to see how it all turned out.

 

Here are the flattened pennies!

 
Another amazing sunset.

The wind picked up quite a bit that night, but we enjoyed our gourmet dinner of tri-tip and salmon with roasted potatoes and green beans and grilled corn on the cob (all cooked over the open flame - YUM). For dessert, we had s'mores, of course. This time we used Reese's instead of plain chocolate and I will never go back to the old fashioned way!

 
Awwwww... A + M forever!

The next morning, we packed up our things and headed home, back to reality and back to the blackberry.

 
The puppies posed one final time for the camera. How stinkin' cute are they??

 
When we finally got home, our pups were pooped!

I would definitely recommend Jalama Beach for camping. They have clean bathrooms with lights (!) and the showers are amazing (bring quarters). The campsites are a bit close together, but our neighbors were super nice (even the ones with little kids who went to bed long before we did). Best of all? The beach is huge and sandy and beautiful and just a few steps away.

4 comments:

Jakeandjess said... [Reply to comment]

whta a FUN trip! Sounds like you really had an awesome time, sans crackberry and all : )

Unknown said... [Reply to comment]

We had SO much fun! The puppies sure had the time of their lives! Lets do it again soon but somewhere with beds :P

lisa.s.kim said... [Reply to comment]

This post was awesome! Looks like you guys had tons of fun! Cute puppies!

Unknown said... [Reply to comment]

Super cute puppy pix... and you know I am not a dog person so I really mean it!

Related Posts with Thumbnails