Pining for the Fjords

After our overnight at Point Mugu , we were fully in camping mode, so we made a reservation for mid-February at San Clemente State Beach, a location about an hour south of us, along the coast on the way to San Diego.  Like Mugu, Clemente had beach access, but given the weather, we'd be up for strolling along the sand more than actually hopping in the water (this Gulf Coaster shudders at the thought of water that cold, even in the summer). Like at Mugu, check-in was at 2pm, so we spent the morning at home; Chris worked on class for a while, and I did a long run of 14 miles (I'm sure there's a training update coming soon to a blog near you...).  We ate lunch as well, then started packing up the truck, eventually getting out of the driveway around 1:30 or so.  We made it to SCSB just before 3pm, and we quickly checked into our spot and took a survey of the area. We picked a campsite that shared land with just one other plot, and we waved hello to our neighbors, an extended...

Since moving to California, one of things we've been really excited to do is get out and get camping.  While there's certainly plenty of good camping in Arizona, and we made use of those options from time to time (particularly the south rim of the Grand Canyon), there always seemed to be something keeping us at home.  Once we moved further west and found ourselves with a bit more free time on the weekends, we worked on eliminating those excuses one by one: we found ourselves a better (smaller, easier to assemble) tent on sale at Dick's Sporting Goods; we ended up with only one dog, and we could easily take her with us on local trips; and we lived in a place where tons of campgrounds with spectacular views were only a few hours' drive from the house. Since we both had Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off, we planned to stay at home on Saturday and then camp on Sunday night, coming home Monday, and thinking this would lessen any crowds.  While we initially wanted to stay at ...