Digital Nomad Summer - Part 4

Here's Part 3.

A sunny 4th of July in coastal Northern California

In the last blog, we relocated about 500 miles northwest to the Bodega Dunes Campground within Sonoma Coast State Park in Bodega Bay, California.

We slept in until the ripe old hour of 6:30am or so on the 4th of July (layabouts, all of us) and started our day by watching the Tour de France, drinking coffee/tea, and making bacon/egg/cheese biscuits (with a homemade chive aioli!  We fancy!) for breakfast.  Around 10:30, we strolled the monkeys, then loaded them in the truck and headed north along Highway 1 just a few miles to Schoolhouse Beach.  When Chris had dinner with his Mom and her husband Andy during our overnight in Sacramento, they mentioned Marshall Gulch Beach being a neat area, and Schoolhouse Beach ended up being right next door (with a bigger parking lot and a slightly less scary ramp down to the water).  We were sold!

Zoe enjoys wandering into unoccupied campsites and checking out the views

Looking north along the 1 and down to Schoolhouse Beach

Similar trees to what we have in our campground, but much more windswept

We romped the kiddos to the surf line (they were not interested in hopping into the freezing water, which was fine with us) and once we were all tuckered out, we planted ourselves on the ground, resting on the teeny, tiny rocks that made up the surface of the beach.

The itty bitty rocks that made up the beach - they were so smooth.

It was like sitting on top of a gigantic, firm beanbag.

I kept running my fingers through them, like some sort of soothing ASMR motion.

My girls and I - that's a bag of rocks we stole.

Chris is going to use them to enhance Bob's setup.

After finishing up our beach time, we headed back to the parking area and tethered the monkeys to a nearby picnic table to enjoy the lunch we'd brought with us.  Once done, we made a quick run to a nearby market to grab some beer and wine, and then it was back to the rig for the rest of the day.  I took a nap, and most of the other members of the family did, too.

Sacked out!

I was napping, which is why I'm not in this picture.

We finished out our holiday by grilling burgers and corn on the cob on the grill and watching Renfield on Peacock (we loved it, but it's way bloodier than we anticipated); a few fireworks went off around us as we were falling asleep at 9:30, but by 10pm, everyone was done and we were dead to the world.

We put in a normal work day on Wednesday; we'd obviously done a good job of wearing out the girls on the 4th, as they were quiet for much of the day (the overcast conditions helped, to be sure).

What lazy coworkers!

After work, we once again threw the monsters in the truck and headed out for a drive; this time, our destination was the nearby town of Windsor, about 45 minutes away, off the 101.  We first headed to the Windsor Valley Laundry where we started two loads, one of the gnarly clothes we'd been wearing since Sunday (since we didn't have a water hookup, we were limiting showers, which wasn't all that bad when it was in the 50s and cloudy for days on end) and one of dog towels/kennel pads/couch blankets.  Next, it to was to our main destination in Windsor (no, it wasn't actually the laundromat), the second location of Russian River Brewing!  The IPAs made by Russian River, Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger, are commonly considered among the best in the world, and they're not easy to find.  Thus, when we realized we'd be within an hour of the brewpub, we knew we had to go.

Thankfully, Russian River is extremely dog friendly, and they have an incredible beer garden area with walking trails, Adirondack chairs, and a grass patch where pets are welcome.  Since you can't have food in the garden, we started out inside in their also dog-friendly bar area; once we were done eating, we relocated outside with our dogs and beers in tow.

Zoe wondering where the heck we are and what the heck we're doing.

We've been working with her to make her more comfortable in situations like this, 

but her personality is still a bit much to allow her to really relax.

Funny story - we were on one of our daily walks in our campground,

and a couple walking their dogs stopped us to ask what breeds Zoe was.

They asked if she was part malinois. We confirmed she was, and also bull terrier.

They replied, "Wow!  That's a lot of dog!"  Indeed, folks; yes, indeed.

Miss Bea, enjoying the gorgeous afternoon in the grass

The girls, alert to whatever is happening off to the left of this shot

Posing outside the gift shop

Thursday was another normal work day for us, but I ventured to the local grocer and fish market, the Pelican Plaza Grocery and Deli and the Tides, for some provisions on my lunch break.  When we were in SoCal last week, Risa gifted us with a giant squash from her and Dad's garden, and we put it to good use as part of our dinner with grilled local rockfish.

Bob says that squash is HUGE!

6'2" human for scale with said giant squash -

those are the rocks we stole from Schoolhouse Beach, by the way,

rinsed and ready to go in Bob's habitat

We sliced up just half, and it served as our veg for two meals -

we have plans for the rest as well.

Grilling action shot!

Noms!

Although we'd been leaving our RV awning extended each night, to keep the morning dew off our chairs and grill setup, we pulled it in before going to bed on Thursday; the weather reports were saying it was going to get windy heading into Friday, and boy, did it!  Although the sun reappeared (hooray, charging things with solar power!), the winds were steadily blowing around 20mph and gusting even higher.  The girls got a few walks, but much of our outside time (which was limited, as it was not particularly pleasant) was dedicated to packing things away; we'd be up early on Saturday to head to our next destination, 500 miles north to William M. Tugman State Park in Lakeside, Oregon!

Chris did find time, however, to spiffy up Bob's habitat, using the rocks we pilfered from Schoolhouse Beach on the 4th of July:

The arteest at work

Ta da!

The girls also kept us entertained, rumbling in what we like to call "the Octagon:"

We set up this pen in each campsite, as it's an easy spot to take them

for bathroom breaks in the middle of the night.

It's also a spot where they can lounge in the sun

(their beds were packed away by this point, but they were normally in there)

and rumble, as you can see in the video.

Keep in mind we'd already walked them multiple times today -

they have a LOT of energy.

Later!

Amy