This weekend we got away for a quick, one night stand at a campground just south of Pescadero. — “Oh! Pescadero!” (<—- very inside joke for teachers who go to 5th grade camp in Loma Mar)
Saturday morning we loaded up and hit the road a little before 10. We drove together through SF and I dropped Richard off in Pacifica so he could bike the coast. I had an easy, beautiful drive down Highway 1 and stopped once I got to Pescadero — “Oh! –” (sorry, it’s a hard habit to break and I have only been doing camp for a few years; it must become an involuntary reflex for those who’ve been going year after year after year). 
There are some fantastic stores and a wonderful bakery/deli in this cute little town and I always resist bringing home fresh pies and breads when I’m coming back from camp. Today was all about non-resistance and I got a whole peach pie, a fresh loaf of soft, crusty French bread, some brie, fresh potato salad, pesto tortellini salad, fresh pastries, and a couple of ti-tip BBQ sandwiches for dinner. Everything went directly into Dory except those bits that didn’t make it that far (I had to walk the entire two blocks of the town to get to where I parked her, so naturally, I needed sustenance). I noted that the deli had nice looking marinated meats that would be wonderful on the grill for future trips.
I pulled into the campground around 1 and immediately noticed this was quite the swanky place. The playground didn’t just have little swing sets, it had expensive looking bouncy harness things, and dirt bike trails, and horses. The bathrooms had framed leaf pressings and full wooden doors on each stall. There were restaurants and rentable cabins, and bikes. At night, they fire up a big BBQ and have bands playing live music. And all of this was walking distance to the beach. Nice.
As I was setting up, I got a visit from a fellow Altoiste, who had arranged to come for a tour of Dory. He is pondering tow vehicles right now (I can relate) and the one thing most people can agree on is that, yes, blue is an excellent color for a tow car. We compared blueness and his car checks out there.
Richard happily pulled in right as I was enjoying some fresh bread and brie on the veranda. You can’t quite see the ocean from where I was sitting, but you know it’s there, just right over that next dune. So after a snack and a change, we went out to find the beach trail. Getting there was a bit of a hike, and you have to cross 1, but it wasn’t too bad. We made our way out to a little point where there was a lovely bench where you can sit and watch the seals. We saw at least one, leaping occasionally out of the water, and lots of big birds, pelicans I think. Since we’re sort of in trailer mode, it struck us both that they looked like big rigs parked in sites way too close to each other. We wondered if the ocean view made up for the lack of privacy and what kind of review they would give that particular rock.
On the way back, we totally missed the trail. Richard freaked out just a little because he’s so good at getting lost, he quickly becomes convinced we will never, ever find our way back. Given the fact that I could literally see Highway 1 off to our right the entire time, I wasn’t too worried we’d find civilization once again. However, we did walk farther than we had to in order to find another non brambly route to the road. If I’d thought to look back at the picture I took when we first got to the beach, I bet we’d have found it. But we needed an adventure to shake up the otherwise perfect flow of the day, so there you go. Dinner and a nice cold beer (thanks Sweetie) ended a perfect day.
Sunday we lazily packed up in no great hurry. We chatted with a nice couple next to us with a pop up tent. Those things can be very roomy inside! We didn’t get a chance to chat with the people who had the cutest mini Airstream ever because we didn’t see them. Maybe they were inside the whole time. We gave a couple of tours of the Alto and answered questions. And the whole time, we kept looking over at this enormous RV, bigger than a bus, that was jacked up on something so high that the front wheels were completely off the ground. It was very strange. We guessed that they must have done that in order to be 100% level, but it sure didn’t seem like the ground beneath them was at that much of an angle. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do when you have an RV that huge.
Not much to report on the drive home. It’s the California coast. What can you say? It never fails to impress. Another perfect weekend. Nice to know just one night out will give you a full getaway experience.
Campground: Costanoa KOA, site 7 (future nice looking sites: 11, 15, 17, 19)
Total Miles (with a couple detours): 84.3, Engine time: 2 hours 46 min, 15.9 mpg
