arizona & california (again)

For the June/July leg of our 2018 travels we decided to experience the quintessential Californian RV summer vacation, if that’s a thing. I’m sure for some people that’s a thing.

Before we got to California we crossed Arizona for a small stay in Flagstaff then a longer one to visit family in Phoenix before heading westward again.

Flagstaff

This place was way cuter than we were expecting. The Yelp reviews for the campground kept on talking about rude owners and people cooking drugs in their trailers, but they were from two years ago so we figured we’d take a chance and see what would greet us when we rolled up. Instead we got a quiet, forested spot with lots of friendly neighbors and productive days. We went out once for dinner but otherwise stayed in the park.

SoCal

We stayed in three different cities in SoCal over about a month’s time due to length of stay restrictions and availability: Long Beach, Van Nuys, and San Dimas.

The first two weeks of our SoCal route were spent in Long Beach at the Golden Shore RV Resort. We had booked our stay for one week but ended up extending it for a second; it was great proximity to friends, family, and E3! The park is small but very active - this seemed to be the place for multi-RV excursions and family outings. Every night folks brought out the fire pits, barbecues, and cornhole. The dogs were a hit.

After Long Beach we headed up to the valley and stayed at the Hollywood RV Park (actually in Van Nuys). Every “street” here was decked out in different movie-themed decorations. It was pretty neat because we hadn’t seen an RV park taking this kind of care with… cute stuff. We were placed on Yellow Brick Road, and other streets were things like Sunset Boulevard, Oscar Road - themes like that.

The managers of the park also park your rig for you! We unhitched in front of the office and they brought a lift around to guide the trailer into our spot.

Finally, we made our way back down to San Dimas, a park we had stayed at shortly after beginning our RV journey. This was mostly for convenience and we didn’t enjoy our spot as much this time around. The skunks came out in full force at night, and Ava got sprayed in the face our second night there, which resulted in 11 PM dish soap showers for everyone in the household.

Pismo Beach

We said goodbye to family and made a gorgeous four-hour drive to Pismo Beach. The RV park itself was a little too cramped for our liking but it was walking distance to the shore. And it’s like, one of two RV parks there, and the other one was booked up - so I can’t complain. You can also park your RV on the beach itself, but we saw one person get stuck during one of our daily evening beach walks.

We went on a hike a bit north of Pismo with the dogs, visited some hot springs and stopped in SLO for an afternoon (and we spent some time in Pismo proper). It was a pretty chill, beautiful week. Incredible food and views.

Napa

The RV park in Napa might be my favorite place we’ve stayed (Newport Dunes is the rival). Full hookups, fairly cheap, and in a park so there were lots of trails to hike or bike. The only downside was that the trails weren’t dog-friendly, but there was a large, enclosed dog park near our spot. I would live here full-time!

We celebrated our anniversary at Morimoto and did some wine tasting in town, but for the most part enjoyed the recreation immediately outside our door.

San Francisco

lmao the RV park here is a racket. It’s just a parking lot right across from the demolished Candlestick Stadium and they charged over $100 a night. I love SF but, like……………………. dude……………………………………………..

I mean, I guess it was only a seven minute drive into the city, but………………………………………………………………….. Coming from Napa to this was brutal. I honestly don’t know what else to say about it. One night I heard four gunshots go off down the road and I rolled over and went back to bed.

Following the Bay Area we left to go to Oregon with one overnight stop on the way in the Garberville/Redway area and ended up not coming back to California for another four months!