Our Camping Trip

All of us went to Montana de Oro state park over the weekend, a campground nestled in the mountains and near a beach, just outside of San Luis Obispo in central California.

Ella got her first experience sleeping in a tent, and she took to it like a trooper. We cooked out with our camping stove, tried in vain to make a fire with wood that was too green, and which we paid $6 a bundle for, and walked around the mostly full campground, full of families with children. The campground seemed to be populated mostly by friendly locals.

When picked out our campsite, there was a note left in the storage box attached to the picnic table. It was written by a family who had stayed there before us, and said that there was mouse named Toby who lived in the box. We were not to feed him or disturb him. I opened the box and there was a little nest inside, but no Toby. The next day, there was a mouse eating a long piece of grass from inside a hole near the box. I hoped it was Toby, but I never found out.

The highlights of our trip for Ella were seeing a large bird near our tent jumping around and pecking the ground. I never figured out what he was pecking at, but he did it for several minutes like he was on a trampoline and Ella was pretty amused. Ella was also fascinated by a rabbit eating grass in our campsite, and we all remained quiet while he ate so that he wouldn't be startled and run away. We also saw a bobcat cross the road as we came in, and the dad of a little baby came by to visit us the first morning, and he told us about a bobcat that slinked through his camp.

We went to the beach twice and Ella helped me make her first sand castle. She also picked up a collection of rocks and sand in her play bucket and took it home with us. At a beach we stopped at on our way home in Carpenteria, near Santa Barbara, Ella watched a boy dig a huge hole in the sand with quite a serious collection of digging tools, and he seemed consumed by it for hours.


We let Ella have a few more treats than she normally does at home (we're on vacation, after all) and she consumed her fair share. In Solvang, a "Danish" town north of Santa Barbara, Ella had a huge gingerbread cookie, frosted to look like a colorful dinosaur. After her "lunch", she enjoyed having me ferry her around on my shoulders and act like she was tall like the big people.


Outside of Solvang there's an ostrich farm, and for a couple of bucks you can feed them; they are about the most aggressive eaters I've ever seen. They also had Emus on the farm to feed. We thought Ella might be scared of the large birds, but she laughed while they pecked at the bowls attached to dustpans that contained the food.

I think the camping trip was a success. Ella fell asleep on the way home.