Bermuda Part 2

Because of the rain, we did a lot more signseeing than would normally happen on a tropical getaway.  We hit up the Crystal and Fantasy caves which were amazing.  Story goes that some kids lost a ball down a hole.  The adventuresome two then decended into the hole with a flashlight, and this was what they found.

It is very drippy down below.

One of my favorite shots.

From the caves, we walked to the Swizzle Inn made famous by its drink, the Rum Swizzle Punch.  We ordered a half pitcher, and they "accidentally" gave us a full one.  Oh no...would it go to waste?

  Umm, NO!!  Yes, I drank almost all of it.  Jason got A glass.  That stuff was GOOD!!

Spent the rest of the day wandering around a rainy town.

Ahhhh Bermuda...Part 1

To celebrate what we thought was our 20 year anniversary, Jason and I left the kids at Nana's and flew off to the island of Bermuda.

In keeping with most of vacations, it rained...every day.
Destination wedding in Maui - Rain.
Honeymoon in Fiji - Rain.
WDW trip in 2012 - Rain, in fact it was a tropical storm.
DCL cruise/ St. Thomas - Rain
Almost every Pacific Beach trip we took - Rain.

If only it worked here at home as we are always facing water shortages and drought in So. Cal.

Anyway....

On the plane.  Two stops and some of the worst flights ever.

Against the law to take this picture.  Oops!

Rainy view from our lanai.  Amazing suite upgrade at the Cambridge Beach Resort.

Front view of our suite.  Turtle Bay

So it was actually our 19th anniversary.  Apparently my math skills are a bit rusty.  I'll have to work on those before K's math homework gets any more difficult.

Family Beach Trip Part 4

The Food - Part 2

The other nights of the trip were not quite as successful as the fancy dinner night.  We did hobo packets one night...

It was hard to regulate the heat on these, and parts would burn a bit.  I didn't use raw meat in these for that reason.  I used precooked chicken and smoked sausage.  The kids were not big fans of these.

We also utilized the leftover steak and made burritos for the night my in-laws did come.

 Those were really good and Mexican food is always welcomed by the family.

I did venture a bit into dutch oven cooking.

I made a peach blackberry cobbler.  It was so good.

 So my DH has a thing about cooked fruit.  He doesn't like it/won't eat it.  Kids are taking after him a bit in this regard.  That piece was my portion, and the only portion eaten by my family.
Fortunately, we had gotten to know the neighboring campers across the way.  I took the pot to them, and they brought it back empty.  Well, almost empty.  They gave me two candy bars by way of saying Thanks.  They loved it, so that worked out well.

The kids did like the dirt cup dessert.  Kaitlyn helped me make these.  Candy rocks on the bottom, chocolate cake pieces, frosting and green sprinkles with gummy worms.  I had prepped green frosting at home, but somehow it didn't get packed.  I grabbed new frosting and the sprinkles when we went to town for ice.

Family Beach Trip Part 3

The Food - Part 1

The most important part of the trip for me.  I planned quite a bit, and had a lot of Pinterest help in this area.  I didn't want to have a lot of work once we were at the site, so I did quite a bit before hand.

This form was a combination of ideas I found.

It was helpful in planning, and I kept it accessible at the site so I wouldn't have to deal with "What's for dinner?".

First day food was easy, sandwiches and hotdogs for dinner with Smores for dessert.

The next night was originally supposed to be the fancy dinner night with the in-laws.  They didn't come, but it wouldn't have worked to change the menu order due to freshness issues.  On tap was steak from here, baked potatoes from here and campfire cones for dessert.  I also made stuffed onions for me.  I knew no one else would eat them (nana would have), but they looked so good that I just had to splurge.  That was a good call.  Jason helped and sauted the fresh green beans in butter and garlic.  AMAZING MEAL!!!!

Cooking on the campfire.  I did have to jerry rig the grate, but it worked great.

 DH's potato with extra sour cream.

 Dessert Time - campfire cones.  These were awesome.

Fresh strawberries, sweetened cream cheese, white and milk chocolate, and mini marshmallows.

The strawberry, cream cheese and chocolate one was sooooo goood.

 This was their favorite dessert, and was repeated 2 other nights during the trip.

Family Beach Trip Part 2

A little bit about the site...

Found this idea here for the hand wash station.

This was our game station.  We had board games, card games, and I recycled the circus games from the big top movie night.

My homemade fire starters - dryer lint and melted old candles.  They worked great, so it was worth the harrassment by the husband for the many months of lint collecting.

Cooler tip.

This was amazing.  My cooler and ice stayed very cold.  We replenished the ice on day 4, but the salt water was still partially frozen when we got home.  I will definitely do 2 or even 3 of these next time.  

The state beach store...VERY expensive and not well stocked.  Ice was around $5 per bag so it was worth it to drive into Goleta to hit the Costco.  Ice creams and popsicles were cheaper across the highway at El Capitan Canyon, plus it was a nice walk over there.  Good coffee over there as well.

El Capitan Canyon

Skunks aplenty.  We saw a ton.  Several would walk through our site at night, and we had quite a laugh on the last night as a skunk courtship proceeded quite loudly under our trailer.  We put all food and trash up at night, so we never had a problem.  We left them alone, and they did the same.  

Tar

There is a lot of tar on the beach.  Not as much as there could have been, but a lot for someone not used to any at all.  We were prepared though.  At the handwashing station, we also had a bottle of vegetable oil.  A little bit of elbow grease, and the oil takes it right off.  I didn't worry so much about our bathing suits or flops.  It was the very end of summer, so once I saw tar on the bathing suit, we would wear the same ones to the beach knowing they would be tossed at the end of the trip.  

Family Beach Trip Part 1

 So for our big family trip this year, we decided to relive my husband's days of yore.

He spent many a summer vacation at El Capitan State Beach, just north of Santa Barbara, so since we did not have a big Disney trip planned, a camping we will go.  We planned a five night trip leaving on Sunday, and heading back to Oak Park on Friday.  There were a few unknowns.  Jason had class on Thursday, and had not yet heard from his instructor if he could be absent.  The original plan was to have my in-laws visit us for dinner on Monday, but we changed that to Thursday since there was a possibility that Jason would have to head down to LB on Thursday afternoon, go to class, and head back up after.  He wanted his parents there to help out JIC.  

We borrowed my neighbor's tent trailer, and after a brief hitch snafus, we were on our way.  To break up the drive a bit, we had a pit stop at my in-laws in Oak Park.  We also picked up firewood from them. Goodbye old gazebo.

 We headed out, and it only took about 1 1/2 hours to get there.  We did stop for fresh strawberries in Goleta.  Then we headed into the park.

It took a few tries, but we got the trailer level and set up pretty quickly.

 K completed her set up.  Poor C.  You can see how little room she gave him.  That was fixed later by mama. 

Dinner was easy - hot dogs.  Daddy and K manned the campfire.

 

We headed down to the beach after dinner.  It was beautiful and we could not have asked for better weather.  Even the tar, which this area is known for, was pretty minimal for most of the trip.

Back up from the beach to roast marshmallows.

 Fun first night.

So this was our first camping trip as a family, and as always, I did a lot of research and planning.  Pinterest was an awesome resource, as was reccs from friends and family.  I will highlight and link things I found particularly clever and helpful.  Five nights at the beach, and we are looking forward to many more.