We made it to Monterey Bay!  The drive continues to be a pleasure.  When we planned this road trip, we thought we would need to rush from one spot to the next in fear that our children would be uncomfortable in the car.  So far, it hasn't been the case.  We are quite comfortable cruising in our SUV, with the Tom Petty station on high.  We actually took our time from Pismo to Monterey. 

On the way to Monterey Bay, we stopped off at a rest stop in Bradley.  Ok, I am not one to get excited about a rest stop, but this is worth mentioning if you take this road trip and are in need of a place to stop.  The bathrooms are very clean, they have great information about the wildlife in the area, and lots of vending machines.  The kids all got ice cream while they stretched their legs.  

We arrived at the Marina Dunes RV Park in Marina by 2:30 pm.  This place is beautiful!  I wish we would have planned a few more days here.  The beach is a bit of a hike from our site, but there are lot's of trails here for nature lovers.  We walked down to the beach on the first night and watched the sunset.  Our neighbors reported they saw dolphins when they went to the beach. We were less fortunate.  Since Devlin is still sick, we didn't make it to the whales I was dying to see in Moss Landing.  We may find a way to hit the spot on the way back to Pismo from San Francisco.

We went to the Sea Harvest Fish Market for clam chowder and calamari.  The food here was great, I'd highly recommend it.  The service was good, and it wasn't too pricy.  After our late lunch we headed back to the camp site and Devlin crashed early.  Poor kid is taking forever to recover.

This morning when we woke up we noticed Derek and Devlin both had pink eye.  We had already booked a tour for Derek at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so we decided to hustle down for Derek to scuba dive and then hit up a local urgent care.  This was a total disaster.  We got there in the nick of time, got our tickets, Derek suited up to scuba and 5 minutes into his tour he had to get out.  His eye had swelled up and looked like someone had punched him in the face.  It was all red and agitated with pus.  I know, a little gross.  Devlin was crying in the stroller, and Marty and I looked like we just earned the Parents of the Year Award.  We paid $75 for Derek to scuba, on top of the damn tickets to get into the Aquarium, so I was not about to let him miss it.  Fortunately, they gave us a refund, and out we went to Urgent Care.

The Urgent Care didn't accept our insurance, so we had to hit up the Emergency Room at the hospital.  Normally I would have paid the money for urgent care, but they wanted $212 for each kid.  Really?!  This totally sucked!  Not only did we sit in the Emergency Room for 3 hours, we were out $400!  I'm not a huge fan of our insurance company at the moment.  It would have been better for us to just stay at the urgent care so we could have returned to the Aquarium.  By the time everything was said an done, it was 2:30 and none of us had eaten lunch.  So, we went down to Fisherman's Wharf and went to lunch at Crabby Jim's Seafood Restaurant.  The food was pretty good.  We wanted to hit up the Old Fisherman's Grotto, but they took one look at McKinley and asked me if I was "aware of their policy." I looked down and on the hostess stand it said families with young children would need to leave the restaurant if their children cried.  This is a major touristy area with tons of families with young children, and I thought the policy was ridiculous.  First off, I never would allow my children to disrupt others around us by being loud.  Needless to say, we went a few doors down to Crabby Jim's where they welcomed us with open arms.  McKinley didn't make a peep the entire time.  The kids were just happy to get food in their bellies, and wanted to head back to the camp site to get some rest.

We took a nap and headed over to California State University Monterey Bay to visit the campus.  I wanted to get a better feel of the campus layout and the appearance for my clients.  It's on an old military base, but nicely updated.  Derek didn't feel it was the right college for him.  But it was nice to get him on a campus to get a feel as he begins thinking about college.

Tomorrow morning, we will be up bright and early to head to San Francisco.  We are staying at the Candlesticks RV Park which doesn't have very good reviews, but we will be near everything we want to see.  Our trailer is nice, and feels like a second home so I am sure it will be fine.  Location, location, location as my mom always says.

Our much anticipated journey in our trailer began at 4:00 in the morning. We left really early so our kids could sleep in the car.  McKinley, our youngest, is still nursing and we wanted to make it all the way to Pismo Beach without stopping.  

It was a success! We made it to the Pismo Sands RV Park.  When we arrived at 9:30 am, our site was still occupied, so we were unable to pull right in.  The front office staff was very nice, and explained we could pull out of the park and park on the dirt around the corner as they own the property.  That's exactly what we did.  After we dropped the trailer off we headed into town for breakfast.  The drive was absolutely gorgeous. We found a place on Yelp that had great reviews called the Seaside Cafe.  The food was pretty good, but a little on the expensive side for breakfast.  Normally I don't complain about spending money on a good meal, but the people who worked there were not very friendly.  They ignored us when we walked in for a few minutes.  As others began to line up behind us, we didn't know if we were supposed to order at the counter, or wait for a seat and order with the server. We began to talk amongst each other about what to do, when finally the lady came over to say we order at the register and they will bring the food to us. For a business owner, she wasn't very nice or attentive.  We will not be back in the future.  

The Pismo Sands campground was very clean and nice. We had a premium site with a nice grassy area.  Our site was #49.  We made the mistake of pulling through our site on the wrong side. Total amateurs!  Our neighbors came out and said, "Is there a reason you pulled through on the wrong side?"  Marty said, "Well not really, but we are only here for one night."  She looked at us like we were stupid. Soon, the neighbors were laughing at us as Marty had already unhooked everything.  We thought we were just going to leave it but the sewer line was too far.  Marty had to hook the trailer back up to the car, and we had to drive through the entire rv park to circle back around.  As we circled around, it was like announcing we were the idiots who pulled through in the wrong direction. Lesson learned, we will follow the directions the people in the front office give us upon check-in.  They know better than we do…lol.

Devlin, our 5 year old, had a fever. As a result, we didn't do as much in Pismo as we would have liked.  We had planned to spend the day at the beach.  Instead, we relaxed at the campground and waited until the evening after dinner to head down and watch the sunset off the pier.  I had bbq'd at our campsite, but Devlin wanted soup, so we stopped by the Splash Cafe for Devlin to get a bowl of clam chowder.  Derek recognized the box and realized it was the same place that sold their clam chowder to Costco, which he thought was pretty cool.  Since we stop by Pismo Beach again on the way home, we will plan to hit up all the places we didn't at that time.

As I am writing this we are on our way to Monterey.  Our next stop is the Marina Dunes RV Park in Marina, California. We are excited about heading to the Bay.  In Yahoo news this morning, several whales have been spotted 50 yards from the shore.  It's supposed to be amazing!  

The Hill family will hit the road on an adventure up the coast of California.  We are very excited for this journey.  We leave next Monday morning from Laguna Hills.  This week, I am preparing our trailer for the trip.  Meal planning seems to take the most time, as everyone has had a say in what we are preparing.  We've been going through tons of recipes on Pinterest in search for easy, delicious meals in our crockpot.  Since our days out will be filled with touring, we decided to eat breakfast and dinner at the campgrounds.  We will have lunches out to make it easier.  

Our first stop is in Pismo Beach.  We are planning to spend some time on the beach with the kids and see what we can see, as we will only be their for one night.  From Pismo Beach we are heading to Monterey Bay.  In Monterey, we are visiting the coaching staff at California State University, Monterey Bay for a tour and a look into the volleyball program for my business.  We also plan to spend a day at the Aquarium which is supposed to be incredible.  We are all huge fans of fish in this household, so this should be an awesome experience.  

From Monterey we head North to San Francisco.  Derek is really looking forward to the city.  He has been wanting to see the Golden Gate Bridge for as long as I can remember.  Devlin is most excited about the sea lions at Pier 39.  In San Francisco our days are jam packed with several sites to see.  We purchased the City Pass which included tickets for the Bay Cruise, Exploratorium, California Science Center, Aquarium at Pier 39, and admission for the cable cars and MUNI.  We saved a lot of money by purchasing these passes ahead of time, so if you are planning a trip I would look into the website.  

While in town, we will also visit UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, San Francisco State, Academy of Art in San Francisco, and Stanford.  We feel it's really important for Derek to see these colleges as he is beginning high school in a month, and for me to connect with the college coaches for My Recruiting Solutions.  

This will be our first long distance trip as a family.  We are testing the waters to see how we do.  Next year, I have some major tournaments in Orlando, Florida and New Orleans.  We are thinking of taking the trailer and making it a major road trip for 6-8 weeks.  Going up the coast will definitely have it's challenges for us as we are new RVer's.  It's going to be a lot of fun....I hope!

Our first trip in our new trailer is in the books!  Marty and I recently purchased a 2015 Keystone Cougar 28 RBS.  This is an exciting time for us as we plan to hit the road on many adventures!  Our first trip was to Newport Dunes.  We had an incredible time with our family and friends.  

We spent 2 weeks at the Dunes over the 4th of July holiday.  The fireworks show is amazing!  We have decided to make this our new family tradition.  Throughout our stay we visited Balboa Island, rented pedal boats, swam daily in the pool and in the bay, played games, and had a fire on most nights.

Campground Review:
This is an expensive campground.  The rates are $300 a night for beach front during the summer months.  To be honest, we have stayed all over, and we have found that beach front is the most enjoyable.  It's nice to have a cup of coffee in the morning overlooking the water.  The facilities are clean, and there are lot's of activities for the kids to enjoy.  Devlin played on the beach every day, all day and we could watch him from our lounge chairs on the site.  As a business owner who works constantly, it was nice to be able to watch my kids play and enjoy themselves while I was on the computer or making phone calls.  The wifi is on the weak side.  In order to perform my daily tasks, I relied heavily on my hotspot.  

I have to warn you that the sites are very close together, and this place is not for everyone.  My family has been camping here for over 30 years, so we have lots of fond memories of the place.  In fact, Marty grew up camping here as well during the same time period.  He and I could have run into each other on multiple occasions and never knew it.  Haha!  

As new travel trailer owners, we enjoyed how friendly everyone was at the Dunes and how close it was to home.  We have so much to learn but we are so excited for all the adventures to come.  Our next trip is up the coast in a few weeks.  I plan to blog about all our adventures on the road!