chasing rabbits stateside

Last weekend I went camping with Linda (an HC member) and her family; her partner Bruno, 2 year old son Adrian and mother Martha. This was my third attempt to spend a couple of nights under camvas on this trip, third time lucky and all that ! I'm glad that it occured with Linda and her family, they are a very relaxed, fun welcoming family and I had a great time hanging out at Big Basin Redwoods State Park. We set up camp at the Twin Redwoods camp site, a small site close to the river. We went for a short hike, played by the river, eat (lots:). I was staying in Linda's old one person tent which has travelled around the world on her various travels, so canvas with real history! Martha slept outside ! Something I wouldn't want to do at the best of times but there are too many animals roaming around for my liking. A raccoon came to pay us a visit on saturday evening and we had to string food up from a tree in bags so raccoons and bears couldn't get to them, you can't even leave your toothpaste in your bag as they will sniff it out !
I didn't shower for 3 days and lived in the same clothes, it was great to not have to care about that kind of thing, although the shower I took back at Linda's was heavenly!
This was Adrian's first camping trip and he seemed to enjoy it. He is a very bright, lively child and it was lovely to hang out with him, although it did remind me how much I miss Julian ! On saturday we were joined by their friend Eric and his 2 year old daughter Seetlali (I'm not sure on the spelling - sorry), she is the most delightful little girl with the cutest smile, and absolutely no fear at all, she was forever running around the site and couldn't play in the river without sitting in it!
I didn't get the chance to explore downtown Santa Cruz, but from the bit I saw it looks lovely and I would really like to return and see more of it.
I was sad to leave them but we parted with a comment about camping together in Yosemite, a lovely thought, especially as I have every intention of coming back and spending more time in that area anyway.

posted by KP @ 7:01 PM