Lake Casitas in Venture, CA

Lake Casitas Campground is located in a Recreational Area and Park that is protected by the county. The lake is a drinking water reservoir for the area and they enforce a no human contact policy, no swimming. But they allow gas-powered boats in which I’m sure do more damage than human skin, strange?!?

There are many things to do here like renting a kayak to fish in the lake, biking, and lazying around in the lazy river. The views from the water park are beautiful. There are nature walks and hiking and a pier for fishing.

I thought this place was expensive at $35/night, plus $6 for a dog, plus $12/person/day for the water-park, plus whatever the kayak cost….that adds up quick! Oh and you have to pay for the showers with quarters.

Regardless of the prices we really enjoyed this campground. We had a nice relaxing time doing our own thing. I read a book by the lazy river and Jacob spent the day fishing. It was wonderful! The #1 complaint on Tripadviser is that the noise level of people and music go way past the quiet hours, thankfully we didn’t have any problems with that.

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California Coast Hwy 1 to San Simeon State Park

This was such a beautiful drive along the coast! We were happy to leave the city of San Francisco behind us and get back to nature. The sights on this coastal drive were just awesome. We passed towering cliffs covered with farms and pastures that over looked the ocean. The beaches were rocky in some places and sandy in others. We passed through the pine forest of Big Sur, then were back along the coast. We saw huge elephant seals basking in the sun on beaches. There were flocks of birds tanning on boulders in the middle of the water. The temperature change was intense, it was COLD with the wind! It was almost painful to go on the beach because of the sand-blasting winds. Our campground was primitive which workout great because it was so cold at night. The stars, OMG, I think that was the best part. We just sat out counting the satellites pass us…and soooo many stars!

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San Franciso, CA

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Our parking-lot campground next to Candlestick Park.

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The only thing going for this joint was….

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The landscape was beautiful, but the campers were so close our door was 2 ft. from our neighbor’s sewer, barf!

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I miss the wilderness, me no like big city. I think my face says it all!
We chose to do a Hop on- Hop off Bus Tour of the city to see as much as possible in a short time. We like that you can get off whenever you want and then get back on again almost anywhere.

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On the second day we rode the city buses into the city straight to California Academy of Sciences.
This was totally up our alley, we both loved it and would totally go back!

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Peace out San Fran. We’re leaving in time to miss the Pride Festival, horah, which they are very Proud of, seems to be their claim to fame. This is a great city, I just want more country. The Chinese food was better in New York, had to slide that in here. I did find the Science Academy wonderful. I was not fond of the public transportation through the ghetto, I didn’t have protection and I was scared. You should never feel scared on vacation! Maybe I would have liked this visit better if we were staying in a nicer area with activities near us. I think there should be an app. that not only gives you public transportation routes but also the crime rates and statistics along those routes…Yes, that would have been wonderful!