Camping at Anthony Chabot Regional Park

Apparently we never go to the same campground twice. We've been on six camping trips since the kids were born, to six different parks! We've camped in very different areas of northern CA, and each has been beautiful in its own way. This time we were off to the East Bay to Anthony Chabot Regional Park in Castro Valley. 

We got to our campsite really late this time because we left after James got finished at work, and it was a bit of a drive. So we set up our tent and ate our late supper by the light of our headlamps, then after Henry went to bed, James lit a campfire and we had some S'mores. 

James setting up the beds in the tent with a little "help."

During the night we woke to the sound of a light rain. We knew there was a chance of rain on the forecast, but we didn't really believe it would happen! Luckily, I did pack our rain jackets. By morning, though, it wasn't really raining, just a heavy fog and some dripping from the trees. The fog gave the campground an eerie, kind of mysterious atmosphere. 

Pancakes for breakfast, of course! Our camping tradition. This time we got it right and picked a "just add water" mix: the Toasted Coconut Pancake Mix from Trader Joe's, and oh man, these pancakes were like dessert for breakfast! So yummy!!

James and Calvin played with bubbles in the fog. Calvin chased the bubbles around the campsite and watched them drift off over the hill.

We brought Henry's walker again so he could get a little practice.

James and I had a bet going on whether the sun would actually come out that day. I thought it was going to stay foggy. We bet Sunday's breakfast dishes. I lost and the fog did burn off, but James did the dishes anyway :)

We hung around the campsite all morning and Henry took his nap after lunch. James and I actually managed to play a card game, Council of Verona. 

Lounging in the cabana with He Who Will Not Nap.

Our campsite was actually on a cliff overlooking Lake Chabot. Later in the afternoon, once the sun was up and Henry had napped, we drove over to the marina and rented a boat for a ride on the lake. These boys love boating!

Another campsite dinner, and after dinner we played with glow sticks as it got dark until it was time to put Henry to bed and make the campfire. We usually don't let Henry stay up for campfire time because Danger. Also, he seems to need more sleep than Calvin. 

No rain the second night, and no fog the next day. Just some low clouds over the lake that burned off pretty early.

We packed up right after breakfast on Sunday and headed home. 

Another family camping trip in the books! Very chill. We find that with camping, yes, there is a LOT of work in the set up and clean-up, but the payoff is the chance to hang out with the family off the grid, surrounded by some beautiful scenery. We like the calm. The space. We like the chance for our city-living boys to get dirty out in nature. We think it's worth the work ;) 

Camping at Little Basin

We have been filling up our Fall with so much fun stuff that I (clearly) cannot keep up with the blog! So this week I'm going to attempt to catch up on our fun family weekend trips. We just got back from a camping trip at Anthony Chabot Regional Park in the East Bay, but today I'm writing about our trip from the end of September to Little Basin Campground, a bit south of here in the coastal redwood forest. Camping among the redwoods is our favorite kind of California camping, and honestly I think this particular trip was our favorite camping trip as a family of four :) Though it didn't start out that way...

We headed down on Friday afternoon, the last weekend of September. When we got to the campsite that we had booked, we saw that it was nestled into a little grove with four or five other campsites all clustered close together. There were other families already getting settled into the other sites. James and I looked at each other and each knew what the other was thinking: This isn't going to work. James and I are introverts at heart and we like to keep to ourselves and have a little more privacy when camping. We don't want to have to worry about Henry disturbing other campers if/when he has a meltdown, and we don't want other (potentially) noisy campers disturbing him when he's napping or put to bed early. Plus, like I said, we just like to keep to ourselves. 

So we didn't unpack the car right away. The boys and I got out with some toys and waited at that campsite while James went back to the office to buy firewood and to ask if there were any other campsites open. We hoped maybe they'd have a cancellation or something and we might be able to get a site with a little more space from neighbors. 

While the boys and I waited, sure enough, Henry had a big crying fit. He was hungry, and even though I knew they'd be hungry, we hadn't unpacked the food because I'd hoped James wouldn't be long and I thought Henry could wait. I didn't want to unpack a bunch of stuff at this campsite if we weren't going to stay.  Well, Henry couldn't wait. He had a big screaming cry and I did what I could to try to calm him, rocking him in the Ergo, walking around with him... but he didn't stop crying until James got back and we could get him some crackers. Henry isn't able to understand the concept of "We'll eat soon." And once he gets wound up, he just isn't able to calm himself like a neurotypical kid might be able to. And as he was having this meltdown and I was waiting for James I remember thinking: "See? This. This is why we need another campsite!" Because when he gets like that, I don't want to also worry about disturbing other campers or having strangers watching me as I try to calm him down. It's hard enough! And we can't always prevent it. Meltdowns happen. 

So when James finally did get back to us, at least he had good news! There is a super secret non-reservable campsite at Little Basin - Shhh! You didn't hear it from me! During the rainy season (starting about this time of year) it is a in a possible flood area because it's near a reservoir (which is dry at the moment). So it's not listed online, and it doesn't even have a site number. But since there was no rain on the forecast they let us camp there that weekend. And it was perfect. Totally secluded and far from the neighboring sites, plus it was big and spacious. This campsite is the main reason we enjoyed this trip so much!

Snack time at last!! 

This is a much happier Henry than at the first campsite! 

At our new, awesome, super secret campsite we set up camp and got settled in for the night. 

I think my favorite part of camping is actually breakfast. I guess it makes sense since I'm a morning person. I just love being out in the woods in the early morning, feeling the cool air and drinking hot coffee. And James likes to cook pancakes on our camping trips! 

On this particular trip, we brought the Trader Joe's pumpkin pancake mix, thinking it was a "just add water" pancake mix... which it is not. And we didn't have eggs or milk. James insisted on trying it out anyway without the eggs and milk and the result was a little stickier and denser than your usual pancake, but it still tasted like pumpkin yummy-ness so we ate them anyway even with the, um, unusual texture ;) The kids had no complaints. They never met a pancake they didn't like.

After breakfast, the boys went straight to work playing in the dirt.

The weather warmed up and after lunch, Henry took a nap and Calvin and James went off exploring.

Later, when Henry was up again, we walked down the road a bit to some swingsets to play. Henry got a chance to practice using his reverse walker. Check out this Wellness Wednesday post to see the cute video of Henry and the walker :)

Back to the campsite at the end of a big day of play, and apparently it was time for Calvin to have a nap while we got dinner ready.

Henry gets put to bed at his usual bedtime on our camping trips, but we let Calvin stay up late to enjoy the campfire with the grown-ups. Glow sticks are so fun after it gets dark, and they have become a camping tradition for us. We also roast marshmallows over the campfire for S'mores, of course!

The next morning, after another breakfast of peculiar pumpkin pancakes, we packed up camp and headed home. The weekend wasn't quite over for us yet, though - we actually went home, showered, ate, and packed new bags for a quick overnight trip to Napa! But that is another story for another post, and I will try to get caught up on all our Fall adventures of the past few weeks :) Even when I'm behind on blogging, I do keep Instagram and Facebook updated.

Happy Fall y'all! I hope you're enjoying it as much as we are! More to come...

Stargazing at Fremont Peak

James and I took the babies on another camping trip this weekend. We seem to go to a new campground every time. This time it was Fremont Peak State Park up in the hills south of Gilroy. James picked this park for this particular weekend because it has an observatory which was open on Saturday night. Even without the powerful telescopes at the observatory, the stargazing from our hilltop campground was truly amazing.

We always do two nights on our camping trips because with a one night stay, it feels like we spend the same amount of time packing and unpacking our gear as we do actually enjoying the trip. Instead, we like to get to our campsite Friday night, spend the whole day Saturday, and then pack up after breakfast on Sunday.

Setting up camp

On Saturday we did a couple of little hikes/walks. James and Henry hiked up to the peak. Later, we all walked up to the observatory.

Walking up to the observatory

View from the peak

View from the peak.

Apparently it is black fly season. Man those bugs are annoying! So most of our time spent hanging out at the campsite was actually spent hanging out in the tent. But hey, hanging out in the tent is fun!

Is it me or does Henry look really mischievous here?

Showing off his new skill: clapping!

Campsite dinner: Pizzadillas! (Pizza Quesadillas... so easy and so yummy.)

After dinner we watched the sunset. Gorgeous views! And so foggy down below us!

Once it started getting dark, we walked back up to the observatory. They had three telescopes set up outside and the roof of the building was opened to reveal the very big telescope inside. In a classroom at the back of the building, astronomers gave a presentation but we didn't bring the babies back there so we didn't get to hear the talk. 

Since it was still pretty early in the evening, the telescopes were focused on the visible planets. We got to see amazing views of Saturn (rings and everything! and a few of it's moons!), Jupiter (we could even see it's stripes and four of it's moons), and Venus, which was so bright I felt blinded! Calvin gave it a try looking into the telescopes, but he couldn't get the hang of closing just one eye ;)

We didn't stay too late because of the kids. We went back to the campsite and put Henry to bed, but we let Calvin stay up long enough to sit by the campfire and enjoy a S'more.

There were lots of people gathered at the park with telescopes and fancy cameras to get a look and some photos of the night sky. After Calvin and I went to bed, James stayed up to take some photos himself. 

The Milky Way!

I'd say the night sky views and the observatory are the best things about this park. It was really special to have a chance to do some great stargazing and planetgazing.

The flies... I could have done without!


I think the new moon is actually tonight. Anybody going to do some stargazing?

I know a couple of other people who also went camping last weekend. How did your trips go? Did you get swarmed by black flies like we did?? Haha. I hope not! :)