Family Camping

We didn't know what to expect when we were all headed to San Onofre State Beach to camp. I guess I had in mind that it would be something like San Clemente State Beach when we camped there a few years back. When we got there we discovered something very different!

Troy got off work late so that was an unexpected obstacle. We ended up taking Charlie Brown with us camping as well. I wasn't very excited with the thought that we would have to take him because I wanted a relaxing weekend. I guess this goes along with the idea of enjoying my "child-free" days before I have the extra responsibility. With a failed attempt at a sleep over at Dex's house I picked Charlie up Friday afternoon and he headed out with us.

We made it!! Better late than never!!

Once we got there we had to access the situation and it was looking pretty bad. We hadn't anticipated what we saw... very small camping spots. Not only was there less room than anticipated but we had 5 tents for 8 people, yes I said it correctly 5 tents!

So here we are all set up for camping. Notice that all the tents are sitting on asphalt... our parking spots. Oh yes! ASPHALT! William ended up moving his maroon tent onto the dirt shortly after we decided that it was just too cramped. We have a 6 man tent so ours is the mansion in the back. For some reason no one wanted to sleep in the same tent as us. Apparently I am not cool anymore or something?

In the picture above you can see me sitting in a chair with about 8 feet of dirt in front of me, then curb, then tents. That's about all the nature that we had. Behind us we had brush to the end of the cliff and then the ocean. If you take a close look in this picture you will see the train tracks behind us and the freeway with a truck towing some cars. It only gets better from here... we got to hear and see and feel the train go by every 30 minutes or so until 10:00 pm on Friday night. Thank goodness we had all mentally prepared for this trip so all we could do was laugh. Who knew this was going to turn out like this? No one in their right mind could have predicted exactly what we had just volunteered to do. Each night (thankfully only 2) we were smoothed to sleep with the nice sound of the traffic whizzing by. I love to camp but I can tell you that I am a bit of a sissy and thank goodness that I am! In preparation we swiftly packed our blow up mattress and we were on our way. There were more unlucky campers (Heather, Joe, and Cathleen) who got to sleep on mere blankets in their tents atop the asphalt while William got to sleep on the rocky dirt. Oh joy, this was going to be a great weekend!

Mom and Dad trying out there new air mattress - serious life saver!

Charlie Kicking It On Our Blow Up Mattress

After all the set up was done and we got some food in our bellies (thanks Mom for all the prep, packing, and planning!!) we finally got down to business... family time! Now my father and brother live and breathe for fire so it is only natural that we brought tons of fire wood and started the camp fire right away. Mom and Dad took Charlie for a walk to look around the area and see where we could hike down to the beach the next day. They walked down to end of trail 6 and found a bench on the top of the cliff overlooking the beach. They were lucky enough to be there when the sun was just setting and the sun looked like it was setting the water on fire. Too bad Dad didn't have his camera. I am sure it would have been an amazing photo!

The sun had set and it was time to joke, laugh, and for most of the others, drink.


We all hung out around the fire and talked about all kinds of things. Strangely it turned toward church and our frustrations and quickly everyone started jumping ship. Once the subject changed they came back out to play.


Dad got William a hat light for his last birthday. It is this little light that slides onto the bill of any hat and acts as a hands-free flashlight. In reality we all know that Dad bought the new gadget for himself and gave it to William under the guise of a gift but he couldn't wait until he could take it camping. Apparently everyone in the family found this new toy to be so cool they couldn't stop talking about it! I will admit that since the bathrooms were so disgusting that I had to breathe out of my mouth for the 2.5 seconds it took me to pull down my pants, squat, and pee in the dark it was nice to wear that stupid hat so I could see.

Heather sporting the "hat hat" with the light on a trip to the bathroom

Oh yeah, no showers. At San Clemente and Lake Silverwood there are indoor showers. They look like individual little locker rooms and you put in quarters for hot water. The bathrooms were not nice by any stretch of the imagination but tolerable considering the circumstances. San Onofre... no shower but the standard outdoor public beach showers. Needless to say that I went those 3 days showerless. Oh man did I want to take a shower and wash my hair the moment I got home on Sunday!

Slum'n it without showers

We had some s'mores and then called it a night. We were all pretty tuckered out from the long drive, the long day and the set-up. We brought Charlie's bed and he slept next to us the entire night. I don't think he moved once. It was freezing in our tent. Apparently since we had the mansion and there was only the 2 of us we didn't keep the tent very warm. I froze both nights.

The next morning Troy cooked us some eggs for the breakfast burritos and the rest of the girls got the rest of the ingredients ready: cheese, onions, and bacon. They were so good!!

My hubby manning the grill.

Mom washing dishes at the bathroom sink... loving the star blanket made into a sarong!

It was pretty overcast still and we weren't sure it was even going to be warm enough to go to the beach at all. After we ate breakfast we continued the family time and eventually broke out a deck of cards to play all the games we remembered playing as kids.

Love me some family time!

Charlie spent the majority of his time wrapped up in a blanket cuddling with me, Mom, Troy or Heather while we relaxed.



It was finally starting to warm up and we started self entertaining. We played Speed, Super Speed, Gin, and my personal favorite Bull Stink!


I have no idea what is going on with my face. Obviously I wasn't paying attention. Heather and Joe went to the store and bought cards before the trip to be sure that we had something to do. Heather pulled out one of her new decks of cards and started to play solitare. As I am watching her play she pulls out the 4 aces right off the bat. Then she turns over her next card and it is another ace. WTF?! What is going on?! We look at the box of cards and they are a deck of Pinochle cards. We all bust out laughing. To make matters even funnier Heather exclaims "Joe! You got us Pin-o-chay cards!" At that very moment Mom had taken a drink of a Diet Coke and when Heather got so worked up about her Pin-o-chay cards (pronounced pea-nuckle) Mom laughed and soda came flying out of her mouth and nose. Her eyes started to water, soda was everywhere and none of us could breathe because we were laughing so hard! First for the fact that they bought a retarded deck of cards and secondly for the way Heather kept pronouncing the card game.

My husband posing as usual for his serious photo while William is trying to burn, destroy, and blow up so new object over the fire.

After we played games the family went down to the beach to play in the water. I stayed back with Charlie and I finished the book I was reading and purchased Tori Spelling's 2nd book Mommywood on my Nook and started reading that. It was very relaxing and peaceful. I had the whole campsite to myself, all 8x8 feet of it!

That night Heather came up with the idea to play Charades. At first I thought the idea would never take off but Dad started with Star Wars (never leaving his seat) and so it began. Everyone participated. To my surprise I think William's TV show, Desperate House Wives, was the best one. It was hard enough to be fun but not easy enough that it took 2.5 seconds to guess. And he did a great job of acting it out. We had all kinds of movies, TV shows, and music including Pocahontas, Cinderella, Star Wars, 16 Candles, Family Guy, Killing Me Softly, Mary Poppins, and Frankenstein. It was so much fun! Sadly the charades turned into signing and that is when I hit the tent. While I was laying there listening to all kinds of songs like Lean On Me, then rounds of Row Row Your Boat, I think the finale ended up with the Star Spangled Banner. I wish I was making this up. It got so bad and out of tune that I nearly went to read and sleep in the car just to have the sound proofing. They were all having fun and I didn't want to be Debbie-downer but come on people!! It was 10:30 at night and if I didn't want to hear your singing I am sure the campers 3 feet from us didn't want to either!

Waiting for the next victim to act out their charade

All in all it was a great weekend. I would not recommend this campground to anyone and I hope the next family trip is either to San Clemente or Lake Silverwood. Sometimes it is best to just go with what you know and go where you are comfortable. Mom and Dad did a great job arranging everything. Sometimes I wonder how much longer we are going to be able to get all of us together like this for some quality family time. People move away, grow up, have jobs and careers, families and other responsibilities. I am trying to cherish what little, or hopefully long, time left that we have to do things together as a family.