Our last full day in California was Monday. When we first decided to go camping, we pictured a campsite overlooking the ocean, right on the beach, with the water right there. Doheny State Park in San Clemente had some tent spots available, so we laid out on the beach while we waited for our campsite.
Before we pitched our tent & got set up, we went to some tattoo/piercing shop & Jacey got her nose pierced. That was fun. There's something fun about getting a permanent marker of a place you love.
[day 9 of camping. not pretty]
[it did get a little chilly.... and by chilly we mean 60]
For the afternoon we just hung out at the beach, read a little, and enjoyed the sunshine. By late afternoon, we started to have a few more retired couples join us on the beach to start watching the sunset. I noticed a big "Route 66" sticker on the back of one couples RV, which was right next to our campsite, and went over to ask them about Route 66. We hit the jackpot. Allan & Claudia wrote a book called "Life on Route 66", and they love & know everything Route 66! Such a neat couple. All evening we hung out with them, Allan made a campfire, Claudia made dinner, and we all sat around & talked for a long time. Allan thought it was fascinating we were interested in American history, because he thought all young people had no respect for history. He kept saying that over & over. Thankfully, he didn't quiz me about my current knowledge on history, or he would have been sorely disappointed. We made s'mores with peanut butter. They had never heard of that. It was delicious. We heard all sorts of stories of places they had traveled, and things they had done. It was so fun to meet people & immediately just hangout with them for the evening. They were pretty funny, too.
In the morning we woke up & loaded up our tent, and then when we were getting close to the end of packing, Allan comes over & says, Hey, you guys cant hit the road without some breakfast! Claudia made us all breakfast burritos! How nice is that?? We sat down & ate breakfast with them, and heard more of their stories. We were definitely not anxious to get in the car for a 6 1/2 hour drive to Phoenix.
love this pic!
When we stopped here to look around and take pictures, a Border Patrol officer came over & was asking what we were up to. He was probably just bored of sitting around all day in his truck.
Massive sand hills. So cool. The sand was warm and soft & there was so much!
We were shocked southern Arizona was so mountainous! I had no idea!
Our first time seeing saguaro cactus!! I took like 50 pictures of them! (I didn't know they were everywhere in AZ! ha)
We made it to Phoenix. Maricopa, actually. We were covered in dirt, sand, and a little sunburned. We smelled like ocean, and campfire, and dirt. The shower at Ryan & Ana's felt like the best shower of my life! As soon as we got to their house, we rushed around to get ready & ran out the door to go to an event with Ana. Afterwards, we went to dinner with her & one of her friends.
Wednesday morning, we met Kelsey for lunch in Phoenix, at this really neat place called The Farm. It was gorgeous. It was so fun to see a familiar face & hear her great laugh!
I love cactus and palm trees. They are so cool! After lunch, I drove Jacey to the airport & said goodbye. Really hard to say goodbye, but I know we will have more trips together in the future. I definitely miss having my fellow-explorer for the last two years around though!
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