Wherever you go, go with all your heart. - Confucious
Things to Do in Montana De Oro State Park
Our Favorite 3 Things to do at Montaña de Oro State Park
We love visiting California’s beautiful state parks as each one is a diverse selection of the natural beauty. It is definitely a bucket list item to visit all of California’s State Parks, but for now we enjoy seeing as many as we can. One of the well-kept secrets, I say that because is not heard about by most and one of our favorites, is Montaña de Oro State Park. Montaña de Oro is located six miles Southwest of Morro Bay and seven miles South of Los Osos in San Luis Obispo County. We like to think of the place as the less crowded version of the Hwy 1, Big Sur and offers solitude and freedom. It has miles of trails, acres of beaches to relax on and a leisurely style that beckons you to come and enjoy yourself. Another great feature is that it is free to visit as there is no charge like most state parks.
There is a lot to explore at Montaña de Oro, but we will leave you with our top three activities to do there.
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Bluffs Trail
A favorite place to explore is the Bluffs Trail. It is a walk and bike friendly trail that goes along the coastline for 2+ miles. You can enjoy spectacular views of the coastline at several overlooks along the way and access multiple beaches.
Here are some of our favorite parts about the Bluffs Trail .
Spooner’s Cove
Spooner’s Cove is an easily assessable beach close to the campground in the park and has a large parking lot. There is a lot to explore here with the kids from the beach, tide pools a little hidden cave during low tide and you can also climb up on the large rock there to enjoy the scenery.
Hazard Canyon Reef Trail
This is a fun trail to head to check out Montana De Oro Dunes and tide pools. There is a short walk down where you can access the tide pools or for the adventuress once you get to the bottom of the trail hike to the top of the Dunes and explore or slide down the dunes to the beach. We played here towards the end of the day and is a spectacular place to sit on top of the dunes and watch the sunset.
We loved our time at this park and would highly encourage others to visit. Not to mention, it is located next to the amazing town of San Luis Obispo that is another top favorite of ours. (Check out our post on the San Luis Obispo Farmers Market.
We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments if you have been here and enjoyed yourself as much as we did.
San Luis Obispo Farmer’s Market
San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market
Every Thursday evening through out the year, the city of San Luis Obispo hosts an outdoor farmer’s market/festival where local farmers sell fresh fruits, vegetables, and produce while local musicians and performers entertain you.
When: Every Thursday from 6-9 PM
Where: Higuera St, San Luis Obispo, CA
Check out there calendar of events for special events at the SLO Farmer’s Market
If you are visiting San Luis Obispo, their Farmer’s Market is a must do. The event has something for everyone to entertain the whole family. They have a wide array of local vendors with some of the best tasting fruits and most of the vendors will let you sample ahead of time. Each week, they have different entertainers on different sections of the road from street performers to live musicians.
We have traveled to a lot of different farmer’s markets and found that this is a great set up with affordable and delicious food.
We would love to hear from you. Have you been to SLO’s Farmer’s Market? What is your favorite Farmer’s Market to Visit?,
A Day in Zion National Park (Ep. 2)
The start of our newest full time RV adventure kicked off just right with our first trip to Zion National Park. Even though our time was short our adventure was not. We hope you enjoy this episode and hope to inspire you to visit this amazing place.
12 Activities to do in San Diego
San Diego- California
Our time in San Diego was unforgettable. We got to spend 3 weeks stationed here exploring, visiting friends and hanging out with family. Prior to arriving, we created a bucket list of things that we wanted to do while here (Check it out here). We didn’t get to do everything on the bucket list but of course we did everything that we needed to.
For the first, week we spent it out in the hills of East County and it was especially beautiful because of all the recent rains so everything was green. The next two weeks we spent camping at the Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado, CA. We picked this place as our family was staying on the island, so it made it very easy to hang out with them often. Coronado is a favorite place of ours since Michelle has been travelling there every year for spring break since she was a little kid and our kids have gotten to do the same thing since they were born.
San Diego thanks for the amazing time. We will be back…
Biking- San Diego
There are a lot of places to bike in San Diego especially the beach towns and paths along the beaches. We really enjoyed getting out on our bikes and exploring San Diego.
Imperial Beach to Coronado Bridge
There is a great bike path along this route that offers ample room to bike alongside pedestrians. You will see several other bikers enjoying the path, especially on the weekends. We were staying at Silver Strand Beach, so we had direct access to the bike path and would ride it routinely into Coronado. Our favorite trip was when we rode the bike path to the Coronado bridge and back. We did not have the kids with us this time, so we got to stop off at Coronado Brewing Company for a little treat.
We tried riding back on some of the roads through the city but did not find that as enjoyable as you had to go slow and there are several cars, so we made our way back to the bike path to ride back out to Silver Strand. All together our bike ride was 13 miles but if you are looking for a longer bike ride you can ride it all that way to the ferry, across into San Diego and continue along.
Lake Murray bike/walking path
After a hike at Cowles Mountain we headed to the nearby Lake Murray to ride our bikes. This path goes almost all the way around the lake. Not sure why it doesn’t go the whole way, but we rode to the end and found this out and just turned around and biked back.
Hiking- San Diego
We picked a few places ahead of time that we wanted to go hiking and got some good hikes in while there. One of our favorite places Torrey Pines we missed because we left it till the end and it ended up being closed due to the rain the night before. (There was a notice it was closed for 24 hours after a large rain storm to ensure there wasn’t additional erosion from hiking the next day.)
Cowles Mountain
This is a nice hike in East County San Diego but can be very crowded, so parking can take some time. We found parking down the road and was pretty easy to walk up to the trail head.
Hiking Trail at Pio Pico RV Resort
Staying in East County we were lucky that they had been having a lot of rain, so the hills were blooming and green. We went on a few hikes around the Pio Pico RV Resort and the kids thought it was SOOO cool that they could see Mexico from there.
Paddle boarding- San Diego
Mission Bay
Mission Bay was our favorite place to paddleboard in San Diego mostly because there are not large boats going though it like the San Diego Bay and it was protected more from the wind. We were lucky both days we went out that they bay was very calm and easy to paddle around for the kids.
Our favorite place to paddleboard in Mission Bay is the Santa Barbara Cove as we have circled on this map. These spot offers the calmest waters as well as it is easy to park. You can park at the Bahia Resort as they have free public parking right on the beach where you can easily launch into the water.
San Diego Bay
We went out on San Diego Bay across from Silver Strand State Beach. It was absolutely gorgeous place to paddleboard. There tends to be more headwinds here as it is not protected like the area we paddle board in Mission Beach but gives you more exercise that way 😊
Beaches- San Diego
Coronado Beach
Our favorite family friendly beach. There are several reasons we love this beach. 1) Nice clean beach with smaller waves to play in the ocean. 2) Fun rock area that are fun to walk around and find crabs 3) Close to walk into town for a quick bite to eat or an ice cream at Moo Time. 4) With its large military base on the island there are always military training activities going on and interesting and humbling to see these amazing military individuals due the amazing preparatory work.
My lists could go on, but we love Coronado Beach for all of the above.
Silver Strand State Beach
This year we camped at Silver Strand State Beach and spent a lot of time enjoying the beach here where we have not done so in the past. The best thing about this beach is that it was not crowded. At least not in March/April when we were there. The kids had plenty of space to run, fly their kites and ride their bikes on the beach. If you are looking for a nice clean, less populated beach in San Diego head to Silver Strand State beach for the day. It is also a popular place for kite surfing so if you enjoy kite surfing or just enjoy watching it this is the place to be.
Cabrillo National Monument Tide Pools
Cabrillo National Monument is located in Point Loma and a great place to visit. If you have time they have a great visitor center and a short hike to the lighthouse. There are several hikes located within the park. For this adventure we went to the Tide Pools as we just had a short afternoon available to explore. Make sure you go when the tides are going down so that you can explore the tide pools. Depending on tide the best time to go would be around 1pm. We found a lot of crabs, urchins and a giant sea slug. It is a great place to sit and watch the birds fly around in the ocean as well.
Kid's Educational Activities- San Diego
Birch Aquarium
The Birch Aquarium located in La Jolla, CA is a great museum for all ages. They have a great display of all sorts of marine life and have miniature tide pools where you can touch different animals found in tide pools.
El Cajon Water Conservation Garden
This was a great place to take the kids when we were staying out in East County. They have several different kids of plants here but mostly they have great displays showing different plants and how they can be utilized to save water. The kids favorite was an area that they showcased several different types of grass and the amount of water that would have to be used on an annual basis to water it. They also had a display of a typical backyard and one that was water conservative showing the differences in water needed to be utilized to keep up the backyards. The water conservative backyard was a must better looking backyard as well.
San Diego Space Museum
We found parking at Balboa Park and had no idea where the shuttle was taking us. It so happened to stop at the Space Museum. This place was awesome! There is so much history there and a lot of hands on things for the kids to do.
Balboa Park
Balboa Park offers a great array of museums to visit but it is also just a beautiful park to walk around for free and enjoy the amazing buildings and scenery.
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Old Town
Old Town I mark as educational because it is so important to understand the history of an area. Old Town nowadays is made up of a lot of Mexican restaurants and shops. The buildings are there from the first establishments to and most of them are shops but great for the kids to learn how life was back in the day in San Diego.
This is a long list and San Diego is one of those places that you could have endless opportunities of things to do. I hope you enjoy our list and can add some to your list of things to do in San Diego. Most importantly we want to help encourage others to get outside and explore San Diego and don’t forget to relax and soak it all in.
Adventure Premiere: Our New RV! (ABF EP. 1)
We got a new RV and started getting ready for our adventure! Here is a tour of our home on wheels. Grand Design Reflection 311BHS tour.
We searched for months and created some gnarly spreadsheets to narrow down our final RV selection. We knew that it had to be under 38′ for the campgrounds we want to go to and have a separate area for the kids while Michelle is working during the day. After reading many reviews and watching the resale values of lightly used RVs, we made the leap and bought our new home. Heck, the kitchen is nicer than any house we have ever lived in. We hope yo enjoy our video tour.
Interested in more videos of our adventures. Check out Adventure Bound Family on YouTube.
San Diego Adventures Week 1 (EP. 3)
As we juggle the full-time rv travel and home school like, here is a glimpse into our first week of adventures in San Diego, CA. We found a great RV spot at Pio Pico and lucked out with how lush and green the area were. We spent a little time on the beaches of Mission Bay. The kids also had a blast touring the El Cajon Water Conservation Garden for an educational field trip.
Adventure Bound Family- The Start of our Adventure
Hey everyone! We thought we would start off with a little introduction of our family and the start of our newest adventure.
We are a close family of four, who like a lot, looking for some more adventures in our life.
We have always said that we need to travel more, so four years ago while we were in Costa Rica, we decided that we were going to travel internationally every year with our kids. Its been four years and we have yet to hop on that plane. We thought buying a camper was going to help solve a void of the desire to travel and it just added fuel to the fire. After two years of chasing weekend camping trips, during the season, we decided to pack it up and travel full time for who knows how long. We bought a fifth wheel and got passports for the kids. Our current plan is to travel along the West Coast and into Canada. There may be instances while we are driving along that we hop on a plane and experience different cultures further away than what we want to drive.
We felt like we kept putting our travel dreams on hold for that “one day”. Gradually over time, we asked ourselves “why couldn’t we extend these weekend trips and do it full time”? After researching a lot, we surprised to find out that there is a community of people who do just that. Then our plans went into motion in planning to go travel full time.
This first Season is all about our travels in which we embark on this new adventure. We hope to inspire others by just adding more travel or adventures to their life.
We hope you enjoy following on this new adventure!
Love- Michelle, Mike, Brayden & Taylor
Zion for a Day!
If you only have time to do activities in Zion for a day, this is a list of things to do in Zion that we did in one day. Originally, we had planned on being in Zion for 3 nights 2 full days, but with weather rolling in we cut our trip short a day so that our drive to California was easier and safer. So, we ended up having one full day to play around in Zion which was still great. We wish we had been able to do more of our bucket list items Check out our Bucket List for Zion, but were completely satisfied with going with the flow and doing what we did have time for. I am so thankful we did our bucket list prior to arriving as we were able to pick a few things off the list.
Here is an overview of what we go to do for the day in Zion!
Zion National Park Visitor Center
The kids and Mike started the day by going to the Visitor Center, so they could begin learning about the area. They had a great video for the kids to watch and the kids’ favorite the Junior Ranger activity book. They spent the morning filling out the books and learning about the area. It was very nice to start this way as the kids kept teaching us about the history and area as we drove through the park later that day.
Pa’rus Trail
This is a paved trail that follows the Virgin River from the South Campground to Canyon Junction. We rode our bikes along parts of this trail but did not go the full 3.5 miles. This trail will take you into town if you are camping and want to ride to town for a quick bite or a morning coffee.
Watchman Campground beach
We were lucky enough to camp in Loop B of the Watchman Campground that was right across from the river “beach” area. The kids took their sand toys and played there while we made lunch. If you are camping here the best spots for beach access are B Loop sites 55,56, and 57. Other sites are an easy walk to get access, but if you have small kids these sites help as you can keep a watch on them from your campsite.
Zion-Mount Carmel Highway Tunnel
In the afternoon, we took the road through the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway Tunnel, which is an amazing site to see. The tunnel was built in the 1920’s straight through the middle of the mountain and is around 1.1 miles long. Vehicles 11’4” tall or taller, or 7’10” wide or wider, require one-lane traffic control through the tunnel and permit from the Visitor Center is required prior.
Canyon Overlook Trail
Right at the end of the tunnel on the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway you will see parking on the right and left for the trail head. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by a herd Bighorn Sheep. It was a beautiful hike alongside the cliffs, which is mostly fenced or guide rails. Typically, this hikes takes an hour round trip. Wear good hiking boots as the sand alongside of the cliffs can be slippery. We learned this when we forgot to check our daughter’s shoes and she was wearing her flats that were not the best for gripping.
End of the day….
The kids wanted to go back and play at the beach, so we decided to put off the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive and Lower Emerald Pools hike until the next day. The next day surprised us with some rain, so we didn’t end up getting to do that but completely fine as the kids had a blast just playing in the water and sand.
There was plenty of time in our day to get a lot more adventures in, so don’t worry you can do a lot more than us. We live on the road, so still had to plan for home school and other chores as well.
Watchman Stargazing
We had researched prior and knew that stargazing near the Watchman was the best. Our campsite luckily was a perfect spot and we could stargaze and see the beautiful stars right behind the Watchman.
Additional Information
* Weather: We were there the last week of February which we ended up getting lucky with the weather (except the last day with the rain). It was perfect 60-65-degree weather and the best was that the park was not packed. My brother’s family went a week prior to us and stayed at the Zion lodge and the entire park was covered in snow, though they had a blast still hiking in the snow. Amazing how weather can change in just one week. The campground we stayed out was at about 15% occupancy with two of the loops vacant as they were working on construction. It was a blessing to be able to enjoy Zion without the crowds of people and made it easy to drive through the park and not rely on the shuttles that are mandatory through the busier times of year.
*Cell Service. Great in town and in Watchman campground. Once passing Watchman campground it is spotty throughout the park. Cell service is critical for me since I work full time and prior to arriving I was not finding a lot of great resources that talked about cell service strength. Luckily with by brother here a week prior I had him test out the campgrounds for me and they were great. We do have an RV cell booster, but we ranged from 3-5 bars the entire time which was better than the service I received in my office back home.
*Trail closures. Here is a list of the trails that were closed during this time (Last week of February) Upper Emerald Pool Trail; Kayenta Trail; Hidden Canyon Trail.
Angel’s Landing- after arriving it became clear that Angel’s Landing would not be the best hike with kids as it is extremely steep and a strenuous hike for kids.
Bucket List- Orange County
Here is our Bucket List of things to do and see in Orange County, CA
Prior to exploring an area, we like to plan out all the activities that we would like to do. This helps us know ahead of time what things we really want to see, especially since most of the time we are there for just a week. Listing ideas ahead of time and researching helps us to enjoy the area and know that if we do the items on our bucket list we will be fulfilled.
We want to share with you our planning to hopefully help you gather some ideas if you are visiting these areas. There is no better way to get ideas than asking people who have been there or live there for suggestions. So, please leave us a comment with any suggestions or if one activity is more of priority than the others.
Please help us determine what we should have on our bucket list.
Check out our other Bucket Lists here.
Adventures in Orange County, CA
Biking in Orange County
Ride along the Balboa Island Boardwalk, 2 Miles.
Flagpole Hill- San Clemente (Great for sunset and connects to Las Ramblas Trail
Mountains to Sea Trail- Irvine to Newport beach (Total of 20.3 miles but can start in Newport for a shorter ride)
Paddle boarding in Orange County
Balboa Island
Dana Point Harbor
Hiking in Orange County
Panhe Nature Trail- San Onofre
Ridgeline Loop to Barbara’s Lake– Laguna Canyon Wilderness
Las Ramblas Trail– San Clemente (Planning on hiking this for the sunrise)
Top of the World– Laguna Beach
Educational Activities in Orange County
Pretend City Children’s Museum (Irvine)
Dana Point Nature Interpretive Center– with hikes and trails as well to explore
Just For Fun in Orange County
Do you have any must do activities in Orange County for us to do with our kids?
Bucket List – San Diego
Prior to exploring an area, we like to plan out all the activities that we would like to do. This helps us know ahead of time what things we really want to see. Listing ideas ahead of time and researching helps us to enjoy the area and know that if we do the items on our bucket list we will be fulfilled.
We want to share with you our planning to hopefully help you gather some ideas if you are visiting these areas. There is no better way to get ideas than asking people who have been there or live there for suggestions. So, please leave us a comment with any suggestions or if one activity is more of priority than the others.
Please help us determine what we should have on our bucket list.
Check out our other Bucket lists for ideas here.
San Diego is not an area that is new to us as Michelle spent her college years here and tagged along on an annual trip with her family to Coronado for spring break every year since she was little. Our beach baby, Taylor, was born in San Diego and tells everyone the she is a “Cali Girl”. So, we do have a good idea of what activities are high on our list, but there is most likely something that is being left out.
Bucket List- San Diego
Here is our bucket list of adventures for San Diego.
Biking
- Silver Strand bike path (10-mile scenic bike path between Coronado and Imperial Beach
- Balboa Park-easy 4.5 miles
- Mission Trails Regional Park
- Suycott Valley Trail
- South Fortuna Trail
- Tecolate Canyon Natural Park
- Tecolate Canyon Ride
Hiking
Paddle Boarding
Educational
Food
For our own planning purposes, we always like to have a visual map of all the activities that we want to do. There is nothing that is like realizing you were right next to another bucket list item and missing it.
Do you have any must do activities in San Diego for us to do with our kids?