Beach Camping in San Clemente

This weekend we went beach camping in San Clemente, CA, about an hour and a half south of LA. It was so fun! It was also Mariah's first camping experience too.

We got there around 6 PM and set up camp. Mariah helped Brian put up the tent.

From this trip, we have realized that we need a bigger tent. Our current one is a 2-man backpacking tent, barely large enough to fit our full-sized air mattress. It wasn't as fun with no space for Mariah.

Here is Mariah playing in the dirt at our camp ground. She loved exploring (but was sometimes afraid of the dirt)!

Here is Sean, a fellow first year dental student, buying firewood at the local liquor store. Apparently we arrived at the campsite too late to buy bundles from the park station (even tho they were still there). They refused to sell us any.

Here is a video of Brian breaking a karate board that we found amongst our fire wood.

Here is one of Sean trying to do the same. Glad we got that on video!

That night was a lot of fun. We had hot chocolate, s'mores, and played games like "I Never". Raccoons came about 3 AM and ate all of our hot Cheetos and marshmallows! Brian had to scare them away with a flashlight.

Mariah kept me up a little too. I had to take her outside to put her back to sleep. But it was an beautiful starry night. It's been so long since I've been camping, I had forgotten how many more stars you can see when you're away from all the lights. Gorgeous.

The night was a little rough with Mariah because she's used to her own space, so we gave her a treat the next morning of hot chocolate mixed into her whole milk. She loved it.

 

Here's some beach scenery. This is right before you take a path that leads to the beach.

This was the ridiculously steep path down to the beach. It was quite the workout!

We went early the next day and watched the morning surfers. We even saw a family of dolphins surfing too! They kept jumping up and riding the waves. It was so cool.

Brian took Mariah down to the beach to watch the sun rise.

The rest of the day we hung out on the beach. Mariah did a lot of sleeping. I actually napped too (and got a little too tanned on my back from it)! Brian played football with Pehrson and went boogie boarding.

Here's a picture of Kate, the wife of Pehrson who's another first year dental student. She and Pehrson are known as the "Surfer Barbie" couple in our ward. They are so fun! And both very good at surfing.

Sadly, this was the only picture taken of me at this trip. I'll be sure to have Brian take some pictures next time too, so I can actually be in them!

All in all, it was a VERY fun trip. We even talked about doing a camping trip every month. I smell a new tradition coming!