In light of the holiday season and rapidly changing weather, I haven’t had the opportunity to plan a new trip. However, as this is the last post for this blog, I thought I would add a little variation in my entries and write about somewhere I want to go but haven’t yet had the chance.

My favorite part of spending time outdoors is obviously, the scenery. More specifically, I love waterfalls. When I hike or explore, I am always in search of waterfalls. Something about naturally running water, whether it’s peaceful or extremely forceful and destructive, I find breathtaking. I’ve heard that Burney Falls Memorial State Park has some of the most luscious forests and running waterfalls in Northern California.

Located north of Redding off Highway 89, the park’s main attraction is the 129 foot tall Burney waterfall. The entire park actually rests in between the Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau. It also has five miles worth of hiking trails and even encompasses part of the PCT.  Apparently, the park’s landscape was a result of volcanoes.

The park is a state park, so unlike most of my other posts, it is more well known. I think it appears to be very family friendly and a great place to take young kids for a first time camping trip. Reservations can be made up to seven months in advance as the park fills up on holidays and during the spring season.

I really look forward to taking a trip here and adding another adventure to my belt!

Dear me,

I am writing to you from college. I am not sure what age you are, but it doesn’t matter. I know this is something we’ve always struggled with. I want you to remember who you are. Always remember who you are.

I think it is ironic that it took us until now to realize we’ve always been happy, we just didn’t understand the meaning of that happiness.  I know we’ve struggled with our identity in the past. Hating everything we thought was wrong with us, not realizing we were perfect. Stop pretending to be like everyone. I know it’s hard, especially because of where we live. I know everyone seems like they have it all, and we have nothing, but that’s not true. Everything we’ve been through has made us stronger than those around us. Why would we want to change that? Each time we pretend to be someone else, hoping for an identity we understand, we move farther from it.  We get caught up in the dream of perfection, thinking because of everything, that we can never be perfect. Don’t be afraid of what we’ve gone through. I want you to accept it. You don’t have to be proud, but accept that it has shaped us for better and worse. Don’t run from it, don’t push it away. It’s apart of us.  It’s going to be okay, eventually, I promise. I’m from the future, so I know 🙂 I just want it to be easier on you than it was for me.

You need to hear this because it’s going to get harder. It’s going to get unbearably tough and you’re going to give up. I have to tell you this, so you don’t give up. No one told me what I’m telling you and it made everything so much worse. I don’t want you to go the same way so I’m hoping this helps.

You’re strong and you’re beautiful and you have already proved you can do anything. You are perfect to me.

Love always,

me

If you’re live anywhere between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, then you’ve probably heard of Union Valley Reservoir. It is a fairly commonplace to camp, located just off Highway 50 and Ice House Road.  The area surrounding the water consists of several campgrounds including West Point, Camino Cove, Wolf Creek, Yellowjacket, Azalea, Wench Creek, Big Silver, Lone Rock, and Sunset.

I have had the pleasure of camping in two different seasons and two different ends of the Reservoir.  In late September and early October, I camped on the North shore in Wench Creek campground. For the Fourth of July, I camped on the Eastern shore in Azalea campground. Believe it or not, the two ends are surprisingly different.

Wench Creek is extremely larger in size. It has roughly 100 sites. The natural landscaping is different on the North end as well. Trees are spread out, the sites are flat, and the ground is mostly dirt. The entire campground is about a two-minute walk to the water’s edge. At night, aside from one night of rain, the sky was mostly clear. I could look through the treetops and into the sky to see infinite amounts of stars. If you walk to the water on a full moon, the moon reflects across the lake and lights it up. It is actually really peaceful to look out across the water; it appears to expand forever and ever.

Azalea campground is smaller (10 sites) and a lot denser. The sites are almost right on top of each other. Almost all the sites sit on top of a mildly inclined hill, so if you decide to put your tent closer to the water, you will be sleeping at an angle. The brush is different as well. Instead of dirt, the floor is blanketed in fallen leaves, dried pine needles, acorns, and other earthly things.  I like this campground because it is a lot closer to the water’s edge, but I would never return to it…It has way too many bugs. I camp a lot, and I have never shared my space with so many bugs (of every abomination) before in my life. I’m not sure if it was because of the time of year, or lack of rainfall, or what….but it was terrifying. I came home with more bites than I could scratch.

Overall, I think Union Valley is a wonderful place for families. It lies right on the water and many people bring boats, jet skis, paddle boards, canoes, and kayaks. (I had the pleasure of using all of the above while staying at Azalea). Some sites require reservations and some don’t. It all depends on the season. There are also bathrooms, fire pits, grills, picnic tables, and bike trails. Some sites allow RV’s.  It is also one of the cheapest areas I have had the pleasure to experience.

I think the best part about the location is that Bassi Falls is located just a few miles away. For those of you who don’t know Bassi, it is one of the most breathtaking waterfalls in Northern California. It is my favorite. It cascades down 120 feet of solid rock and pools into little springs and rivers. The hike to the falls is short and fairly easy. I think I would recommend it to families with even children who are just beginning to hike. The view is worth it.

El Dorado Hills roughly translates to “The Golden Hills.” Though our town was named for its influx of miners during the Gold Rush since we are so close to Coloma, the only gold here is the dirt hills that run the entire length of it. The hills are so massive, that even during the rainy season, they remain dry and yellow. They’re not even grass; just dirt, and weeds. I swear, one summer, the whole town is going to burst into flames.

I’ve lived in EDH almost my entire life. It is pretty much all I have known. While I think EDH is a great place to raise kids, for several reasons, I really couldn’t wait to leave it. The town is old and lies roughly 40 minutes east of Sacramento. It runs no more than three miles in length and barely two miles in width.

Eldo is a great place to raise kids. The bulk of the population is families and retired people who have lived there their entire lives. It’s not the kind of place for single adults. There’s no nightlife or really any social aspect outside of your kids. You meet people through your child’s school and their extracurricular events.  We have no community activities or festivals or anything to put EDH on the map. There’s also a lot of  ‘new’ money put into our town. Intel is only 3 miles away, so the majority of parents work there. As a result, there’s a lot of money being put into our public school district.  Since the schools are so good, the family population is huge. Therefore, there are more students than we have room for. Almost 10 elementary schools and 4 middle schools in EDH alone, but only one high school.

Even though it really is a great suburb to grow up in, I hated it. It is very sheltered. Living in Eldo is like living in a bubble, it’s not reality. The entire outside world is hidden from the kids. Everyone has their money, their Mercedes, and their boats. Most moms are stay-at-home, while the dads ignore their kids. You would think with the way our society progresses, it wouldn’t be that way. It’s like the rest of the world moves around the town. I hated how locked away we were. Most of our population was white, privileged, and conservative.  I never fit, being none of those things. My mom is a single mom and we lived in the lowest-income part of the town. I felt bad for my mother my whole life because I knew everyone else looked down on us. Like it wasn’t as good as theirs, so everyone felt bad for us. But that’s not real life. The majority of the country struggles and single-parents are actually common. Just not in Eldo.

I think the overall drawback of EDH is the people. Everyone is fake, pretending we all have money, and mansions on the hill, and shiny cars. We all know everyone is in debt. Yet maintaining appearances were everything to these people.  I never saw the point of it. It’s not like we were Beverly Hills. No one even knows where we are. I always felt like I never fit in. None of my beliefs matched up with the town’s ideals. It made making friends difficult.

Now that I’ve moved away, I can finally see what a bubble EDH was. I hate to think that I had been raised with people who refused to acknowledge the rest of the world. People who never turned on the news, read a book, went to church, or watched anything on television other than reality shows. What kind of car you drive should not matter at all or if you play for the most expensive soccer club (I didn’t). Things that these people put above good solid morals have absolutely no meaning in the real world.

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When I hear the word family, I think of two things; the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch  and my baby sister.  I believe, like the majority of people, that there are many ways to define family. You have the one you are born into and the family you choose.

My sister; she’s all I have so far. After so much, we’ve managed  to stay together. We aren’t close. Actually, we barely talk. We’re polar opposites, but we understand and accept that. We love each other because we have to. We fight. All. The. Time. But, we’ve never left. I think, because we have no one else, we can’t just abandon the other. Not because they would be alone, but because we, ourselves, would be.  It terrifies me, knowing  simple existence of this single person, is all we have to separate us from being truly alone in this world. I know she feels the same way. We don’t talk about it, but there’s a mutual understanding.

I have my sister, but I don’t have my “ohana.” Like Stitch, in the beginning of the movie, I’m still looking for mine. I’m still looking for the people who take away that loneliness and provide a certain security. The kind of safety where you understand that no matter what happens, you’ll be okay. Your real family are those who choose you, not because they have to, but because they want to.  I believe when you find the right family, it becomes unbreakable. You can survive anything because you have each other. I haven’t found them, but I know they’re out there.

If you’re more of a coastal camper, Riverside campground in Big Sur is just a ten-minute drive from beach access. Riverside is a tent, RV and cabin site located in the middle of beautiful coastal redwoods.

Riverside campground is the first site I had the pleasure of experiencing that was equipped with fully functioning hot water showers, free wifi, and even laundry stations. Definitely more of an up-scale, glamping style campground, it was almost too nice for camping. Personally, I have never stayed in such a nice site before, but it was an interesting glimpse into the other side of the camping spectrum. While I stayed in a tent towards the back end of the site, more inside the trees, I walked past the cabins everyday. Carefully maintained and clean, the cabins weren’t falling apart or infested with rotting wood and insects. I think they were some of the nicest cabins I have seen and yet they managed to fit in with the redwood vibe. They weren’t out of place, giving Riverside too much of a “boujee” style atmosphere.

As for the community environment, it is both family and pet-friendly.  I brought my border collie and he slept with me in my tent. Even he seemed pleased with the woodsy scenery and crisp, clean, beachy air. There were lots of young kids in the cabins, but the tent sites were occupied by more “permanent” residents. I think many of the tent inhabitants lived there for a few months at a time and biked to local jobs, as many of them had makeshift homes with tarps and ropes.  Camp staff was kind and helpful. There’s also a camp store with wood bundles and coals.

I strongly recommend the hiking trails along the local beaches. The trails snake along the upper bluffs covered in sand and brush. The trails were so beautiful that I actually discovered my favorite wildflower here. The view of the ocean the entire way makes you feel like your walking along the edge of the world.

Overall Riverside was a good trip but definitely more of a nicer campground than most of the ones I have been too.

While I love college because I can finally explore my freedom, I can honestly say, I have never been more stressed out in my life. I wish my professors understood that they’re classes (most of the time) are a cause of that stress.

I’m really good at having balance in my life. I focus on school, but I make time for friends, family, and myself.  But lately, I feel like all my time is taken up by studying. I’m wiped out by the time the weekend comes, so I have no energy to go out an party. I love partying, so I force myself anyway, but then I never come home till three or four in the morning. My weekends are supposed to be time for catching up on sleep, but I feel like I haven’t slept in months. I never recover from the week and then when Monday comes, I just go through it all again. I’m afraid because, soon, I know my body will wear itself out and begin to shut down. No matter what I do, school takes over my life, and I just want some sleep. I know college is supposed to be simple because literally, all you have to do is study and sleep, but I’m exhausted.

My classes and my major path stress me out so much. I’m conflicted because what I chose to study makes me genuinely happy, but I didn’t expect it to be so difficult. I know professors say they understand, but they don’t actually change anything or make an effort to make literally anything slightly easier and less stressful. They know we are stressed, but I don’t think they fully comprehend that it is because of them. I think if some of them showed a little more compassion, it would be easier to respect them and care about their classes even when were overloaded with work.

I think first impressions are bull. What do they really say? Nothing. I don’t think you can understand anyone from just a single interaction.

I know when people first meet me, they don’t like me. I’m also aware they have no problem showing it. I don’t know where in society having confidence suddenly makes people a bitch. But this word, bitch, is everyone’s first impression of me. It hurts because I’m not. People confuse self-confidence and happiness with the idea that I put myself above others. In a society, where most people dislike themselves, are insecure in their identities, or envy others on the daily, I don’t fit in. Maybe even writing this post makes me a bitch, but I like who I am. I LOVE who I am. I take care of my appearance, I work hard for my body image, I work hard for my grades, I like my personality, and I love my sense of humor. I am secure and I am genuinely a happy person. I am happy in myself and I’ve never thought I needed reassurance from others to have that confidence. But sometimes, for people who struggle with insecurities, it’s too much.

I pride other people on their self-confidence. You go girl, do you, be you. I love it. I try my hardest not to form an opinion about someone until I actually know who they are. For example, most people don’t take the time to get to know me. Contradictory to what they believe, I am a really friendly person. I am also very comfortable around people; I get really lovey and touchy. I think human contact is so important for daily interaction. I’m a huge supporter of hugs. I love making people smile because I think a smile is one of the most beautiful things in the world. A real genuine smile or laugh, says more than words or eyes, in my opinion, and I love being the reason behind it.

I think everyone is a little misunderstood, we’ve become lazy. We don’t take time to really learn about someone. As individuals, we have so many amazing stories and qualities, but often times we don’t get the chance to share them.

Of course, I cannot write a blog about camping, without featuring my favorite site. Memorial County Park, located in Loma Mar, California, is definitely on the list of the best places to take your kids.

Memorial has been around for so many years that even my parents have been camping there since they were toddlers. Since it is a county park, it is equipped with full ranger services, which is somewhat reassuring, especially if you have little ones. Memorial is the first place I learned to camp, it is where I fell in love with Earth, and it is where I return every year. It has almost 200 sites for both tent camping and trailer camping, along with an ice cream shop, camp store (with firewood), and bathrooms.  Memorial itself, is extremely woody, covered by hundreds and hundreds of old redwoods. Therefore, it is also very dusty but smells amazing.

I think one of the things that makes this campground such a pleasurable occasion for families, both starting out, and already experienced, is how accommodating for children it can be. There are craft nights and movie nights almost every week during summer. They will even teach your young ones how to make s’mores and identify local plants.

Personally, I love the surrounding hiking and berry picking. Like many other sites splattered throughout California, Memorial has trails leading up hills and mountains with breathtaking views. The entire campground in summer is overflowing with blackberry bushes. When the water is deep enough, there is also a river that flows between the sites, separating them down the middle. Here, everyone swims, sunbathes, and skips rocks.

Just drive probably ten minutes down the mountain, outside of the campground, and you will arrive in a quaint little town with bakeries, bookstores, cafes, a grocery store, and small clothing shops. On the weekends, there is also a farmer’s market where locals sell fresh produce and handmade crafts. Drive ten minutes more and you will arrive at the beach.  Although, due to it’s location along the Pacific, the sky is usually clouded with fog. But, the air is still salty and fresh.

If you take your kids camping here as their first time, I guarantee, they will fall in love with the outdoors. Soon, you will be revisiting every year, until they have families of their own.

Hi everyone! The first post I will be sharing with you, is about a site I had the pleasure of visiting for the first time this past summer.

In July, I took a four day trip to Kennedy Meadows. Kennedy Meadows, located in Sonora, California, is not a typical campground. First and foremost, it is not actually known as a campground at all. It is a packing station and a common stop along the Pacific Crest Trail.  Kennedy Meadows has been in business for over a hundred years. It is in extremely high demand due to its friendly community (staff, guides, etc) and its gorgeous location. The campground itself, is relatively small, with only about 15 small, wooden cabins. Most families share cabins, then have tents set up around ,  for friends and other guests. The cabins must be reserved almost a year out because of their popularity. There are no singular sites just for tent camping, though I did see some trailer sites.  Kennedy Meadows is a very tight knit community and as a result, members who have stayed in the cabins for many years have first pick in the next year to come.

Kennedy is located in a canyon. It lies at the base of surrounding mountains and hills, along beautiful flowing streams of clean, clear water. The streams flow right through the entire campground so at night, you fall asleep to the blissful sound of rushing water. The entire area is covered in luscious green trees.

I really enjoyed how family friendly this site was. I saw children, parents, even some grandparents. There are lots of activities for the entire family; including, guided horseback riding tours through the mountain area, hiking trails (both marked and unmarked), swimming, and fishing. Kennedy is also pet friendly. Almost every site had at least one dog. The horses, which are used for riding tours, are very well-taken care and well-tended to. They were remarkably well trained, groomed, and healthy.

Unfortunately, I happened to be in Sonora the same time the canyon was covered in smoke from nearby fires. The dust, mixed with black smoke, was rough and my lungs were feeling heavy by the second day. I wish I had the opportunity to see the landscape and scenery without the haze, but Kennedy Meadows was still beautiful.

Overall, I strongly recommend this campground (if you can get in). Its a spectacular place for families, its clean, pet-friendly, loaded with activities, and filled with amazing people. Thanks Kennedy, for a wonderful first experience.