Thankfully, after camping for eight nights we were able to stay with our friends Natalie and Eric who live in Los Gatos, just south of San Francisco. So after we dropped Jeehoon off at the airport, we headed to their house, which is a cute little bungalow situated on the top of a hill in the midst of a horse ranch. It was so great to be able to catch up with them, wash some clothes, and just spend some time not in a tent, haha. Natalie and Eric are planning on wwoofing in the future and so we were able to share some of our experiences and advice with them and they told us about the joys of living “out west” and all of the great places we should check out. During the day we were 
able to go visit Santa Cruz, where Ryan got to surf the infamous break, Steamer Lane, while I took the dogs to the dog beach. Then at night we sat around talking, eating and sampling Eric’s home made hard cider. Thank you so much Natalie and Eric for having us, it was great to recuperate and catch up!
Once we left Los Gatos, we headed to coastal northern California, where we took the scenic highway 101 drive. This drive took us meanderingly along the rocky coast, sporadically coming back inland through the dense, untouched redwoods before coming back to the misty skies and pounding waves of the pacific coast. After reaching several campgrounds that were full, we started to worry that we might be sleeping in the truck, we opted to check out a gloomy, trailer park that advertised tent campsites. Apparently we were the only campers who decided to do this and were able to camp directly on the beach, in a small alcove between two rock bluffs, all by ourselves. After spending two nights there, making campfires in the sand and falling asleep to the persistent crashing of waves on the shore, we headed north again to the next campground.
Oh and the dogs did not want to leave our little beach
The next campground was McKerricher State Park, much more developed than our previous lodging, which we were really ok with since they had showers! They also had a seal watching station, where we saw the plump, spotted harbor seals sunning themselves on the rocks. We were able to let the dogs run free on the seemingly deserted beach and even got some fresh made ice cream in town.
Again, we headed north, this time to Redwood National Park, where we camped among the hundreds of years old redwood trees. We went on several hikes and scenic drives, all of which eerily remind you of some scene from Jurassic Park because the trees are just so prehistorically huge, the only thing that could really dwarf them would be T-Rex.
We also saw Big Tree, which someone told us is the third tallest tree in the world. I’m not sure, but it was certainly the tallest tree I’ve ever seen, then again so were all of the trees in that dense, old-growth forest.
For the end to our week of camping, we stayed at Harris Beach S.P. on the coast of Oregon. Since it was situated close to the beach we were able to spend a lot of time by the water, letting the dogs play in the ice cold waves while we walked along the shore. The last few days we were there a rain front came in so we had some early evenings hanging out in the tent and spent a day at a coffee shop to escape the ice pelt of rain determined to totally soak us.
We were so happy to spend so much time camping, just enjoying being outside and having lots of free time. However, this has very much made us excited to get to working at our next farm, Tree of Life Permaculture Farm, in Oregon.
“We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work” ~ Thomas Edison
Tonya & Ryan
Just as Free 