Long Beach and San Diego, CA
It’s become tradition now that Scott goes fishing on Captain George’s Victory out of Long Beach once a year. With a couple weeks of summer break under our belts, we were ready to take the Skamper out of hibernation to venture off camping along the California coast.
After a lengthy detour just to get out of Las Vegas and an unfortunate fatal accident on I-15 South, we finally made it to ‘Off the Grid’ Brewing Company in Apple Valley to meet Don for a beer. The plan after the brewery was to head to our campsite reserved at Mojave Forks. When we arrived at 6:30pm, however, the entrance gate was closed. We had a crying kid, no place to stay, and a setting sun. Fortunately, Scott knew the area well enough and we were able to get a spot at Silverwood Lake Campground. Ella, who normally sleeps flawlessly throughout the night, woke up around 3am crying. After 45 minutes of playing with her stacking cups on Mom and Dad’s bed, she finally fell back to sleep. Needless to say, the first day of our trip was not off to a great start.
We spent some time at Silverwood Lake and then headed West to Long Beach. Bud, Rob Teasdale and his friend Scott, and Scott all went fishing on the Victory the next day. Although it wasn’t the best day out on the ocean, they all caught enough fish to support a couple of dinners. While the men were out catching dinner, Mom and Ella spent the morning at The Aquarium of the Pacific and the afternoon playing in the pool at the campground. After a long day of fishing for Scott and solo parenting for Sara, a trip to Long Beach would not be complete without a stop at Joe Josts.
After two nights in Long Beach we headed south to San Diego, but made a stop in Mission Viejo to visit Shirley and Mary. Our reservations in San Diego were at Campland on the Bay. It was a huge campground with all sorts of activities for kids…and a bar for parents. With endless water toys to rent and Sea World and the SD Zoo close by, we decided that when the kids get older this would a great spot to spend a week. Although the weather was cool and cloudy, we rented a paddle boat, explored the beach and fried up the fish the guys caught at Rob’s house.
As we headed back the next day to Las Vegas, we made another stop in Apple Valley at Silverado Silversmith Shop to meet Scott’s Uncles (Dave and Dan) and Aunts (Jeanette and Lori). We spent a couple hours catching up before getting back on the road.
The Skamper may have had its last haul as a Lautzenheiser but it was a great one!