Van Damme It again!

A few weeks ago Morgan, the girls and I went on a camping trip to Van Damme State Park.  Aside from dealing with the difficulties involved with camping with two young girls, I had a great time.  I really enjoyed camping and being outdoors and I told Morgan we needed to start thinking about going back without the girls so we could really relax.  Well, for our Anniversary Morgan surprised me with a weekend adults only getaway back to Van Damme. Much to my surprise he called the girls babysitter and arranged for them to spend the weekend at her house.  I must give my sitter some major THANKS for cancelling her daughters birthday getaway so that we could have ours.  I cant believe she was willing to do that but so thankful she did.

The reason Morgan picked this weekend is because there was a big spearfishing tournament going on in Caspers and he wanted to give it a shot.  We made plans to meet our friends Casey and Emily at the campsite on Friday and see where the weekend took us.  We got a great campsite at Van Damme and we had our tent etc all set up and done by 4:30.  It was so great to sit back and relax and not have to worry about what the girls were into.  Casey and Emily showed up later and we had a nice dinner of lamb stew, beer and these awesome vodka strawberry drinks courtesy of Emily.  Lots of chatting, laughs and drinks were had - it was great!

The boys had to get up around 5 am Saturday to register for the spearfishing tournament.  Casey's cousin, Emily M also made the drive up to join in the tournament.  Once the boys and Emily M were off Emily and I decided to venture to the town of Mendocino to see what it was all about.  Mendocino is a cute little town right on the ocean, in fact the movie "The Goonies" was filmed here.  If I had to pick one word to describe our adventure through Mendocino I would pick "random". Lots of random little shops with quirky, sometimes downright RUDE shop owners and you just never knew what you would find.  There are medical marijuana dispensaries all over out here but this is the first time where I saw one with huge plants in the shop windows, it was, well, random.  It was so nice to walk around with Emily, taking our time checking things out and making casual conversation.  Years ago Emily and I were pretty good friends and I am glad we have found each other again.

The whole time we were in town we were thinking the boys were out spearing lots of fish and were anticipating them returning to camp late with lots of fish to clean.  Much to our surprise they were back at camp very early and hadn't managed to get a single fish.  In fact Morgan spent most of the day laying on the beach asleep, turns out too much fun was had the night before and he wasn't feeling up to being in the water. What I wouldn't give to have walked up to him asleep on the beach.  Good times.  We had an awesome dinner of elk sloppy joes and then went to bed pretty early.We left camp early this morning and were back in Santa Rosa by 10:30. I missed my girls dearly but I am glad I had the opportunity to get out with some friends, have some laughs, make some memories and get reacquainted with the "me" that took a back seat when I became "mommy".  I hope this part of me sticks around for awhile!