Camping in San Simeon

It has been over a year since the Heppner family has gone camping. So this past weekend was something to look forward to. We joined 5 other families from church and headed south west towards the coast to San Simeon. Carl and I had borrowed a bunch of camping gear from Ray and Kelly, who are in our homegroup, and were very excited about the novelty of camping in October!

We had planned to leave on Friday at 1 p.m., but that turned into 2 p.m. not counting the trip back from the freeway to pick up our camping chairs. The drive out reminded us of driving out to the Whiteshell; the view would have been nice had it not been for the dawdling RV in front of us, and the RV in front of him and so on and so forth. We arrived around 5:30 and located some of the families that had arrived before us. After we set up camp, we went into Cambria and dined at the local Mexican restaurant. I had a really nice visit with Karen and Tamara amongst the chaos of 10 children at the table. When we got back to the campsite, we welcomed the other 2 families, and then put the kids to bed. The temperature was considerably cooler than in the valley (about 12 degrees at night), so we put on the layers and stood very close to the fire. Carl and I were the brunt of some of the jokes, “Look at how close they are to the fire! Isn’t this weather like camping in July for you guys?”

I must admit I felt a bit like a visitor around the campsite that night because we hadn’t known any of these families for more than a few weeks. We didn’t have the history on all these people, we weren’t familiar with the group dynamics, and so I was hesitant to join into the conversation. I spent more time observing everyone than chatting up a storm. That might seem strange to many of you. Yes, I was quite quiet and just listened. I think that was a good thing for me personally.

That night as I lay in my l sleeping bag, I could hear the haunting sounds of the coyotes and the crash of the ocean waves on the rocks and felt thankful for this experience. Around 3 a.m., I heard some raccoons rustling around the campsite. Apparently Cam and Shauna had left out some garbage by mistake which provided a nice snack for 4 large raccoons. In the morning we all had a good laugh at how Cam was trying to shhh the raccoons away without getting out of his tent (since raccoons are not too friendly) and without waking anyone up.

About mid morning, we all packed up and headed to the beach.
The weather was very nice and warm, about 24 degrees, and the kids were so excited about playing in the surf and the sand. I think Carl was pretty thrilled about seeing the ocean since it had been about 15 years since he was last at the coast. We got there and decided to give the kids some lunch before they headed out into the water. So there we all were making our sandwiches and sharing with one another; and it was so nice how everyone helped each other’s kids. Joel and Kezia really enjoyed playing with their new friends and Carl and I were blessed by how all the other adults took an interest in our kids.



At 4 p.m. it started to rain and so we decided to pack up. On the way back to the campsite some of us decided to go see the Elephant Seal Sanctuary. It was pretty neat because there were probably about 200 females lined up on the beach, just resting on top of one another. There weren’t any males around since mating season is in January, which apparently is quite the graphic show.

Once we arrived back to the campsite, we decided that since everything was wet we would head into town and go to the famous Grill Restaurant that Kevin had been raving about for weeks. I’m glad that we didn’t try and roast wieners in the rain. On the way back Carl stopped into a gift shop and was tickled pink because they had fleece jackets on sale. He came bounding (okay, happily walking) out of the store and exclaimed, “Kathy they’re having a sale on fleeces! I don’t have one, so I’ll get us both matching ones”. So we are now the proud owners of matching Cambria fleeces.

That night around the campfire it wasn’t as chilly, thanks to our new fleeces, and I felt very comfortable. Carl and I realized that this was our first camping trip as a family with friends. We had never been able to go camping other than with our extended family because we always had Sunday responsibilities at Braeside. So it was kind of neat that we could have this first time experience here with our new friends. I felt more at ease and both Carl and I got right into the conversation and the jokes. I probably had way too many smores and indulged in all the sweet snacks at the table. When I went to bed that night I thought, man I could do this all the time.

On Sunday after breakfast we adults spent time sharing. That was really meaningful. Just before lunch a few very eventful things happened. 1) Madison wanted me to take a picture of all the girls that were there camping; she said it was important to take a family portrait,


2) Justin found an enormous 2 in. Jerusalem Cricket http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_cricket by our tent (which was very disturbing) and, 3) Joel got bit on the finger by a squirrel. Joel figured the squirrels here in California are mean because they get up too early and are grumpy.



So in all, it was a very good weekend. We got to deepen relationships with friends from church. And our family got to do many things that we’ve never experienced before.