Camping at Carpintaria

I wanted to go camping so bad. We go camping every year. This year, just because we have a 7 month old shouldn’t stop us from going right? We have friends that go camping with their little ones all the time. So we bit the bullet and just did it.

First of all, we got ourselves a bigger tent now that we are a family of 3. Our old tent only fits a queen size mattress. I found one on sale at Big 5 and with $10 off coupon, I walked away with a 10x10 foot tent for $70. Not bad heh? So I got a tent, but no idea where to camp at. I wanted to go somewhere close by, around 1-2 hours drive, so places like Yosemite, Sequioa, Mammoth and Big Sur were out of the picture. Those are the places we have camped before and really liked. So I started asking friends and found a few choices that were close by. The reason I wanted to camp somewhere close is because if something were to go terribly wrong, we can just pack up and leave. You know, if a baby cries non stop or the weather gets too cold, we can just go home.

So of course, with a last minute decision, no good campsites are available. All the good ones are usually booked in advance, some even go as far as 12 months in advance! Gulp…!I heard a lot of good things about Carpinteria State Beach, plus the 1.5 hours drive sounds good to us. There is a store and a small town nearby the campground, which will be very convenient for us. But of course, it was all booked up on the weekends. Not 1 weekend is open until the end of Oct, when the weather starts to become cold, when the summer is officially over. I signed up for a notifications alert, where if something opens up due to cancellation, I’ll be notified. So last Monday, I got notified for an open campsite for that weekend, I snatched it up right away. We were so excited for Gaven’s first camping trip and very nervous at the same time. I kept joking that we can drive home to take showers and wash bottles, and then drive back out there. As the day approached closer, the weather started to turn colder. Everyone at work thought we were crazy for bringing a baby to camp at the beach. Beach is usually 10 degrees cooler than the valley. Since the campsite had already been reserved and paid for, we went anyway. Worse case scenario, we’ll just come home after 1 night.

So Friday after work, off we go! I am so glad we went, the weather wasn’t as cold as we thought it was. We have camped at much colder temperatures than that. The beach was overcast on Sat morning, but it cleared up after noon. Turned out all the things we were worried about, were nothing to be worried about. Gaven slept well and there was no problem with washing bottles. We brought gallons of water with us. John boiled the water and washed all his bottles in boiling water. When comes to bath, we didn’t give him one. We wipe him down with wet wipes.

We got there really late on Friday. After we set up the tent, and about to make a bottle for Gaven, We realized that we forgot to bring his formula! We left the bag at home. It was the bag that contains his formula and his toys. After blaming each other for forgetting the most important bag, we realized that we could buy a new container of formula at the store nearby. John went and got it and problem solved.

In the middle of the night, there were trains that go by and it was LOUD. I was so afraid it will wake Gaven up and he’s going to start crying. To my surprise, he slept through it! PIG! …. but good for us.

The next morning, after our breakfast, we took a stroll along the beach. It was overcast. Since our campsite is so close to town, we decided to walk around the town, checking out the area. Stop by a little café for brunch. Red velvet pancakes sounds really yummy!

We also stopped by a little children’s book store. We were told they are having story telling at 11 am, and it was only another 10 more min. We decided to stick around. They have a Thomas the train set. So we let Gaven play with it while waiting. This is when he went crazy with the trains rolling down the track.He had so much fun here. They cancelled the story telling session due to poor turn out. I bought a little dinosaur book for Gaven and we left to Santa Barbara.

We hung out at the Santa Barbara pier for some seafood. I wanted to eat at the Santa Barbara Seafood Company, but there was a long wait. So we opted for something else.

We headed back to our camp in the evening and hung out at the beach.It was Gaven’s first experience with the sand. He didn’t seem too fond of it.

We packed and left bright and early the next morning. I’m glad we survived our first camping trip with Gaven.