So for Mother's Day weekend we rented an RV and headed to the Gold Country Campground in Pine Grove, CA http://www.goldcountrycampground.com/. The plan was to pick the RV up in San Mateo (pick up time was 1pm), pack it up and then head to the campground and make it there before dinner. It is about a 3 hour drive from Pacifica to the campground. The reality is that packing an RV while tending to two small children takes longer than one might think. As it turned out we didn't get back to Pacifica until about 2pm and didn't finish packing the RV until around 6pm. This may have had a little bit to do with our elated five year old bouncing around the RV "helping" us and giving tours to the neighborhood of "his" RV.
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I have to say that RV was worth every penny. I have never seen my kid so happy and he is a generally happy kid. Better than Disneyland, better than Christmas, he was just thrilled to be in that RV.
So, we finally managed to pull out of Pacifica a little after 6pm and didn't make it to the campground until about 10 pm. First lesson learned, spring for the extra day and pack your RV the night before the trip.
It was hard to see in the dark, but by the morning we found that the campground was fantastic. We opted for a "deluxe" RV spot which meant we had a longer spot with a table and fire pit. We were located near the bathrooms, which were the nicest bathrooms I have ever seen pretty much anywhere, but especially for a campground. The campground had a pool, water park, mini golf, an arcade and a playground. Dylan was beyond thrilled. On our first day in the campground we tried all of it. They even opened the pool just for us, they weren't scheduled to open it until the start of June. The staff was super nice and accommodating, better than many of the high end hotels we have stayed in.
We cooked dinner outside at the campsite on our camp stove. We discovered something about the RV section of the campground, no one leaves their RVs. So we were nestled in our "deluxe" spot in our small rental RV surrounded by giant uber RVs and we had lots of privacy and pretty much no competition for the fancy bathroom. We had Dylan's favorite, hot dogs for dinner, had a campfire with s'mores and some poorly orchestrated camp songs and had both kids in bed and asleep by 8. We were able to have some quiet time by the campfire by ourselves before calling it a night.
Both kids slept pretty well, it was a little less than perfect for us, but still better than anytime we have tried to stay in a hotel with kids. The next morning we got organized, packed up the RV and headed to Lake Camanche for some fishing. Lynda got the license/permit and then we found a picturesque spot that didn't have other people to try our luck. It seems the spot may have been so free of people because it was filled with geese and the "evidence" of geese, but Dylan and Lynda got their camp chairs and gave it a good go. Lynda's fishing pole met an unpleasant fate as she was trying to get everything set up, so they ended up sharing Dylan's Cars' pole, which may have not been the ideal tool for the task at hand. Sophie and I hung out in the camper while they fished and made lunch. The bad news was, they caught no fish. The good news was, they caught no fish.
When we got back to the campground, we did a little time in the arcade and then headed back to the campsite for some down time. Dylan and I had some of the most excellent talks hanging out in our camp chairs. We also got in some checkers and Go Fish (with interpretive rules).
On our last day, we packed up and headed out to Sutter Creek for some Gold Panning. Dylan ended up getting a little bit of gold that he got to take home in a souvenier bottle. We headed out of town by lunch time and made it back to Pacifica in time to unload the RV, give a few more tours to the neighbors and then return it before dinner.
Overall, it was a really terrific vacation. I can not really put words to how great it feels to watch your kids so excited and so happy. We feel so much gratitude that we were able to all be together this year having fun. This was really the best vacation and the best Mother's Day I can remember.
So, the lessons learned from our "practice" RV vacation:
1) Pick-up and pack the RV the day BEFORE you depart on the trip
2) LESS is more, pack less stuff, use all the cabinets
3) ORGANIZATION is key- things are much easier if you have less stuff in organized places
4) PLANNING pays off, have a basic plan of activities in advance
5) Buy SMALL (small food, small paper products, etc.), this is not the time for Costco bulking up
6) Most RVers don't leave their RV's so you get more privacy than you would think in the RV park
7) Clean bathrooms can make or break a trip
8) Box wine is really underappreciated
9) You really can't put a price on memories with your family
10) Kids LOVE RVs
Stay tuned for the "Best Vacation...EVER! (Part Two) when we embark on our two week RV vacation in June.
