Family Time in California

My sister Cheryl and her husband Chris have been living in Burbank, CA and we had plans to spend some time with them while we’re out on the west coast.  A few months ago they made the decision to move back east to Georgia so we knew we needed to get out here before they moved.  We spent some time at Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails in Menifee, CA which wasn’t too far from Cheryl and Chris so they were able to come out and visit us there for a few days.  Wilderness Lakes was lots of fun and we met 3 other Fulltime Families staying there.  It’s a very kid-friendly park with train rides, candy bar bingo and Jesse’s favorite — mini golf.

After that we moved to another RV resort in Acton, CA which was a little closer to Burbank.  Fat Cat really liked this campsite where she learned to climb trees.  Chris had to rescue her once she got up there and didn’t know what to do.

My parents flew out from NC to visit for a couple of weeks while we were there.  The timing worked out that they were here at the same time that Chris & Cheryl were moving out of their apartment in Burbank so we were all available to help them move.  That was an interesting fiasco, but I won’t bore you with those details.  🙂  Besides helping them move we all did some sightseeing together.

The Los Angeles Zoo…

Travel Town Train Museum…

We caught a glimpse of the famous Hollywood sign…

Visited downtown Burbank…

And had make-your-own-pizza night at Chris & Cheryl’s place…

The last time I visited Cheryl in CA was 12 years ago and one of my favorite things we did back then was visiting Santa Monica and rollerblading on the bike path along the beach.  This time Santa Monica was not nearly as fun as it was 12 years ago.  It was so much more crowded than I remember and some of the people just seem really rude.  We locked up our bikes and sat on the beach for a while and walked out on the pier.  Then we were ready to go for a bike ride but when we got back to our bikes we found one of the locks had been cut and Chris’s bike had been stolen.  We just bought this bike a couple of months ago in Texas and it was a really nice bike so it was very disappointing to find it had been stolen.  So we never did end up going for a bike ride that day.  We tried to make the best of it and enjoy our day there, but after that happened it really wasn’t that much fun.  On a positive note I found out later that our credit card that we used to purchase the bike has purchase protection against theft and damage.  I filed a claim and it turns out we might be able to get the money back that we spent for the bike.  I sure hope so!

Riding the ferris wheel was really cool!

After helping Chris and Cheryl move, we all went back to spend some relaxing days at the campground.  It was a very refreshing change from the busyness and un-friendliness of L.A.  Now that my sister doesn’t live there anymore, I’m not sure we’ll ever go back there again.  I’m definitely not a city girl — I much prefer the wide open spaces and friendliness of some of the other states we have been to.

Such beautiful mountain views…

Playing Mexican Train Dominoes one night by the pool.  Our family loves game nights!

One evening we saw this spectacular rainbow and sunset at the campground…

And another night a beautiful full moon…

Time with family is time well spent.  We were so blessed to have this time together.  I wish they all lived in RVs so we could travel together more often.