Perhaps I Watch Too Much TV

And movies, too. Read on and you'll see what I mean. This weekend we set out for another camping adventure. We stayed in Sonoma County's Austin Creek State Recreation Area. That wasn't our intended camping location, however. Allow me to start at the beginning...

We first had reservations to stay at a campground just south of Austin Creek. We headed out early on Friday afternoon in an attempt to avoid the bay area traffic. Insert the wah-wah sound here. We are learning that it really doesn't matter what time you travel around here; Interstate driving is always sucky (yeah, that's about the best adjective I could find to describe it). So here's a picture to put to how the drive felt:

It took us almost 4 hours to get to our first destination (a trip we intended to do in under 2). But the traffic wasn't the only thing to blame. We actually missed our exit and managed to take the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, adding time and a toll to our trip that we really didn't want. The only good part about the unexpected detour was our ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. Any time I'm in San Francisco or think about the Golden Gate Bridge the Full House theme song starts playing in my head (you've seen this before in this post). And so I couldn't help pulling out my phone and playing the song from You Tube as we crossed over into Sausalito.

Oddly enough, our 4 hour trip seemed more grueling than the 40 hour drive from Panama City Beach to San Jose. Anyway, when we got to the campground where we had a reservation, we decided there was no way we could stay there. In fact, we peeled out of their parking lot so quickly that I didn't even have time to snap a photo. Picture an entire RV park of Cousin Eddie's. Then visualize our "campsite" being just an extension of the playground full of Cousin Eddie's offspring. So off we were to find another location.

Thankfully we found Austin Creek State Recreation Area about 15 miles north. This place had the campy feel we were looking for (read: no Cousin Eddies or even an RV in sight). Plus it was tucked in a redwood grove. We did all of our normal camping things: hiked around, built a fire, played cards, etc...

Among the Redwoods

The next day we headed to the town of Guerneville and walked around and down to the Russian River. We also went to the Sonoma Coast State Beach and Goat Rock Beach, where the final scene of one of my favorite movies, The Goonies, was filmed. It was a normal foggy day on the Pacific coast, so it was just like in the movie. It had me breaking out all kinds of Goonies one liners like "Goonies never say die" and "Heeey, You Guuuys!!" and "Rocky... Roooad?" The rocks along the coast were really amazing and while I kept expecting to see the pirate ship sail out from behind them, sadly, it never happened.

 Our Pic

 Movie Scene

 Our Pic

Movie Scene

 My favorite love seen ever in a movie.

We spent Sunday again at Niles Park. Hazel enjoyed the lake and we laid on our blanket and read. We came home and watched another great episode of Entourage. There are only 6 left until the series ends. That will be a very sad day.

Cousin Eddie, Goonie, and Entourage images found here, here, here, and here.