Cycling to Faria Beach

Hi-Ho Blog! I know it has been days and days since we last conversed, but there really hasn't been anything blogworthy.  Both of us are trying to get over really bad colds that we believe we picked up while in Yosemite.  David calls it a recurrence of "Ducklings Quack," the "crud" (as his sister Leslie calls it) that we originally caught when we visited the kiddiwinks in Bend.  We think that taking shelter in the Yosemite deli with bunches of other cold, wet campers, including lots of kids, probably made it too easy for us to catch a similar crud again from one of the other soggy campers.  Kathy actually lost her voice for about three days.  That's the dark side of hanging out with fellow tourists, especially those with kids!

It is now Thursday, November 14th, and we are finally feeling up to getting out and about.  (This is a bit of an exaggeration, because we've been up and active - just not SO active.  We've taken walks and short bike rides and handled some chores and errands - just nothing too ambitious.)  We decided a nice bike ride along the beach was in order.  We had heard from fellow RVers at the Emma Beach State Park Campground, that Faria County Beach Campground actually had full hook-up sites.  The problem we have seen so far with beach-side camping is that there are no amenities - no water, no sewer, no electric.  You are basically boondocking.  We were curious to see what amenities Faria Beach had to offer.

We packed a lunch and headed out on our adventure.  The 5.5 mile bike ride took us to the main entrance of the Faria County Beach Park.  We quickly learned they had a small cafe in the campground that was voted "Best in Ventura" for a casual beachside lunch.  Since we already packed sandwiches, we just ordered some black tea and lemonade (a/k/a the Arnold Palmer) and ate our sandwiches on the picnic tables outside the cafe.

After lunch, we locked our bikes and set out on a long beach walk.  Above the Faria Campground stretches the Rincon Parkway.  The Parkway stretches for several miles from Faria to Hobson County Park, another RV park with limited hook-ups.  There were a few empty spots, but not many.  It really amazed us how many people are willing to park next to the beach with no hook-ups and just rough it for a few days (or weeks):

However, you can sort of understand the appeal when you take a look at their view:

As we turned to head back to Faria and our bikes, we noticed something flying our way:

Wait up in the sky, is it a bird, is it plane... no, its the Met Life Blimp!  Hey Snoopy!

All of the RVers came out of their rigs to snap photos, but the wildlife could have cared less:

With such a long beach walk, together with the bicycle ride, we managed to bibble the afternoon away.  We were soon on our bikes heading back to camp:

We made a few more photo stops on the way back just to take in the sand, surf and ocean breezes:

We just never get tired of watching the waves come in and go out, come in and go out.  Here the bright blue ocean, the white foam and the green moss on the rocks provided a rich contrast to the golden brown sand:

We made it back to camp safe and sound.  It took us all of 30 seconds to jump into our swim trunks and  hit the hot tub.  Just watching the sun set and moon come out:

Had a chance to talk to some fellow RVers from Canada.  It is always fun to compare notes.  Tomorrow, we hope to make it over to the Channel Islands.  Stay tuned.