Orange County!

Jill's Journal: Orange County, CA. Home of Disneyland. This is a long-awaited stop for the girls. In fact, this has probably been the #1 place they’ve been looking forward to visiting. It may have been second on Erika’s list (the wild ponies on Assateague Island in Maryland and the Chincoteague pony swim in Chincoteague, Virginia, remain first for her), but this was a close second. And for Madelyn and Victoria, this is the golden ticket.

As for me and Rob, arriving in Orange County was like a breath of fresh air after our time in Van Nuys. We were dreading the drive through L.A. with the fifth wheel, but we were able to skirt the busiest part of the city and arrived in Yorba Linda on the edge of Orange County after as smooth a journey can be with a huge rig on the L.A. freeways. We had originally planned to stay in Anaheim, where Disneyland is, but RV parks are nearly twice as expensive there and Yorba Linda will do just fine.

Yorba Linda is a lovely, new-ish town in comparison to the congested, dreary Van Nuys and within moments of our arrival, the girls were playing happily in a park. A clean park. With wide open spaces. With no apparent felons lurking about the playground. With much less smog. With fewer police helicopters. The girls had huge smiles on their faces and so did we. After six weeks in L.A., we hadn’t even realized how taxing it is to be in a concrete jungle with children. Kudos to the parents who live that way all the time. Rob and I looked at each other with a smile and said, “Ah, Orange County. This is the good life after L.A.” And I know this is merely an extension of L.A., but it’s still a welcome change with a little more space to breathe. There’s actually grass here. Such an improvement.

And seriously, was there a lady walking her minis through our campsite in Van Nuys? I think not! The girls think Orange County is pretty great already.

Reservations Required

Jill's Journal: We just made the funnest reservation online!! My friends Heather and Eryn, along with their husbands and kids and us, are all going to go camping together in April! Three couples, nine kids…what a blast! Heather has a tent, Eryn has a pop-up trailer (I believe), and of course we have the fifth wheel. Both of them have been camping before (albeit separately) at Levi Jackson State Park near London, KY, and highly recommend it as a family-friendly, fun place.

They’re the pros at this camping thing. It may very well be our first official trip before we truly venture out into the camping world full-time, so what fun to do it with friends. We have camping sites reserved all practically right next to each other for the whole weekend. I invited my sister too, who is camper extraordinaire and loves kids, but we’ll see how interested she is in camping with that many kids!

Several months ago, I also made reservations for this coming July at Assateague State Park (with the wild ponies!!) in Maryland. And on New Year’s Day, reservations open at the place I want to stay on Chincoteague Island in Virginia for the annual pony swim (also in July). I’ve only been wanting to go to that since I was about eight years old and first read the wonderful Misty of Chincoteague. (I’m pretty certain I wore out my school library’s copy, as I checked it out repeatedly over the years and surely read it dozens of times). I’ll be reading that to my girls before we go. We’re living the dream!

Making all these reservations is making our upcoming adventure seem very real and very close! And we’re also piecing together a very loose itinerary. We’re going to follow the seasons, starting on the East Coast and gradually moving our way west over a three-year span. Spending our first fall on the road in New England with all the beautiful colors is a no-brainer. Next Christmas though? Who knows where we’ll be! I love that bold freedom.