For our annual camping trip with the Youngin’s, we went to Plasse’s Resort at Silver Lake.  After spending 30-45 minutes at the wrong campsites, we drove to Kirkwood to get cell service.  We made a few calls to find out the correct location and finally made our way to Plasse’s Resort.  Plasse’s was founded in 1853 by a French immigrant, Ramon Pierre Plasse.   It is known as one of the oldest campgrounds in the United States by the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.

Plasse’s Resort – July 2010

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location:  In the heart of the High Sierras approximately 50 miles east of Jackson.

Amenities:  Portable toilets, showers, general store, restaurant, propane station, laundry facilities, canoe and kayak rentals, arcade, and outdoor playgrounds.

Pets:  Allowed at no additional charge

Pros:  The campground is very pet friendly and family oriented.  It offers a one-stop shop of entertainment and fun.  Campsites are spread fairly far apart and the evenings are quiet.  The resort has it’s own lake access; however, we recommend visiting Sandy Cove Beach, which is a few minute drive from the resort.  Sandy Cove Beach offers easy access to the lake and is also a great spot for fishing.  Picnic tables are located near the beach so it’s a great area to spend the day. There are lots of activities to do at Plasse’s, which will offer hours of fun without having to leave the campgrounds.  There’s even a restaurant within the resort if you get tired of cooking your own meals!  A laundry facility is available so if you’re staying for a week or more, you won’t need to overpack!  A creek running through the resort offers great opportunities for fishing and is quite easy to get to.

Cons: In order for you to get to the campsites from the main entrance, you have to cross a creek that is about a foot to two feet deep.  If you’re driving a low profile car, you may end up having trouble passing.   Signs within the campground designating individual sites are hard to read so plan accordingly.  It is recommended that you come during the day to set up shop.  Mosquitoes are relentless so bring the powerful bug spray.  “Off” didn’t keep the bugs away so make sure you bring something with a high content of Deet!   Lake access at Plasse’s is not the greatest.  Instead of a beach, you will find a marshland of soggy, muddy grass.  We highly recommend going to Sandy Cove for beach access.   While there are showers available at Plasse’s, they are not within short walking distance.  Plan on driving your car if you want to take a shower (don’t forget about crossing the creek).   Due to the altitude, the weather will range about 30 degrees during the evening to day.  Plan on bringing lots of layers because you will feel the heat during the day and the icy chill during the evenings.

For our annual camping trip with family, we decided to head to the coast and visit Henry Cowell State Park.   The park was amazing…see below for our review!

Henry Cowell State Park – June 2010

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Location: Near Felton on Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Amenities: Flushing toilets and showers

Pets: Allowed at no additional charge

Pros: The campground has some awesome sites located under a canopy of trees.  The canopy provides protection from the sun and gives off wonderful shades of green when the sun’s rays peak through.   Pictures can’t convey how beautiful the greenery is!!  The campsites and amenities were very clean and the trails within the campground were nice to explore!  Aside from a few small gnats, the campground is essentially bug-free.  The campground is a short 15 minute drive to the coast. During our stay, we visited Natural Bridges State Beach (no dogs are allowed but it was too windy and cold to stay long), Mitchell’s Cove (same vicinity as NBSB)–a dog friendly beach, and a beach in Davenport (no dogs allowed at the beach we walked to but there is one nearby).  The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was also within 15 minutes; however, no dogs are allowed at the Boardwalk so we did not include this stop in our itinerary.

Cons:

The canopy of trees, while lovely to see during the day, is also the home to many species of birds.  Like clockwork, these birds will “talk” to each other during the early hours of the morning.  If you’re not a sound sleeper, you won’t be able to sleep in past 6.  During our walks within the campgrounds, we noticed that there were quite a few individual sites that were not ideal. Be careful with your selection!  If you like the shade, we suggest reserving a site located on the side of the loop where our sites are.  If the campground is full, you won’t be able to cut through nearby sites to shorten your journey to the bathroom.  If you have a small bladder, try to find a site closer to the bathroom to avoid any accidents.   While we didn’t have to worry about bugs, there are lots of birds and squirrels that would love to eat the food you bring!  If you leave the site, make sure you put all your food in bins or in a secured place.  Don’t leave anything out!  During our stay, we lost bread, watermelon, fiber bars, and banana bread to the squirrels.  It was out fault for leaving the items out…so learn from our mistake!  Also, zip up your tents completely because a squirrel slipped through a four inch gap in the Walden’s tent to get to the bread and ended up getting caught in their tent!!  The critters are hungry!!!  The campground is alcohol free…but nothing classy red cups can’t disguise!! *wink*   As with most pet-friendly campgrounds, there are trails that dogs are not allowed.   We weren’t the only dog owners who broke the “rules.”  Just make sure you clean up after your dogs so we can continue bringing our furry family members on future trips!

PS: The water in the park is cloudy white!  Don’t be alarmed when you’re filling up your bins to do dishes…the cloudy white water is just due to air bubbles.  If you let the water sit for a few minutes, the cloudiness will diminish!

Surprisingly, we have fallen in love with camping!  Last year was the first year that we began our love affair with the outdoors.  I guess it’s the smell of the fresh air mixed with the smoke from the fire pits, the sound of the crackling sticks and leaves underfoot, and the feeling of being one with the land that keeps us going back for more.  Who am I kidding…it’s the food!!!  There’s nothing like enjoying the outdoor scenery and eating a meal cooked on our propane stove or lil’ smokey while throwing back a few beers and diet pepsis!  Don’t forget about the s’mores with Nutella…yes…Nutella!  Once you go Nutella…you will never go back to Hersheys!!  We can guarantee the food will be good….BUT…picking a campground is always a gamble.  To ensure that we don’t make the same mistake twice…we’ve decided to start blogging about our camping adventures.  We have to catch up from 2009 so here goes…

PS: As the saying goes…a picture speaks a thousand words…so check out pics from our camping trips by clicking on the Trips and Vacations link to access our photo albums

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Yesterday we had the great honor of watching Joe and Colleen get hitched.  Even though it was freeezzzing outside, the ceremony was beautiful and the reception warmed us up with yummy food and liquid jackets!!    We can’t wait to watch the Patterchicks (Patterson and Ripchick) begin their journey as husband and wife!  If everything goes according to plan…a little Patterchick will soon be to follow.  Check out pics from their special night!

<3 Jenn

Jeff got the greatest news today…he got a huge promotion with a new company!!!  I couldn’t be more proud of him!! 

<3 Jenn

We’ve always used this site as a means to share photos with friends and family and never as a blog.  So, here goes…we’re going to try this blog thing out.

Today has been a long day of posting pics and catching up with our site.  We like the fact that we can store photos remotely via our website so if anything happens to our Windows-based desktop computer…we will at least have a back-up of our photos! We finally are caught up EXCEPT for the pics from our Europe trip in May 2009.  We spent three weeks traveling around Europe and Jenn took over 2,000 pictures.  She’s Asian…what can you say!

Anyway…have fun downloading pics from 2009 and 2010 and watch out for those pics from our Europe trip.  We promise to post them soon!!

Love,

J and J

Welcome to our new site!!!  It’s been a long time since we’ve updated it and we hope you like it.  Believe me, it would have been nice if we could have stuck with the old…BUT…I had to have the big “Japanese Tourist” camera with all the bells and whistles.  Our old site had photo upload limitations…so we had to make the change because of our photo gallery!!  After many hours, Jeff was finally able to post the new and improved site!!!

You can still download pictures at their full resolution and we promise we won’t add a watermark!  Have fun remembering our fun times together and cheers to more fun times in the future!!!

Love,

Jenn