The Ants Are Making Us Move

Wednesday, June 1st – Tijuana River Regional Park to San Elijo State Park, San Diego, California - Day 111

The ants were not gone. They showed up in even greater abundance the next morning. We cleaned them out again. Many ant lives were lost. We wanted to stay another night because it was so close to San Diego, the kids had friends and the cost was reasonable. The ants were too much though. We packed up. The kids had one last chance to hang out with their one remaining friend in his grandmother’s campsite. We crossed the smelly Tijuana River on the way out.

Our destination was Mission Beach in the heart of San Diego. We drove up the coast across the artificial sand bar that shields the mainland from the waves. When we arrived, the main section of beach and amusement park were very busy. I started looking for street parking for a car and a trailer, very tough. I drove to one end of the beach and there was, luckily, a mostly empty parking lot, a beautiful green space with picnic tables and people playing flag football and a short walk to the water.

We dragged the wagon across the sand and set-up. Gen and I went swimming. The girls and John were busy digging in the sand. Gen read a travel blog that recommended the best campgrounds on the coast north of San Diego. We phoned around and booked San Elijo State Park.

We drove up the coast, cruising in our Santa Fe while dragging a trailer down the ocean front Highway 1. We passed restaurants, surf shops and many beautiful beach side properties. San Elijo State Park was nestled between the coastal highway, plus train line, and the beach. Surfers were riding the waves as we pulled up to our spot 30m from a partially rocky beach. We set-up and said hi to our neighbours from Seattle. Gen made pasta and then we hurried to the beach for sunset. John ran off up a huge flight of stairs and stared at us from the top. We eventually followed and got a great view of the ocean from the top of a cliff.

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