Our old tradition used to be to go to the beach for MLK. We have had many many GREAT weathered MLK’s. And being at the beach in January and it be WARM is amazing!!! Some of my FAVORITE MLK’s are these ones…
Pregnant with Owen and then pregnant with Ella…the January I had Maggie in my belly she was only the side of a poppy seed and I actually found out I was pregnant with her on MLK weekend in Washington!
Our NEW tradition to is to camp with our friends from work.
Last year we camped at Lake Skinner. It was nice…little hard for me since Maggie was so little at the time BUT it was cool. Our weather was great and we had fun.
So our 2nd annual MLK Camping Crew trip, our emails at work started a few months ago about where we would all try and get sites at for this MLK weekend. Worley made the executive decision and we all booked at Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, Ca. Now our group has expanded from just Roosevelt to Centennial and even had a few teachers from out of district.
This campground was OMV friendly (Off Road Motor Vehicle). Our friend have motorcycles and those off-road car things. We had some pretty crazy rain the whole week leading up to our weekend so I was trying to do some research and see how it was going to be…muddy or wet or what. We were booked from Friday – Monday. We skipped our friday reservation and headed up Saturday. Best decision ever!
We stopped for lunch so we didn’t land in Calico hungry at the Barstow Outlets…made the kids eat In-N-Out. And as my mother says “Hunger is Great Sauce”…when they are hungry they eat!
Our sites were pretty uneven and all dirt…and pretty tight BUT it wasn’t too bad.
Of course…first thing out of the truck she goes for the dirt….thats camping! lol
Directly across from our sites were these cute little cabins. Our friends trailer was in the shop and lucked out getting a cabin…so it was nice having the whole road for our group.
Behind out site was this big dirt hill….the kids LOVED it. Thankfully Maggie didn’t even notice it but Owen and Ella AND all the other kids loved climbing and digging and messing about the whole time.
Maggie just loved walking around…picking up dirt, climbing in doggie crates and trying to pet any dog that came within arms reach!
Also up behind our sites was the Calico Cemetery. Some might be weirded out by sleeping about 100ft away from a cemetery BUT it wasn’t creepy at all. The kids would “play” in the cemetery…and I could feel my mother scolding me from Ireland by allowing my child to just go mess around in a cowboy graveyard. oops. But Yosh, Maggie and I took a little hike over…Maggie HATED being in the carrier so it wasn’t a long visit.
So we were wondering…are these real graves…or fake? Some of the tombstones read people only passing recently..and do people like pay lots of money to be buried at Calico?? weird.
The kids had lots of fun. Owen was eyeballing our friends 50 motorcycle. He wanted to ride and I just wasnt too sure. He went on a bike ride…him riding his bicycle while Dane and Blake rode motorcycles. Poor Owen kept up with them too…Blake said he biked like 3miles.
When they got back he had a little incident with a motorcycle. He was standing with his bike and our friend Blake was holding his motorcycle because they couldn’t get it to turn off. Somehow the bike accelerated, thankfully Blake had his hard on the handle so it popped a wheelie and hit Owen and knocked him down. Think it scared him more than is hurt him but it was a good lesson…motorcycles are dangerous. And after he was calmed down he asked to ride the 50…and I let him.
He rode it…and rode it well! He LOVED it. I was impressed how well he drove it.
Saturday evening our friend set up a Ghost Town tour for us. It was right at Maggie’s bed time so Yosh let me bring the kids…yes Ella THOUGHT she wanted to go…I shouldn’t have let her because within minutes she was crying and I had to drive her back to the trailer and get back to the tour.
The tour was kinda cool. The tour guide toned down the stories and atmosphere because of all the kids. BUT Calico is a real living ghost town…meaning people still live in the town. She told us about stories or sightings of ghosts and stories about people who used to live in the town.
Owens favorite scary story was about the little boy is can be seen in a picture…real ghost sighting caught in a picture.
After the ghost tour we had some time by the fire…big kids too.
I look over and see Owen reading his book to the Neimeyer boys…such a little nerd. So cute.
And the Neimeyers are the only family I know that can all fall asleep TOGETHER by the fire…how cute is that?!?
Sunday morning we were up and ready to explore Calico in daylight.
Lets load Neimeyer up with all the kids…she can totally handle it!
I was SOOO excited about visiting Calico. I have been here before with my family when I was a kid. Many know, but my dad is a total cowboy…we were the family that took vacations to cowboy places, Bonanza, OK Corral, NM., Tombstone, Calico, etc. yeah…we did THAT on family vacations! haha But this place was bringing me back my childhood. Gave me all kinds of feelings.
This group of campers are an easy group to be with. I like that we can all be together as a group and all separate and it not be a big deal either. We all got the 4 attraction pass…so we did the train, Maggie’s Mine, Mystery House and Panning for Gold.
But first we stopped for a few treats to keep the kids (and some adults) happy! The Beast was in her happy place…sugar for days!
Old fashioned beer for the daddies..
The train ride was nice and slow…and sorta informative. The adults probably liked it but the kids weren’t amused haha.
I liked the idea of Maggie’s Mine…just because of the obvious. The kids loved running through the maze of the mine too…kinda freaking some of the adults out since we didn’t know where it let us out!
The views were beautiful!
We somehow got split from the group, so half of us ate lunch while the other half continued with the attractions.
Next was the panning for gold. I remember doing it as a kid. It was always SO much fun…and they usually offer it at all cowboy type places.
Impatience Owen didn’t wait to hear the instructions for panning and ended up not grabbing enough sand. So his gold intake was hardly anything…
Ella on the other hand grabbed more sand than she could literally lift….haha And she was so happy she got more than Owen…and made sure he knew it.
Our final attraction was the Mystery Shack…do you remember how Knotts Berry Farm used to have something like this?!? Yeah…well I made it in ONE hallway before turning around…I can’t do all that…my motion sickness is intense. Crocked walls and floors and weird angle’d things…yeah me and one other guy couldn’t handle all that!
It was nice getting to just roam around…no rushing anyone..well other than Maggie as she was getting tired. But we got to explore as we wished…and I loved it.
Ella found these creepy guys in a shop…and I caught her like this. I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was saying prayers with her two dads. haha Oh dear. And whats weird is we don’t pray at the dinner table…like ever. So she just did this on her own.
More treats before heading back to our trailers.
We got back to the trailers for dinner, sunset, Maggie busting her eye and then some AMAZING girl time on the Off-Road car.
Ella likes the other dad’s. She loves the ones that sing with her and will play silly games too…she took her turn around the campfire playing with all the boys! haha Little flirty girl.
Oh my God…Jennifer, Mary and myself got to get out in the off-road car. I have never been in anything like that before. And oh man. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. I laughed, screamed, laughed some more! Jennifer is a lunatic. She was drivng that car up hills that were straight up. She was fish tailing in the dirt, driving through tunnels. Mary and myself linked arms for support…haha to not fly out of the car!!! haha But was such a rush but I had SO much fun!!!
We got out and tried taking a picture IN the tunnel…but it was pitch black dark and you couldn’t really see much!! Mary and Jennifer are adventurous…I was terrified in that cave! haha
Boys had a turn too. Once everyone was back we had a few hours by the campfire. All I can say is drinks and a salt gun…oh dear!
Nothing is better than a propane fire pit…they are amazing!
Next morning was pack up time…
Really love getting to spend time with this group…most of us work together but I don’t see many often. I stay over in our PE corner of campus and not many venture over that way…so getting to see them, chat and have a good time is always a pleasure!!
MLK Camping Crew from 2016…
So Camping Crew…where we heading to next MLK??
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