What a difference a day makes! When we pulled into the Dunes RV Park at 2pm Friday here in Marina, CA, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and it was 72F – just beautiful. As soon as we got set up in our site, we all took off over the dunes and down to the beach – a spectacular beach!!
Paulette, Molly and Rylie enjoying the sun and the Marina Dunes Beach
The day sure didn’t start out like that though. It was just pouring at 9:30 when we left the Willit’s KOA. We headed down Hwy. 101 to Petaluma, where the rain stopped and the skies suddenly cleared – yahoo!! We turned left onto Hwy. 580 to drive over the Richmond Bridge into Oakland – that is some massive bridge. We turned south onto Hwy. 880 and followed it thru Berkley and Oakland in very, very light traffic. We maintained the speed limit right thru the entire SF/Oakland area.
The path from our RV Park over the dunes to the beach
I figured traffic might be light because it was New Year’s Day, but it was extremely nice to get thru there so easily. At San Jose, we rejoined Hwy. 101 and followed it all the way to our destination – the Marina Dunes RV Park in Marina, CA.
The pounding surf at the beautiful Marina Dunes beach
Marina Dunes is a beautiful little RV Park – it is clean as a whistle, nicely landscaped, level sites and free cable TV and great free WiFi too. But, what makes it special for us is the location right across the street from the Marina Dunes State Beach. All we have to do is cross the street and follow the sandy path across the dunes and down to the beach. The beach runs for miles and the pounding surf can even be heard up at our RV Park.
The dunes above the beach are a spectacular site by themselves
We spent a good hour down at the beach as we wanted to give Molly and Rylie a good run after being cooped up in the truck for 3 days. They just loved it! Rylie dug in the sand and ran full speed up the beach with Molly right behind her. It was warm enough on the beach to wear a t-shirt and shorts, but we hadn’t unpacked those yet.
Molly and Rylie taking a break after a run on the long beach
After coming back to the RV and finishing our setup tasks, we decided to take a drive down towards Carmel – just 8 miles from our RV Park. We took the famous “17 Mile Drive” around the Monterey Peninsula going by the beautiful Pebble Beach Golf Course. Quite a spectacular sight to see – its way more impressive than it looks on TV.
Up on the dunes, I shot this pic of Paulette and the muttzo’s
We exited the drive at the Carm el gates and continued on to Carmel By the Sea. We were extremely lucky to arrive just as the sun was setting and we were treated to a spectacular sunset over Monterey Bay. There were hundreds of people on the beach and walking around and we were wondering if it was some special occasion, just the holiday, or, if it was like this every night – we never did find out.
Paulette relaxing in the hot sun, watching Molly and Rylie run
We left Carmel in the dark and fifteen minutes later we were safely back at our campsite. We are looking forward to another day of exploring the entire Monterey area, however, I see Paulette is busy looking up local quilt stores, so that may change our plans a bit. It will be a great day no matter what we do as the forecast is for another day of sunshine and warm weather.
Sunset on the beach at Carmel By the Sea
Marina Dunes Album
Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting.
0 comments:
Post a Comment