We knew by embarking on our first COOLING of 2025 in late April that we were taking a gamble with the weather. As the late great Kenny Rogers says: you gotta know when to hold’em and know when to fold’em 🃏. LUCKILY, when it came time to fold’em, we were only 30 minutes away from home and so were able to escape the rain and enjoy lovely classical Italian fare in Petaluma at our favorite restaurant Volpi’s. And again: since we’re so close, we were able to leave most of our stuff to get rained on and return in the morning to make our camp breakfast and break down our camp.

No RACS, just RAIN, but all’s well that ends well. 👍

Signed,
The Gambler

The Goodness

  • Campground 15 min drive to Doran Beach. Great for kids and dogs. Spent several hours there on Saturday before the rain.
  • California beach weather means hats and parkas
  • Sam got sick and had to go home on Saturday morning; but she made steel cut oats before she left YUMMM
  • We had a decent sized site, at site 47; it was more dirt than it was sand which is unusual for that campground
  • Pelican Market nearby, firewood, kindling, and anything else you may need
  • Gear Updates:
    • Building shelter with non-waterproof tarp, gear needed for next time
  • Wildlife:
    • juvenile seagulls
    • bald eagle (saw and heard) flying over our campsite 🦅
    • sheep or goats??
    • heard owl first night, owl hooting at our site 🦉

Food Achievements

  • Stew dinner yummy 😋
  • Steel cut oats with fixinz from Samantha
  • VOLPI’s (dining out)
  • Biscuits and gravy and eggs
  • Rain s’mores
  • Phoebe’s first time enjoying Metrodip

Things Learned

  • Started raining at 1pm 🌧️
  • Trying to stay dry by building tarp shelter with non-waterproof tarp
  • Trying to stay warm, but couldn’t be too warm because we couldn’t put tarp over the fire, then we kinda did
  • Forecast called for only light rain so we thought it would definitely stop 🤞
  • Phoebe woke up from nap at 3
  • Played inside the tent for a while, 4pm
  • By 6pm, tent started flooding 💦
  • Evacuated and went to Volpi’s 🍝
  • Slept in dry bed at home and went back for campfire breakfast 🍳
  • Then we packed up our stuff and dried it out
  • STAY AWAY FROM Campsites 60s and 70s

Eggs in a cast iron skillet and coffee

Attendees
  • Ali, Ivan, Phoebe, Bozzy
  • Samantha
Site 47
Checkin 2pm
Checkout 12pm
Max vehicles 2
Max occupants 8
Links Website ・ Campground Map ・ Brochure
COOLINGS
BODEGA BAY WEATHER