July 5th to August 9th - Wow
- dduval1969
- Aug 17, 2023
- 2 min read
Hello all! July into early August was amazing and action-packed! After the Canada portion of the trip, MacDuff and I headed down into Oregon and spent 3 days on the coast near Tillamook. We stayed here:
We had fun hanging out on beautiful Oregon beaches...
We especially liked this inlet beach...paddled over in our inflatable kayak and had it to ourselves all day :-)
And then something wonderful happened...Lisa and Landon flew into San Francisco and we spent 5 nights at one of our favorite places on the planet, Point Reyes National Seashore!
We had great times with Aunt Jen, like cocktails on Tomales Bay, followed by delicious oysters. Yum.
We went on hikes like this one:
And every morning Lisa, MacDuff and I had coffee in Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station.
This is how we got back and forth from our campsite to the coffee shop :-)
MacDuff loves the rugged beaches of Point Reyes.
Next we moved on to Southern California, spending 10 nights in a remote little campground between Ventura and Ojai. For the first 5 nights it was just Lisa, Landon, Duff and me. Here's a shot of Lisa and Landon in Ventura, a great medium sized city which I have renamed "Charlottesville by the Sea."
We did all kinds of fun stuff. Biked...
Landon got a surfing lesson...
Mini golf...
And went to a "Tequila and Tacos" music festival headlined by none other than Flo Rida. Definitely got a Good Feeling!
And then something else awesome happened...we were joined by Gabriel and Phoebe for 5 nights! We did some Los Angeles exploring, like Santa Monica Pier...
Hollywood Star Walk...
and the Getty Museum. Look at these cuties.
We also had a couple of relaxing and occasionally frightening beach days :-)
Phoebe flew home from LA, and the Duvals made our way from SoCal to Santa Fe with a fun little detour to Winslow, Arizona :-)
Why Santa Fe you ask? Because Uncle Todd got married!!!!
A very dapper Todd got walked down the aisle by these two beauties:
Lisa gave Todd an amazing toast, including lots of singing!
We had a great time celebrating Todd and Audrey's union, and the wedding and reception site were out of this world beautiful.
So much rainbow...
And the added bonus of getting to reconnect with Michael and Taya after all these years!
It was a wonderful few days of family time...
Celebrating these two!
After Santa Fe, Lisa and Gabriel flew home and Landon, MacDuff and I made our way back to Charlottesville, with the first stop being 3 nights outside of Fort Collins, CO. Here's us hanging out at the mother ship of New Belgium Brewery.
And then we moved on to a beach in...wait for it....
Nebraska!
This is Lake McConaughy, which the locals just call Lake Mac. I think I know why:
After Lake Mac we had one more stop, the Hinterland Music Festival in Iowa, where we saw the likes of Bon Iver, Sylvan Esso, Zach Bryan, Joy Oladokun, Maggie Rogers, Wilderado, and this great set by Del Water Gap in the pouring rain.
The festival highlight was an A-MAZING set by Noah Kahan.
It was a summer full of highlights. I feel grateful to have the opportunity to be a professional nomad and to travel with my wonderful family and friends. I'm back in Cville for a few weeks and then the next adventure begins on September 14th. Stay tuned!
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