Ahhh….the coast!

Kai picking flowers

The big sublevel jumpy thing




12 March 2008: We did another drive today, down the coast, but it was only an hour away. We left Arcachon and checked-into Camping du Lac, Ondres. There is definitely now a coastal feeling in the air and the temperature keeps rising (yea!), although the Atlantic wind still blows.

The other night, I popped a surf DVD, Seedling, in the computer, watching it for the first time. It showed a beach scene with a flag that was whipping around really hard. I joked that it must be a French beach and the next caption said “France in the Summer”. Then, it showed some awesome surf footage. So, I guess if the wind swell is hitting right, that’s a good thing.

Ondres is right between Hossegor and Biarritz. We are getting a little sick of the road by now, but this was the last stretch and now we’ll rest for a couple days. We needed to do some catching up on the driving because we were about three days late from our “schedule”. The “schedule” is of course fairly loose, but I also don’t want Caitlin to be sitting at the Barcelona airport next week, for three days, celebrating her birthday, while we rush to get there.

Although there were a couple surf spots on the Arcachon map, we are closer to most of the French surfing spots. This spot feels more like “home” than any other so far, just the same as Santa Cruz makes me feel. J The houses have a Hawaiian/tropical feel, but still a bit French. I wonder how many are lived in year round. In Hossegor, the main street was filled with surf company stores: Roxy/Quicksilver, Rip Curl, Billabong, Reef, etc. I think Roxy/Quicksilver’s European headquarters is in the area. It felt so good to breathe the salty beach air again, although the waves were not surfable due to the recent storm we experienced. Hopefully, it will settle in the next couple days.

The campground here has a WONDERFUL playground, with this ground-level bubble/trampoline thingy. Kai is having a great time here! We are enjoying our camper van. It’s kind of a funny, tall and short thing, but very comfortable. Although, you have to get used to ducking your head and walking sideways from the “living room” to the “kitchen”. Kai and I have been eating cheese with almost every meal, egg-baked products and wheat. Neither of us have had a problem digesting it. This is amazing considering how much allergic reaction we had when living in California. I wonder why, but am very grateful!