RV Tour Leg 34 – Santa Cruz County, CA: Redwoods, Friends, and Family
- Judy Carmein
- May 28, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 1, 2025
May 20 - 28, 2025
We rolled into Santa Cruz County ready for a change of pace and maybe a few hugs. Mission accomplished. Our home base was a dreamy campsite tucked just outside Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, surrounded by towering redwoods that made us feel very small and very lucky. It even had hiking trails that led straight into the park. The only downside? Zero connectivity. Not even Starlink could beam through the redwood canopy.
The campground’s solution: a tiny "WiFi room" with just enough bandwidth to send a text and keep David’s Duolingo streak alive. Priorities.
We started our visit with David’s college friend Pam, who was in Carmel-by-the-Sea visiting her mother. Her mom’s mid-century modern home is perched right on Highway 1 with a front-row seat to the Pacific. Pam took us on a beautiful nature walk dotted with hills, wildflowers, and birds.
We spent most of our time with dear friends Gordie and Nancy, who generously shared their home, trails, grandkids, and fridge. We got to meet their two granddaughters, who are objectively adorable, but the real joy was watching Gordie and Nancy’s faces light up every time those girls were near. Grandparenting looks pretty great, honestly. It also triggered a little time-travel moment — weren’t our own kids just that small, like, yesterday?
Speaking of time, David’s beard had overstayed its welcome, but rather than shaving at a random campground, he held out for Gordie’s bathroom. It’s tradition, apparently. The tradition continues.
We made a day trip to Palo Alto, where we biked through Stanford so David could visit places he wrote about in his book Entanglement. High on the list was the Bill Gates Building, where much of the novel takes place — a building he had never actually seen. The campus has changed a lot since he graduated, and with signs celebrating the 100th anniversary of the engineering school, it hit him that he started there 50 years ago — half the school’s life. Time, as always, marches on.
On the family front, we had a full-on Meinen cousin reunion. My cousin Chris (organizer extraordinaire) got all three Bay Area siblings and their partners together for dinner in Palo Alto. To top it off, another cousin visiting from Texas, Lee Meinen, joined the party. We laughed about the old days, swapped stories from the new days, and realized — somehow — we’re now the matriarchs and patriarchs. How did that happen?
We hiked with Gordie and Nancy, both near their house and in the redwoods near our site. We even got in a night of “helping” babysit their grandkids, which mostly involved smiling a lot and not breaking anything. Success!
As a bonus, we were invited to their Memorial Day family picnic, which turned out to be a four-generation extravaganza — grandparents, grandkids, great-grandparents, and everything in between. Even Gordie’s sister from Delaware made it to the party.
We wrapped up this stretch with a visit to David’s friend Ben, just outside Sacramento. The two of them worked together in California back in 2015, but these days Ben’s gone from engineering by day to speakeasy bar owner by night — complete with house-distilled spirits. He even sent us off with a bottle of his tasty brandy.
Next stop: Lassen Volcanic National Park. Volcanoes, here we come.
You two continue to amaze me. I’ve had an amazing life, but as I’m about to turn 82 my only regret is all the things I meant to do “someday “. You are doing it! Thanks for sharing.