Weekend Adventure Packing List as a Guy in His 20s:

• Puffy Jacket
• Red Bull
• Surfboard

Weekend Adventure Packing List as a Dad:

• Everything inside the house

After spending three hours finding any available space to add one more absolutely must-have toy for the weekend, we headed north. Once you finish the battle with LA traffic and hit the 101, you are overcome with the feeling that everything will be worth it. The central coast of California offers countless options for adventure to fill the weekend with memories before you are faced with an unread email count on Monday morning.

Adventures look different now. It’s less about scoring waves and more about showing the groms something they have never seen before. I no longer have the option to wait for the tide to change but rather wait for nap time to paddle out.

The trip usually starts with a stop at Whole Foods to stock up on provisions for the weekend: bars, juice boxes, sandwich supplies, and fruit. We were headed through Santa Maria, so I decided to grab some fresh NY strips to cook at the campsite.

We tried to snag something in Ventura Harbor during a lunch break.

We explored tide pools and found beach treasures, tracked down sea otters and sea lions, learned to skip rocks, explored Hearst Castle, and even caught the views from Big Sur.

I was able to find a spot where the kids could nap and my wife could watch my mediocre surf skills.

Saturday night was my opportunity to deliver a fancy meal on a well-loved Coleman camp stove. Simplicity can still deliver something spectacular.

I gave the strips a heavy dusting of the Santa Maria rub, cranked up the stove to get the old camp cast iron to a temperature that would provide the perfect sear. I hit both sides, pulled them to settle in tin foil, and then served them over a summer salad. Simple, but I would put this up against any restaurant within 100 miles.

Definitely more work than it used to be, but the memories are significantly more valuable. I just hope these trips instill a deep pull toward adventure in these groms and they realize that sometimes all it takes is a puffy jacket and a truck bed.