I have lived in California my entire life, but it wasn’t until after I started traveling that I really started to appreciate where I live. When I am home I dream about getting away. I dream about cliff diving in the Mediterranean Sea, snorkeling in the warm Caribbean waters, or looking out the window of a train while passing through the beautiful Tuscan countryside. Every time I get away, however, I find myself missing home. I miss standing on a sunny beach while looking at the snow capped mountains. I miss the wide variety of diverse foods in southern California. But mostly I just miss the comforts of being home and spending time with friends and family. For me it seems as if there is no happy medium. I am either bored of being in the place I have lived for 23 years, or I am away and missing and longing for the place I have known my whole life.
My most recent trip to Italy was the longest I had been away from home (3 months). That trip made me really start to love California again. When people would find out where I was from they always wanted to hear more. California was a dream to many of the people I met while abroad. I started to see California through their eyes and began to realize that it truly is a special place. As my time in Italy was coming to an end, I knew I was going to have to stay home and work for a while so I can save up to travel again. I told myself that during my time back home I wanted to be a tourist in my own home. I wanted to see California with a different perspective. To be honest, I have been home for 9 months and haven’t really done much to achieve this goal. BUT I did take a week long road trip with some friends through California and I feel like that was enough to satisfy my goal.
I have been wanting to drive up the California coast for a while now. I go to northern California all the time because I have family up there. But every time we go we take the fastest route which is straight through the middle of California where there is nothing but farm land. A group of 4 of us decided to take the long way to San Fransisco and drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. We spread our trip out over five days and made 2 overnight stops and several other quick stops along the way. This was our basic itinerary:
Day 1: LA to San Louis Obispo- We made a few different stops along the way while spending the majority of our time in Santa Barbara. Here we walked along the pier (and you can drive on it to!), had lunch, walked along State St. (tons of shopping), and had some amazing ice cream from McConnell’s. I loved walking down Santa Barbara’s streets lined with palm trees. I wish we had more than just a few hours there. Next we headed off to San Louis Obispo and took a quick drive through Solvang and Pismo Beach. I wanted to stop in Solvang but it took so long just to drive down the street. It was filled with tourists and I was not ready to face any kind of crowd after a long day of driving. We decided to stop at the pier in Pismo Beach to watch the sunset. I love Pismo. I have so many memories from when I would camp there as a child. We ended our day in San Louis Obispo and stayed the night in a place we rented on AirBnB. It was my first experience using AirBnb and it was worth it. The hosts are always so nice and accommodating and we had the privacy we wouldn’t normally get in a hotel.
Day 2: San Louis Obispo to Monterey- This day was filled with lots and lots of driving, but it was a very beautiful and scenic drive. We first made a stop in Morro Bay. I really wanted to stop in this cute seaside town because it was where my great grandma lived and I have so many great memories there. I hadn’t been there in years, so it was worth the stop for me. We kept driving along the coast and made a stop along the way in San Simeon to see the elephant seals. These things are massive! And loud! But I loved them. I think they are my new favorite animal. They are just ugly and fat, but in a cute way. Oh I almost forgot, before we saw the elephant seals we saw zebras along the other side of the road! We saw all kinds of wildlife on this trip. Back on the road and we are headed to Big Sur. This is a long windy road where you get no cell phone service and gas prices are ridiculously expensive. But the view is perfection. The road winds along the cliff side overlooking the ocean. We were so lucky to have beautiful sunny weather on this trip. We made a couple of stops at the scenic spots like McWay Falls and the Bixby Bridge. We ended our day by watching the sunset in Carmel and staying overnight in Monterey.
Day 3: Monterey to San Fransisco- We pretty much spent a lot of our day wandering around Monterey. We walked down Cannery Row, went to Lover’s Point, and just spent some time enjoying the beautiful sunny weather. Monterey is a very beautiful and laid back place. I love any city that rests along the water because they just seem so peaceful to me. We then took off and began our long drive to San Fransisco. DO NOT attempt to drive through this city during rush our. I don’t know what we were thinking, but obviously we weren’t thinking about traffic (even though we should be used to this because we are from LA). Being stuck at a stop light and not being able to get through an intersection for 15 minutes was not ideal after a long day of driving. Despite the road rage, driving through the city at night was beautiful. I don’t know what it is, but I just love big cities. We ended our night with a quick dinner at a pub and got a much needed rest at our hotel.
Day 4: San Fransisco- Our goal of the trip was to be in San Fransisco for New Years Eve. We didn’t really know what we were going to do there, but we knew we would figure it out as the day went on. During the day we just toured around the city. We went to the Giant’s baseball stadium, fisherman’s wharf, and saw Lombard Street (the crooked street). After this we were exhausted and went back to our hotel room to take a nap. I think it had just been a very long week. We rang in the new year on a rooftop in the city while watching the fireworks launching from the embarcadero. It was a great way to begin the new year with some great friends.
Day 5: GOING HOME! After a long week filled with driving I was so excited to get home and lay down in my own bed. The drive home was rough. We were all exhausted and had a good 7 hours to get home, but we made it.
During this trip I fell in love with California all over again. It really is the best place to live or vacation because you get a little bit of everything. From nature to big cities, from snowy mountains to sunny beaches. California is a dream and I will never forget to think back to where I came from and be grateful.
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