This past weekend, three of my friends and I decided to take a quick little road trip up the coast of California. This was our first road trip without parents and definitely the most driving I have ever done within the span of three days. In preparation, I bought two film cameras, brought my polaroid camera with lots of film, water, and of course, a basket full of snacks composing of kettle corn to about every movie theater sized candy box.
Saturday at nine in the morning we started our little adventure. My dad told me to take the scenic route, up the 1 or Pacific Coast Highway, starting in Orange County. What my dad failed to mention is that what would normally take 1 hour to get to LAX via the freeway, turned into two and a half hours on PCH, catching just about every red light. You can imagine the relief I had when we finally reached Malibu three hours later. We stopped in at Malibu Colony and grabbed some smoothies from Sunlife Organics and then got back on the road.
We continued heading up PCH through Ventura County and Santa Barbara before deciding to do a slight detour to the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve. The dunes were closed due to birds laying their eggs underneath the sand and without being roped off, would be in danger of humans walking along. We saw lots of sand, but it was cool.
We were hungry and tired and decided that we wanted to get up to Carmel, California as soon as possible. We stopped once for gas and a bathroom break, but other than that we drove and admired the views around us. It was amazing watching us go from dessert one hour to mountains, cliffs, and trees in the next.
We reached our destination at 6:30 pm and were desperate to find the closest restaurant that was open. Luckily behind our hotel, Carmel Mission Inn, was an Italian restaurant, Allegro Pizzeria, with, in our opinion, a 10 out of 10 rating pizza. We hung out the rest of the night and got ready for the next day.
We decided to do a small workout in the morning, what we decided was going to be a HIT workout the night before turned into a 5 minute ab and 5 minute butt series. This was us trying to work off the candy we ate on our way up. We got ready and decided to grab a very late breakfast at the Carmel Belle in town. It was delicious and I thought was different from other breakfast restaurants, probably because I ordered the Truffled Eggs and Toast.
We then of course got gas, and then got on the road and drove through Big Sur. We stopped at some really nice lookout spots and went to Bixby Bridge which was amazing. It is crazy that they were able to build a bridge that high-up and a road that long on the side of a cliff. The whole time you are driving you just know there is a big drop to your right and that you have to be cautious. We wanted to go to this waterfall, but when we got there it was insanely windy, cold, and was too much of a trek for the current weather situations, as well as outfit situations.
It was another two hours before we got to Cambria. We passed the beaches full of Elephant Seals and saw Hearst Castle up on the hill. We stayed at the lovely Cambria Beach Lodge, located on Moonstone Drive. It was windy, like 22 NW mph windy. We walked around and to dinner, which we wished we drove to as we were freezing. But then of course, when we woke up the next day, it was beautiful, sunny, and 70 degrees.
One of my friends and I wanted to get some exercise in before the long drive home and walked up and down Moonstone board walk once again and then rode the hotel's complimentary bikes to the end of the street where there were picnic tables overlooking the ocean. We brought the breakfast, which was provided by the hotel, which consisted of small pastries and we grabbed an orange as well. We ate and admired the views. Just being here made me want to get into surfing, so that I too, could be like the locals and maybe even stand up.
But all good things come to an end and it was time to check out and head on home. We passed by what I think is the smallest town I have ever seen or heard of, Harmony, with a population of 18 people. We also passed the Madonna Inn which I plan to visit one day. Around 1 we stopped in Santa Barbara and went to Blenders, one of the best smoothie and açaí bowl places. We yet again got gas and drove home, not on the scenic route, we already did that. Arriving home around 3:30 in the afternoon we all had such a great time, but I was thankful I didn't have to hear any snoring that night.
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