1,000 mile drive - The Pacific Coast Highway

The Pacific Coast Highway is hailed as one of the most scenic drives in the world, and I can definitely vouch for that.

When given the opportunity to spend an extra week in California after our hiking exercise in Yosemite, a group of us leapt at the chance and started planning an awesome road trip. Kevin the car, a seriously uncool big white minivan / family vehicle, took us along Route 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles over eight days, allowing us to explore the coastal towns and views of California. We decided to go quickly down from San Francisco to LA, then slowly back up the scenic route.

Picking Kevin up from the rental place, we realised we looked like a very modern family -
2 moms, 1 dad (the drivers: Me, Abbie and Conor) and two big kids (Becky and Esther)

The fast route down:

After we'd picked up our badass wheels, we drove north across the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County, with MKTO's Classic blaring out the speakers, bass on full, the sun blazing down and the wind in our hair. Those 2 minutes and 55 seconds felt like the definition of awesomeness, I can't even explain.

We stayed with the Pfeiffers - Ed, Jenn, Luke, Chloe and PJ, family friends of Abbie, who used to live in Marin - who were the most kind and generous people ever! We watched PJ play soccer, went up to Ring Mountain with Chloe to watch the sun set over the bay, were fed an incredible amount of Mexican food, and watched some of Luke's magic tricks. When we returned to Marin at the end of our trip, they kindly let us stay again and even got a keg of beer for us - awesome people.

Gorgeous view over San Francisco Bay from Mount Tam

The next morning, we hiked up Mount Tamalpais for some more incredible views over the bay. The road up the hill was crazily windy, making for great driving practice and many screams of "drive on the right!!" from the passengers. Then, following Route 101, we drove south to San Luis Obispo, halfway to Los Angeles, and stayed in a motel for the night. Stepping into a motel room by the freeway and being hit hard by the smell of bleach does suggest that someone was murdered there the night before.. but we quickly got over it and made the most of the tiny pool, before wandering into town for pizza.

Continuing the drive down to LA, we were still trying to get used to driving in the USA (saying "drive on the right, drive on the right" repeatedly under our breath as we drove). As we joined Highway 1 and neared Santa Monica, the views we'd been waiting for began to emerge - palm trees lining the roads, with pristine white beaches and endless ocean to our right.

We rented bikes and cycled the length of Venice Beach (otherwise known as 'Muscle Beach'), taking in the sights and sounds of the crowded promenade, watching skateboarders trying to look cool whilst falling over, and marvelling at the groups of guys doing calisthenics everywhere. The litre of homemade lemonade I drank was definitely  necessary in the scorching heat of the afternoon.

FIRE TRUCK! at Venice Beach

We then continued south to see my awesome friend Julie (who I met in Uganda four years ago and who I didn't even realise lived in California..!) and her flatmate Jenny, who kindly let us stay in their beautiful West Hollywood apartment whilst we explored LA. They taught us lots about how to be American - most importantly, they taught us that pumpkin ice cream is a thing. A beautifully yummy gorgeous tasty addictive thing. We also learnt that eating burritos and drinking horchata from a roadside stand makes them taste even better (although I think I've now eaten enough burritos to stay away for at least a year), and that it's actually quite difficult to get to the big Hollywood sign and sit on top of it like they do in films!

The next day we were proper embarrassing tourists for a bit, visiting the Chinese Theatre and walk of fame - turns out Marilyn Monroe had ridiculously small feet, judging by her footprints in the concrete - before heading to the farmers market for lunch, where I became pecan pie's newest and biggest fan. In the evening, we decided to turn up the class, and went out for oysters and champagne on Sunset Boulevard, before confirming that the British have a very different (and much better) sense of humour to the Americans at an improv comedy show at Second City. It's where Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Joan Rivers started out, so it was pretty cool to go there.

Marilyn Monroe's prints outside the Chinese Theatre - "Gentlemen prefer blondes"

The slow, beautiful journey back up:

Santa Barbara was exactly what we'd imagined when we were planning our adventure. Palm trees all over the place, beach the whole way along the city, fro yo shops and tattoo parlours lining the streets and the relaxed Californian vibe everywhere. We had our first chilled out do-nothing-and-lie-on-the-beach afternoon, and paid the price by getting embarrassingly sunburnt.. but we'd already embarrassed ourselves to the other beach-goers - turns out rays don't like it when you stand on top of them underwater. We made a fair few high pitched screams in the process of working out what the weird flappy things were in the sand beneath our feet!

Catching the rays on the beach in Santa Barbara
Photo by Becky Mason

It's probably impossible for a Pacific sunset to look bad in Pismo. Looking out over the ocean with the beach and palm trees in your peripheral vision and the sound of waves lapping against the shore can only be made better by beer and wine (and luckily we'd stocked up), so that evening was stunning. We checked out Splash Cafe and ate calamari, fries and clam chowder (mmmmmmmmm) before waddling down to and along the pier. It was sad to see so many homeless people having to set up camp for the night at the end of the pier, but also pretty cool to see so many people fishing in the sea and getting bites so quickly. We ended that night by drinking beer in the jacuzzi whilst singing badly along to cheesy songs on the speakers, loving life.

McWay Falls - just about visible in the middle of the photo. Screw you, four year long Californian drought!

We'd all planned to wake up early to watch the sunrise the next morning, but after turning off the fifth alarm we made an unconscious executive decision to scrap that idea and catch up on sleep, so last night's sunset had to make up for it! Leaving Pismo to join Route 1 again felt pretty exciting, as it was the part of the road trip we'd all been waiting for - Big Sur. 85 miles of stunning coastal scenery, often with mist rolling off the land into the sea and whales galore. We stopped a lot in search of the classic Big Sur view that I'd been dreaming of, but that turned out to be a different place to the first, second, third and fourth place we stopped at the side of the road.. but eventually we found it! The McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park were unbelievably stunning, and we even caught a glimpse of a whale's tail as it splashed back into the ocean after breaching! Dreamy.

We then spent the next few hours of driving all looking out to the sea on the left (including the driver, Conor..) searching for whales, unsuccessfully, although the beautiful views more than made up for it. 17 Mile Drive was our last stop before Monterey. It's a crazily scenic drive through Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove out on the Monterey Peninsula, home to the rich and famous, tons of top golf clubs, many sea lions and stunning views.

One of many stops along Big Sur to marvel at the view
and search for (and call out to - Dory style) whales 

One of the absolute highlights of the trip has got to be wine tasting at Carmel Ridge Winery, Monterey. I was drawn to the 'Tasting Flight' for obvious reasons, so we all knocked back a selection of incredibly nice wines before deciding to share a bottle of Pinot Noir. Being British definitely helps you make friends in the USA.. so after chatting, and many games of blackjack and ring of fire later, and after many free glasses of delicious wine, we noticed that the bar tenders had left a sign outside the door saying "closed for private party". Awesome people. Later on we explored Monterey, finding the best hotdog place I've ever been in (I salute the genius who thought to add jack cheese, avocado and bacon to a hotdog) and playing darts with a random failed actor in a 'British' bar. What a town.

After failing to find a place that would show the rugby for us on TV, we left Monterey and continued up the Pacific Coast Highway to Marin. A quick stop off at Trader Joe's (an awesome supermarket) left us stocked up with all things pumpkin - pie, cake mix, bagels and ice cream - before we arrived back at the Pfeiffers, with us all starting to feel sad about going back home to the UK.

On our last day, Sausalito drew us in with its beautiful location on the bay, the boats lining the shore and the cute cafes dotted around. I had one last summery iced coffee and giant cinnamon roll, soaking in the sun and planning in my mind when I'd be able to return to California. Next we headed to Muir Woods, home to gigantic Redwoods and site of filming for Planet of the Apes. Then we did the obligatory visit to the Marin Headlands, looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge, and took many touristy photos.

Yogi Bear through and through.
Photo by Becky Mason

Our drive to the airport consisted of crazy amounts of traffic through San Francisco, balanced out by even crazier amounts of out-of-tune singing to some classic songs, letting out our sadness at having to leave and our happiness at the good times we'd just had. Many selfies were taken out the window whilst crossing the Golden Gate Bridge for the final time, and many strange looks were given to us as we sang in a three lane queue of traffic with the windows open again..

Saying goodbye to Kevin was pretty emotional.. but we somehow managed to get on the plane and come home. Next adventure, please!



Check out my last blog post on our hiking trip to Yosemite National Park, California.