Cali Recap #2: Cruisin’ Up the Coast to San Fran

February 27, 2014

It has been snowy the past few days in DC- I am clearly not in California anymore! Speaking of, where did we leave off?

In the last post, I described our California adventure in San Diego and Los Angeles, before ending in Santa Barbara.

Here was the view from outside our Santa Barbara hotel.

On Thursday, we left Santa Barbara at 8:30am en route to Monterey. We chose to take Route 1, aka the Pacific Coast Highway aka the PCH. Aaron and I were probably most excited about this part of the trip- the views were said to be phenomenal, and they didn’t disappoint!

The first couple of hours were scenic though lacked ocean views, as we drove through desert and mountains, rather than drive right on the coast. Side note, I saw a sign on the side of the road advertising 7 avocados for $1. If I had a kitchen at the end of the road trip, I totally would have bought like $5 worth! But anyways, we eventually started seeing a lot of really cool sites, including:

Pismo Beach

Monarch Butterflies in Pismo Beach- They migrate to this one area next to Pismo Beach…can you see the orange in the trees? There must have been thousands. And I don’t think we were even there for peak numbers of butterflies!

Hearst Castle- This was an outlandish example of what to buy when you have more money than you know what to do with!

We also saw a zebra (one of the few remaining zoo animals) on the Hearst Castle property, so I was excited! He was grazing, pretending like he was just another cow!

Elephant seals- Aaron’s favorite site of the day, though I thought their mating call sounded like belching!

Lots of beautiful coastal views

And gorgeous sunsets

This was taken off of a randomly chosen spot on the side of the road that I probably could never find again.  We walked down a path, over a small stream, and onto a secluded beach, just in time to see the sunset.

If you have the time, I highly recommend taking the PCH over the 101 (queue the OC theme song), even if it takes a bit longer.

After taking in the views all day, we arrived at Monterey in time for dinner. We foundHula’s, a divey-looking restaurant, where each Yelp review told us to ignore the decor cause the food was worth it (it was). We split the Island Style Poke (raw ahi, soy sauce, sesame oil, avocado, onion, sesame seeds), and then I devoured more tuna with theBlackened Ahi Steak Sandwich (Cajun spiced ahi tuna steak, slaw mix, sundried tomato pesto aioli). Delicious.

The next morning, we walked along Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery Row. Had it not been mid morning, there were tons of seafood restaurants on the wharf that I would have loved to try!

Then it was on to Santa Cruz!

Santa Cruz was a fun beach town to visit for an afternoon. We found a local deli and bought sandwiches for an impromptu picnic at Santa Cruz’s Natural Bridges State Park.

Once we had taken in the sun and sand, we were off to San Francisco! Man, was I unprepared for the hills! I knew San Fran was hilly, but not like this!

That evening, we met up with a friend from DC who now lives in SF. Over dinner, he gave us a detailed list of recommended places to see while we were in the Bay area.

So over the next two days (Saturday and Sunday), we strolled around Crissy Field and took in views of the Golden Gate Bridge,

…ate lunch in Hayes Valley,

…explored Dolores Park,

…saw the Painted Ladies, aka the houses from “Full House”,

…walked through Union Square,

…tasted lots of food at the Ferry Building,

…enjoyed the sunshine near Fisherman’s Wharf,

…ate world-famous sourdough bread from Boudin,

…wished we had saved room for seafood from the Wharf,

…visited Ghiradelli Square for samples of dark chocolate (and also visited an awesome oil and vinegar store),

…walked up and down the crazy-crooked Lombardi Street,

…rode the cable cars,

…and hiked Muir Woods to see the enormous redwood trees.

Phew. No wonder I was tired while in San Fran. It was a jam-packed two days!

Monday was our last full day in California, so naturally, we spent it relaxing in Napa andSonoma!

We visited 4 wineries: Robert Mondavi, Alpha Omega, Beringer (just toured this one), and Westwood. The wine did not disappoint, and all wine since returning to the east coast has yet to live up the Napa standard!

Tuesday, we flew back to DC, and as I mentioned in my last post, it took me nearly a week to fully recover from all the traveling!

So there you go folks, the coast of California wrapped up neatly in two posts. I had planned to throw some nutrition tips into this post, but I think it’s long enough as is! It was a wonderful, exciting, nonstop, exhausting but worthwhile 11 days and 10 nights in California. We enjoyed seeing east coast friends, west coast scenery and sunsets, and especially delicious food.

Anyone have a big vacation planned for later this year?