California Coast Road Trip!
Earlier this month a group of friends and I met up in Los Angeles for a quick road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway. I say quick because we only had about three days to get from LA to San Francisco, and there was a lot to see and do (and eat!) on the way. This was also my first time experiencing the PCH (and every city except SF), so my list of places to visit was pretty ambitious. We didn’t get to see everything this time, but all of the spots we did visit were awesome and I definitely am ready to start planning a longer visit back. 🙂
View from Point Lobos State Reserve | May 2016
Day One: Los Angeles
We all met up pretty early, so we had most of the day to explore. Some highlights include: Manhattan Beach (about 5 min after arriving, Marcy spotted a whale!), Silver Lake, Griffith Park, ramen in Little Tokyo, Poke-Poke on Venice Beach, Venice Canals, BBQ in Koreatown, and admiring all of the jacaranda and bougainvillea blossoms. 😍
Road Trip Time! Day Two: LA to San Luis Obispo
Enjoyed a beautiful drive through Santa Monica, Malibu and Ventura. We stopped in Santa Barbara for some amazing calamari and wine at Via Vai, then headed over to Pismo Beach to catch the sunset. This spot was definitely one of my favorites! We then ended up at Big Sky Cafe in San Louis Obispo for a late dinner and then checked into our Airbnb RV, named Lucy (our neighbors were goats and chickens!) for the night.
Day 2: SLO to Big Sur
I got to experience my first wine tasting at Wild Horse Winery. We also meet Floyd the old llama (and his friends) who inspired one of the wines. Giovanni’s Fish Market in Morro Bay was great! We got some fresh seafood (like still alive, fresh) to eat while looking out at Morro Rock. We also stopped to see the elephant seals — they were so mesmerizing! We ran into a lot of fog during our drive, but the sun came out for a little bit when we settled into our cabin at Riverside Campgrounds. Later, we went on a hike along the Big Sur River in Andrew Molera State Park to the beach, and then ended the night with a campfire.
Day 4: Big Sur to San Francisco
There are so many cool spots in Big Sur — next time, I’d like to spend at least a week (or months!) here. We made it to Point Lobos State Reserve just in time to see some tide pools and baby harbor seals. The fog followed us around all morning, but the scenes were still gorgeous. We were eager to get to San Francisco, so we skipped out on some of the staples (McWay Falls, Pfeiffer State Park, Pebble Beach/17-Mile Drive, etc.) — there’s so much to see there! Once in San Francisco, we got some Mission burritos, ventured over to Balmy Alley to see the murals, and then bar-hopped into the night.
…and just like that the trip was over. Half of us caught a flight back to Dallas early the next morning, and the other half continued on into Yosemite (so jealous). I’m definitely looking forward to returning to these beautiful places in the future!
© 2016 Allie Nambo
