Intro/Disclaimer ~ Highway 1 Adventure

I will warn you now that my blog has been overtaken by vacation stories and photos. I know that can be annoying and even boring, so I apologize. But seeing as how I’m about four years behind on photo albums, this is going to be the best way to remember the trip.

I love to travel. In fact, I’m the most disciplined about saving money if it involves saving for an upcoming trip. For some reason, that always motivates me. So several years ago, we started throwing around ideas for our 10th anniversary vacation. I saw a piece on the Today show about the Pacific Coast Highway/Highway 1 and called Wade right away to tell him I knew the perfect trip. So we saved up and made it happen. I’m so glad we did.

I also spent hours upon hours doing research online trying to figure out how to make this trip work within four short days. In fact, I had to make a spreadsheet to map out and coordinate the mileage, routes, meals, and stops. Hopefully if anyone else is out there doing the same thing, this may be of some help.

And a HUGE shout out and thank you to my family in California. They had great suggestions and endured many e-mail requests from me trying to figure out if my travel strategy would work. Yes, if you do this trip in four days, you have to have a travel strategy. Serious stuff here. I assured them that if they ever wanted to take a trip from El Paso to Houston, I would be happy to return the favor and help with suggestions. Something tells me that probably won't happen.

So if you like seeing pictures of other places, enjoy. If you prefer American Idol recaps and pictures of Tate, come back in a few days.

Day 1 ~ Highway 1 Adventure

The day started bright and early (actually really dark with a 4:00 a.m. alarm) for our flight to San Francisco. You save more time if you fly into a northern CA airport and fly home out of a southern CA airport, but one-way airfare and car rentals are also much more expensive.

So we flew in, got the rental car, and headed south. Too bad it took us about 10 minutes to realize the car’s navigation system was set on “avoid highways.” I could see the highway just a few streets over and was so frustrated that it was taking us different ways. The urban area of San Ramon wasn’t originally a destination on the spreadsheet, but now I feel even more cultured.

We finally changed the settings and hopped on Highway 101 (a more central highway), so we could get to our southern-most stop quickly. That is definitely not the most scenic of routes, but I was amazed by all of the farms. No wonder so many Californians are healthy, the produce farms are everywhere. We saw miles and miles of carrots, artichokes, lettuce, celery, strawberries, peas, and pumpkins growing just off the highway. This truck passed us by. I have never in my life seen so many carrots.

We also made a quick pit stop off 101 to see Camp Roberts. My grandfather was in the military, and my Dad was born in the hospital there. I just knew that he would think it was sweet of me to take a picture of this important place in our family heritage. Well the military guard with the big ‘ol gun didn’t think it was that sweet.

We heard a “Hey! Hey! NO PICTURES!” being yelled at us, as he ran in our direction…with his big ‘ol gun. I made my “I’m harmless” face, we showed him that the picture didn’t reveal anything, and assured him we were just crazy Texans and not anyone to worry about. It worked, and he let us go free of any criminal charges.

So after driving 125 miles south, we were at our real starting point, Morro Bay.

This was probably my favorite hotel of the three we stayed in. The Anderson Inn is a small, charming, family-owned hotel with just eight rooms and is right on the bay of Morro Bay. The owners were so friendly and kind.

Here’s the view from our room of the bay with the famous Morro Rock.

That night we ate a wonderful family-owned restaurant right on the water, The Galley. I heart halibut! And feel free to ask Wade about the calamari. I’ll let him tell that story.


This is also the first of our three celebrity sightings on the trip (no other pictures but we also saw John Maddena and the star of the CAL rugby team). Do any of you recognize this guy?

That was Jack Lalanne many, many years ago. He’s now a 94-year-old adorable guy living in Morro Bay and has dinner at The Galley every Wednesday night. He looked amazing for his age and was very nice. After I took the picture of him and Wade, he was quick to ask if I wanted to have my picture taken with him as well. Cute!

After a trek to the Morro Rock and a delish dessert, I was about to pass out from exhaustion and was quick to get to bed while warming up with the cute little fireplace in the room. Unfortunately, this was definitely not the lounge around, sleep-in kind of trip.

Day 2 ~ Highway 1 Adventure

We were up by 7:00 a.m. for Day 2. I’m a lover of french toast. Could eat it for any meal. Well, I may have had some of the best ever from a tiny little local place called The Coffee Pot, which had not-so-great service but very yummy food!

Even though I would’ve loved to stay at the Anderson Inn for a full week, we had to get on the road. And so the real adventure heading north on Highway 1 began. My uncle gave the helpful tip that driving the highway northbound as opposed to southbound may alleviate some of the “edge of a cliff” kind of backseat driver issues. Not that I’ve ever been known to have those (ha-ha, if you know any of the Enright women), so both Wade & I were glad we listened to that tip.

The biggest bummer of the entire trip was the weather. This was the day we had the worst of it. Cold, cloudy, rainy, foggy, and cold. I had to work really hard at staying positive. But once you start driving and see sights like this, it’s not that hard.

Our first stop was the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. As I was planning the trip and trying to decide what stops made the cut or not, I almost didn’t include this. I kept thinking what’s the big deal about a rich guy’s big house anyway? It was one of the biggest surprises. We both loved the stop and thought the tour was very impressive. The place is enormous, and you feel like you’re in a European castle. Every inch of the place seemed to have some type of European origin from back to the 16th-17th centuries, but it was built in the 1920s. He had it all brought to the middle of nowhere in California, and the major player politicians and celebrities of that time all came out to stay there. Even after the majority of it was built, he only had a good 15 years to enjoy before he passed away. Kind of sad.

Despite the cold and rain, it was a really interesting tour, but I never could get a good picture of the main building because of the fog and clouds. The bus ride up and down the hill to the castle was impressive on its own. And I shouted out a big apology to these cows. As a thank you gift to my parents for watching Tate for four days, we shipped to them some of the Hearst Ranch steaks. Sorry cows, it’s all our fault.

Then just 5 miles north of the castle, we found this little cove, which is a seasonal home to thousands of elephant seals. I think we could’ve spent several hours here just watching them.

Don’t worry, they’re not dead or sick. It’s their molting season. So they’re all fasting and molting on the beach shore. It was bizarre and really cool at the same time. I loved that the CA Parks Dept. has done its best to keep everything in a natural habitat for them. Nobody is there selling elephant seal merchandise or letting you pay to pose for a picture with them. There are a few educational displays and the seals. That’s it.

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We hopped back in the car and were amazed at the views of the next 60 miles. Here’s a quick video with the hillside and the oceanside views from the car.

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I was very pleased that there didn’t seem to be many people on the road. And Wade & I were both pleased with my restraint. Yes, I asked him to slow down a few times, and I was quick to point out any change in speed limit or signs for a big turn ahead. But I kept telling him it could’ve been much worse. The bad part was when we saw a tow truck pulling a completely demolished car out and up from the edge of the cliff. Lovely.

Also by this point, the rain had stopped so we decided to brave the cold and were determined to take advantage of the convertible we had rented. So with the heat cranked up to high, we put the top down and enjoyed even more of the views. (Please ignore the roots…they should be fixed in just a couple of weeks.)

Next was a stop at the Nepenthe restaurant in Big Sur for lunch. One of my favorite meals of the trip! The ambrosia burger was delicious, but the view from where were sitting outside was even better.

Then back on Highway 1 for more jaw-dropping beauty, and the next stop was the 17-mile drive. I’m not a golfer, but I can appreciate the beauty of a nice golf course. This stretch is home to the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course plus several others. It was impressive.

Finally, we headed to dinner at The Whaling Station in Monterey (which also served their artichokes with mayonnaise...I'm not strange after all!) and then to our hotel to crash. And doesn’t everyone need their own zen sand garden?

Day 3 ~ Highway 1 Adventure

We packed up and checked out again (having to do that each day was a little of a beating). Before we left, we took these pictures right outside the balcony. Supposedly, this is the exact area that in the novel Cannery Row by John Steinbeck writes about when Doc (?) works on tide experiments. Steinbeck stuff was all over the place here.

The first stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The last time I was there was in junior high. So I had to take a picture in front of the big tank again just like the one from 1989. Only this time I wasn’t wearing a neon Guess T-shirt and rolled up jean shorts.

The exhibits were pretty impressive and really kid-friendly. I hope we can go back in several years to take Tate, because I think he would love it. Right now they have a seahorse exhibit, which was really interesting. Who knew that male seahorses give birth to the babies? Wade didn’t care for the exhibit near as much for some reason?

From there we headed over to beach in Carmel. I was thrilled beyond belief when low and behold, the sun came out! It was still cold, but at least there was finally some sun.

The beach is gorgeous, and Wade was all cute and romantic by marking our 10th anniversary on the beach. It took two tries. I think I’ve watched this video 100 times. Cracks me up.

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And then we had another yummy lunch at a cute little diner, Em Les, in Carmel.

Then we were back in the car for more driving and the most adventurous part of our adventure. The detour off Highway 1 into the Big Basin Redwood Park took forever. Lots of stop lights and small, two-lane streets, but we finally got there and were not disappointed by any means.

This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. There was a short, flat walking trail that you could go on, and it included some of the oldest of the redwoods. It was late-afternoon by this point. So when there are HUGE redwoods clustered together blocking the sun, it makes things really cold on the ground. Before we got on the trail, I added about 5 layers of clothing to warm up.

Wade was doing major eye roll as I took this picture and exclaimed…It looks just like Edward & Bella’s meadow!

Since the drive into the redwood park took forever, we decided to be adventurous and take a short cut out that I found on the map. There are absolutely no pictures from this because I was doing everything possible not to hyperventilate and had my hands in a white-knuckled death grip. The map didn’t quite show that the road was comprised of: a MAJOR incline up the mountain, barely 2-lane road, no shoulder, can’t see the bottom of the redwoods drop-off, with complete snake-like zig zags.

It was way scarier than anywhere on Highway 1. I kept thinking to myself that if we drive off this road, there is no cell phone service and absolutely no living person around us. Scary! Even my Evil Knievel-driving husband admitted to a few nerves during that part.

But we survived and landed back on Highway 1 to see a view like this.

We also pulled over at a small little beach and watched these kite surfers. You can’t tell from the video that it was freezing cold with crazy winds.

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By that point, we were getting closer and closer to the big city. This was when I got all mopey that the trip was almost over. But we pulled off to see the sunset at the Montara Beach for one last picture on Highway 1. So pretty!

We didn’t get into the city until about 7:30 p.m. and got to look out our hotel window at this.

Originally we had big plans to get dressed up and go to a fancy San Francisco restaurant. Clearly being married 10 years has aged us, because we were wiped out and cancelled the reservation. Although, after a quick dinner across the street, I got to give Wade an anniversary surprise. I had secretly had our wedding VHS video converted to a DVD.

So 10 years later, we got to watch the wedding all over again. It was sweet, embarrassing, funny, and wonderful all at the same time. (A separate anniversary post is coming soon.)