First Day – July 18, 2020
After all the craziness this year it’s about time we took a mini trip over the weekend and we’ve decided to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). There wasn’t much plan needed since we’ll only be gone for the weekend but having a different scenery was in order. On Friday I got laundry done and slept in early to get up around 3AM on Saturday morning. We got ready and headed out at 5AM.
It was still dark but thankfully there was no traffic in LA. It’s usually fine on weekends but there’s a long drive ahead of us so we might as well get a head start.
After an hour and a half on the road we finally hit our first gas stop and restroom break at Ventura. How I’ve missed going on a road trip.
We took a longer route through Ojai and drove up Los Padres National Forest. Oh boy that was a lot of twists and turns going around, up and down the mountain. It was a fun drive!
The view at the top was stunning! I could clearly see the canyons down below.
We drove through some pretty dry lands until stopping at another gas station to refill the tank and our first meal of the day: McGriddle. It’s so good and bad at the same time but hey, can’t be picky when you’re traveling and McDonalds just happens to be everywhere.
Back on the road, I could pretty much tell when we’re getting close to the coast by the clouds. The closer we are to the clouds, the more I could smell the wonderful ocean air.
Around 11AM and after 6 hours on the road, we were pretty much midpoint in California. How can one tell? Simple, it’s when you start seeing cows. The left side is the ocean, the right are the open field with cows. They’re so cute 🥰
Shortly after we made a quick stop at our first vista point to put the top down. Aah yeah!
Just the following vista point we made another stop to see the elephant seals. Some of them were in the water while most were out sunbathing. What a life! It’s a popular spot for both elephant seals and tourists.
You can even see them in Google Maps 🤣
Despite the clouds, driving along the coast with the top down was really nice. The ocean breeze blowing on your face and watching the waves crash. Very relaxing…
Just as the road started to incline, we made a stop at another vista point to check out the view. Down below there were a handful of surfers catching the waves.
The original plan was to do a small hike in Salmon Creek Trailhead but sadly there were too many people and no parking. Thankfully the weather cleared up and we got ourselves some beautiful sun.
As we drove a bit inland we also wanted to stop by the Big Sur but once again, it was crowded and no parking. Saturday was just a busy day. It was nice seeing the trees though.
And the last place that we wanted to stop by but couldn’t due to the crowd was the Bixby Creek Bridge. We will make up for it the following day on the way home.
Finally around 2PM after 10 hours on the road, we arrived at our hotel. Check-in time was at 4PM but our room was ready so we dropped off our stuff and rested a bit after the long drive.
It was time to explore Carmel-by-the-Sea. A bit of history about this charming place, Carmel-by-the-Sea (or often called Carmel) is a city in Monterey County, California, founded in 1902. It’s mostly known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history. Early City Councils were dominated by artists, and several of the city’s mayors have been poets or actors, including Herbert Heron, founder of the Forest Theater, bohemian writer and actor Perry Newberry, and the famous actor-director Clint Eastwood. He won election as mayor in April 1986. That would explain the abundance of art galleries, restaurants, cozy inns and wonderful local hospitality. It’s very wholesome and reminds me a bit of Laguna Beach back in Southern California. Plus everything is walking distance so we didn’t need to drive around. I really like it 😍
And just a few blocks away downhill is the Carmel Beach. It was neither empty nor crowded. I should’ve brought my bikini!
Back in town, we found a coffee house tucked away inside and got ourselves some refreshments. The locals are so funny and friendly with the tourists. When I was looking at the pastry, one server passed by and said I should look at the other side which had more sweets, lol. I told them not to tempt me to buy it all 😆
As always in our travels, we browse through a couple of souvenir shops to bring home something to remember. They had some pretty interesting things like a magnet that says “Make My Day” and hilarious underwears 😂 I settled for a magnet and a t-shirt though.
Another charm to Carmel was seeing a very well-maintained Citroen 2CV driven by a very characteristic older gentleman. He had a French hat with sunglasses and curled mustache.
There were plenty of restaurants around and I noticed people were only eating outside the patio. I figured we should have an early dinner to avoid the crowd. Unfortunately, all restaurants needed reservations so the earliest we got was at 5PM at Cultura. It was near our hotel so we headed back to our rooms to rest for 30 minutes before heading out to dinner.
At the restaurant, our server seated us out on the patio next to the heater. For appetizers we’ve ordered little (but hella strong) margarita, housemade chips with guacamole and…
A taster portion of Chapulines with chile and lime. I’ve eaten some pretty strange food and this is my first time trying toasted and seasoned grasshoppers. From the excited reaction of our waiter, this doesn’t seem to get ordered much 😆 He suggested to eat it with the chips and guacamole to give it some flavor. Of course, I first had to try it by itself. The legs were crunchy but the body itself was a little chewy. As for taste, I could mostly taste the lime and chile so I couldn’t get a distinct flavor. It made a good combination with chips and guacamole.
And for my main dish, I got myself the Cultura Mole: smoked pork, sesame, orange and saffron tortilla. The mole was good although a little different with orange and the tortilla was a lot heavier than it looks. Overall, I had a lot of lime going on for dinner.
Would I eat the Chapulines again? Sure.
That “Little” margarita though… Holy cow I had to sober up back at the hotel. I was doing squats, lunges, pushups, it was a drunk workout galore! I haven’t felt that drunk in years. Buzz, yes once in a while. Drunk, nope. When I was feeling better, we headed off to the beach and watched the sunset.
It was nice walking around Carmel at night ☺️ Just seeing visitors eating outdoors and enjoying their meal and company kind of reminds me of Italy. It gave me a warm and cozy vibe even though 2020 seemed to have turned everything upside down.
It’s crazy how we’ve been awake since 3AM and now heading to bed at 10PM. We thought we were going to be dead to the world but some drunk idiots next door locked themselves out so they had to wake up their friends in another room. This was around midnight and I couldn’t sleep until 2AM.
Last Day – July 19, 2020
The last day of our weekend getaway and we checked out the hotel at 8AM. It was the earliest we could check out and for sure we want to beat the crowd. It’s so strange to see the streets so empty whereas yesterday it was bustling with life.
Before heading out to PCH, we refill our gas and bought ourselves some snacks: beef jerky and bear claw. The road was pretty clear and there were only a few tourist on our first stop: Rocky Creek Bridge. Built on 1932, is a reinforced concrete open-spandrel arch bridge on the Big Sur coast.
About a mile away is the Bixby Creek Bridge. It’s one of the most photographed bridges in California due to its aesthetic design, “graceful architecture and magnificent setting”. The bridge is 714 feet (218 m) in total length and 24 feet (7.3 m) wide, with 260 feet (79 m) of clearance below, and has a main span of 360 feet (110 m), which places 50% of the total roadbed above the arch. The arch ribs are five feet thick at the deck and nine feet thick at the springing line, where they join the towers at their base. The arches are four and one-half feet wide. The bridge was designed to support more than six times its intended load.
One of things I always remember when driving up the coast is the hill by the ocean with buildings at the top. This is actually Point Sur State Historic Park. One of the building is actually a lighthouse.
It’s really interesting how the weather changes as you drive down the road. Some areas the fog can get really thick while in others it clears up. An hour and a half has passed and we’re still 302 miles from LA.
On one of the vista point stops, I found a sign about California Condors coming back from brink of extinction and now being released in the west. All this time, I thought I was seeing Turkey Vultures up in the sky and I often wondered why they were so massive in this area. Well now I know it’s because they’re California Condors 😅 It’s really uplifting to see these birds making a comeback.
Another curious thing is why are some of the rocks white compared to others. Now that I look at it closely, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with birds 🤢
Even though there was plenty of space in Big Sur, we decided to skip it altogether. It was Sunday, we have work tomorrow and we wouldn’t want to hit LA traffic. We did stop by the vista point to check out the surfers one last time. Since it was early in the day, there were more surfers and a couple of cute fuzzy and curious squirrels roaming around.
At 10:30AM we made it to another location we’ve missed: Salmon Creek Trailhead. Yep, plenty of parking in the morning!
The trail was so confusing. There was no trail map and some parts we weren’t sure if they were trails or not. Plenty of rocks and bits of trees were blocking the way. The trail was kind of vicious and I wasn’t sure if my legs got sore from the hike and my drunk workout 😓
But we did get to see the falls without falling down and breaking our necks.
Our last stop on PCH was the vista point where the elephant seals sunbathe… I think they moved an inch or two 😄
We were getting close to LA as we pass by Morro Bay to see the impressive Morro Rock. Believe it or not, the Morro Rock is a volcanic plug on the Pacific Coast at the entrance to Morro Bay harbor. A causeway connects it with the shore, making it a tied island.
At 12:40PM we made it to the same gas station where we got gas and had McDonalds the previous day. And yep, that’s where we got our lunch: Big Mac 😋
I was sad to say good bye to the cows as we drove through the vineyards 😢 Seeing a couple of people paragliding was pretty cool though.
And we safely made it back to the palm trees of Southern California 😎 Thankfully there was no traffic.
And that was my little refreshing Pacific Coast Highway weekend getaway 🤗 A total of 815 miles traveled. Til the next adventure!
Alita in Eorzealand 