Road Trip 2020: the journey home

When we woke up in Dana Point, CA, it was officially time to head home. One significant stop in California:

I have spent the last 5 birthdays at a Disney Park, and this year I was planning to go to Tokyo Disneyland, but it was closed. Disneyland was closed too, so I just took this sad little photo outside the entrance.

And then we drove on. And on and on. The first day we drove about 6 hours and slept in Sacramento. What a boring drive. The scenery was pretty monotonous. Boring photo of the GPS:

The second day we drove about 7 hours and slept in Springfield, OR. The scenery was slightly more interesting, but that extra hour of driving made it just as rough. Here’s a photo of Joss the last day before I had to pack up my stuff.

My favorite part of the second day was another steak out of a takeout container. Yum.

Third day was the last day. We stopped for a leisurely tailgate brunch in Portland, we made an ice cream stop in Chehalis, and we arrived at my sister’s house late in the afternoon. We got Polynesian food for dinner, which we ate at a picnic table outside the airport.

I didn’t realize how well Joss’s outfit would match the airplane!

And before you knew it, we were home.

I’ve never been this sad that vacation is over. Probably because we still don’t know when we’ll be allowed to travel again. So it felt really good to be able to blog about it; I hoped you’ve enjoyed reading it!

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1533 to 1630

So we’re back on the CA-1, ready to see the great Beach Cities of LA and Orange counties.

But oh, we forgot to go see the Venice Canals! I remembered just in time to not have to backtrack; it was like fate. And they were adorable.

After the canals we drove for a couple hours along the Pacific Coast Highway (miles of car washes and fast food restaurants, with an occasional beach view!) to our final destination. Dana Point is approximately where the CA-1 joins the I-5. We had a hard time choosing dinner, but we finally decided that we hadn’t had Italian the whole trip, so we ordered some to go, then picnicked at a nearby beach park. The End.

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1530 to 1533

At the shopping center near the Chinese theater we got some lunch, and popped into a not-too-crowded shop:

The Hello Kitty shop was a little reminder that I was supposed to be spending my birthday in Tokyo, not California. I bought a shirt to make that statement too.

I had a little shopping I wanted to do in LA, so our next stop…

…was the American Girl store!

I bought one of the new outfits (the other one I wanted wasn’t in stock at this store yet), and got a photo of Joss in her place next to the Girls of the Year from 2018 and 2019.

After American Girl, we were back on the road. We picked up doughnuts and Starbucks, saw Rodeo Drive, then got back on the CA-1!

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1525 to 1530

Hollywood!

So, we’ve been to Southern California a lot, but not so much to Hollywood. I went once when I was 16 and it was dirty and crowded and not something I needed to repeat. But my sister had never been, and the pandemic thinned out the crowds significantly, so we went for it!

I know it’s been about 2 decades since I was last here, but I imagine it’s typically wall to wall tourists. As you can see in the photo, it was not.

So we saw the Chinese Theater and walked a few blocks on the Walk a Fame. I took a photo of the star for the biggest star that we saw:

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1425 to 1525

We started our last day driving southbound with a little Starbucks in Santa Barbara. Then we’re back on the CA-1 driving through Oxnard (we debated CA-1 vs US-101, but we would have missed Oxnard on the 101…and in hindsight that probably would have been okay!) Then we got a tiny taste of Malibu before we decided to head over the mountains to get to Hollywood.

Next stop is my favorite stop of the whole trip…

Some of you might be thinking that this is just a house. Others will recognize it as the Brady Bunch House. But I don’t think I can convey the overwhelming feeling of standing outside this house. It’s like a dream come true. No, really. I’m a huge Brady fan, so I was truly thrilled, but even my sister, who is just a regular-sized Brady fan, agreed that seeing the house in person was awesome.

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1325 to 1425

Near San Luis Obispo, the CA-1 leaves the coast for a while, so we left the CA-1 for a while to visit the town of Solvang. In the early 20th century Solvang and the surrounding areas were settled primarily by Danish immigrants. So Solvang has a touristy Danish theme.

Along the road, we saw lots and lots of signs for Pea Soup Andersen’s. Intrigued, but not hungry, I looked them up online and read aloud their history. It pretty much took the whole hundred miles to read it! It was quite amusing.

Our evening was spent in Santa Barbara. In reflection, I think our hotel was too comfortable, because we didn’t do much at all to explore Santa Barbara. We had a mishap with ordering dinner from Door Dash, so we did have to venture out to pick up dinner. And we got a little breakfast in the morning, but we pretty much just relaxed in the hotel. Not the worst way to spend a birthday.

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Road Trip 2020: Miles 1290 to 1325

On my birthday we had lunch in San Luis Obispo. We had a lot of choices, and we chose a place with a lovely outdoor dining area. I had some yummy Asian style noodles. Afterwards we got cookies and ice cream! Here are some photos of the mission at San Luis Obispo.

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1191 to 1219

Leaving the 17-Mile Drive, we found ourselves in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and it was charming. We did a little sightseeing and window shopping.

It was then time to get to our beds at the Big Sur Lodge. We had high expectations of the drive to Big Sur, and they weren’t quite met. Our drive on Monday was much more scenic (though I got better photos today!)

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1174 to 1191

So, you’re on a scenic road trip, and along the way there’s a specially marked scenic drive, do you take it? Yes! How about if they charge you $10.50 to do it? Hmmm… What if you can apply that $10.50 to dinner at one of their restaurants along the way? Deal!

So that’s the 17-Mile Drive. A scenic drive along the coast through the Pebble Beach Resort. They charge $10.50, but you’ll get that much off if you eat at one of their restaurants (and maybe if you spend money at a retail shop, but I can’t remember). We really enjoyed our time on the 17-Mile Drive. I wouldn’t call it the most scenic stretch of road we were on, but it was nice to get out of the car every few minutes and read the plaques. Dinner was good too. We ate at the Tap Room. Casual setting, good food, reasonable price.

There are 4 different gates to get to the drive. We entered at the Country Club Gate, near a Starbucks in Monterey. First stop on our route: Spanish Bay Beach:

And then Bird Rock:

The description of Bird Rock in the brochure for the Drive makes me giggle:

This wildlife hub is buzzing with birds, harbor seals, and barking sea lions. Bird Rock was actually covered in 4 to 5 feet of pelican and cormorant guano until 1930, when it was harvested as a fertilizer. Sea lions took advantage of the cleaned-off perch, and have been sunbathing there ever since.

There is still plenty of guano!

The Crocker Grove is named after a railroad guy who created the 17-Mile Drive in the 1880s. The trees are Monterey Cypress, a species unique to this area.

Our next stop was the famous Lone Cypress. I’d never heard of it, but the Lone Cypress is the logo for Pebble Beach. It’s super cute.

Next stop: Ghost Trees at Pescadero Point. Sounds cooler than it is:

Next stop: dinner!

After dinner, we decided that we hadn’t seen enough golf, so we backtracked a little to wait for golfers on the Pebble Beach Links.

For someone who doesn’t care about golf, I’ve seen a lot of famous courses. Remember St Andrews?

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Road Trip 2020: miles 1050 to 1174

We took the freeway a bit to get out of San Francisco, and then eventually rejoined the CA-1. As we drove through beach towns like Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, we realized why San Francisco felt so sleepy. Everyone was at the beach!

We decided to stop for photos of the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Too bad it wasn’t open; a roller coaster ride would have been really fun.

The beach at Santa Cruz wasn’t too busy, but the next place I wanted to stop, Capitola Beach, was another story. My sister had to circle town a few times while I hopped out for photos. And I could see why it was crowded. The beach was lined with fun cafes, sand and surf were good, and it was a really nice place. I wanted to stop because I had heard of these adorable cottages:

Totally worth the traffic! Lack of parking and long lines led us to the Dairy Queen drive thru for chilly treats and corndogs.

We continued on to Cannery Row in Monterey. Everything was closed, but we imagined it to be a fun place to shop and eat.

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