Highway 1

I was waiting for a redeye to London when I began chatting with a British woman who was seated next to me at the bar. She confided that she had been visiting San Francisco on business and had stayed a couple of extra days for tourism. Ultimately, she was underwhelmed by her experience. Other than the bridge, she didn’t know what other boxes to tick. She asked me, as a Californian, what would I have done if I was visiting California for the first time? I told her I would rent a car and drive down Highway 1.

A few weeks ago, A and I had a 3-day weekend to take advantage of, so we packed the car and escaped rainy San Francisco for a trip down the coast. We drove down Highway 1, through my grandmother’s hometown of Carmel, down through Big Sur for a quick hike (nature walk, really) at Limekiln. After sloshing through the swollen creeks to catch a glimpse of a double waterfall, we jumped back in the car for a quick tour of Hearst Castle. The landscape was all sapphire waters and verdant green rolling hillsides. It was truly spectacular.

We spent the night in Santa Barbara and the next morning drove to Malibu to meet with friends for brunch at a restaurant on the pier. Afterward, we spent the remainder of the day and night back in Santa Barbara and the next morning did a quick hike to Gaviota Peak as a stopover on our drive back to the Bay.