1. I have wanted to drive along the Pacific Coast highway – aka Route 1 – for years. This January, due to some completely random circumstances, a good friend and I found ourselves in Southern California at the same time and thought… why the heck not? (As good a reason for a road trip as any).
2. We didn’t start things off with the best of weather. In fact, it was one of the rainiest weeks I could imagine for Southern California. Luckily, the weather didn’t get us down – and even made for some ominous, almost Gothic vistas, like this view of San Simeon Piedras Blancas Lighthouse.
3. We also made a quick stop at Bubblegum Alley, an odd tourist attraction in San Luis Obispo. It’s… pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
4. Due to the rain, we were forced to deviate around Big Sur and come at it from the north, so we drove as far as we could the night before and slept at a motel in a strip mall near Monterey (a motel that, I’m not ashamed to admit, we chose for its proximity to a taco stand. The sunset – and nearby 24-hour Walgreens – were just a bonus.)
5. The next morning, we rose early to beat the rain at Big Sur.
6. While the poor weather from the day before kept us from driving the full length of the road, it did mean that we got to witness Big Sur in relative solitude.
7. It also made for some particularly gorgeous clouds.
8. And some incredible colors.
9. The luckiest snail in the world.
10. When we had finished driving around Big Sur, we set off for Carmel, where we were lucky enough to have the chance to walk around unhindered by rain for an hour or so.
11. That, unfortunately, is as long as the weather held up. Luckily, our next plan was to drive through Big Basin Redwoods State Park, which one can visit without even getting out of the car. I did leap out to get a picture of this massive redwood tree. I ended up completely soaked… but it was worth it.