Along the coast of California to the world’s largest trees…

I have driven along the Highway 1 a few times in my life and every single time, it still amazes me on how beautiful California is. Over the weekend, both Carl and I went on our first adventure together. The plan: Drive along the Hwy 1 to Sequoia National Park.

Started our morning at The Abbey in Santa Cruz. Why did I get a chai latte that I know will upset my stomach the entire day?! Let alone, be in a car with a guy that you adore and don’t want to be all bloated in front of… so much for that. Note to self, never again..haha.

Any who, our first stop was to see the natural bridges at Natural Bridges State Beach. Per wikipedia:

The arches formed over a million years ago when a combination of silt, clay and diatoms were solidified into a mixture of stone that formed the three original arches of the beach.^[3] Wave erosion carved the arches and then cut away the cliffs leaving only islands.

While we were admiring the scenery, Carl was able to see his first whale!

Afterwards, we drove along the two mile stretch on West Cliff Drive to the boardwalk. While we were sitting on this bench below, Carl saw his first dolphin!

For the second time, I went to The Buttery to get my carrot cake and was disappointed that they didn’t sell them by the slice. Carl insisted I get a whole cake to myself but for some reason, oddly, I didn’t get any.  Now, I am always going to be craving that dang infamous carrot cake. At least some one else was happy..

Next stop, lunch at Carmel-by-the-sea. Lonely Planet and others have recommended to go to Bruno’s Market & Deli for their tri-tip sandwich. Honestly, I’ve had better but it was great to grab the sandwiches and head to a brewery that was 15 mins away in Monterey at Post No Bills Craft Beer House. My favorite part about this lunch was my big o’ bag of Doritos 😛

Up next was the the iconic Bixby Creek Bridge – one of the tallest single-span concrete bridges in the world. Love this candid picture he got of me..

and of course I was thinking the same thing too.

McWay Falls – A 80 foot waterfall that touches the ocean when the tides are in. I’ve seen many waterfalls in my life and this is one in California you should see.  At the start of our trail, we were able to see a couple of California Condors. Per Wikipedia, “The California condor is one of the world’s rarest bird species: as of October 2014 there are 425 condors living wild or in captivity.” Crazy!

For some reason, I love this car placed perfectly along the coast

When I was planning this trip, I wasn’t quite sure where to stay but when I saw the pictures of this Airbnb spot in Camrbia, I knew Carl would love it. This was his first airbnb!

Note, that if you are coming to Camrbia, everything pretty much closes at 9p. Make sure you stock up on snacks – we settled for some pizza at J B J’s Round-Up Pizza & Grub.

We spent the night playing cards, sipping on drinks, and Carl beating me at thumb war along the fireplace.

The next morning, while Carl was asleep, I had my breakfast outside the patio just listening to the wind, smelling the fresh breeze of air, and smiling on how lucky I am.

Check out the cool room full of shark fossils.

We finally hit the road to Sequoia National Park – about 3 1/2 hours away.

On the way, we drove through Paso Robles and had to stop here for some wine tasting 🙂 The Late Harvest was probably the best at Donati Family Vineyard.

First thing on our agenda was to check out General Sherman. It’s estimated to be 2,300 years old with a height of 275 feet.

Two miles away is Moro Rock. A granite dome rock formation that gives you a wide Park in the parking lot and it’s about a 1/4 mile hike to the top with an elevation gain of 300 feet.

Carl got a cool shot of me on top of Moro Rock – not going to lie, there are some areas that was pretty scary… Y’all know I am afraid of heights!

On our way to the campsite, we took more pictures of trees and oh yes, I stepped in a bush of Poison Ivy  – thank goodness nothing happened from it!

Afterwards, we ended up posting up at Lodgepole Campground.

I am cracking up thinking of this while writing to you guys about our campsite. We took everything out of the bag for our tent and realized that the rods were not there. Mind you, this campground is what you call ‘car camping’ to the max! There were laundry mats, showers, bathrooms, a grocery store, and many more. To be honest, I was super happy that we had all of that because we didn’t have the appropriate gear to backpack and we ended up sleeping in Carl’s Prius. Haha. Poor guy. At least we had a bottle of wine and a couple of amazing bourbon with us. Oh and I made the cutest dinner spread 😉

At one point in the night, I really wanted a pillow and was searching in the dark to put my head on something and two minutes into it, I realized my head was on Carl’s face. LOL. Oh goodness.

I’m sure our neighbors thought we were crazy sleeping in the car but hey, we made it home and safe! We also checked out Kings Canyon National Park on the way home.

As always, thank you for reading my blog.