We left LA and headed north and after about one more hour of enduring LA’s traffic we were free, cruising on the famous coastal highway. The lonely planet guidebook pretty emphatically states that the drive is not to be rushed but savored, so we tried to take our time. Taking our time meant foraying into some nice beach towns (e.g. Malibu and Santa Monica), and stopping at one vista to take a look at some elephant seals hanging out on the beach. It also meant a quick detour to the town of Solvang – a quaint Danish town offering a plethora of Danish bakeries to choose from for a snack. It was a pretty cool little town, and after a coffee and some baked goods we were back on the road. We ended up camping that night in San Luis Obispo. Next to our campsite we noticed a sign saying “Men’s Colony.” Heather and I were both a little perplexed what that meant but we didn’t really think anything of it. The next day we were in a bookstore and Heather was reading about our campsite and it turns out it was a giant prison that turns off some camper’s from that site! Luckily no escaped convicts came through the night we were staying there though.
The next day we continued our drive up the coast. It was amazing, but unfortunately it was pretty foggy so the views were a little obscured. We headed straight for our campsite in order to try to secure a spot at one of the elusive first-come first-serve campsites. When we got there we were disappointed to find out that they had all just been filled so we were out of luck! When we headed back to our car and turned on our GPS it was frozen and we couldn’t get it to work. We tried playing with it to no avail so we decided we needed the Internet to Google the problem and call customer service. We were pretty worried about it, without it how would we know where to go? Neither of us wanted to resort to the primitive caveman methods of using a map (haha) so we were anxious to get it working. Long story short, after a phone call to Garmin, and some computer programming by Heather we got it working again. Before finding an internet café to investigate the problem we navigated (all by ourselves) to Pebble Beach via the “17 mile drive.” I was like a kid in a candy store, but Heather appreciated the scenery too. We got a glimpse of the 18th hole, and walked around the few Pebble Beach shops. After seeing Pebble Beach and fixing the Garmin we went out for dinner, where we were handed a wine list on an iPad (we stuck with beer). I forgot to mention that in the middle of everything we were in fact able to secure a campsite, so we did have a place to sleep that night.
Originally, we had planned to continue up the coast for another day and then jet across to Yosemite , but we decided instead to spend 2 nights at King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Park. We have loved everything about our time in the National Parks so we figured we’d like this too, and we were right. The highlight of that stay was a really nice 9 mile hike we did our 2nd day there to Mist Falls. See below for a picture of us at one particularly nice viewpoint.
After King’s Canyon we were off to Yosemite. Yosemite was by far the most crowded off all the national parks that we have been to. During our drive in the first day we were back in a traffic jam that reminded us of LA. That being said, we can confirm that it is crowded for a reason, as the park is amazing! Driving in we immediately got an expansive view of three of the bigger attractions there: Bridalveil falls, El Capitan, and the Half Dome.
Our campsite was actually about a 40-minute drive from the main part of the park so we were nicely staying away from the crowds as well. We had wanted to hike the Half Dome but it requires a permit that we were not able to acquire, so we decided to try to hike something similarly challenging and breathtaking. It ended up being a 15 mile hike with about 4000 ft of elevation gain. It turned out to be one of the best hikes of the trip.
Next up on the rocket docket was San Francisco! We had been camping for about a week and it was time for a shower. Before heading to San Fran though, we took a detour to Palo Alto to visit Stanford University. It was an amazing campus. We went to the bookstore and puttered around for a bit and then we continued to explore. The campus of Stanford is huge and unfortunately too large to really be able to just walk around and capture it all. Unbeknownst to us, Stanford was also hosting a professional women’s tennis tournament. We actually managed to catch a few points from one of the double’s matches by peering through an opening in the fence. We also saw Ana Ivanovic getting into the back of a Jaguar in the player’s pick-up spot. Before taking off, we made a quick stop at the Avery Aquatics Facility so that I could drool over their facilities. I was disappointed that Queen’s had not decided to put in a 50m pool in their new athletics facility. They should have just borrowed one from Stanford. Stanford has not one, but 2 50m pools back-to-back, a separate diving tank, and then, on top of that, a stadium competition pool.
From Palo Alto, San Fran was a pretty smooth 30 minutes away. By the time we showered, caught up on our emails, and we were ready to go it was pretty late so we just went on a little dinner and a movie date and called it at that. Yesterday, we went on a walking tour of the city. Highlights included: the “crookedest” street in the world (see pic below); Coit Tower, City of Lights Bookstore and Ghiradelli Square (a whole square devoted to Ghiradelli chocolate). It goes without saying that Heather was particularly enthralled with the last spot. That night we went to an Irish Pub for dinner and then we went to see the musical Billy Elliot. Heather really wanted to go and was afraid I wouldn’t like it, but I assured that I was culturally sophisticated enough to appreciate such things. We both ended up really enjoying it. I even connected with my inner ballet dancer.
So family and friends, that’s what we have been up to! Next up is Redwoods National Park for 2 nights and then onwards to the Pacific Northwest where we will be going to three national parks and also stopping for a night each in Portland and Seattle. We are both surprised that we only have only 10 days left in the U.S. before we head to Vancouver Island to hike the West Coast Trail. Anyways, it should be a great last 10 days and we have some great places lined up to see!
We miss you all! Hope everything is going great!
Love,
Matt and Heather
Toronto needs to have a square dedicated purely to chocolate... Happy driving you two!
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