In 1999, Cindy and I decided to go to California and drive the Pacific Coast Highway, California State Route 1. Actually, about four years prior, I'd taken the Pacific Coast Highway from just north and west of Los Angeles to San Francisco - IN A DAY - one time with two other guys I was working with at the time. There was just too much to see in one day - and we even stopped at the famous Hearst Castle along the way. It was tiring to say the least.
Cindy and I thought that if we took it easy and took our time going up the coast it would be much more fun to do it that way. And it turned out that it was.
Day One - L.A. to Santa Barbara
We flew to L.A. on a Friday in mid-May of 1999 getting into LAX about 11:30 a.m. After some minor hassles and haggling at the car rental place, we first set off down the coast to Rancho Palos Verde, a nice community south of L.A. 
We went to the lighthouse (we're suckers for lighthouses) and gazed out over the blue Pacific. The cool thing about air travel is that you can wake up in Iowa and be looking at the Pacific at 1:30 in the afternoon.
Our next stop was the Redondo Beach pier for a quick lunch of fish tacos, then we made our way up to Santa Monica to go to the pier up there.
Most of these piers are tourist traps, but the Santa Monica Pier is probably the most famous pier in the U.S. We had to go out and take some pictures and soak in some sun before traveling up the coast to Malibu.
We had to stop at the Malibu Bluffs and take in the views of the Malibu coast in the late afternoon.
After some stops in Oxnard and Ventura looking for Atomic Horseradish, we made our way up the coast as the sun was setting to Santa Barbara. We got to the hotel and checked in and went to have dinner at La Super Rica. There wasn't much to see in Santa Barbara at night, plus we were so zapped from the travel of the day. We decided to get to bed and get up the next morning to look around town for a while before we ventured on north.
Next - Day Two - Santa Barbara to Cambria
Comments