Trip of a Lifetime/ Driving down the PCH-US1 in California

This past march my wife Jenifer and I, took a trip to California and rented a car with the purpose of driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. This has long been a bucket list item for me. Growing up here in Florida with the flat terrain, I have always been mesmerized by mountains, cliffs, even just small hills. ;)

The previous year I had purchased round trip tickets for Jenny and I to go to Seattle and drive to Portland. Unfortunately we had to cancel that trip due to some timing complications. However since we did use Southwest Airlines, we had a travel voucher. Coincidentally my friend Pat's wife Lauren, wanted to commission Jenny for a painting. We had visited Pat and his wife the previous year when i took Jenny to San Diego for her Birthday. I had spent my first trip to California in 2014, with Pat and Lauren as well. So we decided to just trade a room in their newly purchased condo for a the week, in return for our Artistic services. This is not the first time i have made that trade with them.

Photos of the paintings we did this time for them

In December 2015 I took a trip to San Francisco with my father and family, for a cousins wedding. We had a such a memorable trip, and the memories mad there are some of the fondest i have towards the end of my fathers life. Because i had such a loving tie to San Francisco i decided I wanted to take Jenny, and something i can remember my father talking so fondly about was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway, so i wanted to do that too.

Here are some awesome shots of SF and our day in Muir Woods.

Our stay in the San Francisco was magnificent. I had my artwork featured in the Aloft Hotel in downtown Orlando late last year, and had built a good re pore with them, therefore we were given the Starwood friends and family discount at the Westin in the heart of Union Square. This served as a great central location for doing a variety of things around town. Although we had rented a Jeep Grand Cherokee, we only took it out of the garage to drive over to Muir woods one day. We did so many things in the city ate at a lot of really cool places, toured art galleries, meet random locals in Uber pools, and saw some amazing captivation views of the city.

I have a cousin in Oakland on my mothers side named David Wolf. David his wife Katie, and their lovely little daughter Olive, were nice enough to put us up for a few nights in the Bay Area, in between a stay we had at a hotel in Union Square. Olive is adorable and with the amazing parents like Katie and David, she is destine to do great things in her life. They have a lovely duplex style home they share with Katies twin sister and her husband, complete with a garden in the back.
Here is a picture of Jenny, Olive, and I.

Then after an eventful few days in the city we headed out down to Newport Beach. We knew we would be staying the night somewhere in between but was undecided where yet. We left Oakland after saying by to David and his family and headed toward Half Moon Bay. The drive into half moon bay was unbelievable with winding roads in full canopy of trees. As soon as we hit the coast line we were tempted to stop every five miles or so. It was breathtaking views every twist and turn. There were plenty of places to pull over and walk down to a little beach or just look out over the majestic coast line.

We started to get a little hungry and attempted to pull over in a small town called Moss Landing, CA. At first we were going to eat a little fancier Mexican place but decided to keep driving, to try and find something more local. What we stumbled up was awesome. It was a produce and provisions market that had all sorts of goodies. We bought custom pistachios, pepper jelly, hot sauce, the best guacamole I've had, fresh made chips, fresh mango, homemade candies, honey sesame almonds, and finished it off with 2 fresh husks of grilled corn made to order. This place was the shit!

Moss Landing

After we loaded up from the market we headed back on the road, in hopes of making to Big Sur by sunset. We had heard that the bridge there might be closed due to the recent problems they were having with flooding. We began to start to loose some daylight and decided we were close to another one of the recommended stopping points we heard of which was the 17 -mile drive in Carmel, CA. This was one of the coolest drives i had been on in a long time. Its rather interesting considering you are going through these various neighborhood areas as a tourist. When the road opens up to the beach and some of the classic Pebble Beach Golf course holes, it is absolutely breathtaking. We were super lucky to be out there as the sun was setting and it was the perfect end to our trip for the day.

We were hearing that the roads through Big Sur were closed and since it was dark out already we decided to get back in the mainland to complete the last 2 and 1/2 hours of our designated stopping point Pismo Beach. Even though it was dark out it was a very winding awesome drive into Pismo Beach. We got a hotel room just for the night and fell asleep to recharge.

We woke up the next morning ready to complete the 2nd leg of our trip and arrive in Newport Beach to Pat and Lauren in the evening time. We headed out back on the coast and decided to stop at a few cool places and neat quaint little beach stops. We also pulled over in Malibu, as well as Venice for a walk around the boardwalk and some much needed Poke Bowls. I got to shoot a few hoops while Jenny explored and took some pictures with the camera. We then mustered through the LA traffic, down to Newport Beach in time to have dinner waiting for us from Lauren and Pat.

Lauren and Pat were amazing host as well as there dog Molly who is a favorite of mine for sure. Molly loves her ball, and is the most loving adorable yellow lab. The majority of the rest of the trip was spent relaxing going to the beach and one whole day donig what we love most painting. The one other thing we decided to do during our week with Pat and Lauren, was to go into Vegas for the night. We waited for Pat to get off work, then made the drive into Vegas for one crazy night. We watched the Sunrise from the 36th floor of the Planet Hollywood Hotel over looking the strip.

Before we departed back into Florida we did drive up into LA for some comedy and late night ramen that was outstanding.

We spent most of the remaining time with Pat and Lauren mostly relaxing and working on some art. We did find time to make use of my employee benefits and go to Disneyland for all of a couple of hours before opting out to drive around and explore southern California instead.

Here is a picture of the new Guardians of Galaxy

Here is another painting i did one day on the Beach.

We had one of the best trips I have ever taken. The trip of a Lifetime

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