Road Trippin' up the Coast

I have had the urge to travel up the coast for some time now, and we finally made it happen this last weekend in celebration of our 3 year anniversary. It was basically the best road trip of our lives! The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and made me appreciate California's beauty more than ever. We started in Malibu and drove north all the way up to Monterey for a duration of 3 days. We wish we had an extra day (or even a week!) but we were still able to check off most of the places that were on our list. The best part was that we pretty much winged the whole trip! We had a list of places we wanted to visit, but we had no idea where we were going to stay on Friday and Saturday. I think that made the trip fun though!

DAY 1:

We left South Pasadena in the late morning, drove through Malibu up to Montecito, and stopped for lunch at this yummy Mexican restaurant called Cava. We didn't spend too much time in the Santa Barbara area since we were just there last May. But we sure do love that area!

Our first stop was Solvang. It was a beautiful drive from Santa Barbara with lots of hills and land all around us. It felt like we were in a different state for a second! Solvang is the most adorable little Danish town. We spent a few hours there exploring, taking pictures, eating ice cream, and walking along the cute streets. They had the cutest bakeries and shops. It definitely took me back to my Danish roots! We loved it there.

We then made our way back to the coast and drove up to Morro Bay to stay there for the night. We watched the sunset on the beach and headed to our hotel. 

DAY 2:

We booked a tour at Hearst Castle for 10am on Saturday. It was so worth it! We are so glad we didn't miss the opportunity to explore this beautiful place. We spent about three hours there but we could've stayed the entire day. The views and architecture were amazing. I especially loved the gardens and the guest houses that looked like little cottages.

And of course we needed to stop at Point Lobos to see the massive elephant seals lying on the beach. They were hilarious as we observed them interacting with each other!

Big Sur was our next stop. WOW. I can't even begin to describe the beauty we saw in Big Sur. The views were unreal! We stopped at Pfieffer State Park for a quick 2-mile hike in the redwoods which was really fun. We then stopped at Bixby Bridge with this incredible view. Loved every minute!

After we drove through Big Sur, we stopped in Carmel for the night. It is the cutest little town. Everything is so quaint and cottage-like. It reminded me of my hometown a little. We ate at a Mediterranean restaurant called Yafa. It was delicious! We were so tired and dirty from the day that we couldn't wait to go to bed that night.

DAY 3:

We drove up from Carmel to Monterey, which is only about 20 minutes. It was perfect! The only thing we really wanted to do in Monterey was check out the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. We felt like kids again as we got excited to see the sea otters, jellyfish, sharks, and other sea creatures. It was a lot of fun. I highly recommend this aquarium, especially for the kids!

After we explored the aquarium, we ate lunch and figured it was time to go home before we hit Sunday night traffic in LA. We decided to take PCH on the way home because we couldn't get enough of the views. Overall, we made some of the best memories on this trip. It was one of our best weekends yet.

And that's a wrap!