The Roadtrip {Week 3}

Well, this mini novella is coming to end – week 3, the conclusion of our journey!

We savored and treasured this week a bit more.  We recognized that this time was coming to an end and we clung to each precious moment.  We were talking with some friends the other night (who also recently graduated SMU’s program and had the time to head to Africa and then Greece!) about the feelings of ending something that you know was just so unique.  Closing something that probably won’t ever be repeated in life.  It’s kind of anti my personality.  I naturally want to seek/recreate something out again and again if I really enjoy it/find it fulfilling (perhaps we all do?) – but in this experience, my option was to relax, savor, and soak up.  And move on to the next chapter of life with peace and hopefulness.

Week 3 Itinerary: Drive Highway 1 – End in San Francisco

Highway 1

Driving Highway 1 was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  I had thought about doing this drive for such a long time (not knowing how it would really ever work in our stage of life!) and so I feel like being able to do this was an extra special gift.  We took about 5 days to drive from San Diego to San Francisco – camping and hotel’in it – along the way.  The CA weather was amazing – but it really was chilly in the evening.  And because of this, camping wasn’t totally the experience that we had hoped for.  Donald & I slept extremely poor (rained hard during one night…thankfully the rain fly worked great except for one area…right above my head.  Think Chinese water torture.)  Nate got the best sleep out of all of us – I think that was a gracious recipient of the “best sleeper award.”  But, our first night to camp – we could hear the ocean roaring.  So fantastic.  A beautiful way to sleep and an equally delightful way to wake up.

We then climbed these awesome dunes right on the coast – probably one of my favorite ‘3 hour’ segments of the trip.  Those moments will be engrained in my mind for a good long time.

Monterey

What a great little resort town.  Famous for its beautiful bay and fantastic aquarium – we knew that we’d be making a stop here.  Would love to come back and spend more time in Monterey.

Big Sur

I think this is Highway 1 at its finest.  Beautiful stretches of coast, cars pulling off EVERYWHERE to grab pics, but you still feel alone in the beauty of it.  Very cool camping site – some great hiking – no threats of bears.  All good things!

Random Awesome

Along the drive – just snippets of what made this part of the trip so fantastic:

San Francisco

We love this city.  Definitely a place we would move to in a heartbeat.  Donald & I spent our first anniversary here, so it was pretty much an identical trip for us.  HAH!  We did absolutely NOTHING the same way, except visit Ghirardelli way too many times and stop by the sea lions more than once…because really, don’t forget who you’re traveling with!

All those years ago…

 

This was a great place for us to end our trip.  We were familiar with the city, and just enjoyed our final four days hanging out in parks – eating some delicious food – grabbing ice cream at least 5 times once or twice – and walking everywhere.  Love that.  Our stroller got some serious mileage here.

 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.                  Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain