After leaving behind the most amazing month in Kingman, AZ (that post is here), we headed West for a week in California. More specifically, we embarked on an epic 14-day cross-country road trip, starting in southern California and ending in northwest Ohio.
I had dreamed of driving the Pacific Coast Highway, a.k.a. Route 1, for YEARS. I always assumed it would have to wait until the kids were much older, we had substantially more disposable income, etc. Yet, Frank crunched the numbers, found reasonable deals, and essentially argued, “Why NOT now?” So, we made it happen!
Day One:
We had mostly packed up our Kingman AirBnb the night before, so we finished that and cleaned as much as we could. After saying a wistful goodbye (we Really loved that house), we took the I-40 exit to Los Angeles and headed west. That was a somewhat long day of driving. Our sole purpose that day was simply to get to LA and have dinner somewhere.
We arrived and stayed at a comfortable hotel in the city of Orange. After some brief research, we settled on Orange Roll & Sushi for dinner. Thank God we did, as Frank still maintains he had the best roll of his life here! We both got the Orange roll, which has salmon, avocado, and cucumber inside (though Frank asked for no cucumber), and salmon and thinly sliced lemon on top. This roll was super refreshing, heavy on salmon (which we love), and the lemon added a little zing that was perfect. I think we both still daydream about this roll. Oh, and the sashimi was fresh and tasty too. The kids shared a teriyaki salmon bento box and edamame, which they enjoyed as well.
Day Two:
This day’s mission – experience The J. Paul Getty Museum and have dinner in Chinatown! As I mentioned in my last post, I most definitely took way too many pictures and need to make a separate post about the Getty alone, so that will be linked once that happens. In the meantime, a few highlights!
The Central Garden
Designed by Robert Irwin (no, not the Crocodile Hunter’s son, the California artist Robert Irwin), the Central Garden is 134,000 square feet and truly stunning. According to the Getty Center’s website, “A walkway crosses over a stream and winds through a variety of plants, gradually descending to a plaza, where bougainvillea climbs through umbrella tresses.” A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s what that actually looks like.
Impressionist Art
Now, Frank doesn’t actually care for Impressionists, and I admit I am a little picky within specific artists. Nevertheless, I found multiple examples of van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, and Manet that I thought were lovely. Here are a couple.
Illuminated Manuscripts
The exhibit was just really cool! All sorts of old, preserved books and manuscripts resided under small spotlights. The topics ranged from instructions for jousting, to calendar pages, to the legend of St. George and the Dragon. I enjoyed lingering here for some time.
Religious Art
There was an abundance of religious art throughout the museum, spanning multiple nationalities and time periods. I think these two were my favorites.
Believe it or not, I still have many, many other words and pictures to share about this, which I will save for that future post.
A Rash Mistake and Dashed Plans
After the Getty, we drove around for a while and got stuck in Dodger Stadium’s traffic. Victoria suddenly needed to use the bathroom, so she and I were dropped off at a Starbucks. Frank drove around the block and stopped around the corner with his emergency flashers on. After she was done, we were heading back to him when she tripped and fell. She hurt her hand in the process and needed some band aids. She also was having a hard time calming herself and couldn’t stop crying.
Naturally, we went off in search of band aids and tried to help her feel better. Even after we got band aids from a nearby CVS, we realized we were unlikely to be able to have a pleasant meal somewhere. I therefore searched for something, anything nearby, and we got food to-go. I don’t even remember the name of where our food was from, and we ate in our car. It was fine-ish, mediocre at best. I am sure Los Angeles has much better Chinese food to offer, so I look forward to trying that again someday.
Day Three:
This day, friends and family, was in all seriousness a near perfect day. We left the Los Angeles area and headed to Santa Monica. That was our start on Route One, and we also wanted to see the “End of Route 66 Sign” on the Santa Monica Pier. Parking was impossible, so Frank dropped me off to find it myself. After I found it and got my picture, we headed north!
D’Amore’s
After a relatively short period of time, we became hungry and were looking for somewhere to stop. We spotted the “World Famous D’Amore’s Pizza by the Slice” in Malibu and stopped in. Turns out, this place actually is kind of a big deal! The owner is Joe D’Amore, and his wife is former supermodel Cristiana Capetillo, who I met when she took my order. One of the walls is covered in pictures of celebrities posing with the owners, enjoying the pizza, or quotes about how much they love the pizza. Thus, we were really looking forward to taking our slices with us on the road!
I wouldn’t necessarily say this pizza was life-changing or the absolute most amazing pizza of our lives. Nevertheless, it was definitely really tasty and satisfying, and we were glad for the experience!
Santa Barbara
I had heard a thousand times over how beautiful the architecture and atmosphere of Santa Barbara is, so I requested there for our next pit stop. It genuinely is just as lovely as the pictures/videos/blogs/articles say! We stopped by the Santa Barbara Mission, but I hadn’t realized that it is essentially just a museum now and visits require a guided tour. Thus, we just enjoyed the grounds for a little, let the kids stretch their legs, and then we were off again!
San Simeon
Our stop for the night was San Simeon, CA. One day we will return for Hearst’s Castle, an item on the bucket list that promises to be a fascinating look into a former newspaper tycoon. Instead, I stumbled upon a thing that should be on any and all nature lover’s bucket lists, and is now on ours as well! In San Simeon, there is an Elephant Seal Vista Point where, during the right time of year, elephant seals gather on the beach for mating, sleeping, and gathering food from the Pacific. I just brushed up on what “right time of year” means and now I am a little baffled, as one website said between November and January is the peak time of year. We visited in late June, and saw this:
The kids were enthralled and did not want to leave, even though it was a little chilly. We stopped by around sunset, and were thrilled beyond measure that we did. After a quick dinner from a different local hotel, we got some sleep to prepare for the next day.
Day Four:
This day. Man oh man, this day. Day Four was all about Big Sur, and it was incredible. It was also beyond exhausting for all of us, and of course I have stories.
Back in January or February, parts of the PCH were washed into the ocean by rockslides. Most of it has been repaired by now, but back in June, a relatively significant section was still impassable north of San Simeon but south of Big Sur. Soooo, we had to backtrack a little, get on Route 101 in the interior part of California, and head north for hours before we could get back to Route 1 and head south again. Frank was naturally less than pleased at the idea, but he knew how badly I wanted to visit Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. He made it happen, but I made another slight (happy?) mistake.
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park
I knew that I was most eager to do the short, easy hike to McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. Yet, I wasn’t quite sure where it was, and we lost cell signal for a decent portion of time. Therefore, I encouraged Frank to pull over and park with a series of other cars that had done so, assuming that was the spot. We put Dominic on my back and Victoria hiked alongside Frank, and we hiked. And hiked. And hiked a little more. Also, this hike was downhill, and every image I had ever seen of McWay Falls was from a higher elevation. I became relatively sure we weren’t in the right spot, but I didn’t want to turn around until the end. Turns out, we were in the “wrong spot” in that yes, McWay Falls was still about five more miles south. However, we made it to the water, and it was really pretty! We all dreaded the hike back to the car though, and Victoria handled our “tough adventure” (her words, it was so cute) all on her own. I can’t make myself regret it!
McWay Falls
As we were already So Close, we continued driving until we found the signage for McWay Falls. I got out first and did the half mile jaunt to the overlook spot. It was gorgeous, but at the same time I was just a little underwhelmed. McWay Falls does spill out on the beach, but it’s rather small. After I came back to the car, Frank and Victoria went out to see it themselves. Frank agreed with my assessment. We are glad we saw it, but any future visits to Big Sur will probably focus on areas we didn’t get to see.
Bixby Creek Bridge
One last noteworthy pit stop would be the Bixby Creek Bridge. This is one of the most photographed stops along the Pacific Coast Highway, and I must admit, I understand why. There were two possible overlook areas, and we chose the interior one that had the Pacific behind the bridge.
Exhausted and hungry, we pressed onward to finally arrive at our next hotel in Oakland. Our next mission: 24 hours in San Francisco!
Day Five:
“I left my heart in San Francisco…”
And how! We started the morning with a train ride over into the city to visit Fisherman’s Wharf. Yes, we are indeed tourists and Fisherman’s Wharf is the epitome of a tourist trap. We’ve gotten it out of our system now and it’ll never happen again. We had disappointing coffee and a massive tooth- and stomach ache from a huge, overly sweet concoction from a Biscoff storefront. Then, we walked and walked until we arrived at something we knew Victoria would adore. As she is a major fan of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, we knew a ride on a Trolley was a must-do!
We rode just one stop, as we were also planning on walking down Lombard Street, “the crookedest street in the world.” Thankfully, there are easy steps alongside to keep pedestrians safe. It was beautiful and fun; we love finding the historic and noteworthy places in big cities!
I knew there were some beautiful churches I wanted to see, so we made a beeline for a few of those as well. The first one was locked, but we found someone who worked there who let us in, which we tremendously appreciated. The second one was already open for private prayer, so we got to see that one too.
Molinari’s Delicatessen
Before we went inside St. Francis of Assisi, we ate a quick lunch at a deli one of our good friends recommended. Located in San Francisco’s Little Italy neighborhood, Molinari’s absolutely blew us away! It felt like we stepped inside Italy for a little while. The sandwiches were enormous, fresh, and absolutely delicious. Frank and I shared one and the kids shared another. That is a meal we still look back on with great fondness.
Chinatown
That’s right, another Chinatown! After falling in love with Chicago’s, we made it a tradition that in any major city with a Chinatown, we have to try somewhere. Las Vegas was incredible, and extenuating circumstances made LA’s not the best time. I searched for soup dumplings because they are my favorite, and every article I read said that the best soup dumplings were not in Chinatown but southwest of the heart of downtown. I surrendered and researched places in Chinatown proper, as that is what we were judging. In the end, we stumbled into a place called House of Dim Sum and tried their pork pan-fried dumplings. Frank still maintains that those are his favorite dumplings of his entire life! I thought they were yummy, but I still prefer soup dumplings as a rule. Victoria loved the dumplings too, and Dominic just loves food in general.
By this point, it was still rather early, but we had walked so much all day! We were all very tired and ready to just have an early night, so we took a train and a bus back to our hotel and I did laundry. It was another amazing day!
Day Six:
Another big travel day! We drove from San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge and headed north along Route 1 again. I had wanted to walk the Bridge, but we had no time and it was a windy, chilly, and remarkably overcast day. C’est la vie, perhaps next time.
The sky cleared once we got out of the city, because that is just how it works apparently. We had to go a little inland again for a little while, and we passed so many vineyards! Which is of course not at all surprising, because we were essentially in wine country. It was lovely, but also a little redundant after a while.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate the incredible beauty of the PCH! At any given moment along the coast, one is privy to indescribable views of the Pacific, with the rocky terrain up against the clear, vivid blue water. Route 1 gets very twisty and narrow, and we had a lot of ground to cover to get to our next stop – Fort Bragg, CA.
Fort Bragg
After checking into our hotel, I went out to Sea Pal Cove, a restaurant near a small wharf. I mention this place by name to laud its remarkable food and customer service! The young woman behind the counter and I immediately struck up a lively conversation about all sorts of subjects while I waited for my food, and she advised on some of the best things to get on the menu. The clam chowder was huge, had soooo many clams, and was beloved by the whole family. Frank and the kids enjoyed his fish and chips too.
The purpose of our stop in Fort Bragg was to visit the “glass beach,” which I shared with the girl from Sea Pal Cove. Her immediate response was to somewhat smirk, roll her eyes, and say, “Good luck. Tourists take pieces all the time and there is hardly anything left.” I made my promise to not leave with any of it and went back to the hotel to do some serious research. After reading a large number of google reviews, I decided I would still give it a go. One review mentioned a specific path and area that still had a reasonable volume of sea glass.
Day Seven:
We headed out for the glass beach in search of the area with an abundance of sea glass. We took turns heading out, and I found it! It took a little bit of hiking, but I found it.
I enjoyed having a little private cove to myself for a little while. I put my toes in the water, rearranged a few of the pieces of sea glass, and then left them for future visitors. After returning to the car, Frank headed out in search of the spot. He came back and said he was pretty sure he found the path I was talking about, but his flip flops were not safe footwear to attempt the hike. He was glad I got to see it, but that was the end of it, and it was time to get back on the road.
Avenue of the Giants
Our next destination was Eureka, CA, but to get there, we passed through the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I still get chills just thinking about how it felt seeing those majestic trees for the first time. They tower so high, and there were clusters of groves to stop in as well.
With our first stop in The Garden Club of America Redwood Grove, we let the kids out of the car to stretch their legs. Dominic immediately began running around, no shoes and no cares in the world. Victoria found some “walking sticks” and had her own imaginary adventures. Watching them run all over the grove and admire the great redwoods, we felt extraordinary gratitude for the privilege of sharing that memory with them.
We made a few more stops and ended up driving the entire length of the Avenue. At least, as much as we possibly could. A fallen tree was blocking the road at one point, so we had to turn around and come back from another way. Nonetheless, we lingered as long as we could to soak up the exquisite peace and calm ambience. Luckily, we still had plenty more to see the following day!
Day Eight:
Redwoods National and State Parks
Though we had already done a gorgeous drive through the Avenue of the Giants, I still had another drive in mind for this day. The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park similarly showcased these magnificent redwoods in all their glory. The redwoods in this region tend to be more broad but not quite as tall as the Avenue of the Giants. We completed the drive rather quickly, and towards the very end, we pulled onto a small offshoot. We followed this smaller road for a stretch until we saw a row of other parked cars. As we had elected not to do any trails the previous day since we were trying to get to Eureka by a decent time, I knew I wanted to attempt a trail today. We had stumbled upon one, but we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.
Coastal Trail to Carruthers Cove
We saw a sign indicating that Carruthers Cove could be accessed by this trail and that it was only 0.8 miles in length. That seemed perfectly tolerable for us, but I kind of had a secret before we embarked on this trail. The park map I had in my lap mentioned that this stretch of the Coastal Trail was strenuous. Of course I couldn’t tell Frank that though, he would have said we would have to pick something else. I could also tell from the map that the Coastal Trail would take us to a beach, and I thought that sounded really cool.
The trail started off relatively simply. I had Dominic on my back and once again, Victoria was walking on her own. Slowly, the trail became more and more narrow, and there was a more noticeable elevation change. Things got a little dicey towards the end as the elevation shift became even more pronounced and we had to climb around and over various things. Finally, we made it to the beach!
We all stuck our toes in the water and we let the kids play for a while. This cove had almost no other people around, so it kind of felt like our own private beach! It was a black sand beach, where the sand was incredibly soft and fine. The rocks similarly almost seemed polished. Frank joked about potentially spending the night on the beach because he couldn’t fathom going back, it was TOO HARD. Eventually, I said we needed to get going because we needed to find lunch.
Making our way back and Lunch
We made it past the hardest part with greater ease than expected and started hiking again. Frank and Victoria needed frequent breaks, so I started off ahead as Dominic didn’t like me sitting still. We accomplished the rest of the hike much faster than expected because I always stayed just out of sight and out of reach. Victoria found a walking stick that Frank hyped a lot, and she kept moving “to catch up with Mommy!” It was super effective, and we finally found the car again. In the end, Victoria ended up hiking this strenuous trail, both ways, entirely by herself. She’s such a trooper! After a quick change of Dominic, we set off in search of lunch.
We ended up at Norris Family Kitchen in Crescent City. Their BBQ smash burger and buffalo and Japanese BBQ-flavored chicken wings were a fitting feast after our “tough adventure,” and I still look back on that meal with salivation and appreciation.
As we were SO CLOSE by this point, Frank continued driving north until we crossed the border into Oregon. We put our toes on the ground, I rolled my eyes at Frank for thinking this counted as a visit to Oregon, and we drove south again.
Tour Thru Tree
On our way back to the national park, we were passing by Klamath, CA. This town is significant because it contains one of the massive redwoods that has a section cut out large enough for a car to drive through. Frank had always wanted to try this (and I was fascinated at the concept but hope it never happens to any future trees), so we pit stopped there. After a five dollar good faith donation, we watched another car pass through the tree. Then, it was our turn.
We scraped our mirror at first, but then we readjusted and our SUV made it through! Following this, we headed back into the park and back on the Drury Scenic Parkway. I knew we had one more stop before our adventure concluded.
The Big Tree
Just past the entrance to the Parkway, we finally located the pull-off and small parking lot for The Big Tree. After a short walk, we found it! Let me tell you, this is indeed A BIG TREE.
The Big Tree is not necessarily the biggest tree in the Park, but it was definitely massive! A sign at the base and the park map share some interesting facts about it. It is estimated to be around 1500 years old, 286 ft tall (though it was over 300 at one point, but the top broke off in a storm), and 23.7 ft in diameter! This magnificent creature enthralled us for ages, until Frank acknowledged that we needed to be getting back to our hotel. It was a wonderfully exhausting day, and we had quite a few more of those on the horizon.
The Post-California Cross-Country Road Trip
Day 9:
Eureka, CA – Reno, NV
Day 10:
Reno, NV – Salt Lake City, UT
Day 11:
Salt Lake City, UT – Denver, CO
Day 12:
Denver, CO – Omaha, NB
Day 13:
Omaha, NB – Shorewood, IL
Day 14:
Shorewood, IL – NW Ohio
Only two noteworthy anecdotes from these loooooong days: we had a transmission issue, where white smoke was billowing out from our hood at one point! We had been going uphill in the mountains, a lot, and Frank had the engine’s rpms at 5000-6000 for far too long. Eventually, the engine couldn’t take it, and it started smoking on the side of a mountain. We had to pull over to give it time to cool down. After a massive amount of research and calling experts, Frank diagnosed the problem as a plug on our transmission had partially come out. The transmission fluid had gotten so hot during the excessive rpms that it popped the plug out. It had allowed transmission fluid to overflow and spill on the engine causing the smoke. After Frank was finally able to get the plug put back in, we had no more car-related incidents!
Second anecdote: the Best poke bowls of our lives so far came from Poke Bros in Shorewood, IL. That’s it, that’s the anecdote.
These pictures really take me back there; writing this has been a really fun journey of reliving one of our most epic adventures yet. I know this was even longer than the last post, so thank you so much for sticking with us until the end! We have some family time planned for a little while, followed by yet another whirlwind month full of cheesesteaks and big apples. Stay tuned!
