Highway to... :)

Definitely not hell! 

More like highway to Californian bliss.. 

Fun fact: The Highway To Hell is in Australia! Who knew AC/DC is Australian? Besides Australians? Not me!

More fun facts: The Pacific Coast Highway aka Highway 1 (or "The One" as us, ahem, locals call it) continuously pops up in "Things to do before you die" lists everywhere. In fact, BIKE the Pacific Coast Highway is a specific Must Do on bucket lists. And voila, this I have now done! I need to start slowing down on shrinking my bucket list.. I'm only 22 for Pete's sake, I can't be doing this many cool things already.. 

My uncle Dave and I met up at 10 in Paso Robles and hopped on his super fancy Honda Goldwing motorcycle.. 

He had it equipped with mics for us to chit chat the whole way and a cup holder for my beverage! It's like motorcycle first class.

Amazing drive all the way up the coast of California..ah what a DRAG. My life TOTALLY SUCKS. I am sure that I could have thought of WAY BETTER ways to spend my last week in California..

As much as I travel, I forget that we have such cool things right in front of our doorstep.. Speaking of that, Alston & I saw that in Sydney somewhere.. Lesson learned. I don't have to travel to Sydney to see cool things.. but I will anyway!

The best part of the road trip is I could stop WHEREVER I WANTED to take pictures!

                                                

I always wonder where I would go if I were a tourist here on the central coast, and I would definitely want to go see these elephant seals that are always on the shore somewhere up by Hearst Castle. I'm pretty sure they are here all year round.

They're HUMUNGOUS, and sometimes I panic that I am going to hurl myself over the ledge and try to play with them but get eaten by one of them. And then I remember I'm not dumb or impulsive or athletic enough to hurl myself over a ledge anyway.

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

  I love California. And I can't believe I am going to be doing this exact thing (kind of?) IN EUROPE. Like this trip is in California, a place I've lived since I was 8, and I'm still amazed by its beauty. Europe will be possibly even more beautiful AND novel. Sometimes I feel like life just doesn't ever stop getting better.

The day was pretty overcast, but I noted several times that is much better than sweating on the road. The clouds hung heavy the higher we climbed, but didn't make the scene any less majestic. How blue is that water?!

We had lunch in a ritzy town named Carmel, just north of Big Sur and just south of Monterey. Clint Eastwood used to be their mayor! Should've stayed there and stalked him. Because he's going to die pretty soon so better get that celeb sighting in while I can.. Ate at the Rio Grill, which was delicioso.. and also had a PB&J on the menu for TWELVE dollars. Half of me wants to live there if everyone who lives there can afford that, and half of me wants to never go back if everyone who lives there can afford that.

Dave is a wealth of knowledge about all things history, so I learned some fun facts today about California. For example, tuna wasn't known as an edible fish until the late 1800s. A cannery in San Pedro Bay (down by LA) decided to start randomly canning tuna instead of the dwindling sardines, basically out of necessity for filling the empty cans. Why I was so interested tuna history I couldn't tell you, but cool to know that it originated in California. Maybe because tuna is the only fish I actually like.. canned, with mayonnaise, shredded pickles, and cheese. Nummyyy.

Another fun fact: John Steinbeck is from Monterey. I'm not going to lie, the only reason I know who he is is because his face pops up on my Kindle when my Kindle is "sleeping", and he Totally Looks Like Paul Walker.. and Paul Walker is beautiful. So, sorry Mr. Steinbeck, I'm sure your novels were great, but you will have to just face it, you probably made it because of your looks :p

We headed back right around sunset and had a delicious dinner at Margie's Cafe in Paso- I love eating there because my Grandma Dusty's name was Marjory.. Marjory, Margie, close enough.

The sunset was beautiful and made me appreciate being a photographer and an American and a God lover. 

What a great freaking day.