Thanksgiving Road Trip

Having only recently started this blog I have quite a few travel experiences which I need to write up. However this one is fresh in my mind as I only got back a few days ago so I thought I'd start out with it.

Stunning coastline to be seen from the Hwy 1

My husband's aunt lives down in Orange County, CA and she invited us to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family. I had never met any of her children or grandchildren before and we had no prior arrangements (not being used to celebrating Thanksgiving) so it seemed like a perfect opportunity. That is, until we looked into flights. Not being good at organisation or planning ahead, by the time we looked the flights were at an absolute high of $250 each from SFO to LAX.

Bixsby Bridge

So we decided to drive instead. It's only about 8 hours drive down the main freeway but we were warned to expect a lot of traffic around Thanksgiving weekend. This, combined with the fact that I am the only licensed driver, led us to consider alternatives. We decided to take the coast road (Highway 1) to avoid the traffic and make the journey more enjoyable. This did extend our journey time and I didn't fancy driving for more than 4 hours at a time so we took 2 days there and 2 days back again and made a holiday out of it.

Waterfall in Pfeiffer State Park

After sleeping in, packing, picking up the car and dropping off the cat we left San Francisco around 2pm, headed for Big Sur, stopping frequently to take pictures of the stunning coastline. Unfortunately this time of year it gets dark around 5:30pm so it was dark by the time we arrived and also freezing cold.

We stayed in a lovely log cabin at the River Inn, surrounded by trees. We got a great deal that included the night's lodging plus dinner and breakfast in their restaurant. The setting was beautiful and the restaurant was delicious and I would definitely want to go back there in the summer!



We woke up early (for us!) had a leisurely breakfast then went to check out the Pfeiffer State Park not far from where we stayed. We didn't have long so we chose one of the shorter trails (1hr) which took us through the woods and into the hills to a waterfall.

Having had a large breakfast and a snack whilst hiking we decided not to stop for lunch but we did stop many more times for photographs and came across quite a few places we resolved to go back to when we had more time. Late afternoon we pulled over at Piedras Blancas to see the elephant seals conserving energy on the beach.

Elephant Seals

We passed Morro bay just as the sun was setting behind the rock - a stunning sight - but sadly couldn't get any good pictures from the car. The remainder of the journey was spent in the darkness and we finally arrived in Santa Barbara in time for dinner.

I quite like this picture of Santa Barbara
even though it's out of focus

Not particularly interested in anything more than a warm, clean bed for the night we stayed in the Agave Inn in Santa Barbara. It was super cheap and actually very nice. By the time we got a taxi downtown for dinner we were very hungry so we only took a quick walk down a few blocks of State St before choosing State and A to eat. Our quick choice paid off as the food was yummy and there was lots of it, we couldn't resist 3 courses.

In the morning we got up early and drove down to the coast in Santa Barbara for a very quick stroll before setting off for Orange. We encountered our first patch of traffic on the 5 through LA but it didn't cut our speed too much and we made good time, arriving before lunch time. The sun that far south was still warm and we spent most of the afternoon enjoying drinks and cheese in the garden. The thanksgiving dinner was delicious and I was relieved to find that I liked all of it, even the more American style dishes that don't feature in traditional British roast dinners. It was really nice for me to finally meet some more of my husband's family, especially since they were all so lovely and chatty, and the while day passed really quickly.

The rock in Morro Bay

We stayed overnight there and took our time leaving in the morning, stopping to chat for a few more hours before getting brunch in Norm's just down the street. Back on the road we decided we wanted to go back to Morro bay for another look at the rock. We arrived after dark so we stayed overnight there in Pacific Shores Inn which even had a log fire, view of the rock and a spa! Tognazzini's Dockside Restaurant was highly recommended so we went there for a delicious seafood dinner. My husband tried oysters for the first time (and loved them) while I tried the swordfish. Too full for dessert we got a chocolate cake packaged to go and ate it later on in front of the fire.

Boats at Morro Bay

Sadly when we woke up the weather had turned cloudy but we still took a few pictures in Morro bay before setting off on our final day of travelling.

The coast road in the (clearing) fog

The cloud quickly turned to torrential rain, which was fun on the winding cliff road! Lots of mini rockslides made our journey all the more entertaining but when the sun finally started to poke through the dramatic scenes were worth it.

Wild turkey in Big Sur

We made our way to Carmel, where we planned to get lunch, stopping off at Big Sur for some more pictures and to collect a phone charger we had left behind!

Sea Otter

Carmel was very pretty, even in the rain and we got a very tasty lunch at a recommended sandwich shop - Carmel Belle. However, we were on the hunt for sea otters so we didn't stop at Carmel long but headed up the road to Monterey. Thanks to google on the iphone it wasn't long before we saw one. A quick drive even further up the coast and we found loads of them, looking like they were settling into a colony for the night. As we watched the sun was setting and the rain started up again so eventually we left, abandoning the coast road for a speedier route back to San Francisco

Dramatic skies as the rain cleared in Monterey