beach – Simply Out and About

While visiting Marina, CA we decided to drive down the Pacific Coast through the Big Sur. I wasn’t sure if the scenery would live up to the hype, but boy were we surprised!

Not what you were expecting …right? Well, we drove through a wooded area and then got to a little neighborhood with great, big houses! We found our first little place to pull off and that’s when things got magical……See that road on the left….it’s actually someone’s driveway. You can’t see them but this family also has stairs that lead down into the water. I don’t know if I would get in that water but maybe they have a boat?

While we were staring at the water several really cute cars pulled in and I felt like there would possibly be a movie in the making….Not sure what kind of movie…maybe a romantic comedy. This is how dreamy I was feeling.

Anyways, we get back in the truck and continue down the road…..Once again back into the woods and then this happens……

I can’t even imagine that the sun shining would have made this better. Once again we get out and Mike finds a trail to the edge of the cliff. So down he goes….not into the water but down the trail.I love how small you can feel next to the sea. These are some of the photos Mike captured on the edge…Looking straight down…To his left….and to the right.

At this point we were trying to figure out how to live here..in the truck…on the coast:)

But we decided to continue on down the road and see if there was a better spot…..Haha.

It looks like you will be back in the hills when all of a sudden this happens…..
See the cow? That is the luckiest cow ever. I was surprised to see cows living on the coast.

Beyond the cow is a bridge……We pull in for a quick photo. This is the famous Bixby Bridge.

(side note…we did a lot of staring at the water)
This is the view that memorized Mike.
Gorgeous!

The Bixby Bridge was named after Charles Henry Bixby. Residents would have to travel 11 miles out of the way during the winter to cross the creek and when you are traveling by horse and buggy that could mean an extra few days. So a bridge was built.
We have seen a lot of “old” building and structures on this trip but it still is amazing to me that man was able to build such amazing things with no heavy equipment or iPhones.
This bridge is in a lot movies and commercials. Oh look, there he goes again. This time I decide to follow him because I had the camera. Once down there it smelled like a dirty bathroom so I quickly came back up. Gross.

I know that it looks like we have been on this road all by ourselves but I assure you there were lots of other people stopping and taking pictures. There is always plenty of parking along parts of the road.

Look how happy he is to climb and explore….I am happy to not have lost him into the sea. Once he made his way back up we decided we need to get to our next destination.Winding our way up the mountain…..But not without another stop to take another picture of the bridge.

There are several places to see in the Big Sur…. We didn’t have a definite plan on where we wanted to go so we just drove….

That’s when we came to this little place on the side of the road…This was the only place we saw that had gas but we stopped mainly to pick up a souvenir. Here is the general store that made homemade burritos in the back and sold granola in the front. Camping is a big deal here. Well not like our camping but lots of tents and cabins to stay in.

There was a restaurant and a small hotel that hosted weddings and while we were there a bride and groom where getting there ideas together…..

This is one of the more cozier spots…..There were some very artsy shops as well…..this place had a real hippie vibe.

We got our Christmas ornament and kept on down the road.That’s when we happened upon this State Park….

When we pulled into this wooded area we were met with……these two cuties….this is the only wildlife we saw on our entire trip! Pretty exciting!

We made our way around to the LodgeWhich is a hotel with a restaurant. It’s a little nicer than the last place we left but it didn’t have that beautiful creek in the back. The Big Sur Lodge has these….Finally!!! This is one thing I wanted to see……I know these aren’t the biggest trees in California but still amazing!

The bark is so different…..After looking at the trees I wanted to go see Pfeiffer Beach. I thought it was here at the state park but after driving to the guard house,(and almost paying 20 dollars to get in) the ranger told us we needed to get back on Hwy 1 drive another few miles down the road.

Now if you ever get to drive through Big Sur just know this, there is no sign on the street for the beach. I almost passed it but my trusty co-pilot found it just in time.

This was the sign we saw. Well no biggie..we didn’t bring either of these…right???

We turn the sharp turn and see this….At least we know we are on the right track…..

Remember that narrow road sign? They weren’t kidding!

This was just wide enough for our big truck.

Mike was a nervous wreck…..and I was glad to be driving.Now remember from the sign, we have 2 miles.

It would have been nice to not have passed anybody but that’s not fun!

There were several times I would have to stop and back up to one of the side pulloffs to let someone go around.

Hehe…..It was kind of scary but we finally made it.You pay 10 dollars at the gate and then park.

There was probably about 20 parking spots and we came on a good day.

We walked down the path to the beachI was very excited because we have seen a lot of beaches here and they have all been so different….this one did not disappoint.I love that we have the white sandy beaches here and the beauty of mountains flowing into the sea out west. Thank you God for such a creative landscape!

There were some waves coming in but nothing to big. Here he is….beach ready…on a cold day.

One of the views to see here is the rock formation with the water flowing in and out. When the sun is out and setting, it will shine through the hole.

I encourage you to google a picture of it.

Please enjoy these pictures of the water flowing through the arch.

You can see the power of the water coming and going. I wouldn’t want to be in there! After a little more walking around and photo taking, we decide to go….we are hungry!

Love being with these two on this adventure!

Our trip down the narrow road was just as fun as going in This time I had some help from these folks. Now I knew when another car was coming. Mike still didn’t like it…Haha.

Further on down the road is the Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park and then the Hearst Castle. I hate we missed them but when boys get hungry, they need to be fed.

We head back to Monterey and stopped at Hula’s for a delicious Ahi Tuna Sandwich…..This time we got to sit in a Tiki hut!I would say this was one of my most favorite parts of our road trip. To be able to see the creations that God has given us and see them with my husband and son….I will never be able to thank God enough!

Next up…a little golf outing on the beach.

The time had come to say goodbye to Anaheim, CA. We were really going to miss the weather and the fireworks but we were pretty excited about seeing more of the California coast. Originally, I had planned to go from Anaheim to Monterry but that was a really long drive so I started to look at a half way point and found Solvang.

Solvang, which means sunny field, is just a bit northwest from Santa Barbara and was settled by the Dutch back in 1911. The city is full of bakeries, restaurants and wineries. Of course after reading about this small Danish town I knew we had to go. My first choice in campgrounds was full so I called Ocean Mesa at El Capitan State Park and they had us a spot. You couldn’t beat the location of this campground. We got registered and found our spot.We like to call this “between the hedges”. It was tight but the views were pretty amazing.See the ocean? I just turned around from the camp site and this was our view. Now, when we get to a campground we like to wonder around and check out the park.This was the pool area and you can see there are more sites below us.

We were told that we could walk to the State Beach and see creatures in the tide pools. Neat, but first Max has to go check out his area.Once we got to the dog area, Max was taunted by prairie dogs. It was the funniest thing to see them pop up out of their holes and squeak at him. He really was confused!Here he is sniffing out a hole. Those little boogers were so quick I couldn’t get a picture of them, but I can promise Max won’t forget them!

We got Max settled back in the camper and headed down to the beach. We walked about 1/2 mile through a couple of trails and finally came to the beach.We saw the rocks on the beach and headed over to them to find some creatures.First one on the rocks is…….Haha…..Mike loves to climb and explore. Micheal and I were a bit more cautious about stepping on the rocks but we made it out there too. We looked all around and the only thing we saw was this.It probably isn’t anything but it looked squishy. This was a really pretty beach.It was very different than the Gulf Coast but still had it’s own beauty. Once we were done, we made the hike back up to the campground and just spent a relaxing evening looking at the stars. I didn’t get a good picture but this was the most beautiful nighttime sky! It was almost as if we were sitting in an Imax theater full of stars. It was absolutely amazing!

The next morning we get up and head to Solvang. I found a place that served Swedish pancakes and I couldn’t wait to try them. The drive to the city was gorgeous!We had the ocean to our left and the mountains in front of us.

We got to Solvang in about 30 mins and went straight for breakfast. Micheal has to have breakfast every morning…..even if its lunch before he gets up.

Welcome to Paula’s Pancake house. We waited about 20 minutes and got a seat inside. It kind of reminded us of a grandmother’s house with its pink flowered wall paper and mismatched chairs. The pancake, however, was amazing.It is a little bit thicker than a crepe and was so sweet I didn’t even eat my syrup with it. Plus I hate when the powdered sugar gets washed away! I don’t know what the guys got, I was to busy eating my breakfast and yes I ate the whole thing!

After we finished eating we began to wonder around town.Just like I read, this place is full of wineries, bakeries, and some restaurants. The wineries were little shop fronts that offered tastings and some even had club memberships. We did go into one for a tasting but it wasn’t that good and I didn’t even get a picture of it.

Now we did get our souvenir ornament from this gorgeous Christmas Shoppe.Then we walked down to the town square where the Hans Christian Anderson museum was.The museum was free and on the second story of a coffee shop. It really wasn’t a museum, it was more like a room with some pictures and a few facts.Micheal was not impressed….At least it was free.

Down the street was a replica of the Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen.And of course no Dutch town would be complete without…….a windmill. This was really a fun town to explore and if I hadn’t eaten that big pancake I would have had some sweet treats to share with you.

After a few hours we decide to head back home. I was hoping to stop in at a couple of vineyards on the way out but sadly everything closed early that day. Oh well, I guess it gives me a reason to go back. We really took our time going back to the campground. This was the street that took us into Solvang. It was lined with grapevines on either side. I guess I was really enjoying the view because I didn’t get any pictures of the wineries or the vineyards.

Then once we were back on Hwy 1 we got the ocean view again. I saw a few cars parked on the side of the road, so we stopped (mostly because I am nosey) and we saw a trail that took you to the water.This is looking toward where we parked. We had to cross over train tracks and then down this path. Sometimes Micheal needs a little push to do new things and that’s why we were taking so long to catch up to Mike. We eventually made it to the edge of the cliff.You could never get tired of a view like that!

Mike found a trail that took you down to the water, so naturally he went.Once he got down, he realized there wasn’t much beach.Here I am making sure I don’t have to call 911 for Mike. This was looking to the right. It almost doesn’t seem like the same coastline, but it is.I would have liked to stay until sundown, but the boys got hungry.I did get Micheal to do something daring. Well for him anyways.