The last weekend of my show, inspired by the lovely Amanda, my husband and I decided to go on a road trip. Five days later we packed up the car and drove north. We had a basic itinerary (nothing firm, just a good grasp on major sites), a bag full of travel guides from the library, and a road atlas my dad got us not too long ago.
Our general plan?
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About 775 miles from point A to point B, we managed to rack up about 2200 miles, a new brake light, 4 bottles of wine, and 5 artichokes. No GPS, no reservations (except a heads up email to my aunt in San Jose).
I’ll break up the trip into smaller posts eventually (hey, 30 posts in a month should motivate me), but there’s a lot of ground to cover. Mostly because we covered so much ground.
My husband had been a few of these places, namely near Monterey and Sonoma, but I had never been north of Santa Monica in California. In my defense, I’ve been to Japan and Europe four times a piece, I just never made it to the western United States. I’m working on it!
Both of us agreed that the trip made us feel more at home in the state. Now the cities aren’t just dots on a map, but places we have been. There is a big difference knowing and seeing that the Redwood and Sequoia Forests are amazing sights to behold or that a significant percentage of all strawberries are grown in the central valley. It really helped us appreciate what a large and diverse state this is.
For example, let’s compare:
So long, SoCal! Sunshine, palm trees, and plenty of topography behind us.
Ahh, central California. The nation’s fruit stand. Home of produce farms, vineyards, and angry signs about water rights.
Northern California, what’s this? Weather? Trees! I remember this stuff!
To be fair, all these photos were taken on different days, and it was raining in most of California while we were in the Redwood Forest, but that undermines the dramatic contrast a bit, doesn’t it?
Oceans, lakes, mountains, valleys, forests, farms, cities and cliffs — we saw it. Each place we went, I wanted to stay longer, and each place we went was my new favorite place on the trip. Honestly, I would highly recommend pretty much every place we went.
Especially here.
It’s a long story that I will get to eventually, but not tonight. Stay tuned for more road trip action!
Have you ever been to California? What’s your favorite destination?
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While I enjoyed walking the beach a whole lot, my favorite destination in CA (so far) was your kitchen.
xoxo