Summer Roadtrip 2009: Montana de Oro, PCH, Palo Alto, and San Francisco

On Monday, we left Los Angeles and headed north toward Monterey and San Luis Obispo. We were getting pretty tired of being on the road, especially after our day of traffic from Vegas to LA, so we found a gorgeous campground at Montana de Oro State Park. The place was magnificent. Our pictures don't really do it justice. We were surrounded by the Pacific, bluffs, and lots of wildlife. In our fifteen or so hours there, we saw a rattlesnake facing off with a family of squirrels, rabbits, seagulls, and California quail EVERYWHERE, and we had our own standoff with a very tenacious raccoon who found our dinner garbage quite interesting. We had a nice drink along the bluffs and when we got back to camp, Allen cooked a wonderful dinner on our camp stove and built a great fire. We slept soundly until nine the next morning.

After we left Montana de Oro, we headed into San Luis Obispo for breakfast and ate at a place called Big Sky Cafe, with big skylights and plants everywhere. The breakfast was fantastic and cheap. Highly recommended. Then we started the long, windy trek up Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway. After only half an hour or so, we saw a sign for an "Elephant Seal Viewing Area," not far from San Simeon and the Hearst Castle. The seals were incredible. Many of them were fighting in the surf, but more were sunning themselves and sleeping all over the beach. There were hundreds. There's a video of a couple of them fighting at the end of the post. The sound isn't great, but you can hear the low rattling sound they make if you listen closely. They were also losing their fur, so lots of them looked like they had tree bark peeling off of them. It was an incredible unexpected stop.

All of Highway 1 is amazing. The views are breathtaking all the way up the highway. We stopped a couple of times to take shots, but most of the time we just looked out the windows muttering under our breath about how unbelievable it was. Who puts a highway on the edge of the world?

We continued on PCH until we reached Mountain View, where our friend Mike works at Google. He gave us an awesome tour of the campus. Our minds were definitely blown. Everything about working at Google seems to be about happy, productive employees and creativity. We loved it. (Google, if you are monitoring this blog, we just want you to know we love you. And your T-Rex sculpture and indoor yurts and colorful buildings with food and lap pools and volleyball and happy people everywhere.) And thanks to Mike for a great tour.

After meeting up with Mike, the three of us snagged another friend from Emory, Beth, and headed over to see our friend Julie in Palo Alto (unfortunately Nir was out of town, so we missed him). She hosted a fun dinner and we got to catch up over great food, as well as getting to meet her adorable daughter. After dinner and dessert, we headed home with Mike.

Mike's place is AWESOME and his generosity in letting us crash has let us have an amazing day in SF. We have had a blast walking around and taking in the city. The city has beautiful architecture, parks, museums, theatres, and weather. We walked some of the biggest hills we could imagine, walked the Embarcadero, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Golden Gate Park, and a good bit of downtown/SoMa. Needless to say, we're exhausted and enjoying a good bottle of wine and some delicious cheese. Tomorrow we'll head to Tahoe. You know, to relax.

Here's a shot of us with Alcatraz in the distant background: