"We are cool girls. We do fun things!" - Part 1

Recall that I said I would be reliving two past road trip adventures.

Yes, I know that this particular adventure with Davys occurred 3 months ago.

But we all know that I am terrible at remembering the little details of things, and this was an insanely fun and hilarious trip with many adventures, so I would like to document it here for my sake and for your amusement.

Davys came up with the idea that we should both go up to Seattle, WA to visit our friend from college, Stafa, who is doing his medical residency there.

I came up with the idea that we should rent a car and make a camping road trip of it.

The result:  an amazing trip :)

I think Davys summed it up the best when (during a particularly cool part of our trip) she stated that "We are cool girls.  We do fun things!"

Truth.

Three states.  SLO to Seattle.  One car.  One tent.  Two showers.  2,449 miles driven.  In 7 days.

The trip started out in our little rental car, Jenny, with 782 miles on the odometer and a "can-do" adventure attitude!  BRING ON THE FUN!!!!

We drove up the historic Highway 1 along the CA coastline, stopping in Cayucos CA for some brown butter sea salt cookies.  Then northward to Cambria, CA to find the zebras and the elephant seals (but not together)!!

We eased our way through the Big Sur area, stopping for lunch (yay for juice boxes!) at McWay Falls.

For dinner we headed to Monterey, CA and had quite a lovely walk and clam chowder sourdough bread bowl date.

Our goal was to find a new place to camp every night.  We had a tentative (VERY tentative) plan of action, and we flew by the seat of our britches most of the time.  We were hoping to just find a decent state park to crash in for the first night, and we ended up at a WONDERFUL place:  Henry Coe State Park.

This place was amazing!  Beautiful drive high up into the mountains, with time for a lovely sunset hike.  And it was beautiful watching the fog roll in in the morning.  I had to pee circa 3 am and can not put into words how breath-takingly beautiful the sky was that night.  I have never seen so many stars, or the milky way, so clearly.  

Day 2:  Operation San Francisco, CA.  We met up with Davys' D.C. friends who were randomly in San Fran on vacation for some awesome coffee.  We, of course, had to make a famous Dynamo Donut run, before heading to Petalouma, CA for some fabulous beer at Lagunitas Brewery. 

And when I say beer, I mean the whole enchilada of 20 samples.  

We continued northward on the coast following 1 to a place that Davys picked out for us to eat in Samoa, CA.  The old Samoa cookhouse used to be a dining house for loggers back in the day.  It still functions that way, with a one-price-one-menu-freaking-huge-portions-of-food style menu.  Needless to say we were not hungry.

That night we camped at a little random redneck filled ATV-riding-in-the-dunes island.

We did a little exploring, made a little driftwood fire, and got serenaded to sleep by a homeless guy and his guitar (which was much preferred to the wine-drinking-super-excited astronomers at Henry Coe State Park the night before).

 And those are the first two days of adventures, folks!  Stay tuned for more blasts from the past ;)

AP