The big Big Sur Trip
We had a lot of fun traveling up to the coastal redwoods of Big Sur along that winding, and often closed, historic Highway 1 of California. It took many hours to get there, and many more hours to return. I had a great time, but it was also mighty nice to return home. That's the true reason for going on vacation: to make you yearn for your home sweet home.
We took two days to get up to Big Sur, leaving on Saturday morning from San Diego and making a stop at Volks USA and having lunch at the Curry House before driving onto the 101 to Santa Maria, where we stayed at a nice hotel, complete with pool and a free breakfast.
Sunday had us driving up the 1 and stopping for single-lane construction zones and photos of elephant seals. By late afternoon we reached our destination: Fernwood Resort campground. It's a private campground/ hotel/ tavern/ restaurant/ mini-mart. Luckily, the campground is down a rather steep road to a wooded area bisected by the Big Sur river, and is completely hidden from the road, and thereby, the noise thereof. It turned out to be a very quiet campground... I never heard any of my neighbors' conversations or debauchery. It was quite amazing, actually. Almost every campground I've ever been in had at least one noisy neighbor who laughed and giggled and carried on loudly into the midnight. But not here. Most of our neighbors were in large RVs, but some had but a lowly tent.
The camping spots were pretty close together, but were also right on the river, which kept up a continuous babble. We had two spots together and a third a couple of spaces away. We sort of half-circled the wagons to create our own space facing the river and with the kitchen at the center of the hub. Dinners and breakfasts were cooked at the campground, while lunches were mostly sandwiches/pita/wraps cobbled together while out enjoying the wilderness.
The nights were cool, almost cold, but certainly not freezing. The days were nice, almost hot, but cool down next to the beach. Our campsite was about a mile from the coast measured by a high powered laser that could cut through the hills, and so we had our usual foggy mornings followed by a burn-off to a wonderful blue sky.
We visited several waterfalls and coastal coves full of caves, as well as the tavern up by the road, and a nice gallery down a fer piece. We also hiked to Big Sur State Park, and enjoyed a very leisurely, almost too leisurely, lunch at the Big Sur lodge after one of the aforementioned waterfall hikes.
The drive back had us going north to go east and then south, so as to avoid returning the same way we'd come. We meandered up the 1 to Caramel, then east to the 101, then down and over, zig-zag style, to the 5 at world famous Coalinga, California. There we stayed at the Best Western, and in the hundred degree heat retired to pool and A/C cranked room.
Several of us had fallen sick to the ills of a cold the last days of the trip, and Autumn got hit with it on that last night, necessitating a drive to a drug store some 16 miles distant for child medication.
The next morning we drove home, crossing the great land of Los Angeles at a slow crawl. It took many hours to negotiate those freeways and didn't get home until after dark. But we were home, home at last!