California Road Trip Day 6 Part 2 - Pacific Coast Highway and Beaches

        

This is turning into the blog series that never ends!  First, I had a two week gap between post, because I wasn’t feeling well.  Now, I’ve gone a few days without posting, because my laptop decided to die over the weekend.  All is well now, and I can continue to share more about our trip.  Hopefully (fingers crossed) I’ll have this series finished soon. 

To read more about the planning of our California Road trip go here. To read about previous stops on our trip, click on the following links:

Day 1(San Diego)

Day 2 (LA)

Day 3 Part 1 (LA)

Day 3 Part 2 (Yosemite)

Day 4 (Yosemite)

Day 5 (Napa)

Day 6 Part 1 (Napa Hot Air Baloon Ride)

California Road Trip Day Six Itinerary

In preparation for day six, I had the following in a folder: an itinerary for the day, printed driving directions, and  copies of reservations for our glampsite.

4:00 a.m. - wake up and get ready

5:00  a.m. - meet Balloons Above the Valley for a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley

8:00. a.m. - breakfast with the hot air balloon company

9:30 a.m. - breakfast at Old World Inn
11:00 a.m. - checkout of inn and leave Napa

1:00 p.m. - travel Pacific Coast Highway beaches 

4:oo p.m - stop for early dinner in Santa Cruz

5:00 p.m. - check into our glampsite at Costanoa Lodge in Pascadero, enjoy the grounds, make s'mores, watch fireworks on the beach and get a good night's sleep:)

         After our early morning hot air balloon ride, we ate breakfast, checked out of our inn and said good bye to Napa.  From there we traveled southwest, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and spent the afternoon traveling the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.  We stopped at several state beaches along the way and enjoyed the coastal beauty that was literally only a few steps away from the well-known highway. 

            As we traveled the down the coast, it was neat to see families and friends gathered on the beaches, bundled up in blankets and sweatshirts next to the warmth of their bonfires on the sand.  It was the Fourth of July, so there were probably lots of people celebrating on the beaches the same way that we have cookouts in our backyards here in the Midwest or picnics in our local parks.  I have to say, that I definitely like the way they celebrate better than the way we do here in the Midwest.  Oh to have the views of the CA coast every Fourth of July!

         When I look back on this part of the trip, it  was my third favorite part.  Yosemite was definitely my favorite, and La Jolla ranks second on my list, only because it was much warmer than the CA Hwy 1 beaches.  Yes, the coast of northern Cali was beautiful, but it was also much colder than I was expecting!  There’s no way I’d get in the water….it was freezing, not to mention the massive waves looked deadly as they crashed upon the rocky shores and cliffs of the west coast…ahhh, but still, it was gorgeous, and I’d definitely like to walk those beaches again some day:)

         Once we got Santa Cruz, we didn’t anticipate the enormous crowds gathered in the town to celebrate the Fourth.  We barely found a parking spot, and the one we did find was one of the very last ones on the pier.  We only planned to go to Santa Cruz for dinner, and considering the amount of people, we picked one of the closest restaurant we could find to our car.  Stagnaro Bros. Restaurant was really good!  I didn’t plan this restaurant, so I think we just got lucky with it.   Just like the menu says, the food is caught fresh off of the pier each day.  Matt ordered classic battered fish and coleslaw, and I ordered an open face crab grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of clam chowder on the side.  The food was fresh and reasonably priced.   After an early dinner, we drove back towards San Francisco, and stopped for the night in Pascasero.  It was there that we would experience glamping….if you don’t know what glamping is, I’ll just have to tell ya all about it in my next post;)

            

A few pics of our day…..