Last weekend I went to California to visit my boyfriend. We decided to make the best of our weekend in Cali by going on a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway- OC to Monterey. We left early in the morning at 8 am and started up route 101/1. Slowly palm trees turned into green hills which in turn became pine trees. We stopped by the elephant seal vista point in San Simeon to watch a hoard of lazy chubby sea lions and elephant seals basking in the sun. It was a pretty surreal experience seeing animals in their natural habitat and not in a zoo. We watched the elephant seals struggle to move more than two steps forward without tiring for 40 minutes or so and moved onward and up. We hit Big Sur when sunset came around and drove through the mountains on the way up to Monterey. We passed through towns with populations of smaller than my high school graduating class. Finally we made it into Morgan Hill, where we stayed overnight
The next morning we stopped by Gilroy, a town famous for its garlic festival, and picked up a few garlic-y treats. YUM! We drove along 17 mile drive for an hour or so and took some fabulous pictures of the churning and turbulent waves. We met up with my boyfriend’s friends in Monterey afterwards. We visited the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium and stared in awe at the gigantic fish tanks. I have never been to an aquarium with tanks as large as the one s in Monterey. Also MBA is famous for utilizing ocean water in their tanks from right outside. They cycle water from the bay into the aquarium, without changing temperature or filtering the water. It was pretty crowded because it was a long weekend, but it was worth the trouble.
That night we went back to LA and hiked up to Griffith Observatory. From this point you can see the LA skyline and the Hollywood sign. It’s a great place to spot celebrities. I actually ran into Kristen Bell near the bathroom. I was too chicken to say hello- so I just gave her a nod. Lot of trails to walk along seems like a fun place to jog. Hopefully I can go back one day and visit the observatory as well, since it was closed the day I went.
