Travel Diary: Road Trip Along the California Coast
A weekend off, what to do? Without a doubt, a road trip was the only thing on my mind. A few weeks ago, during Easter weekend I went to Caramel by the Sea with my boyfriend and had the best time! I honestly had forgotten what having a weekend off felt like. I am so grateful for that weekend for many reasons.
Sometimes we get lost in our job, we get caught up with all the things on our to do list, that we stop giving priority to the most important things, with out even realizing it. This weekend helped me realize many things but specially that I have gotten so busy that I didn’t remember how important it was for me to get a weekend off every once in a while, but from now on I will be requesting a weekend off more often.
In this trip I reconnected with my self, my wants, needs and desires. I enjoyed every single minute of my road trip and I enjoyed every second spent with my boyfriend. This trip was simply refreshing and eye opening. My heart is full and smiling just thinking back to it.
Now let’s talk about my trip. First of all it was very short but that did not stop us or take anything away from it. We started at 7 am on Saturday morning with breakfast at our favorite place in Huntington Beach- Woodies. From their we started our journey driving along pacific coast highway all through Long Beach, we decided to take the freeway to get to Caramel by The Sea sooner, otherwise we would probably take many more hours.
As soon as we arrived to Caramel, we immediately went to the beach. It was pretty chilly that weekend, we were not very prepared for that but it did not stop us. Since we had not booked a hotel we did that next and checked into Best Western. We dropped off our things in the room and immediately started looking for a place to eat, and found CULTURA.
Cultura was super close to our hotel, it was an easy walk that we needed after being in the car for hours. We had a few drinks and lunch. We ordered a tlayuda which is a traditional Oaxacan dish made with a very large tortilla, beans, cheese, tomatoes and avocado. We forgot to ask for meat, but its delicious either way. Okay to be honest I didn’t try it because It has cheese but I always loved those before when I could have cheese. I had the torta it was pretty good but tortas are always good.
Drinks: Bloody Verde (Orange one) & Horchata
Ah and before I forget I tried Chapulines (toasted grasshoppers) for the first time. They were okay but I don’t think I will be ordering them again.
I liked Cultura but I did feel like it had a limited selection, we would have honestly liked to have a slightly bigger menu to order from, nonetheless it was good.
After Cultura we walked a bit and went back to the hotel, we were thinking of jumping in the pool but it was to cold so instead we jumped in the bath tub and relaxed for a little while.
At night time we walked without a destination in mind we were simply looking for some night life and found this pretty cool roof top lounge with the best drinks. Vesuvio. We hang out there because we liked the drinks and the vibe, it felt fresh and relaxed. After 2 drinks we continued walking, following the music and we came across Barmel. It seemed like that was the only place in the area open until 2 am, we danced the night away there.
We started Sunday Morning at Little Swiss Cafe. We have mixed feelings about this place because as we were eating we enjoyed the food, we loved the french toast and pancakes but once we left the food didn’t seem to sit well in my stomach. I wasn’t feeling very well, I am not sure if my french toast had any dairy but that was my fault for not asking.
We continued our journey by stopping at Pebble Beach and then doing the 17 mile drive. We started it the opposite way from most people, I think we enjoyed it more that way. I definitely recommend doing the 17 mile drive.
Here we are at Pebble Beach and we are not advertising Diet Coke, my boyfriend just loves it.
One of my favorite stops during the 17 mile drive
Another stop in the 17 mile drive, that I loved. The house next to this looks pretty cool.
Our plan was to eat in Carmel before leaving but our stomachs were not feeling great yet so we started heading home. This time we drove all along the pacific coast and it was beautiful. I want to do it again. We stopped a lot to take pictures and enjoy the scenery.
One of our stops was at Big Sur River Restaurant, to eat something. I really liked my burger. The chicken had a shirwama taste and the burger had bacon and raisins, I had never had a burger with raisins but I Liked it it was different and interesting. I think both of our burgers were specially made for Easter Sunday. My boyfriend liked his but he liked mine more.
After this huge meal we continued our drive and enjoyed every bit of daylight. Our last stop was just after Big Sur to take some pictures. We will be back to Caramel and I would love to make this drive again just with a bit more time next time. Until next time.
XOXO,
Yerenid
P.S. Our next trip is in July.