Vacation Part II

VACATION #2: Ben Pollock Family

    Highway 1 (the road was the destination)

Our next vacation was driving along the coast of California up hwy 1. Where were we going you may ask? To my brother's wedding in the Shasta Mountain range in Northern California! Instead of driving back to Utah and then driving back to California we decided to make another trip of getting from the southern border to the northern part of California.

We had five days to drive from the River to my brother's wedding location. We camped at KOA's along the coast except for our first night. That night we stayed in a hotel. What an adventure to undertake with a baby! Christina was quite the champ--towards the end of each day of travel she would get a little cranky but who wouldn't after sitting in a car seat anywhere between three to seven hours.  

FYI: most of the photos taken were while driving in the car, so not the best...

Day 1

Parker, AZ to Los Angeles

5 hours*

We drove straight to Los Angeles; making a stop at one of my good friend's house in Redlands, CA. Thanks Alli it was so nice to see you!

*All hours are driving time only. This is not how long it actually took us with stops, and with babies stops are frequent.

Once we got to Los Angeles our hotel room wasn't quite ready so we went to see two of Ben's three childhood houses. (Ben grew up in the Los Angeles region).

Cliffs looking out over the ocean near Ben's childhood home

Ben's family house in Palos Verdes. It hasn't been well cared for :(

 

Ben's family house in Torrance

After visiting Ben's old homes we walked the Redondo Pier -- right across from our hotel

 

Day 2

Los Angeles to Santa Cruz

7 hours

 

In Los Angeles we met up with Hwy 1 where our real trip began...

Drove past Santa Monica

Christina's first feel of the ocean!

Once we got past the ritzy beach houses much of the coast was growing crops!

Much of what we saw looked like this! BEAUTIFUL!

The Sea Lions were so funny when they move! Hobbling in sand!

Visiting the Sea Lions at a beach near the Hearst Castle

You can see a little of the fog that covered much of the coast!

Day 2 ended after 7 hours of driving to end up in Santa Cruz. This was the worst night of camping for the whole trip. The KOA was nothing but dusty dirt and we were sandwiched in between people. We also got there later than planned. The weather had changed from hot shorts weather to cold long pants and a sweatshirt weather. Ben and I worked hard to get the tent set up so Christina could finally go to bed--she was so ready! Ben and I ate dinner finally at nine and finally got into warmer clothes. We went to bed not long after that we were exhausted!

Day 3

Santa Cruz to Manchester Beach

5 Hours

Stopped in San Fran...

Picture of Lombard St. from where our car battery died at the top of the hill!

 

 

Thanks to the nice Australian family who let us jump our car with their rental!

Alcatraz!

Golden gate bridge covered in thick fog!

We picnicked below the bridge! Awesome place to eat lunch! Christina just liked the grass.

It was amazing - fog, fog, and more fog. Then blue sky!

Bodega Bay where we stopped and picked up awesome dinner.

School house from the movie "The Birds" in Bodega.

It is now a home that my brother helped to restore and renovate along with a little water tower that he turned into a studio apartment in back! So cool to see where my brother lived and worked at one point.

We were only 11 miles from his current home in Sebastopol; however we did not visit because he and his fiance Lindsey had left two hours earlier to get to their wedding location. Next time!

We got to our camp site late again...we were not in the mood to repeat the previous night so we upgraded to a cabin. BEST DECISION EVER! Our cabin had heat we could put Christina right to bed and we had privacy! This was by far the coolest camp grounds we stayed at. It had a community kitchen outside and community fire pit! We would stay here again! It was so foggy anything that was outside was covered in a fine mist in no time.

Day 4

Manchester Beach to Eureka

3 hours

We stopped in Humboldt State Park to see the RED WOODS! Wahoo!

Cool historic house in Eureka

Below is a picture of how we would do it every night. We would put Christina in the pack-and-play while we set up. She would just watch us and sometimes lick the side of the pack-and-play. 

She is so funny! 

A big thanks to Chelsey and Jeremy who lent us their 12 person tent so we could fit the pack-and-play and still have plenty of room in the tent!

 

Day 5

Eureka to Redding

3 hours

Cool theater outside the Shasta National Forest

From Redding we actually drove another hour to get to Shasta Mountains.

Here is a map of the driving vacation and the pins coincide with our above mentioned stops.

What a crazy trip! Highway 1 is the twistiest road I have ever been on! I get car sick so we had to go pretty slow. It was so beautiful but I don't think I will ever do this again. But I would be open to the idea of doing one of the legs of our journey and staying over night in one place for several days. Random note: we saw bike riders everywhere they had huge packs like they were doing what we were doing only with a bike! CRAZY!!!!

Wondering what the MOST awesome wedding looks like?

(See our next post to find out)