The light was different here in California.
- Heidi Freeston
Featured
- Heidi Freeston
I’ve visited LA twice. Once in 2010 on a road trip from San Diego to San Francisco (via Yosemite) and once in 2019 to visit family. Both trips were very different experiences for me, but between them, I’ve seen a lot of what LA has to offer.
We walked into town. The main street was a recreation, much like Old Town in San Diego. Full of tourist trap stores, more Disney than anything else. Once we went through this area however and got into the center everything changed.
It is very hard to convey the sense of scale of the trees. In a picture they often look like regular trees because there are no context clues, it is only if you see them with a person, or see a car driving through the gap in the Clothespin that you really understand how large these trees actually are.
We arrived in Sonoma and checked into the hotel, which was really nice. Old for America, having been built in the eighteen hundreds. It had a rooftop pool that we used after dark and ancient style lift, with brass grates and everything.
We briefly stopped in Stockton and were harassed about voting until we made it clear that we were tourists and so helping us vote would be a felony.
We pulled into San Francisco at about quarter to five. A nice place, but smack bang in the middle of the Tenderloin, which isn't the best area. Unless you like prostitutes! Then its a great area!
We then went to a small vineyard which also doubled as an Art Gallery on several floors. I had drawn the long straw so was able to do wine tasting and my associate remained designated driver.
Jumping back on the Highway One, we zoomed into Santa Cruz and checked in to a Knights Inn. Seems like a nice place and we've got a decent sized room right by the broad walk, but it was cheap, but maybe too cheap.... It's a little disconcerting and made us wonder if this was a bad part of town.
We started on the bit of the PCH called Big Sur, which is some of the most impressive coastline and windy windy roads!
The following morning, I dragged myself out of bed at about nine for breakfast, and decided against the pool as I may drown (and enjoy it as a preferable alternative) and I drove us to Hearst castle. It is very impressive, he was a newspaper magnate and was worth an absolute fortune...
Out of Santa Monica and through Malibu was beautiful, it was a really nice way to start the drive. I was driving that morning, and about twelve, we went to pull off the main highway to try and drive along a bridge to a private island we saw, unfortunately it was a proper private island and we were thwarted by the large iron gates!!
An evening stop on our drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, San Luis Obispo was a surprising place.
Next stop on the drive was Santa Barbara, downtown. We parked in the main area by the pier and had lunch at a faux English fish and chips pub at the end of the pier.
We wandered around town for a while just getting a feel for the place. Santa Monica is awesome, it has a really good vibe!
Once checked in we wandered down to the gas lamp quarter to have a look around and find some dinner. Most of the buildings were from prohibition era and got ignored by the city and its residents afterwards as it became a bad area with a lot of bootlegging.