Last hurrah

My last full day in California started with me waking up early and deciding to shower so I could beat everyone else into the hostel bathroom. Got to love sharing with a million people. After that I checked out, got my car (which I hadn't seen for three days, but it was just fine), and grabbed some breakfast in Pacific Heights before hitting the road. San Francisco is a fantastic city and I plan to be back soon.

For my drive back down to LA I wanted to take the Pacific Coast Highway for at least some of the journey instead of the desert route I took to get up to San Fran. My first step was taking a winding "highway" with a 35 mph speed limit through the Redwood forest at the coastline. They weren't old growth Redwood trees, but they were still pretty cool. I'll have to make sure I see an old growth Redwood on my return to CA. After I drove through the forest I found myself on Highway 1, and it was immediately beautiful.

I pulled over a good twenty times to take pictures on a route that found me winding through Big Sur and along the coastline through the mountains. At times I felt slightly carsick, which is something I usually never experience as the driver. I've also never driven on a road which is winding back and forth as fast as I can turn the wheel while simultaneously winding up and down. I traveled about 100 miles on the Pacific Coast Highway before it met up with the 101, which I took for the remaining 280 miles to LA in order to get here before the middle of the night.

The rest of the day was spent driving, so after departing San Fran around 9 this morning I reached my airport hotel at 7:30 this evening. That's certainly enough driving for one day. Now I just have to rest up and be ready to catch my flight tomorrow morning at 9:30. Back to reality, and I'm not so sure I'm ready for it.

Now I just need to find some money and someone who wants to come back and play in California some more :)

Below are some pictures from today. It was breathtakingly gorgeous and I would love to go back and hike or bike through some of the wilderness.

Early on in the drive. The weather changed throughout the morning from foggy to sunny, but I don't think it rose above 70 degrees along the coast.

I'm really terrible at self shots, but here I am with my Prius on the Pacific Coast Highway. A hybrid and scenery. Pretty sweet.

Sunny coastline. Breathtaking.

The fog just rolls in and looks awesome. The light line you see running through this picture is the road.

Man, it was just so cool. The Pacific.