Long Vacation in USA - Part 5 - Pacific Coast Highway

The Pacific Coast Highway, the epitome of the American love for open road, cars and road trip. I was told there are several significant roads in the States. It was like a rite of passage for road trip lovers to do the PCH (west coast south to north) and Route 66 (east to west along the middle of USA).

This is really a very very nice road trip. The mist covered winding roads, offering spectacular views when the mist cleared up. The abundance of wildlife. The meadows and orchards. Of course, who can ever forget the sea, beach and sea cliffs that dot this coastal road. My only grouch, simply not enough time. We've scheduled a 3 days 2 nights journey along the short stretch of 460 miles.

We left Hollywood around late morning. Stop by a grocer to buy some food for our road trip and we're off to Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is a town by the sea filled with wealthy yuppies and retirees. Picturesque as it is, the frequent forest fire marred our visit. We were reaching the Santa Barbara Mission located amongst one of the many sea-facing hillsides when we noticed black smoke in the skies. There's a forest fire just started not too long ago nearby our destination. We still managed to take some pictures of the Santa Barbara Mission with the thick black smoke as background. Later on after we left Santa Barbara, we heard over the radio that an evacuation order was given for residents in that area as the forest fire could not be contained.

Thick black smoke of the forest fire looming over the Santa Barbara Mission.

Along the way we stopped by some nice vista points and small towns/residential areas which comes with nice sea cliff views and seals as well.

One of the many beaches that line the western coast!

Beautiful yet strange flowers blossoming all along the coastline.

Houses by the sea right next to a cliff. On top of that, there's an abundance of wildlife ranging from seals to seabirds a few steps away from their doorstep. How novel!

The misty, dreamy sunset of our 1st day along the PCH.

Our first night along the PCH was spent in Cambria. It's a small touristy town. The weather in Cambria is cool and misty. Somehow reminded me of Fraser's Hill, just cooler, bigger and better. It was the eve of Rain's birthday as well. We searched high and low for an affordable restaurant that's still open at 8.30pm and had a nice dinner. The Bridge Inn Hostel (H.I) was really cozy. It would have been perfect if we could secure a private room instead of sharing room with some snoring dudes. Otherwise, it's really a 100% satisfaction and recommended lodging.

Sweet Frozen Margarita for the birthday girl! :)

Spicy Jambalaya. Something like chinese fried rice just that it wasn't fried.

This is really special. Fried avocado with chipotle dipping sauce. A great way to serve avocados.

Our hostel for the night in Cambria. Two thumbs up! Great hospitality, cozy and comfortable environment.

The beach a short drive from Cambria. Good for a late morning stroll.

Then, it's off to Hearst's Castle but not before we had a picnic by the beach.

This Hearst is some rich dude. Some kind of newspaper tycoon. He had a serious retail therapy addiction. Bought tonnes of stuffs and build a castle among the clouds (it is literally among the clouds when there's thick mist in the summer) in order to display his stuffs. There are still stuffs he bought that couldn't be fit into the castle and were stored in some warehouse. Anyway, this guy is history and the family donated the castle and all the antiquities inside to the National Park. That's why we get to visit it now.

The outdoor pool at Hearst's Castle. The name. Neptune's pool! Can't find a more suitable name!

The view from Hearst Castle. Imagine a misty morning and I'm really looking out from a castle in the clouds.

Casa Grande, main building of the Castle.

This statue is put in such a way and place that it's almost like a couple stealing a kiss in a hidden corner.

The indoor pool, tiled with GOLD! We actually get to walk on gold! ...if only I could pry some tiles home.

The elephant seals viewing area is just a short drive away. It was molting season for the female seals. So all we saw were hundreds of huge smelly elephant seals lying on the beach shedding their skins.

Hundreds of huge, stinky skin shedding female elephant seals.

The view from above the clouds (or mist). The drive along this coast is so nice... ... ... if only we had more time.

We didn't really expect spending so much time at some of the view points and ended up really behind schedule. So much so that we had to miss Pfeiffer Beach. It didn't help that this beach is pretty secluded with no road signs. This beach is supposedly very nice with purple sand and well-known only among locals. By the time we finally reached our hostel, it's already way past night fall. It was a scary experience looking for our lodging that night, a lighthouse that is not functioning at night, in an area that is enveloped in total darkness and not shown on GPS.

Where we spent the night. The Pigeon Point Lighthouse.