Road trip coast transition

Now that my California road trip is over and I'm back in the east coast grind I thought it would be fun to put together all of the shots I took of the scenery as I was driving. Which was 100% safe. I'm hoping it will show the transition from beach to lush to redwood, but I guess we'll see in a few minutes!







Drumroll...

OK, so it didn't turn out to be the smooth slideshow I had hoped for, but I was driving so there. Still, really cool trip with really amazing scenery every mile of the way.

Day 5 - peace out, LA!

Today was my last day in LA. Lar and I had one last brunch on the ocean, this time at Rodando. 

 

We (read: I) chose this diner because it was where they filmed a lot of scenes from the OC there. I wore my new OC hoodie because I couldn't help myself. Slash I had a little photo shoot. Lar was a great sport.

 

 

After brunch I picked up my rental car (a red Jetta) and  hit the road heading North, thus beginning my great Californian road trip. I was really psyched about being RIGHT ON the coast, so naturally I kept taking pictures of the views while I was driving. Safe.

Eventually I want to put them all together in sequence to show the slow change of scenery as the desert blends into rocky cliffs to greenery to redwoods, but I'm lazy so you might not see that for a while. Sorry folks. 

Day 4 - Orange County

THE OC IS A REAL PLACE! But I didn't see Ryan or Seth or anyone who would remember me from all those hours we spent together in high school. whatever.

Lar and I started the day off at Newport Beach. I was so excited it was a little embarrassing. But Newport Beach itself wasn't all that interesting - lots of beautiful homes on a nice beach and a little boardwalk. We had what I call "California Breakfast" at a little place that reminded me of a Long Island deli and walked around. (California Breakfast, in my mind, involves produce that is special and/or hard to come by in NY but that's widely available here, like flavorful tomatoes, avocado, and lemon.)

I stuck my toes in the water just so I could say I did and it was really effing cold. Then we walked around the little boardwalk area - I bought a postcard for Kim since we always watched the show together and got a hoodie that said the OC in the right font. It was from a store/horder's den with a bunch of California hoodies and tank tops and totchkis from your grandmas attic. Weird, wild stuff. We also stopped by a psychic to get Lar's palm read - she said she'd get a part time job that would turn into full time - hopefully we'll find out if that's true sooner than later!

We left Newport to go to a state park we were told was amazing and beautiful. From the front gate it certainly looked that way, but they wanted like $12 to go in so we peaced and went to Laguna Beach - another place that exists in real life! I've never seen the show but damn, I can understand why it's so expensive to live there. It was so beautiful I broke out into giggles a few times.

I actually gasped when I turned the "corner" and saw this view.

The water is turquoise! 

I basically looked like this the whole time we were there:

We walked to an area of small pools and were told by some local volunteers that they're protected little ecosystems, so while you can walk on the rocks you can't touch the swirly pools of water.

We sat on the beach for a lot of the afternoon, with Lar meditating and me reading Cannery Row in preparation for Monterrey.

It was so beautiful I never wanted to leave.