At Least it Wasn't Sequoia: First Trip to the Ocean

So, one could imagine we wake up in Salinas after like a short amount of sleep and shitty Sequoia and we would be having a bad day. So, we are ticked at one another of course. And this was supposed to be like MY DAY because I have never been to the ocean not once…never got close to the east coast even. I had planned the whole trip top to bottom and frankly I had no idea about the last week or so. But I knew I wanted to see Big Sur well I didn’t know in August it was gonna be 50 degrees outside and like 30 degrees in the water. Color me sad…

Big Sur

Anyways, that wasn’t stopping me. However, after Sequoia Jeanette’s car sounded like hell. In the car ride to Big Sur we had the biggest fight ever and for some reason when Jeanette yells at me I cry, I hate conflict. Reason why? I didn’t plan this part. I didn’t know I needed a plan to see the ocean ARGH! I tried to not let that ruin it but it totally did we went to one beach for like 10 minutes and that was the ocean. So, I didn’t take that off my list of things to do in life because well it was just a fail.

hehe dedication

goth-donalds

they doomed this beach by naming it this

the tumbling person is kinda funny

Monterrey, CA was awesome though everything was so wharf/beach like. And then it got colder so we decided to go see Eat, Pray, Love because nobody else would see it with us at home and it was the cutest theater ever! Oh and awesome movie by the way, right up our alley. At this point Jeanette was determined to go whale watching the next day. Which I gave into it because she bought the tickets.

It was pretty cool to be out on a boat in the middle of the ocean but there were way too many people getting sick everywhere. Yuck…And after that we headed up the San Francisco that night. Which restarts the awesome times of the road trip. I would totally consider living in Monterrey it was pretty neat. 

lol good signs america

JELLIES!

Bad Road Trip Decisions

I can’t even begin to convey how bad of an idea going to Sequoia National Park was, like sticking flaming hot needles in your eyes bad. We started all happy cause Independence was beautiful and we decide to follow the atlas instead of the GPS (don’t do this…people died in California for lesser stuff by traveling off course). Anyways, horrible mountains roads like haven’t been paved in twenty years and controlled burning. Good thing we didn’t plan on camping in Sequoia because of the bears but also seeing the campgrounds…YUCK! So a three hour trip took five hours whatever…But then the park was lame and there was a crap ton of bears breaking into cars. It would have just been better to drive through the Redwood forest. 

coors gets mad props for being able to drive on this road...seriously though

NO calisthenics near the trees!

yeah that's real life

time to leave

 And my motion sickness kicked in…OH and tarantulas fall from the trees! I am not even going to go into detail on this but I will always be screwed up from this, always…thanks Sequoia.

So, we wanted to get the heck away from this place and this starts a series of bad ideas. Again, I suppose…

I decided to drive four hours in the dark to the coast of California…yeah.

Where we drove through the lettuce capital of the world (sarcasm) and ended up in Salinas? I think…The hotel was ok, meh…

Ghost Towns, Death Valley, and Independence Oh My!

So leaving Las Vegas to get to Death Valley in California we got to drive by Area 51 which really fascinates me. Probably because it’s infamous and every exit says No Services! Like HEY DO NOT STOP HERE!

We drove by so many ghosts towns before we got to California one of Rhyolite which was from the movie The Island. Finally we crossed over the border right into Death Valley and it was 5pm but it was 122 degrees in the sun and 115 in the shade. Death Valley was amazing and it was like another planet or something. There were white sand dunes everywhere which I have never seen in my life. I really wish had a four drive vehicle to go out and see the crater and moving rocks but the road to that stuff looked ridiculous and even said four wheel drive vehicles. Lame…

white sand dunes!

near area 51 ha

i kept trying to pinpoint Yucca Mts.

this truck actually said KRPY NEWS...aliens?

Then we got to drive through the Sierra Nevada’s it was so beautiful. We stayed in Independence, Cali. at the Winnedumah Hotel where old west movies were filmed. It was the cutest hotel ever and the owner made breakfast for everyone in the morning. It one of the nicest towns we went to the whole entire time, all the people there were great.