Day 3: Monterey

I'm the worst you guys. I literally get texts urging me to update more often and I just keep forgetting. I'm sorry. But alas, here I am with another update. After our drive from Santa Cruz and lots of sleeping in our hotel, we woke up on Mother's Day and headed to Point Lobos State Reserve. If you've never heard of Point Lobos, look it up now. It's one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. Probably.

This is the view walking in. I mean, really.

You have to pay to park. It's $10 but totally worth it, especially because we parked alllll the way in the back of the park. I believe we parked by the Cypress Trail, but you could always park alongside Highway 1 and walk into the park. Heads up, it's a long walk, so bring comfortable shoes and water. There are a ton of trails throughout the park, but we walked the Cypress one. I wore sandals so it was quite the experience as there are few (if any) sidewalks and mostly rock/stone steps. I only tripped once. Go me! 

So Point Lobos has the bluest, prettiest water I've ever seen in North America. And lots of cliffs to take pictures on. Like this one.

Celebrating not falling

We walked/climbed the trails around for a bit and found this beautiful cove down by the water. Climbing down was extremely difficult as it was a bit slippery, and the "sand" is actually tons of super smooth (read: easy to slip on) tiny rocks. From far away it looked like black sand but was breathtaking either way.

The best part about the cove (besides me fulfilling my lifelong dream of being a mermaid) was the SEA LIONS. Or seals. I think both. Quite honestly I forget, but LOOK AT THEM

YOU ARE SO CUTE

There were at least five or six just swimming and jumping around in the water, and they got super close to the shore. At one point Naomi was taking pictures of me and the sea lions/seals were just chilling a few feet away from me and I had no idea. I wanted to take them home and cuddle with them.

Mermaid cove: angle 1

We (sadly) left the seals/sea lions and climbed up another trail  to continue walking through the park. The views are stunning. I wish we would have walked more but we really weren't prepared for proper hiking. There was a friendly older guy who worked at the park and had a few telescopes (or something) set up to see the sea lions and seals a bit more clearly. The guides at the park all seemed very educated and like they genuinely loved and cared for the reserve. 

Mermaid cove: angle 2, also where the guide was located

After a few hours we left the park and headed to lunch at the Monterey Fisherman's Wharf. It's mostly restaurants and cafes, little gift shops and a lot of boats. Whale watching tours also leave from here. We had lunch at the London Bridge Pub and I ordered the cottage pie (basically, Sherpherd's pie) which was amazing. I loooove cottage pie so if it's on the menu at a restaurant, theres a 99% chance I'll order it. After lunch we wandered to the little farmer's market type shop they had. It was adorable, and they also had a cafe where the daily specials for lunch sounded incredible. They also had my favorite specialty cheese brand Cowgirl Creamery and this adorable vegetable set up:

Almost cuter than the seals. Almost.

After lunch we headed to Trader Joes, picked up some snacks, wine and cupcakes (we're total girls) and headed back to our hotel. Unfortunately the hotel had some sort of water issue in the building we were in, so as soon as we got back we had to switch rooms to the other building on site. It was a bit of an inconvenience but we ended up with a room that had a patio overlooking the pool and was surrounded by beautiful palm trees and plants. We ordered sushi from the Japanese restaurant that is next door but also basically connected to the dining room where the hotel serves breakfast. The sushi was soooo good and we enjoyed it with our wine on our gorgeous patio. It was the perfect evening.

Next: Monterey (day 2), Big Sur and San Simeon

XO,

Casey

Reflection: One year later

I'm going to preface this by saying this post is not about California or traveling. I'll probably write that update tomorrow. I'll also add that this post will be a bit personal, but I think it's worth sharing. Even if it only helps one person, I think it needs to be said. Last fall I wrote a blog on Tumblr about fighting for your happiness. Apparently that blog resonated with a few people, and I feel that an update is in order.

A year ago today, I quit my job in Florida. Since then, so much has changed.

I've moved three times (sorry, Frankenstein) across four different states. I've ended friendships. I've had some crappy jobs. I've been completely heartbroken. I have lived with nightmare roommates. I've lost money and lived paycheck to paycheck. I've thought about moving back to Florida. I was unhappy.

But despite all that shit; despite all the mistakes, the stress and the tears (there were a lot), I'm so much happier now. I have amazing coworkers. I have incredibly fun and wonderful roommates. I'm financially stable. I've traveled to California, New York, even West Virginia (somewhere I never thought I'd go), and next year I'm finally going to Paris. I've started new friendships and rekindled old ones. I'm in a relationship with someone who makes me feel so loved and important, like I'm a priority in their life, something my last relationship was seriously lacking. I'm happy.

The point of this update is not to brag or boast about how great my life is now. There are certainly things I wish I could improve on and there are still changes that I can't wait to come to fruition. The point of this blog is to encourage you to be excited for change. If your life isn't perfect right now, then that's great! It means you have room to grow. If your life feels like it could have so much more meaning than it does, that's great too! It means you want more out of life. It means you have drive, and ambition, and a desire to improve your circumstances. It means you want things to get better. Being so unhappy in the past has only made me appreciate how happy I am today. It's humbling, in a way, because I've learned that I'll do anything to hold on to the good things in my life.

Make room for new people, new experiences, new places. You need them. I'm a control freak; a creature of habit. I'm uptight and have borderline OCD tendencies. Change scares the absolute shit out of me sometimes. But I've come to find that it's a necessary part of my being. It's the only way to really grow as a person. Do things that scare you. You have to put yourself out of your comfort zone. Don't continue on being content with your life. Always strive for improvement. Never settle. Change doesn't always happen overnight. It took me quite a few months. It may take you a few days, or even a few years. But it's worth the waiting. I promise.

Embrace change, because it could be the best thing you never knew you wanted.

XO,

Casey

Day 2: Santa Cruz

Well I've already been slacking so much. I know, I'm the worst. I've spent the majority of today in bed so now that the day is practically over I've rationalized that I have no excuse not to blog. That was a double negative. My apologies. Like I said, I'm the worst.

So we last left off in San Francisco. Technically, Santa Cruz. Day two of our adventure started with a decent (and free) breakfast at the hotel. After almost driving the wrong way down a one way street, we headed to a grocery store and picked up some water and granola bars. If you're planning a road trip I highly recommend this. They serve as a backup breakfast if your hotel doesn't offer one or it sucks, and also double as emergency snacks while stuck in traffic/lost/desperate not to spend any more money. Plus water is a necessity. We kept ours in the hotel fridges until checkout so they were nice and chilled by the time we got in the car. Wow, I just wrote a whole paragraph on granola bars. It's safe to say I'm really going places in life. Thumbs up.

We headed over to Natural Bridges State Park which is a gorgeous nature reserve, park and beach all wrapped up in one. Even though it was May, being in northern Cali meant it was still relatively chilly out. And windy. I made the mistake of wearing a skirt and definitely mooned quite a few people. Regardless, the park was gorgeous. There are, you guessed it, natural bridges made of rock. The beach was crowded that day so it was difficult to capture a photo without swarms of tourists, but I did my best.

The cliffside homes were breathtaking, and we watched one homeowner eat breakfast on his gorgeous outdoor patio overlooking the Pacific. To say we were jealous is the understatement of the year.

Hi, let me live with you.

It was much too cold for us so we had a mini photo shoot and tried out best not to fall climbing back down the baby cliffs (pictured above). Don't worry, though we really are quite unathletic we totally held our own. And trust me, those innocent looking rocks were a lot harder to climb than they look.

You don't even want to know how long I waited for that wave.

(hint: too long)

So hipster. Much flower. Many nature.

We then headed to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (about a 10 minute drive) to grab lunch and continue sightseeing. We sat down at The Picnic Basket with our delicious salads and house-made sodas. The restaurant was busy (a good sign) with quick, friendly service and healthy food. 

We ended up wandering around the boardwalk in and out of little beach shops, then headed down to the beach itself. Oh and we happened across a swarm of sea lions. 

They were everywhere. There were steps down to a lower level of the boardwalk and we got so close to some sleeping sea lions I could practically touch them. Proof:

Let me pet you

The boardwalk featuring some majestic birds

The water was freezing but there were still loads of people swimming, tanning and playing volleyball. We popped into the arcade but found it far too touristy and cheesy. By this time we were coming up on rush hour, so we decided to head to our hotel in Monterey to avoid some traffic. It was about an hour long trip and to our dismay, quite a bit of the PCH was inland, so our drive was a tad uneventful. We arrived at our hotel, a Travelodge, which ended up being one of our favorites of the trip. Since we had been out all day, and were still adjusting to the time change, we decided to stay in for the night with movies and girl talk.

Next: Monterey (day 1)

XO,

Casey

Day 1: DC to San Francisco

Our first stop on the trip was in San Francisco. I flew out of Dulles airport in DC via Virgin America on a non stop flight to SFO. Though my flight was delayed (which ended up cutting into my one day in SF) I was quite lucky to have a full row of seats to myself. I landed, got my bags, jumped on the subway and headed to downtown San Fran.

Once you land at the airport in SF, you realize it's not exactly close to city center. You can take a cab, which I believe Naomi said ran about $40 for a 20ish minute ride, or you can take the subway which will run you about $7.00. The ride is a bit longer, I believe it took me around 30 minutes, but it was much more economical.

After I met up with Naomi (whom I hadn't seen in almost a year!) we started exploring. We left our bags at her hotel, walked down to Union Square (above), grabbed lunch to go and jumped on a cable car ($5.00 one way). We headed over to Lombard Street but realized we took the route that started at the bottom. So we walked. And we walked uphill. A lot. It was extremely tiring, and we took lots of breaks, but we finally made it.

Started from the bottom now we're here

After taking a lot of pictures and almost getting hit by a few cars, we attempted to get to the Golden Gate Bridge. I say 'attempted' because it took us nearly an hour to find the correct bus route (some don't go all the way to bridge, it's quite confusing, and this is coming from someone who takes the bus to work every day in DC). Luckily, a very helpful Marriott concierge pointed us in the right direction and we were officially on our way. Once on the bus ($2.00 for unlimited rides within two hours) we headed to the bridge. It was oddly bright and sunny that day, so there was no fog surrounding the bridge which I was secretly hoping for. We took our photos, hung around a bit, and then hoped back on the bus back downtown.

It was very windy and a bit cold, but worth it for this view.

Since we had to pick up our car no later than 6:00pm, we headed to Alamo Rent A Car, filled out our paperwork, got our awesome Charger, and headed to find the houses from Full House. I grew up watching this show and loving it, so I was thrilled to see a piece of the show in real life. I gave Naomi the quick run down (it doesn't air very often in Belgium) and after 10 minutes of searching for parking (I can't parallel park) we finally got to the park where the opening sequence was shot. I even made friends with a cute bulldog pup named Stella. Her owners were weird and kept trying to get us to go clubbing with them, but she was a sweetheart and stole my heart. She was also wearing a cone of shame and kept running into us. 

"Everywhere you look..."

After parting with Stella, we jumped in the car and officially started the road trip. Our first stop, other than SF, was Taco Bell. I wish I were kidding but I'm absolutely not. In Pacifica, California, there is a Taco Bell that is located on the beach. I'm talking literally in the sand. You can walk up in your wet suit with your surfboard and order a crunch wrap supreme from the window out back. It's on the beach. And since it was only 20 minutes from downtown SF, we obviously had to see it. It's incredible.

Taco Bell. ON THE BEACH. I told you I wasn't kidding.

Our first night was to be spent in Santa Cruz, which was about an hour and twenty minute drive from SF. The PCH starts almost immediately after San Francisco, so we were already getting to see some absolutely amazing views of the sunset along the coast. We arrived in Santa Cruz somewhere around 9-10:00pm and checked into America's Best Value Inn & Suites. Check in was easy so we showered, uploaded our photos from that day to Instagram and went to bed. 

I was all kinds of stoked, clearly.

Next: Santa Cruz to Monterey.

XO,

Casey

California: an overview

Hello!

Welcome to my first blog post. I promise to actually try and be good at this. I've had a few failed blog attempts in the past, but let's not focus on that. Let's focus on CALIFORNIA.

This was the sunset on our first day of the trip.

I hate road trips. I loathe them. But the way we planned our trip made it totally bearable and incredibly enjoyable. You need to do it, and you need to do it now.

The Basics:

We (Naomi and I) planned this trip a few months in advance. It started out as a joke like, "lol, wouldn't it be fun to do a road trip in California?" and we made it a reality. Neither of us have substantial amounts of disposable income; we planned this as economically as possible. So there should be nothing stopping you.

We started our trip in San Francisco and ended in San Diego (technically Los Angeles, but I'll get to that) traveling mainly on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and seeing everything in between. We were there almost two weeks and made changes to our itinerary along the way. The more time you give yourself, the better. Allow for unexpected problems, traffic, wanting to skip certain places or stay longer in others, that way you're not stressed about making it to the next city in time. Don't think of your itinerary as a bunch of deadlines, you will only stress yourself out. Take your time and enjoy the trip because it always ends way too quickly.

Planning; Hotels:

Have everything organized ahead of time, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you know you definitely have a place to sleep each night. Naomi booked most of the hotels a few weeks in advance using booking.com since they usually advertise specials and almost always have free cancellation. We chose places that were usually in the $30-$40/night range (each) and included a free breakfast. It definitely saved us a lot of money as we only had to buy breakfast a handful of times. We also used AirBNB and found a great place in LA that was both affordable AND had free parking (which is super hard to come by in LA!). Always do your research, and check reviews on multiple travel sites before booking. But of course, take everything with a grain of salt. While we chose to stay in hotels&hostels most nights, you could always couchsurf for free and really make your trip extra affordable. The most important thing is to always be safe.

Planning; Flights:

I'm a flight fanatic. I'd fly anywhere if I could. Even to Baltimore, which is only a 45 minute drive from my house. And since I love flying so much, I am constantly monitoring flights to different cities. I even check flights for my coworkers and have developed a real talent for finding affordable trips. It's best to use multiple search engines to find the best deal; I use Trip Advisor, Kayak and Cheap Tickets most frequently. Trip Advisor tends to find cheaper flights internationally, but Cheap Tickets allows you to check 3 days before and after to really compare prices. Kayak also has a forecasting tool that tells you whether or not they predict prices to go up or down. Southwest doesn't generally show up on any of these search engines, so always check their website directly for inexpensive flights. And don't be afraid to fly into a different airport! Each search engine listed above allows you to check nearby airports, for example: Instead of flying into LAX, check Long Beach. If you can't get a flight into JFK or LaGuardia, check Newark. If flying directly into DC isn't an option, check Baltimore and take the train directly into downtown DC. Checking nearby airports can yield cheaper flights and most airports have some form of transportation you can take into your final destination. I ended up booking two non-stop flights on Virgin for $370 total which is an AMAZING deal for two direct flights literally across the country. I'll do a post specifically on Virgin later.

Planning; Car Rental

Naomi booked the rental car using Sunny Cars, which is a third party car rental company located in The Netherlands (Naomi is from Belgium). Her friend had used it before with no problems and luckily we had no issues either! They have a 24/7 helpline (which we never needed to use, thankfully) but we did have to prepay in full for the car. We chose this site because every other company had horrendously high prices since they include an insurance fee for drivers under the age of 25. Sunny Cars did not include this fee, and we ended up paying around $400 each for 11 days (we didn't need the car till the end of the first day or the last two days). It was definitely the most expensive part of the trip but you can't do a road trip without a car so it was a necessity. If you are over 25 you can definitely expect to pay a lot less than we did. Picking up the car was super easy (it was at an Alamo in downtown SF) and dropping it off was even easier. We were able to request a full tank of gas starting out, and didn't have to return it with a full tank either which probably saved us a good amount of money considering how expensive gas is in California. We also got a free upgrade to a much nicer and newer car than we were expecting since none of the cars in the size we requested (the smallest) were clean. We ended up with a brand new, eco friendly Dodge Charger. It was amazing. I'll leave you with a photo of us in our car being super excited. 

Apparently I couldn't look into the lens. Oh well.

I'll be focusing on San Francisco for my next post, which I will probably write in a few days. 

XO,

Casey