Trip down Pacific Coast Highway

Ok, I lied. I said in the last blog that I didn't have any photos from the San Fran or Sac shows, but I found these on my iPod. This was from the SF show. Chino and I were in such close quarters he accidentally sat on the sign on Kim's seat.

The last show of the Visions Tour was in Sacramento, which is about 5 1/2 to 6 hours from where I live. I talked Corey into coming up to the last show and hanging out for a bit, then we could drive down Pacific Coast Highway on the way home. Unfortunately, they had to do some maintenance on our apartment, and there was a list of stuff he had to take care of, by himself since I wasn't there, before they could do it. He ended up not making it to the venue until we were packing up, but he made it!

After we were all packed up we went and got some food.

Riggs' giant ice cream Sundae

Corey and I spent the next few days hanging out and sightseeing in the area. We went to Auburn to Foresthill Bridge, the highest bridge in CA and 4th highest bridge in the US. (I think Corey has all of the photos on his camera). We drove around Sacramento for a while looking for something to do. I got out my Founder's app. There was a little bar/cafe in the area that supposedly had Founder's on tap. It didn't, but we had a really good spicy stout (I thought I wrote down what it was, but I can't find it). We were getting hungry but having trouble finding something open late that was super expensive or bar food. I texted Junior, and he suggested a really good Asian restaurant. I can't remember what all Corey and I ordered, but it was all really good. I also had a Taro smoothie, and we got a mango egg puff for dessert.

We debated leaving a day early and going wine tasting in Carmel, but everything closes early, and I was still on tour schedule, so we decided to stick around another day and just relax. Corey hung out in the studio with Mike and Junior some while they recorded Mike's songs while Kim and I did some merch organizing/hanging out. That night we all went out and got FroYo.

Early the next afternoon we left, a bit later than we meant to. I was only supposed to take 10 hours (I planned for 12 with stops) and I didn't have to work until 11:45 the next day, so I had time to sleep in if we got in late.

The bridge in San Fransisco.

Alcatraz

Some crazy clouds.

The city

Crazy house (?) on a cliff along the coast

We stopped at a couple of look out points, but the coolest was the lighthouse/hostel we stumbled upon.

Freighter WAY out in the ocean

Whale watching! We were there at the wrong time to see anything

Whale bones

Giant whale vertebrae 

The lighthouse

Panorama of the ocean/shore

Panorama of the ocean/light house

We found a stairway leading down to a beach area. It was cold and gloomy that day, so we didn't hang out long or go swimming, but we did have fun climbing on the rocks. I'll have to see if I can find my video of the ocean.

Rock jutting out

Very tired Melinda

Weird thing on the hill. I assume they use to to tether boats.

"Whatcha looking at?"

Hello?

The lighthouse and hostel buildings.

Crazy waves

Eventually, as it was getting dark, we made it to Monterey, where we found a little British Pub we had dinner at. (They had a Founder's sticker on the back of the Women's restroom door!)

Corey and his new friend.

Of course, it was late and dark by the time we left. Along the highway, there are no street lights. There were times we weren't sure if there was land to the right of us, and a giant drop off into the ocean. We did stop at a look out at one point, and once you let your eyes adjust to the darkness, you could make out the white tops of the waves crashing below us. It was also a little scary driving because some of the curves are sharp and the signs say to go 15mph. If you go too fast you could fall off the side and crash into the ocean. And you're never sure if there's another car coming around the corner until you see their headlights. This made it take a lot longer to get home. We missed getting to see the Big Sur bridge because of the darkness :( I'm sure we drove over it without even realizing though.

There's also NOTHING around for miles and miles, except for the car/RV occasionally parked along the road. We were getting close to a little tourist camping town and we had about a quarter of a tank of gas, so we decided to stop. The pump was open, but they wanted $5.99 a gallon! We decided to try to make it to the next city.

We get to the next city. By now the gas light came on. The city is dark, and seems completely empty. The first couple of gas stations are closed. We cross our fingers, turn onto the main road off the highway, and hope that the only other gas station in town is open. It's super creepy. NOTHING is open. We see NO ONE. It's late, but you'd think you'd see at least ONE other car, or person SOMEWHERE! Or even a house light on. Nope. I swear we just drove into a horror movie. We pull up to the gas station. It's dark, but the screens on the pumps are lit up.

And they're working!!!!  Yay!  And it's less than $4. I have know idea if we would have made it to the next city and what we would have done if we ran out. So we filled up. We were also hoping to grab some coffee and use the restroom, but the actual gas station wasn't open. I do some searching while Corey drives, and there's supposed to be a really good donut shop coming up that's open 24 hours. I think I finally figured out, it was Sunshine Donuts in San Luis Obispo, CA. Sadly it's 3 hours away from me because the buttermilk donut was AMAZING, as the reviews said.  Guess I'll have to stick to the Donut Man. They also had coffee, but no restroom. So we went to the 7-11. Restroom was out of order, but I got a bottle of water. Next couple of 7-11's didn't seem to have a restroom either. We finally stopped at a travel stop gas station thing that had large men's and women's restrooms, but we had to wait for them to finish mopping the floors......

At one point we were driving and the sky up ahead was lit up red. It was the middle of the night, so it couldn't have been the sun. Eventually we drove past a sign for the California Men's Colony. There were so many lights at the prison, they lit up the entire sky.

Eventually, around 5am, we finally made it home. But, remember the beginning of the blog when I said Corey had to do certain things for them to do maintenance on our apartment? We got home, and we had to move a bunch of electronic stuff out of the bathroom before I could even use it after the long car ride. Then I had to put the bed back together before I could even go to bed. I ended up going to bed about 6 am, and had to get up about 10:30. I made it through work, but was exhausted! It was a fun car trip though.