Golden State Road Adventure - Time Out #215

Road trips. The American dream of automobile travel was certainly not lost on me. Since I turned the legal driving age of 16 in our great state way back when (?), I have an owned either an automobile or a pickup truck. In reality, I have owned lots of various vehicles over the years. Plainly speaking, I truly am a car/truck freak!

One of the most memorable road trips I ever made happened years ago when my bride, Debbie, and I took my small pickup truck north, mostly along the spectacular Pacific Ocean from San Diego, all the way to San Francisco (SF). This travel distance is almost 600 miles, and we took several days to drive it, stopping numerous times along the colorful route. California is literally a visitor's paradise, displaying just about everything a traveler would ever want to see. Oceans, lakes, mountains, desserts....you name it, the Golden State has it ALL, showcased somewhere within its vast land area.

The drive north on I-5 along the coast from San Diego to Los Angeles, takes tourists through a rare, large area of non-developed coastal land in Southern California, expansive (over 125,000 acres) Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The base occupies 17 unobstructed miles of desolate shoreline, solely dedicated to training some of our nation's military personnel. After the huge military instillation, the road passes beautiful San Clemente, the so-called Western House House when Richard M. Nixon was our President. Next stop is the lovely, historic (founded in 1776),Spanish mission at San Juan Capistrano. Here, the faithful swallows return to nest each spring, flying north from distant Goya, Argentina. There is an pretty Amtrak station next to the famous mission, too. .

From there, follows a myriad of super highways in the Greater Los Angeles (LA) area, including exits for legendary Disneyland (opened in 1955) in Anaheim. Once inside the massive LA Metroplex, we headed west to the trendy, coastal cities of Venice and Santa Monica. Once there, we turned north on memorable California Highway 1, and followed it all the way to the City-by-the-Bay, San Francisco.

This spectacular drive along the Pacific Ocean took us through lovely San Barbara, and on to quaint Solvang, a community of 5,200 just 45 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. We spent some quality time in this Danish heritage town, established in 1911, and would highly recommend it for a visit. We stayed one evening there, before moving onward to colorful San Luis Obispo, then further on to another night's stay in pretty Cambria, population 6,000. With it's stately pine trees and panoramic ocean views, Cambria is absolutely on the "must see" short list if you are anywhere near this area on a map!

Now, for the jewel of the entire adventure, the incredible Hearst Castle, located near tiny (pop. 320) San Simeon. This is slightly north of Cambria on the scenic CA Highway 1. Wow, of all the places I have EVER been, the Hearst Castle certainly ranks among my top tier spots to see, and totally experience.! The Castle consists of 165 rooms, 115 in the main house (called Casa Grande), and 50 rooms in 3 surrounding elegant guesthouses. Famous newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst, started construction on this massive complex. located on his "Enchanted Hill" in 1919, but his poor health caused him to abandon further building on his project in 1947. When he died in 1951, his Casa Grande still was not completed. This jaw-dropping place is visited by over 750,000 people every year. The Castle offers multiple guided house and garden tours, and you should devote at least a full day to see it all. The interior artworks and collectibles are utterly unbelievable. The Castle is absolutely not to be missed, dear readers in Our Town and far beyond!

Continuing our adventures along the scenic coastal highway, we drove the 70-mile, head-turning drive, through the Big Sur area. Here the 2,000'

Santa Lucia Mountains seem to abruptly rise from the blue Pacific Ocean, as 2-lane CA Highway 1 clings to the sides of the cliffs.

Lastly, just south of SF, we toured the magical Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. This is a national historical site constantly constructed by multi-millionaire Sarah Winchester from 1884 until she died in 1922. It is another "must see" place with interior staircases leading to solid walls, windows showing blank walls, and, allegedly, ghosts (?) everywhere, in this huge, weird mansion. The guided tours there are really memorable.

So, this pretty much sums up our classic, personal roadtrip. I sincerely hope my descriptions encourage you to take the roads there, too!!