WEST COAST ROAD TRIP
8 days, 4 states, and all our favorite stops.
DAY ONE:
Las Vegas to Los Angeles
to Santa Barbara
There's something about a long road trip that feels like the anticipation for your favorite line of a poem. I’ve always been so mesmerized by new places and I know I’m not alone in it, and also not alone in the nostalgia that follows, but maybe alone in the fact that I will use that trip as inspiration in daydreams, poems and photos for all the years that follow. This particular trip has slowly climbed its way towards the top of my list. It's been a few months now, so I’m severely slacking but not for a lack of trying, visit draft one and two and ten please. At first when I was planning this out, my main goal was to give an itinerary and be all travel blog professional about it, I just couldn't stop thinking about how that took all the romance out of it. And I’ve given into the fact that this makes me most comparable to a self proclaimed chef who begins recipes by describing childhood walks through a garden at sunset, and never gets to the part where I figure out how much whipping cream to add in. But I’m embracing it.
All that (finally) being said, welcome to my thoughts about our trip up the coast! Or skip ahead to the facts.
For weeks I planned every place, counted every minute of drive time, and texted every friend in every city we were headed to, but of course all plans went out the window in the first few hours of the first day of our trip. Driving to LA from Vegas is always a longer drive than expected but especially when you go on a Sunday the week of a holiday. It took us seven hours to get to Orange County and by the end of the drive we were delirious. I was watching in agony while the little GPS arrow edged closer to the beach. We were stuck behind cars going below the speed limit, people in the FastTrak lane right next to us were going 100 mph. I turned to Jackson and said, "We're literally going less than 60 and these people get to go 90 million miles per century." That last part slipping out in my attempt at exaggeration, I hoped he wouldn't comment. "Per century, per century," he literally would not stop laughing.
"Calculate that, please. I need to know." So here I am in the passenger seat, already dying to get out of the car, crying and laughing at the same time waiting to find out if what I said equaled to sometime dumb like 5 miles per hour.
102.7
90 million miles per century equals 102.7 miles per hour. "I could be a genius." I was so proud of myself.
"You could be a genius, 'could be' she says." Jackson was still laughing at me in the driver's seat, going just as crazy as I was after spending seven hours on a four hour drive. But seriously, when are they gonna let me into Mensa?
We got dinner to-go from CAVA (definitely recommend) and watched the sunset at Balboa Beach with one of our best friends. The food was amazing, the sunset was gorgeous, and getting to see Des after months of quarantine and unofficial goodbyes, was unmatched. Des is one of the sweetest and most honest friends I've ever had, she's always been so accepting of highs and lows in my life and always helped ground me when we were struggling with an important client at work or dealing with finals. She watched Jackson and I go from strangers to best friends and cheesy sOuLmAteS, and has loved and supported us through every little instigate-able moment. Along with her boyfriend, she's one of my favorite people to go on double dates with. I can't wait to see her again.
That night we were going to stay at Jackson's family house in Santa Barbara so we left the beach and did our last bit of driving for the day. Before bed we jumped in the freezing pool and stared up at the stars for what felt like hours or minutes. That night is so special to me.
I've always been the kind of person who gets so much satisfaction out of anticipation for something. I anticipated this trip and the places we saw for so long. That night was one of the first times I experienced a kind of happiness that felt calming. The kind where anticipation didn't leave me anxious or even excited but just hopeful and trusting. There was so much good coming.
DAY TWO: Santa Barbara to the Bay Area (with a quick stop in the cutest little Danish town)
The second day was a bigger chunk of driving, but definitely not our longest. We stopped in a little Danish town above Santa Barbara called Solvang for coffee and pastries. It was such a cute place and the drive there through foggy hills and green cliffside, amazing. A little fun fact, every single lookout in
California off of the 101 between LA and the Bay is just a vista. Jackson and I tried to stop once to understand the vista hype, but there was so much fog we couldn't see a single thing. The best part was driving through all of the pretty vineyards and little towns we never would have otherwise seen. When we finally arrived in San Francisco we had just enough time to long board around pier 39, drive down Lombard street, get the most amazing mac n cheese at MAC'D and do a little thrift shopping on Haight-Ashbury. We filled our tourist's quota and we drove back to San Jose for the night and walked through downtown with our friend and host, Ari. We ordered Thai, a few margaritas and watched the sun go down while we caught up. It's always been so special to me how Jackson gets along with my best friends. After dinner we drove to Target to find some essentials for Ari's brand new apartment where we, and she, would be staying for the very first time. Essentials being a shower curtain, hand soap and a big box of Truly lemonades.
We ended up falling asleep on the living room floor with a buzz and her adorable cat. I honestly couldn't have dreamed up
a better day, only two of seven so far and this trip had already done everything I hoped it would.
Ari and I have supported each other through some tough times and we've had some tough times too, but she's always so special to me now for the way she never fails to remind me that I am loved and that she needs to see me more often. Its hard living so far from her but it was really nice getting to help her shop for her new place and to see her in such a cool stage of her life. We met working at Inkblot and I hope I'll know her for the rest of my life, same with Des, and Jackson for that matter. It seems I've met all my favorite people there. Back to my point though, this day in particular I felt like the best and happiest version of myself. How did we still have so many cool things left to do??
DAY THREE: San Jose, CA to Medford, Oregon ft. highway 199
We woke up and hung out with Ari for a while before she had work. On our way out of town, Jackson and I decided to hike this little path we found on TikTok overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge called "Batteries to Bluff" with wooden stairs and private little beaches. It was the most magical and quiet morning.
We climbed down into a cove and watched the waves and the bright red bridge fade in and out of the morning fog. Everything moved so fast and happened so slow.
Our stops on Day Three:
San Francisco and the Redwoods
When we made our way back up to the car we started on one of our longest driving stretches from the Bay all the way to Medford Oregon, where we were staying with our friend Riley. There were so many more vineyards and the most gorgeous golden light teasing its way through the Redwoods that lined the highway. We played the license plate game and made up our own games with letters and movie titles and car types and made each other laugh to pass the time.
Our Roadtrip Games:
"License Plate" game and other variations:
Find license plates starting which each letter in order. Next try with car models, store names, street names....
Categories, Kind Of?
Start with something in chosen category and the next person's answer has to start with the last letter of the previous answer (ex. tv shows)
Have your friends send you new music to listen to, any genre, any level of weirdness.
Listen to every song.
Sometimes painful,
always entertaining.
Conversation games like "We're Not Really Strangers". My personal favorite, great with two people or a carful. I'd also add podcasts that start a conversation too.
We stopped for the second time in the Redwood National Forest to walk a beautiful trail during golden hour. We were the only ones there which made it partly surreal and beautiful and partly reminiscent of a horror movie in the eery quiet. I tried not to focus too much on that last part though. We watched the sunset start in a big green meadow, alone with a gorgeous Roosevelt Elk. I LOVE places that make me feel small. The Redwoods did not disappoint.
What we thought would be the hardest part of our drive came next. Redwood highway into Oregon after Crescent City. The trees were so close to the road you couldn't see the sky, there was only one lane, it was miserable. When the sun was gone and everything turned black aside from the constant glow of traffic, I was getting so sick. I attempted to close my eyes and focus on breathing to distract myself, which lasted a whole thirty seconds before I said "I think I'm about to throw up".
I opened my eyes to see Jackson gripping tight to the steering wheel and saying, "me too." We both burst out laughing, which is probably the only thing that that saved me. Another hour after that awful highway ended and we finally made it to Medford to see Riley. I nearly cried.
Riley's apartment is literally so cute it could make Pinterest jealous. He bartended for us and his sister came by too. We talked on his roof while watching the city glow, then walked to the corner store and bought mac n cheese we made at 2 AM. The last time I saw them I was a whole different person and so were they. Growth is such an underrated part of life. When we got into Medford at about 9 pm Jackson and I were positive we'd be asleep within the hour, and yet at 3 am we were forcing ourselves to sleep between giggles.
Riley is such a hard worker and one of the big highlights from this night was getting to see the place where he works and runs a karate school underneath his apartment. He's working on buying it from Chip Wright (Chuck Norris' long time stunt double who also teaches in the Chuck Norris System style) when he retires and I'm so excited for him to keep pursuing the things he loves. Riley and I met, both black belts in the system, at our annual international convention so its been extra special to see him still so passionate about teaching and growing with it.
DAY FOUR: Medford, OR to Portland, OR
The next day was the most exciting for me, we got coffee and a souvenir t-shirt at the cutest shop just down the road from Riley's place before leaving town. It was a little strange to us how much of the drive was through brown, dry landscape, since you always see the foggy, luscious greens of Oregon advertised. The trip was short but there was almost no service and the anticipation made it seem much longer. Spoiler Alert: Portland is possibly my favorite US city I've ever been to. A little backstory, I've always been so in love with the idea of London and when I finally got to visit I loved it even more than I expected I could. It's one of the only places I've ever been homesick for. Portland is my American substitute. We arrived at the Mark Spencer hotel in the afternoon, threw all of our bags in a room and left to wander around the city.
We saw Powell's City of Books, nicknames including: heaven, dreamland, etc. Then we spent some time in another little thrift shop and decided to stop for appetizer tacos at a random taco shop on the same street, Papi Chulo's. There is a whole corner of TikTok that doesn't even know its favorite sound is really dedicated to a taco shop but I have two words for you: BEST TACOS EVER.
I recently started eating vegetarian before this trip and I was nervous I wouldn't be able to find food at every random place we stopped. Somehow everywhere we went was accommodating for so many types of diets. Papi Chulo's veggie taco is the best taco I've ever had in my life. Attempted appetizers quickly became a whole meal for us.
We walked, now full and happy, and found ourselves in the most beautiful park in the middle of the city, The Fields. We watched the sunset cover everything in gold and then we spent hours riding scooters through empty streets. We got a late night snack at this awesome bar
with great outdoor seating. We were basically the only ones there,
and the bartender made me quite possibly the best Jack and Coke I've ever paid for, combined with their mac n cheese I was very happy. After last call we took the scooters, laughing our way through nearly empty streets, trying to find this ice cream place I'd been dying to go to. It was about three miles from us, but at midnight we still weren't ready to say goodnight to Portland.
The ice cream??? to die for. Salt and Straw's lavender honey was officially crowned my favorite flavor that exists. There was nothing we ate that I wouldn't recommend.
The whole night was so magical, wandering the most incredible city, noon to midnight on a sugar high, imagining ourselves living in all the little apartment buildings, drinking coffee on balconies
covered in pretty plants. Our hotel gave us a complimentary bottle of wine, our one and only souvenir. If I didn't still have it, you might've convinced me the whole thing never happened. Funny how easy it is to live a life that feels like a dream.
DAY FIVE: Portland, OR to Seattle, WA + Cannon Beach, OR
We woke up in Portland making jokes about never leaving. Typically I'd pride myself on my ability to document things but I wasn't thinking about anything like that the night before, I was too swept away by the city. We tried to make up for it in the morning before we kept moving towards our next stop. We visited a popular little mural that says "Keep Portland Weird" where we took silly photos and planned out breakfast. Breakfast started with donuts from Blue Star, the blueberry bourbon was our favorite flavor. And then a search for coffee led us to Ovation, they had incredible breakfast biscuit sandwiches and an amazing lavender latte. We took our stash and ate by the river with a view of Ross Island Bridge. It was a really, really great morning. We got back on the road around noon and drove out to Cannon Beach.
We wandered around the coastal town and walked along the beach to get some pictures before we finished our drive to Seattle.
One of my favorite things about traveling and probably what I miss most from pre-Covid life, is when people ask me to take a picture for them. Jackson always makes a comment like, " you picked the right girl" or something, and then I spend
The drive to the coast was much greener, closer to what we expected from Oregon.
the next five minutes getting all the angles I can till I have the perfect picture for them. It's such a good feeling.
So when this cool girl named Erica appeared out of thin air asking if I could take a picture for her on the cutest little polaroid I just knew she was an angel. After she got a picture she liked she offered to take one for me and Jax.
She even took two to make sure we could both could have one which was incredibly kind. We exchanged instagrams and hers is so cute and aesthetic and she always has the most thoughtful captions. So shoutout to @leangreenerica because I'm so glad she scouted us out and I still think of her pretty neck scarf and vintage polaroid every time I think of this trip.
Jackson and I left pretty soon after that to start driving again and arrived at our airbnb before
sunset, dropping off bags and heading out in search of food. Our sweet friend Kayleigh went to college in Seattle and gave us some good recommendations so we took the Light Rail, Seattle's "subway", and found some tacos that honestly fell a little short after Papi Chulo's but were still good. I was still hungry after so we stopped in this brewery, Perihelion, basically the only thing open on the street back to our station. They weren't serving food anymore so we just ordered from their beer on tap, I got some sort of guava flavored something, it was super good and I rarely like beer. Afterwards we took the Light Rail back to our stop and ran into a grocery store for ice cream on our walk home. The long days were starting to catch up to us, we slept early and woke up late.
DAY SIX: Seattle, WA + Mount Rainier NP
Our second to last day of the trip was spent trying to cram in all of Seattle's "tourist musts". We started at Pike Place market which was just as cute and aesthetic as social media insists. We got coffee at Storyville and they gave us free mugs which made them 10/10 in my book. We got poke from the fish market downstairs and watched all the boats while we ate. Then we did a bit of driving in circles, heading up to Kerry Park for the view of the city and back towards downtown to walk in Capitol Hill.
It was a good central location for the last couple places people recommended we try, like Dicks Drive-In and Frankie and Joe's vegan ice cream. Dick's was just a burger place and so I didn't try anything but Jackson said it tasted like "fast food", take that how you like.
After walking for an entire ten minutes down one street my glasses broke right on my head and I had to follow Jackson with blind faith, pun intended, till we found a CVS that had a glasses repair kit. Afterwards we sat on the sidewalk across the street and I spent too long trying to put them back together. To console me, our next stop was immediately decided. Frankie and Joe's was 12/10, my cousin Desi said we had to try their California Cabin flavor and it was unreal. Jackson awarded it his new favorite ice cream ever and I would say it didn't fall too far behind my beloved lavender honey from Salt and Straw. The closest flavor I can think of to describe it is cardamom and shortbread cookie. A bit of a grownup flavor but definitely delicious. Since I didn't eat burgers with Jackson we stopped at a Chipotle around the corner and I got myself a veggie bowl to eat on our way to the last new stop of our trip. Mount Rainier National Park.
Even the drive there is gorgeous, the whole time you're coming from the city you can see Mt. Rainier in the distance, the closer we got the more it felt like magic. This place is seriously right out of a book about fairies. We decided to brave a night of camping with a cooler full of pb&j, my little pocket knife and a red hammock. You couldn't reserve camping sites and when we arrived they were all filled so we drove just outside of the park to Crystal Mountain and found a nearly empty RV campsite. Luckily, when we stopped to ask for advice about where to stay or if we could stay there, we happened to ask someone who was important enough to grant us permission
to stay and even looked out for us through the night. With the last bit of light left in the sky we attempted to put together a tent for more peace of mind, but ended up putting up the hammock with phone flashlights because it got too dark. Some of the RV campers had a fire going near us for a few hours which made it feel a little safer as we struggled to find a comfortable position that wouldn't have us falling out the second we fell asleep. It was a little funny and a little miserable, especially when someone had to get out of the hammock to pee and by someone I mean me. Finally we fell asleep till about 5 or 6 am when morning dew started to settle on everything and it got significantly colder.
DAY SEVEN: Mount Rainier NP to Reno, NV
We found our way back to the car and knocked out for a few solid hours of sleep. I woke up to voices near the car discussing bears in the tree line, and watched as the two men pointed out towards our hammock. Jackson and I still debate whether they really saw bears or simply heard us clumsily walking back to the car too early to see clearly, but we did leave our cooler of food, our hammock, and all of our tent supplies, so we consider ourselves lucky either way.
We packed all our things and drove into the park for the second time, this time heading towards a gorgeous loop trail that centered around a reflection pool underneath Mount Rainier. The whole place felt like you couldn't believe your eyes. There were so many wildflowers in every color and it was so so green everywhere you looked, except for the snow covered mountain in the distance. Please, do yourself a favor and add this national park to your list. I definitely want to go back at some point with more time to appreciate it. Eventually we reluctantly decided to start heading back home.
We were sad to be done with our trip but happy to almost be finished driving. What we didn't know is that we were beginning on our worst driving day by far. We drove through Portland and had to stop for one last Papi Chulo taco, when I tell you we're obsessed I mean it.
I had hoped to visit this plane in the woods outside of Portland that a man turned into a house. A lot of photographers who inspired me to take this trip had gone there and I was sad we couldn't fit it in but I'm excited to have an excuse to go back. Around the time we were half way between Portland and Medford we stopped at a little Oregon gas station and I started writing. The whole trip had left me so inspired and I needed to get it out.
Riley told us we could stop in and see him one more time to break up the drive so we took him up on his offer and he even made us dinner.
We were lucky we decided to tell Riley about the road we planned to take from Medford to Reno, where we were stopping for the night before finishing the drive to Vegas. We had already driven around ten hours to get to him and we were exhausted. It was 11 pm and maps said we had at least five more hours to Reno. He offered to let us stay for the night again, but we wanted to be closer to home before calling it. So Riley pulled out his phone to show us a stretch of the road we were taking where we would have to look out for deer. It still seemed better than the hour longer alternate route through Sacramento so we decided to risk it.
I cannot stress it enough, it was not better. Not only were we the only car on this dark back road of a highway, but we were incredibly outnumbered by the countless deer that surrounded us. I can't tell you how many times we were at a full stop, basically begging deer to get up out of the middle of the road where they lay in our path. Midnight came and went, then 1 am, 2, 3. Time moved quicker than we could even follow it, going maybe 30 miles an hour on average for about seven hours. We finally made it into Susanville and never saw another deer again, not
that we were any less traumatized by the deer crossing signs that lined the road. Even though we switched off driving neither of us could loosen enough to sleep, probably comparable to that scene in Tom and Jerry where Tom tapes his eyelids open trying to stay awake. It was past 6 am before we made it to my cousins house.
DAY EIGHT: Home + Some Sad News
Jackson crashed immediately upon seeing the couch, but my aunt and uncle were in town and everyone was waking up so I stayed up too. When Jackson woke up around 1 we left to meet his old roommates for lunch at our favorite Reno Thai place, Moo Dang. I always get the drunken noodles, and I literally compare every other Thai place to this one. Jackson wore the souvenir shirt we got in Medford, and put a stain in it. We always make jokes about how he stains everything he wears the very first time, and here's proof. We tried to get the stain out but the stain remover made it even worse so now it's a crop top and its mine.
While driving back to Vegas Jackson insisted I try to sleep, so I did.
But when I woke up from my nap it felt like we were on another planet. The entire sky was yellow and smoky, Jackson had no idea why and it had never looked like this any other time we drove on this road.
When we got home we found out that terrible forest fires had taken over many of the places we had just seen. Riley, in fact, told us that if we had stayed the night like he offered, we might not have been able to go back home. His family had been evacuated from their house not far from his apartment. It was so sad to watch the news and see the little private beach where we spent our morning with the golden gate bridge, surrounded by an apocalyptic red sky. We felt so helpless, we had just been there and we couldn't do a single thing to help. While we were so grateful to have just missed the chaos, it felt wrong that we had. Riley kept me posted about his family and despite the horrors of the experience, they were all safe and seemed even optimistic about their fresh start. I had always advocated for these kinds of issues, but I had never had such a close experience as this with loved ones being effected so heavily. Riley reminded me then that moments like this are meant to show us what really matters, being alive, and safe, despite material loss.
If you're interested, here are a few websites that accept donations for Wildfire Relief on the West Coast:
Northern California Wildfire Relief
The TLDR version of our Itinerary
Vegas to Newport Beach, -> about 4hrs, ten min.
- Places we stopped: CAVA, Balboa Beach
Newport to Santa Barbara -> about 2hrs
- The walking beaches are so beautiful. State st. is a MUST. and Tino's, trust me.
Santa Barbara to Solvang -> ONLY 45 min.
- Places we stopped in Solvang: Birkholm's Bakery, the danishes are amazing!
Solvang to San Francisco -> 4hrs, 27 min.
- Places we went to in SF: MAC'D, Pier 39, Lombard St, Haight Ashbury, Batteries to Bluffs Trail
- Places we went to in San Jose: San Pedro Square Market
The Bay to the Redwoods -> 6hrs, 17 min.
- We stopped in Praire Creek Redwood State Park for a trail or two and then kept driving
The Redwoods to Medford -> about 4 hrs
- Medford has the CUTEST coffee shop called Forage Coffee Co. a plant lovers dream
Medford to Portland, OR -> 4 hrs, 15 min.
- Places you NEED to stop in Portland: Papi Chulo's, Salt and Straw, Fields Park, "Keep Portland Weird" mural, Powell's City of Books, Blue Star Donuts, Ovation. We stayed downtown in the Mark Spencer Hotel, a great neutral location for most sights and right next to Washington st. where we saw many cute restaurants with outdoor seating.
Portland Pro Tip: Download the app (& carry sanitizing wipes) then use Lime, Bird, or Skip scooters to get around.
Portland to Cannon Beach -> 1hr, 30 min.
- Even rainy, even foggy, this beach is just as pretty as the instagram pictures
Cannon Beach to Seattle -> about 4 hrs
- Some Seattle faves: Storyville Coffee, Pike Place Market, Capitol Hill, Kerry Park, Frankie and Joe's, and Perihelion.
Seattle to Mt. Rainier NP -> about 2 hrs
- Best hikes: Naches Peak loop, Wonderland trail, Skyline trail, Tipsoo lake
Mt. Rainier Pro Tip: go in the summer or springtime for the best wildflower blooms.
Seattle, WA to Medford -> about 7.5 hrs no traffic
Pro Tip: stop for more Papi Chulo's tacos, I insist.
Medford, OR to Reno, NV -> about 6 hrs no traffic
Pro Tip: don't go through Susanville at night, take the extra hour through Sacramento. It's faster.
Reno to Las Vegas, NV -> about 7 hrs no traffic
- Some places we love and miss from our college days in Reno: Midtown, Jo Stella's Coffee, Alderto's (get the super burrito), Moo Dang, Our Bar, Sparks Marina and Legends, and Tahoe, anything Tahoe.