Pacific Coast Highway

My sister had strongly urged me to go on the PCH, as it is called around here. That was part of our plan. OK, 'plan' is too strong, general outline of what we were going to do when while in CA (that outline was: arrive, stay with my mother, see Bobby and Tracey, hope to get to the beach and up to see Jason and Rebekah, depart; anything else was detail to be taken care of as needed!). When we learned that Fremont was just too far away we thought we would drive the PCH on Saturday.
We got directions and took off.

It was three hours before we saw the ocean at Ventura! The interstate, excuse me, the Freeway as they call it here, was loaded with cars. For many stretches it was bumper to bumper traffic. Never completely stopped, but slow going. Very frustrating. I was thinking, "All these people are on Hwy 101 (which is the PCH), this is going to be terrible." And since it was even heavier on the other side, turning around wasn't an option. All that I dislike most about CA - cars and concrete - was all we were seeing. Mary kept asking, "Who would want to live this way?"

We needed gas so we got off at a town called Monrovia. Mary was ooh-ing and ah-ing. She thought it was a cute town. I was frustrated - this was a fairly populous town and they had no gas stations! Finally, as I was turning around to try another exit Mary asked someone. "Is there a gas station near by?" The lady looked confused, then said, "I think there is one about half a mile that way." We drove all through that town and saw two! Then it was back to the PCH.

We drove through Burbank and North Hollywood and Pasadena. Basically, greater LA. Mary was thrilled. I kept saying, "Los Angeles?! I didn't want to drive through Los Angeles!"

Then we ran into a mountainous area. Interesting, I thought we were heading to the coast and we have mountains.
Finally, we rounded a curve and there it was, the ocean. We almost accidently found Hwy 1, a two lane road that is right on the water. This was really beautiful. There was the water, Hwy 1, a railroad track, higher up Hwy 101, and then mountains! We stopped a couple of times just to look at the water. Then we saw the strangest sight - an RV campground right on the highway! This was a short highway and we had to get back on 101.

We took a short drive through Monticedo and realized this was a very exclusive community and got back on the road.
Eventually we reached Santa Barbara. Out TomTom took us to the very center of downtown. So we parked and walked around. Nice place. Very artsy. We walked around, then ate at Carlitos Mexican Cantina. Pretty good. After eating we drove toward the water and discovered that we had missed three fourths of the downtown area. And Macs Fish and Chips!! We drove around Santa Barbara and discovered that this rich town has its' 'other side of the tracks.' We went up a hill, then down and around the curve and we were in "little Mexico."

With nothing left to see in Santa Barbara we headed south on the PCH. We got to Summertown (??) Beach and walked around for a while. Then decided to head back to Yucaipa, hoping traffic had eased. While it was better, there was still a lot of traffic. The high life in CA seems to be a trip on the freeway! Must have been better 'cause we made it back in a little over 2 1/2 hours.

So, how was my trip to the Pacific Coast Highway? Once I got to the actual coast, it was very nice. Getting there and getting back is another story. Once again I have proved my theory, When travelling, the joy is the destination, not the journey!