A Glimpse of Wonderful: California road trip day 6 - The day of the sweater (Highway 1 day 1)

I woke up bright and early ready to conquer the world! I was dressed, packed and ready to go by dawn. No wait, that was Crystal. I opened an eye, saw the warm fire and cuddled back into the poofy comforter to watch the dawn awake the dark trees around us. What was that noise? Crystal was up and cooking in the kitchen! She was rather excited that she got to cook one of the days, especially in a cute little cabin the woods. She made us bacon, challah french toast with fig and vanilla bean preserves, and scrambled eggs with shallots, serrano peppers and thick-cut shredded cheese along with a pot of really good Humbolt county coffee. It was amazing! We sat in the kitchen with the windows open and enjoyed a slow morning before packing up and hitting the road again. We were out by check-out and back on the road.

We hit the 101 and as the fog lifted we exited onto the northern most portion of highway 1. At this point I decided I should share a few things with Crystal. I told her there were 'a few things' and we would talk about them 'soon'. We drove through the mountains and around the crazy switch backs taking in the awe inspiring views. We stopped several times for photo ops and we got amazing shots of huge mountains, giagantic trees and enormous sweaters.

The first 'thing' was that our road trip is no longer a destination trip. We have no where else to 'be', we just stop as we see things. The second thing, I told her, was that the speed limit was a real thing on highway 1. We went around the last mountain curve and saw nothing between us and the ocean as we drove around the cliff. I then told her the last thing, "look down". The view was outstanding.

Crystal: It took my brain a moment to realize that what my eyes were taking in. I have never seen a view like this in real life. Paintings and instagram shots come to life. Weaving back and forth so close to the edge of a cliff with no railing was disorienting. Once I fell into a comfortable pattern, the ride was soothing. Mountain views then ocean cliffs. Google did put the pressure on...55 miles per hour the entire way is not humanly possible. Our drive extended over 2 hours due to the switch back mountain turns.

Lynn: So.... When I said, "I would love to drive back on highway 1 in my car, it corners so well it would be amazing" I thought she knew wha she was in for. Fun driver Crystal drives fast on the straight aways. Fun driver Lynn loves them corners! I didn't know that Crystal didn't know what highway 1 was. She didn't know she was in for cliff driving. The views were amazing, the emptiness was calming. We saw very few people, very few cars.

The hotel we stopped at was in Jenner, California. It had no internet and no cell phone signal.

We got ready for my 'birthday dinner' at the River's Inn as we watched the sun set from our balcony. We walked the steep incline up 4 cabins to our restaurant.