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Day 1: Vancouver, WA - Martinez, CA

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Sight-seeing: Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Mount Shasta, and Shasta Lake   We knew a 3-day road trip from Vancouver, WA to Carlsbad, CA was ambitious, but we didn’t realize just how ambitious until the night before. When we discovered there was no other way to arrive at Hearst Castle between the hours of 9 and 4, we decided to drive 10 hours down I-5 the first day. We left at 6:45 a.m. before sunrise and arrived at 7:30 p.m. after sunset. Erin, Brett, and Jan at the start of the journey After fiddling with the heat for a while, I ultimately gave up and wrapped myself in a blanket instead. It was also louder than expected due to the buffeting of air in the spaces between the window and the side of the car, so at high speeds it felt a bit like trying to have a conversation on a roller coaster.   Our first stop was in Eugene. After filling up on gas, the engine wouldn’t start. (Evidently the battery is very sensitive and couldn’t handle the window being ro
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Day 2: Martinez, CA - San Luis Obispo, CA

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Sight-seeing: Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel River State Beach, Big Sur, McWay Waterfall Trail, Hearst Castle We left at 7 a.m. to make sure we could fit in 6 hours of driving plus several longer stops. It was surprisingly foggy the whole day! The two of us outside our aunt and uncle's house with their dog, Target. Although we had originally intended our first stop to be Muir Woods, we scratched it off the list due to San Francisco traffic and drove down to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park instead.   At one point in the stop-and-go traffic Brett had to brake so hard the tires squealed and the car behind us pulled up beside the Auburn. Thankfully no collisions occurred.   Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park Henry Cowell offers a short loop trail with a brochure for a self-guided tour, which we enjoyed. As we were leaving, we were stopped by a German guy named Michael Herrmann who took a photo of us for his blog . B
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Day 3: San Luis Obispo, CA - Carlsbad, CA

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Sight-seeing: Solvang, Santa Ynez, Malibu, Santa Monica, Long Beach On the final day we “slept in” and didn’t leave until 8 a.m. since we only had 5 hours of driving left and not very many intended stops.   All of the street signs in San Luis Obispo used this font. First we drove through a cute little Dutch-themed town called Solvang on the way to Santa Ynez, which was charming but not worth driving out of your way to see.   Brett told me that Pepperdine was known for having one of the prettiest campuses in the U.S., so of course when we got to Malibu I had to check it out. We didn’t think about how out of place the Auburn might be on a college campus, but based on the looks we received it must have been quite unusual. Brett and I agreed that Point Loma wins the best campus contest. Because Santa Monica was south of L.A. traffic, we stopped for a brief lunch—the first time on the trip! Our final stop was in Long Beach at the Queen Mary, an impressively
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