Day 2: Martinez, CA - San Luis Obispo, CA

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. Brett explained that he inherited the Auburn from our dad. 

“What happened, did he die?”

Brett and I said yes.

“Aw, shucks!” Michael said. 

“We’re taking this road trip because it was one he and my mom had planned to do.”

Michael asked why they didn’t, to which Brett responded that our dad died.

“Aw, shucks!” Michael said. 

After driving through Santa Cruz and Monterey, we arrived in Carmel. Another happy accident was when we couldn’t find Pebble Beach, so we wound up driving along Carmel River State Beach instead. What a pleasant drive!

Carmel River State Beach

We stopped for gas in Big Sur, where a motor home was parked on one side and a car that must have had the biggest gas tank in existence was on the other. Suddenly a man appeared, waving at us, and walked over to his motor home to move it for us, which was a nice gesture—although we weren’t sure why he was parked there in the first place. Gas was a bargain price of $5.25 per gallon, so maybe he figured it wouldn’t be a popular stop. 

At Pfeiffer State Park we were told the purple sand my dad had noted on his itinerary was “about a mile down the road.” As we turned around, Brett waved on an oncoming car to turn first. The car stopped, rolled the window down, and the driver produced a camera so he could take a photo of us, which backed up traffic momentarily. 

Ten miles later, we still couldn’t find the purple sand (I later discovered that it only appears after it rains) but we did stop at the beautiful McWay Waterfall Trail instead. 

McWay Waterfall

At Hearst Castle we took the Grand Rooms Tour, which Brett said had changed since he took it. Our tour guide was excellent, both in her knowledge and delivery. On the 15-minute bus ride back down to the visitor center, we started tailgating the bus in front of us. “That bus driver won’t last long,” ours predicted as she told us she was in a hurry to get to the bank before it closed. After watching an interesting video about William Hearst’s life, we drove to San Luis Obispo. 

Hearst Castle

Since we hadn’t had lunch or dinner, at first we were excited that Monday was buffet night at the Indian restaurant where we ate. Then we remembered our dad’s wisdom about the inverse relationship between the quality and quantity of food… and why he tended to avoid restaurants where the redeeming factor was, “It’s all you can eat!” 

At our hotel where we slept for the night, a man approached us, exclaiming, “I saw that car at Hearst Castle!” He said that he owned a model T.