2 Days in Big Sur

          If you saw my last post, you probably know that My husband and I went to Big Sur last weekend.  We haven’t gone anywhere in almost a year.  Obviously, that’s because of the pandemic.  We had a trip to Japan planned for March but had to cancel.  We were planning on celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary there.  The reason we initially thought we had to cancel is because our layover was in China.  Little did we know that we wouldn’t be able to even leave the country.  We planned a series of back up trips that all fell through, of course.  Then we booked airfare to fly to see our families.  We would have been gone last weekend.  We canceled those flights for multiple reasons, including cases rising.  Honestly, I have been super desperate to go somewhere even for just 1 night.  I have been sooo stir crazy and mentally just really needed it.  Also, we got a puppy at the beginning of everything happening and want to start adjusting him to long car rides and hotel stays.  I am worried that If I don’t start that early he will not do well when we are able to really travel later on.  The whole reason we got a Pomeranian is because we normally go on a lot of little road trips and fly pretty often.  We wanted a small dog that can come in the cabin with us.  He was meant to be our little travel buddy.  So anyway, we ended up deciding to go to Big Sur for 1 night just because we both had that Friday off anyway.  Big Sur is where we got married over a year ago so we thought it would be perfect to celebrate our anniversary there.  Obviously it was a delayed celebration, but it’s fine.  It was super fun and Luca did so well.  He was really good in the car and the hotel.  I really think he was kind of made for travel.  He seems to love it.  He did come home with a few flea but I think (hopefully) we sorted that out.  

          So our itinerary consisted of 2 days and 1 night.  This was my 5th or 6th time to Big Sur so we didn’t have to see everything.  We left on Friday at 6:30am and drove up the coast to Monterey.  Then we drove back home on Saturday.  We got home around 8:00pm.  I always kind of thought you needed more time to do that trip but you really don’t if you are fine with not stopping at the State Parks.  We stayed at Motel 6 in Monterey and it was actually pretty nice.  I was pleasantly surprised.  They are one of the only hotel chains that allows dogs and a lot of other places were booked up.  I’m not that picky.  I just need a clean and safe place to stay.  I have a feeling we will be staying at Motel 6’s a lot more now that we have a dog.  We made a ton of stops along the way of course because Big Sur isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey.  Morrow Bay was our first stop.  I love it there.  Dogs are allowed at the State Park and if you go right by the bay you can watch the sea otters playing and eating.  There are a ton of them.  Next we just stopped at a bunch of nice pull-offs along the coast.  I don’t think they have names.  If you have been, you will know what I mean.  We went to Garrapata State Beach and Park.  That’s where I was in my last post.  That beach also allows dogs.  We took our wedding photos there so it was nice to relive that memory.  Then we made some more stops along the coast and checked into the motel.  We were really tired from getting up so early and wanted to get dinner.  We just got Thai food and brought it back to the room.  The next day we spend the morning in Carmel.  Carmel is literally the cutest town, I mean as far as towns in the U.S. go.  Then we went to the beach where we said our vows.  We started the journey home and made more stops along the coast.  We also stopped at McWay Falls and Bixby Bridge.  The last stop we made was San Simeon.  We wanted to show Luca some Elephant Seals.  They were huge and he seemed to like them.  Although, he liked the squirrels and pelicans more.  

          If you are wondering about how it was to travel during Corona times, it was a little tricky but not too bad.  The drive isn’t too far from home so we didn’t have to make that many stops and we kept them to a minimum.  We made sure to buy a lot of snacks so we only ate carry-out twice and only used restrooms when we had to stop anyway.  We brought lots of sanitizer and wore masks when around other people.  Luckily, that trip didn’t really consist of going to places that were that crowded.  Some of the State Parks were pretty crowded but we didn’t go to them because they don’t allow dogs. In general, I felt very safe.  I wouldn’t recommend traveling right now but I totally understand if you feel like you have to.