2/18/21 the journey up highway 1 to northern california

after dropping gabby off at 5 am at the san diego airport, we decided to get an early start to the day. drove up to malibu just in time for 9 am class on the beach :) ate some lunch and headed further up the coast. ended up driving in circles up and down the pacific coast highway, but it didn’t matter because it’s such a beautiful drive🐒 spent the end of the night wrapping crystals and eating a salad on the beach, then driving to the nearest pull off and passing out in the front seat of the car because we were so tired.

woke up to a crazy view of the malibu ocean. made some breakfast tortilla wraps and helped the highway patrol guy pick up some hard-to-reach garbage at the bottom of the cliff we slept on, and some fellow van dwellers pitched in too!! hippies saving the planet forever ☮️🌎 made our way up the coast, stopping at a beach in santa barbara to soak in all of the hot sun before driving to pismo beach. went to a butterfly garden here where monarchs migrate through every year, but sadly we only saw three. apparently the numbers are dwindling every year :/ made some soup in a cave and taught some kids how to live for cheap out of their car before meeting some super cool peeps living at the beach & trading crystal necklaces for some travel gifts🤎

decided to send the long drive from pismo to the coast north of san fran that night and ended up arriving near mendocino county around 3 am before fixing up the car and falling into a very peaceful sleep as we listened to the waves crash along the coast🌊

woke up on the PCH once again wednesday morning. super insane view, saw some seals on the beach below us 🦭before heading to a pull off with service to go to our chem class. the coast up north is so beautiful. super rugged rocks line the grassy cliffs that are full of life. it is so so green up north, which is so refreshing after spending a month in the desert ( as much as we do love the desert ). found some cute lil mushrooms while doing school 🍄

after class, we continued to make our way up the coast where we stumbled upon fort ross state park. life hack: park on the PCH rather than pay to park in the state park parking lots ;) this random park ended up being so gorgeous. felt like we were in ireland with the grassy cliffs and mountains behind us. found some cows in a field and some gnarly mushrooms as well 🐸 the waves out here are so insanely powerful, pummeling the rocks into crazy formations all along the coast. a morning run took us exploring down to a few beaches, where we uncovered tons of shells from all sorts of animals and cool rocks. after our adventure, we made a colorful salad with the lettuce from the compost, so tasty 👅 watched seals play in the water below as we enjoyed the salad🥕

continued north once again after fort ross. such a beautiful drive. pulled off a few times to explore the rainforest biomes that we were now surrounded by. felt like another world once again... mossy forests on one side of the road, the ocean on the other. ended the night at a beach where we met a local man from the pomo native american tribe who had the most beautiful soul 🧡 and his doggo . we chatted by the campfire listening to old rock playing from his truck as the sun set into the mist of the pacific, such a magical end to our day in this magical world 🌈