Today, Mike and I spent a nice morning in the Barnes & Noble in Obispo. We updated the blog and planned our day. We’ve got time constraints (rooms booked in the next stop) and we’re so totally wiped out from driving that once we get to our destination, we eat dinner, have a glass of wine, and crash for the night. But today we had a little more time. Actually, as I type this, we’re driving into San Francisco. Holy traffic jams, batman! Anyhoo, let me tell you about today. We left Obispo and got on HWY 1, or to all you hep cats, Pacific Coast Highway. Wow. We stopped a lot and got out to enjoy the views. Mom, you and Paul need to take this highway—you’ll freak! So we got out to dip our feet in the ocean and snap several pictures. I bought a gorgeous ring in Big Sur. The whole way to Big Sur, I gave Mike a short synopsis of the novel Big Sur by Jack Kerouac (one of my very favorite writers). It was an awful synopsis, as I haven’t read it in about 10 years. So yeah. The views are incredible. The PCH is etched into the Santa Lucia mountains, and is forever being eroded away into the ocean. It looks like the winter rains did a number on the roads there and it was slow-going in several spots. But it was so worth it. Man, so beautiful. We took lots of pictures for you guys. I am definitely going back.

I know I completely glazed over Flagstaff on the blog. I am going to recap our time there tomorrow morning. Flag is awesome, for one thing (although I liked Santa Fe a little better), and it’s definitely a must see for anyone taking a trip to the Grand Canyon this summer—cough cough MOM and PAUL. We did drive down to Sedona, or as I termed it “Sedona-wanna-buy-some-new-agey-crap?” It was raining in Sedona, and not as spectacular as I’d heard it was, but the trip there made it all worth it. Oak Creek Canyon is a must-see. Anyway, I digress…I’ll update more on that tomorrow. I have to navigate Mike into San Fran at rush hour. Wish us luck!

--Anne

EDIT: we made into SF. holy crap, why did no one warn us of the 45-degree angled streets!? it seems nice so far. it smells a little and there's LOTS of homeless people. i also thought NYC smelled rank, so it must be a sign of a great city! there's a couple theater's across the street with lines of people waiting to get in. since i have absolutely no idea about showbiz stuff, i have no clue what it is. i did see martin short's name on one of the marquee's. i think it may be a one-man show type thing. right now, we're gonna venture out from the hostel (which is in dwntn SF on mason st.) our car is in a parking garage ($15/night better make sure all our crap's still in it in the morning). i need seafood. we're pretty wiped out, so tomorrow's drive up to ashland should be awesome (i.e. it's short in comparison to the one we did yesterday). redwood forests, here we come!