Road Trip California

After our recent visit to Disneyland we took a road trip along the beautiful Californian coast back to San Francisco.

Here's a little look at some of the sights along the way.

We started our road trip in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara. We had driven there the night before to avoid Los Angeles peak hour on a Monday morning. After a delicious bagel breakfast in Carpinteria we headed to the beach at Santa Barbara where we spent a short while splashing about in the waves. The girls, Ava in particular, were super excited to spend some time at the beach. Back home in Australia we would go to the beach quite regularly however here in San Francisco the beaches are just a little cold so we've only been once or twice.

Two excited kids

Kylie photobombs the shot

Heading down to the water 

Hooray for the beach

Beach babe

Splash

So happy to be at the beach

Running from waves

Where have Lola's feet gone?

Catch of the day! We caught a tub of ricotta that was floating around in the ocean!

One thing that makes the beaches here seem oh so Californian is the blue lifeguard boxes. There was no lifeguard on duty while we were at the beach in Santa Barbara so we used the lifeguard box as a fun photo prop!

Little lifeguards

Little life guards

My turn as lifeguard

Family of lifeguards

Kim's impressive jump

Lifeguard Kylie

After the beach we took a quick look at the mission in Santa Barbara. It is quite a beautiful building with lovely gardens. Had we more time I would've liked to take a proper look at the mission. For now a quick look at the outside had to do.

The mission at Santa Barbara

The mission at Santa Barbara

From Santa Barbara we pretty much drove straight along the coast back to San Francisco with only the odd stop for food or toilet breaks. Long road trips can be a little hard with a toilet training toddler!

The coastline around the Big Sur area is absolutely beautiful in its ruggedness. The most spectacular parts of the coastline were seen during the latter part of the day when it was starting to get a little dark and the fog had rolled in. This made for very atmospheric scenery although it would be nice to see it all on a sunny day.

Scenic view inside and outside of the car

Farmland and hills

Bouncy road

Heading towards the hills

Back along the beautiful coast line

Starting to get a little foggy

A quick stop to take in the views

Ava and Kylie

Rocky coastline

Back on the road

The light was beautiful late in the afternoon

So atmospheric

The sun shines through the cloud

This trip was a little rushed in that we only had one day so I think a multi day road trip might be in order some time in the not too distant future. Maybe with a visit to Hearst Castle at San Simeon thrown in for good measure. We could see Hearst Castle from the highway as we drove by and I must say it looks absolutely beautiful.

Hearst Castle from the highway

As much as the scenery was beautiful along the way, we were happy to be back home and out of the car. Back home in our own beds. Well, sort of... Kylie was in Ava's bed. Ava was in Lola's bed. Lola was in the bed with Kim and I. Close enough!