It is time for Part 2 of our ultimate West Coast road trip adventure. We followed the gorgeous pacific coastline through Washington, Oregon, and all the way down to Los Angeles (California). After the Canadian/USA border, the first place we stopped in was Astoria (Oregon). Randomly, Leon was scrolling online as we driving through and realised this little coastal town was the main setting for ‘The Goonies’. We just had to check out the house from the movie, perhaps you recognise it 🙂

Aside from Mikey’s house, the jailhouse from the opening scene is still in the town which is now a film museum. It was definitely worth a drive past to snap a picture.

A bit further south, we visited Haystack Rock, a 235ft basalt sea stack in Cannon Beach. It’s featured in countless novels, TV programs, and movies such as Kindergarten Cop, and of course, The Goonies. Haystack Rock is one of Oregon’s most recognizable landmarks.

This was our first introduction to some of the most interesting fog (?) we’ve ever seen, that stuck with us on and off the whole of the West Coast (and even has a name in San Francisco… read on to find out!)

Highway 101 took us through the pretty Oswald West State Park. The park stretches for four miles and consists of coastal rainforest and secluded sandy beaches.

The fog that rolled in looked like bizarre looking low lying clouds we could see in the distance, which were in fact at ground level, which we frequently ended up driving though. It was an eerie experience.

We camped up for the night at Blue Heron French Cheese Company in Tillamook. The cheese company lets campers stay for free in the field for a maximum of two nights, how kind. They had a lovely shop and a petting farm, so in the morning we went to greet the friendly donkeys, goats, llamas, and pigs all having their breakfast.

After our breakfast we did a free self-guided tour at Tillamook Creamery: a popular America creamery brand, to learn about one of my favourite things, cheese! You can watch the factory workers making the cheese, and learn about the process of turning their high-quality milk into award-winning cheddar. They even hand out free samples. We nipped around their shop afterwards and stocked up on strawberry soft cream cheese, smoked black pepper cheddar, and salted caramel ice cream sandwiches. Good bye waistline!

We continued to drive south down through Oregon on the stunning Highway 101; there were some pretty misty coastlines. Very dramatic indeed.

We met up with Issac (our gaming friend who you may remember from West Coast USA Blog Part 1) in Florence, and had a catch up and some tasty sushi. He’s actually just booked a flight to England to come stay with us as soon as we get back from our travels. We can’t wait to show you around, Issac!

That evening we made a pit stop at Port Orford (Oregon) to watch the sunset. There were countless sea stacks on our Highway 101 route. The stacks are formed by erosion from wind and water, and are remnants of rocky headlands.

We camped at Eureka that night; it was a long drive there. We were on a bit of a tight schedule as we were meeting my friend Lucy in San Francisco in 2 days, so we didn’t have much choice but to park up in a Walmart car park. Frustratingly, we got a tap from a security guard and moved on at 1am to a street a minute down the road. The first time we’d been moved on before. We had heard Walmart’s were fine to camp in, but I am guessing every state is different.

We left early in the morning, taking a slight detour at Highway 254 and ended up driving through the towering sequoias in the Avenue of the Giants. It then re-joined back up with Highway 101 for a short period before we then joined Highway 1 to be back on the coast. We stopped for lunch at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg (California). The beach used to be a dump site, but now the broken bottle pieces are now smoothed down into colourful little pebble treasures. It is illegal to remove any glass from Glass Beach, but apparently people have been doing so because over the years the beach has been depleted of its colourful namesake glass. It’s nothing like it used to be, but we still thought it was pretty cool to see.

Glass Beach also had some of the chunkiest squirrels that we had ever seen. They were pretty tame as well, and came right up to us begging for snacks. Naughty squirrels!

Our next stop was the foggy San Francisco. My good friend from home, Lucy, was going to be joining us on our travels for a bit. Yay! I couldn’t wait to see her. We were camping up outside the city, at a friend of a friend’s. It was the morning of England Women winning the Euro 2022 final so Leon made us a little late for meeting Lucy at her hotel in the city. He won some money on the match so offered to pay for the Uber there to speed things up!

We met her for brunch burritos in a popular restaurant, La Taqueria in The Mission district (well recommended, the lines were around the corner of the block). We had so much catching up to do. We spent two days exploring, and eating our way through, San Fran. After burritos, we checked out Dolores Park (pictured below), and grabbed a Blue Bottle coffee (a popular café chain) and some recommended cookies from Hot Cookie.

We explored Haight Street, and enjoyed a boozy afternoon with a bottle of wine before grabbing e-scooters and checking out the Painted Ladies (pictured below). A famous group of repainted Victorian and Edwardian houses, which have been featured in films.

We explored the Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience, devoured their popular chocolate fudge sunday, and checked out the classic San Fran cable cars.

San Fran is famous for a number of dishes; clam chowder is among one of the most popular. That evening we headed to Boudin Bakery in Fisherman’s Wharf to try clam chowder in their signature sourdough bread bowls. The bakery has been around since 1849, serving the people with this popular staple. The chowder was delicious; wholesome, filling, and comforting – perfect for a foggy day. A quintessential San Fran dining experience.

Lombard Street is famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns. This squiggly section was designed in 1922, after it was determined that the grade of the hill was too steep for most vehicles, and even pedestrians. Now people queue to drive down it. We decided to e-scoot down it (we also later drove down it in our campervan when we left SF). Poor Luce was very jet lagged but the e-scooters were helping to keep her wide awake, so she managed to get over the jet lag pretty quickly. 

We introduced Lucy to the American classic, “In and Out” fast food burger restaurant. And of course, we drove over the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. I was expecting to see usual summer fog at the bridge. I had even added the fog on Instagram (@karlthefog) in preparation ready to tag him in my photos. But low and behold, it was a totally clear day. Karl was no where to be found. 

We also hiked up Slacker’s Hill, a short uphill hike to get the very best view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge was the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world when it was constructed in 1937. It is a recognised as a symbol of the power and advancements of the USA. It then set an example for suspension bridge design all around the world.

We later left San Fran and continued down the west coast Highway 1. We stopped at Santa Cruz, a fun seaside town with fairground rides. Lucy tried her first corn dog here, she’d kill me if I put up the photo though. So I’ve gone with this photo instead.

We attempted to get into the campground at Sunset State Beach that night, but all 3 were full. Campsites seem to get booked up pretty early in the USA. Not ideal for us flexible travellers. We enjoyed a taco dinner during sunset next to the beach, before parking further up the road to sleep. It was Lucy’s first night with us in the camper van; luckily she’s petite so was able to fit in the bed in the roof, with the window cracked open for ventilation. We then returned to Sunset State Beach for breakfast; Leon made me and Lucy pineapple pancakes after a stroll along the beach.

We continued to drive south, enjoying the views, and stopped at the cute beach town of Monterey.

Lucy and Leon stocked up on salt water taffy. Neither of us had tried it before, but it was delicious. The shop we went to had so many flavours; key lime pie, chocolate orange, and salted caramel. Legend has it that in 1888 a candy shop became flooded during a storm, resulting his his soft taffy soaked in salty ocean water. When a customer came to purchase the taffy, he jokingly said he only had salt water taffy. And apparently the name stuck! You could watch the salt water taffy being pulled in the window by machines, this aerates it and provides a softer, lighter taffy. Noms!

We drove through the famous and beautiful Big Sur area: a stretch of the California rocky coastline between Carmel and San Simeon. The Bixby Bridge, pictured below, is apparently one of the most photographed bridges in the whole of California due to its aesthetic design.

Leon, at this point in the trip had been getting very handy with controlling the drone, in the passenger seat of the van while i drove – very cool! Look out for the USA video at some point this year.

As we continued to drive, we passed a gathering of elephant seals at the aptly named, Elephant Seal View Point. Named due to their trunk like nose, elephant seals were previously aggressively hunted, and they almost became extinct. Though due to legal protections, their numbers have bounced back. They were smelly, farty, noisy, and very entertaining as they moved their bodies in a worm like fashion along the sand.

Further down, we quickly stopped at Pismo Beach to walk along the pier. It was pretty chilly though and the summer fog was rolling in, so we didn’t stay long. We made a longer pit stop in Santa Barbara to meet Mike (the cannabis farmer you may remember from West Coast Blog Part 1), and he took us out for dinner and drinks. 

Plenty of pretty coastal views along the way – we were spoilt!

Apart from roadsides, we quickly realised there were pretty much no options for dispersed camping on the coast. Quite the contrast from our inland mountainous drive in Part 1. And certainly zero places to have a fire pit. So we decided to pay for a nice campsite in San Simeon with a big fire pit so we could give Lucy the proper camping experience we had been previously having. The campsite turned out to be great, we had owl and squirrel visitors, a nice big fire pit, and friendly neighbours. The large bench was a welcome addition too.

Caught in the act!

The next morning, we did a tour around the opulent Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The antique collector William Randolph Hearst started to build a estate in 1919 on his ranchland for all the items he bought and collected from around the world. It was finished in 1947, and is now owned by the California State Park. Now a house historic museum, it’s brimming with grand tapestries, statues, antiques. It covers more than 68,500 square feet (6,360 square metres), and contains 115 rooms, including 38 bedrooms, more than 40 bathrooms, even a theatre where back then, guests would be given a puppy to hold during the movie. Oh, and of course you would be allowed to take it home if you so please!

You can even rent the incredible pool at the property, if you’re rich enough of course.

We said a sad goodbye to Bertie our trusty campervan and dropped him off back in LA, and got a taxi to our friends in Huntington Beach. Can you believe in 6 weeks we drove a total of 6400 miles (10300km)! That’s more than I drive in a YEAR at home in England. Just goes to show the sheer vastness of USA and Canada.

We were in Huntington Beach for my birthday weekend. It was great catching up with Carla, the girls were back together again! Carla had a huge surprise she had been keeping from us… she was pregnant with baby number two! Massive congratulations, Caz.

We all went out for a sushi dinner together that evening and had a good catch up. The next day, me, Leon, Lucy and Ulises (our online gaming friend from Long Beach from USA Blog Part 1) celebrated my 32nd birthday in style at Disneyland. When it’s your birthday they give you a badge and all the staff members have to wish you a happy birthday. So just in case I forgot, I was constantly reminded by the smiling friendly staff. I felt like a true Disney princess.

Ulises’ sister works at Disneyland, so we got all four tickets for free. What a fantastic birthday present! We were therefore more than happy to fork out on the 20 dollar fast track pass, which saved us a tonne of queuing time all day. We absolutely recommend it to anyone reading this!

I had the best birthday; the weather was absolutely beautiful and rides were great. We really enjoyed Space Mountain and the Incredicoaster, but without a doubt the highlight was the new Star Wars ride which opened earlier this year. Wow wow wow, what.. an.. experience! It was the ride to ruin all other theme park rides, and this is coming from not particularly big Star Wars fans! Without giving anything away, for 20 minutes or so we were immersed and forgot we were in a park at all!

We watched the finale and left Disneyland at 11.15pm (it’s open til midnight!) absolutely exhausted from the long, adrenaline filled day.

For our final full day before our flight, we all had a lovely brunch together on Huntington Beach main street before checking out the Vans US Surfing and Skateboarding on the beach, then the Orange County Fair in the afternoon. They had a petting zoo, loads of food stalls (Nick got a huge turkey leg wrapped in bacon and it fed us all!), and fairground rides.

We said goodbye to Carla, Nick, and baby Atlas, and left the following day in a taxi to the LA airport to catch our flight. We said goodbye to Lucy at the airport, it felt surreal that she was going to fly back home but we were going to continue the travels. We were off to Central America for our next chapter on our round the world adventures. Our first stop: Costa Rica. Blog coming soon 🙂 

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