Golden Day

On June 25th, 2010, I turned 25 years old. For some childish reason, I have been looking forward to this "Golden Birthday" for years. After much deliberation over what to do to make it memorable, I settled upon a PCH road trip with the one and only KHill. I was not disappointed by this decision.

Our first stop was UC Berkeley which was fairly uneventful other than being followed by a GreenPeace lesbian who informed us of the Gay Pride weekend and parade taking place in San Fran.  We cancelled our reservation at the SF hostel, booked a hotel outside of the city, and I signed up for GreenPeace.

Next we headed into the city and went to the Great Park Museum to see an Impressionist exhibit that was on loan from the Musee D'Orsey. Some of my all time favorite paintings were on display and having dabbled into oil painting lately I developed an even greater appreciation for the talent of these Frenchmen. In San Francisco we also drove around the city, down Lombard street and meet up with some friends for dinner. It was a great day.

We stayed in Santa Cruz and I woke up the next morning and explored the little beach town on my run. I have a slight obsession with sightseeing while running. It is just so exhilarating! I loved Santa Cruz. We stumbled upon a Woodie's "expo", went on the Giant Dipper roller coaster and watched what seemed like extreme surfing to me.

Our next stop was Monterrey where we went to the aquarium and had dinner. I LOVED the otters there. It was awesome because they were not only playful and fun at the aquarium but they were also easily spotted all along the coast! That night we stayed at a hostel and met people from all over the country and world. Haha, I think it was one of the best things I have ever done. From now on, I will definitely check into hostels for my US travels. You just can't beat a clean bed, timed showers and diverse company for 20 bucks a night!

The next morning we drove through Pebble Beach and Big Sur. We stopped in San Luis Obispo and watched the World Cup over a hamburger and sweet potato fries and visited the bubble gum ally (GROSS) and the mission. I really liked the feel of San Luis Obispo and am going to check out the grad program offerings there. From SLO, we continued to drive through Santa Barbara, Ventura and Malibu and ended up back in LA where we started.

Doing this trip with Kristen was perfect. She was an excellent travel companion and we had plenty to discuss and analyze for 3 days straight. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend to celebrate my 25th!