Epic Summer Road Trip – Driving the Central Coast

We got a bit of a late start on Monday morning, which was SO nice for a change. The kids played with their new friends and we packed up. Our friends went with us when we left so they could show us the harbor seals hanging out near the boardwalk. The kids got a big kick out of watching the seals sunbathing and playing in the waves. It was every bit as enjoyable as Sea Lion Cave, but totally free!
We said goodbye to our friends and headed South on Highway 1 (also known as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH). Josh and I drove PCH from Astoria, Washington to San Diego, California on our honeymoon, so it was fun driving it again with the kids.
It’s a GORGEOUS drive up the coast, but it’s a very winding road and it takes FOREVER to get anywhere. We pulled off every so often at the scenic turnouts to stretch our legs and take in the views.
We stopped off at a really awesome day use area about 60 miles North of San Luis Obispo. (I meant to take note of the name of it, but totally forgot. I pulled some punch balloons out of our adventure bag and we took them with us. We walked down the trail all the way to the beach. We had an epic punch balloon fight on the beach, with the waves rolling in.
We really didn’t want the kids to get in the water and get soaked, but it seems that you can’t let the Solar kids anywhere near the shore. They were in the water within 5 minutes of us getting there. I guess I can’t really blame them. They ran in and out, letting the waves chase them up the shore.
We managed to get back to the car before anyone got completely soaked, which is almost hard to believe. We weren’t driving 5 minutes before Lia was saying, “Mom, I want live at the beach.” Oh Lia, don’t we all?
Our next stop was at Hearst San Simeon State Park to check out the elephant seals. There are hundreds of them hanging out on the beach and in the water. Josh and I remembered stopping there on our honeymoon. Elephant seals are HUGE and they’re loud and they love to bully each other.
We continued down Highway 1, all the way into San Luis Obispo. We met up with some friends and the kids were SO excited that they had kids as well. They ran around, riding bikes, playing tag, doing crafts, and playing board games.