The Skin You're In: On the road again...

Sang with my best singing voice...NOT! The old gentleman in the picture above probably has a better singing voice than I do!

Mark (my husband) and I love to take drives. Now, some people, when you tell them that you took a drive think that means you drive somewhere, not too far, turn around and come home. That's not us. We take those drives where we get up at the crack of dawn, watch the sunrise on the road somewhere and be as far away as possible by the time we're hungry enough for breakfast. We've been known to go to Death Valley just to eat an early lunch at the restaurant at Furnace Creek and then drive home...uh, in the middle of Summer.

Our best day driving is about 600+ miles round trip and we always come home, rarely ever staying away for the night.

One of our most favorite drives is up the beautiful California Coast, meeting the first glimpse of ocean between Oxnard and Ventura, traveling up past Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and finally to San Luis Obispo. Then we head to the scenic Hwy 1 and take the coast route all the way! It's lovely and no matter how many times we've taken this drive, it's still breathtaking! We usually take time to stop in San Simeon (the home

of Hearst Castle) and have breakfast at a nice little restaurant there called The Cavalier. There's a turn out on the road where you can stop and look at elephant seals napping on the sand, playing in the ocean waves or even big bull males showing each other who's the toughest.

Another favorite stop is to what I like to call Raging Waters.

Now, I call it that just because I can never remember the actua l name until I say "Raging Waters", then I know to say Ragged Point. A very picturesque location completely with a beautiful hotel overlooking the cliffs and raging ocean waters. Also available is a nice snack shop, the ever-present gift shop (every place just has to have one!) and another very cozy restaurant. But...the thrill to us of Ragged Point is the scenery. Sheer cliffs overlook often angry seas but don't worry, you're protected by lots of fencing! LOL! On the better weather days, there is a path you can take that leads down to a very small beach below. Mark and I have taken that path and although very rugged, we managed to get to the bottom even after passing up some couples half our age who just couldn't seem to make it. Haha! Getting down there was NOT the problem. Climbing back up was!!!

Our next stop on this trip was Big Sur, specifically to the Big Sur Campground and Lodge. After paying the typical state campground fees, we walked for about an hour all around the campground, along the banks of a beautiful stream flowing through and then back to the Lodge to have a very welcome meal...we were really hungry by then.