West Coast 2026

first in n out, LA

Nine days from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a car with friends from exchange. We took the slower route up the coast, inland through Yosemite, and into the Bay. It was not the most direct path, but it let us stop properly, and those stops became most of what I remember.

malibu

There was Malibu near the beginning, then a cabin outside Lompoc with no phone signal, no neighbours, and a night sky darker than anything I had seen in months. After that came Solvang, a Danish settled town in the Santa Ynez Valley with windmills, timber frames, and bakeries on nearly every corner. We arrived casually and stayed longer than planned.

highway 1, big sur

Highway 1 was the part of the drive that made the slower route feel completely worth it. After Carmel, the road started folding around the cliffs, with the Pacific on one side and green hills rising on the other. Every few minutes the view changed just enough to make us want to stop again.

The bridge near Big Sur was the clearest image of that day: concrete stretched across the canyon, the road cutting into the hillside, and the ocean sitting below in that film-blue light. It felt less like a checkpoint and more like the whole idea of the road trip made visible for a moment.