my name is Jeanie and this is my husband Vince in 2022 we became proud new owners of our first
truck camper and have been enjoying many fun road trip adventures with it in this series
we are headed to the California coast for a two-week truck camping trip in our last
episode you saw us leave our beachfront campsite near Malibu and make the beautiful drive to
Pismo Beach California we enjoyed some famous cinnamon rolls watched all the Surfers walk
the Pismo pier and basically fell in love with Pismo Beach we checked into our next
Oceanside Campground in Pismo Beach where we enjoyed a beautiful beach view campsite
thank you
so today we start making our way up the Pacific Coast Highway to Big Sur so we
have a big day we have like four and a half hours of driving today to go along the entire
Coast we have a campsite but for tonight up by well it's past that caramel of the sea
um I don't know somewhere up there on the beach
um so yeah it's gonna be a good day it's gorgeous out and Merry Christmas Eve it
is Christmas Eve today good place to be on Christmas Eve
our first stop is the elephant Vista point I think and as soon as we got to our first
stop we got Coastal weather going on it's like cloudy what is this like hazy foggy yeah fog
that's what's going on right now we'll get them all they're enormous wow look at a move
oh my God that's so funny I'm going to be honest we didn't realize that this Vista Point actually
held elephant seals here and come to find out it's one of the largest areas of beach on the
west coast that is home to more than 7,000 elephant seals these giant creatures can
weigh anywhere between three thousand to five thousand pounds and measure up to 20 feet long
and I can attest to that because they are huge I seriously just sit while she's all
day long they're so fascinating just to like watch we have an intruder on our truck camper
[Music]
there's a crowded version going on over the ocean right now and we're up above it
we're Above the Clouds
that's crazy this is crazy party this goes for miles this is kind of a bummer it is now we're
back like in the clouds so we can't see anything um our one day to be on Big Sur and it's all
cloudy and foggy from the ocean see we can't see anything it is extremely extremely foggy
hopefully it clears out soon we pulled over because we figured we might as well breakfast
I can hear the ocean can you hear that down there there's some big waves down there but I can't
see a thing we'll just have to come back when we move here all right here's our big sir breakfast
with not much of a view so it is exactly 11 20 in the morning now and it's finally starting to
clear so it's a little patchy still but now we can actually see the ocean we can see the Cliffside we
can actually see what we're looking at do I don't know if that's normal for mornings to be like that
or not but anyways I'm just glad it's clearing because it's so beautiful I think it's safe to
say that the Big Sur Drive is one of the most beautiful coastlines in the USA it's definitely
not one of those destinations that gets so much hype and then you go there for yourself and you're
disappointed it's truly the exact opposite once the Cloud's cleared of course the nice thing about
this 90 mile drive from San Simon to Carmel By the Sea is that there are multiple pull-offs along the
way where you can just get out take in all the beauty of the crashing waves the mountains the
rugged Cliffs and some of the best coastal views we've ever seen alright so we are are at mcway
Falls um right here off the highway and FYI you guys if you are camping at any of the state parks
like we have been keep your ticket because these also get you into other state parks so you have
camping and state park access um so we just showed them our our Campground ticket from last this last
night from Pismo Beach and we got in other ways it would have costed us ten dollars to park here so
um don't throw away your state park passes if you're camping okay because they get you into
other Parks now we'll see if we can actually see the waterfall or not really hoping it's
how far covered the waterfall is very very slightly visible it's right in there somewhere
oh man
the clouds just they won't go away I thought they were going away but uh
they're just hanging out still after leaving mcway Falls we noticed the crowds started to pick up the
closer we got to Carmel By the Sea but honestly for good reason we made so many Road stops along
this drive as the views and scenery it just kept getting better and better even though there were
more people we still didn't have any issues finding parking with our truck camper along
the way so that was a huge bonus probably a good thing it was foggy because we wouldn't be like
more than an hour up the road because I would have wanted to pull off a little bit [Music]
thank you
this is amazing this is like Heavenly it's so gorgeous here so we're on our
way up towards Santa Cruz because that's where our Campground is so we are staying
at New Brighton State Park and we are in campsite 70 tonight and then we're
actually sitting here tomorrow night too in campsite 69 right next to each other so yeah
[Music]
thank you
so we are at our site 70. nice wooded back here [Music]
look at that I can hear the ocean so the ocean is right on the other side of these trees so
can't see it quiet but I can hear it but the site is quite slanted down so we're
definitely gonna have to do some blocks tonight because yeah she's quite unlevel
so this is what we're hearing from our site
so we're checking out the shower scene you're gonna not believe this so we just went and
got all those tokens yesterday we assume that's where they all you know all the state parks take
this tokens well no no this one takes quarters we don't have quarters we have tokens so this
Campground has a totally different vibe it's all foresty and like it gives us like Washington State
Vibes like it's so like Brushy with the pine trees such a different vibe up here we're on
this trail that brings you down to the beach from the campground this is a gorgeous Beach
we have some beautiful colors taking place from our camper right now tonight I'm having a buffalo
chicken salad with Vince's homemade blue cheese it is so good and then Vince is making his into a
wrap there it is so it's nice you can make salads or wraps with basically the same exact ingredients
foreign
Christmas Day and we were kind of going back and forth on what we wanted to do today so we had
one option was to go to Pinnacles National Park we've never been there but it's like an hour and
a half drive to get there our other option was to stay here in Santa Cruz and explore the area
and we decided to stay in Santa Cruz um just because I don't know we didn't want to drive
three hours today to the national park and back um we're gonna chill for Christmas Day
and so we're gonna hang out here in Santa Cruz so join us today as we explore and hang out in
Santa Cruz California so we are booked to stay here at New Brighton State Park campground for
tonight as well but we're in site 69 tonight and I don't know if I showed it in the footage but it's
like a tent site and it says the pad there is 26 feet which we're 22 so we were able to book this
like a pull off on the side of the road like a tiny little pull-up that's what it's like
and then you have like your tent pad real weird but we would not fit in it very well
and it's extremely sloped and angled so I went up to reservations this morning and we're on a
wait list to get a new site for tonight um so fingers crossed we get a nicer sight for
tonight then 69 because that is definitely not something for a regular vehicle camping [Music]
thank you [Music]
so we're at The Visitor Center here at the city park and we're gonna go on a little
hike there's a redwood at Groves Trail I think it's under a mile it's not very long
we're gonna check that out maybe maybe do some other hiking but everything is so wet and dewy
it's total Washington State Vibes here like thick trees with the wet dewiness
so look at this ring of a redwood so this tree was harvested in 1934.
but it grew for over 2200 years it has the entire timeline here of when it started growing
it's crazy that thing it is so big how fascinating so not only is it
like moist and dewy but it's so dark in here because it's so thick
it's like no sunlight coming through so the bark is so soft maybe because it's so moist all the
time but when you push on it it just like it's like a sponge feeling it's weird the Henry Cowell
Redwood state park is just about a 10 minute drive north of Santa Cruz and it has a 40 acre grove of
towering old redwood trees with the widest tree in the park being 16 feet wide you look so little
oh my gosh look at this you guys the humidity I straightened my hair this morning
today we're going with the waves love humidity anyways this is a really nice Trail 0.8 miles
Trail of the Groves some big ass trees here I'll be honest wow um yeah look at this thing
what what is that's nuts definitely come check this out
um if you're near Santa Cruz and you're not heading to like redwoods National Park or
whatnot there's lots of state parks that have these redwoods so worth checking out [Music]
thank you
so we are back at the ocean and it's nice and warm down here
um and so we're down by the Wharf in Santa Cruz here so we're gonna walk the wharf
just check it out this is sightseeing and yeah enjoy the sun and the warmth [Music]
most of all the shops here along the war for clothes today for Christmas
it's just fun to look in the windows and it's super quiet so across here I'm from The Wharf you
can see the amusement park here lots of different rides and it looks like they're open even for
Christmas Day and there's still rides going all right you guys we're back at the campground and
we were able to get a upgraded site and we could select from a bunch of sites that were available
so I chose the premium site which is ocean front right there's the ocean so we're in site 75 and
it did cost us 50 but we were refunded from our other reservation we had which was 42. so it's
basically only what eight dollars more so worth it ocean right there just a reminder this is the
New Brighton State Beach Campground right out of Santa Cruz we stayed here last night so check it
can you hear the ocean
there it is not a bad view so just for a reference so this is campsite 75 ocean right
there we we were in site 70 yesterday or well last night which is just right here on the corner
um which was a really nice campsite and 69 the one that we moved from because it's a
tent site not like a slab site that one you don't want if you're not tempting so
we're not too far from our other campsite um but yeah just obviously a better view here
foreign
if you didn't guess it already we're having tacos and it hasn't Dark Yet which is nice we kind of
made dinner a little earlier so we could like just kind of actually see a view out our window for
dinner so sun is just setting it's getting dark but we can hear the ocean and the waves down there
nice evening for some tacos
the truck camper is at the Golden Gate Bridge so
in true Golden Gate Bridge fashion you gotta drive across the bridge
all sorts of warnings going on for a storm that's coming in we have made the decision
to start making our way back home okay this is very California we might as well go get
a California Burger before we leave California so right in front of us is is that at literally
on our tail on this trip we're like it's so windy it's rocking our truck back and forth
[Music]