Big Sur & Highway 1 Dreamin'

A couple days ago, I went on a little overnight jaunt to Monterey for work.

There are worse places to go for work, let's be honest. Monterey is beautiful, coastal, Californian, quaint, and...all things good. A bit south of Monterey is a place called Big Sur, which I've heard referred to as the most beautiful/breathtaking spot in all of California. Naturally, I took myself there on a sunset drive. Breathtaking, indeed.

And because I love you all, here's a bonus of how I killed time in the hotel room all by myself. Things get awfully quiet on a solo trip when you have a bed that is 8x the size of you and a Law & Order marathon breaking the silence on the TV. I call it, Cirque de Hotel.

On the way back from the trip, I pulled off to the side of the road to take another photo. Because as undeniably amazing as Big Sur is, there's an area just to the north of Monterey that makes my heart want to explode out of my chest in bursts of warm dirt-scented sunshine. The stretch of CA-1 with the ocean on one side and sprawling farms on the other with berry and avocado stands and that one red barn with its funny California Lorax trees all in a row and a tractor hiding in the back might be one of my most favorite places on earth. Immediately to my right, there's the sand dunes and the ocean going on forever. To my left, the farmland where I could wear overalls and raise my babies in a simple little life with a bearded, flanneled husband. Heart explosions, indeed.

"Why don't you go on west to California? There's work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there's always some kind of crop to work in. Why don't you go there?" -John Steinbeck