The One Where the First Goal is to Not Drive off a Cliff (Part 1)

Well in the [probable] words of my sister... for god's sake I can't believe I've kept you waiting this long for the Ultimate Road Trip Full Recap and Delightful Kappa Convention Update considering I've been home almost a whole week. What in the world have I been up to that is more important than this!

All sarcasm aside, I was really excited to get home and blog about my trip so I'll at least have a digital memory of it in the future when I won't remember all the small details about this summer adventure, such as the dudes we met at Point Dume State Beach, one of whom was trying to fashion an outfit out of a car sunshade thing and a belt or how there was that one time we didn't know that leaving an auxiliary cord plugged into your car radio zaps your car battery and our Jucy van died in the middle of an intersection in Capitola... but we'll get to all that.

SO! First things first, yes, the road trip was awesome. Our Jucy van was seriously amazing. It literally had everything including the kitchen sink in it. Totally brilliant.

Amanda and I highly recommend if you're traveling to like Yosemite or Joshua Tree for a camping trip and want to sleep in something vastly cooler than a tent. We were stressed, stressed, stressed trying to get to the rental place on time on Friday afternoon, but we made it. Never mind that this place is in Inglewood, which I'm pretty sure is mentioned in Tupac's California Love and therefore not really high on my to-visit list. The actual building was cool and the people were friendly and helpful. We got a van tour with a couple from... Austria? Germany? We forgot to ask... who was traveling up to San Francisco. Their accents were cool. I did not take a picture of them because I thought that might be kind of creepy. But here's where our adventure started!

Oh wait, I forgot to mention first-first the Buzzfeed quiz I took the night before our trip and how Sandy Cohen and I are clearly soulmates... OC <3 4Ever:

Anyhoo, a full OC Nostalgia post will be for another time (Free Marissa!).

So, we get to the van rental place and they have this cool whiteboard you can write a message on. So we wrote two.

We are Coachella-haters, okay? So, we take off down the road in our van, first to drop my car off near our friend Laura's house since Laura was gracious enough to monitor the car for us and make sure it didn't get car-napped while we were gone. Then... it was up the Pacific Coast Highway! Along with 84 billion other people since it was Friday night! Clearly, we needed gas station provisions.

"I can feel the diabetes settling in."

"Why does that PopTart look like it's giving the other one a lecture?"

And then we stopped at Point Dume State Beach. Soooo gorgeous. The signs about the natural habitat/wildlife/birds, however, were boring. No need to read.

Giant spider web! Cool, as long as it's outside.

NATURE

This is one half of the dude duo we met, mentioned above. I'm pretty sure he doesn't look possessed by Satan all the time. Also, the point of this pic was to get a good view of his sticker, which read More Trees, Less Assholes. Good job NOT featuring that sticker well enough in the picture, Nan. Stick to your day job.

From there we headed up to Santa Barbara where we ate dinner at this mediocre restaurant on the pier with an AMAAAAAZING view. The view kind of made up for the crappy meal. And we met/petted two adorable chocolate labs. So... that was nice.

I mean... you can't beat that sunset.

Lucy (the van) enjoying the view

We are precious!

One more for good measure.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to stick my head in that shark's mouth."

Cute dogs!

Now here's where things get interesting, and if we were in a horror movie, where the creepy music may have started in the background. Leaving Santa Barbara, we did not have a campsite reserved for the night because we (I) are (am) dumb and did not look into reserving one until about... mmm... five days before we left on this trip. Hence, they were all reserved and we did not know where we were going to be sleeping on Friday night. So we drove up to the campsites north of Santa Barbara near Lake Cachuma. There are about 8 sites all in a row, and we figured we could weasel our way into one of them. 

Welllllllll...

There was no weaseling to be done. HOWEVER, we spotted a dirt lot where a couple cars were parked that we assumed were the cars of the people at the site across the road. So we parked our totally inconspicuous lime green and purple van next to their cars and set up camp. 

This is what it looked like in the daylight. Totally doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

I slept in the top part that night (after Amanda kicked my butt at Phase 10, which is a fun/horrible card game). It was surprisingly spacious and comfortable! Amanda slept in the bed in the bottom and even though anytime either of us moved our pinkie toe or breathed especially loud we could feel/hear it, that was 100% not the worst night of sleep I've ever had. So, there's that.

My view out of the top in the morning

Side story: see that minor incline on the left side of this picture? The one leading up to the road? Well, someone (definitely NOT me... let's call her Schmancy... my less than coordinated alter ego) tried to traverse that incline in the morning wearing... oh god... socks and flip flips (my Schmancy's feet were COLD, okay!?) and it took quite a while to actually get up that incline to get over to the bathroom due to the socks slipping off the flip flops and me Schmancy thinking that if she took the socks off, her feet would freeze. It was very embarrassing/funny, and I'm pretty sure only 4 people witnessed this ridiculous display. 

What you can't hear: the chickens and other various wildlife roaming around

From here, we headed up the road to Solvang, also known as Little Denmark, also known as home to the best biscuits in the world, also known as the home of the coolest bookstore in the ENTIRE WORLD.

Windmills at breakfast. So cute!

Awesome planter! We debated borrowing it and putting it in the van... decided it wouldn't fit.

In the Coolest Bookstore in the World, they had a bunch of fun old timey book things, such as this old printing press. Very cool!

And a whole exhibit/room dedicated to Hans Christian Andersen, who apparently wrote The Little Mermaid? This I did not remember.

And this is also where I got THE COOLEST SHIRT EVER. You guys remember the Fudge books by Judy Blume? Not only did I read them all multiple times, but my mom bought them on tape for me so I could listen to them while doing my puzzles. I know you wish you were as cool as me. I just know it.

And from here we hightailed it up to Carmel so we could see my dad briefly before he flew home. He and Ryland's dad were there to see Ryland graduate with his Masters degree! Though we missed the actual graduation, my dad still sent me a good picture from the ceremony. Also, someone took a picture of all of us at lunch and I cannot find it. This is the problem with letting other people be in charge of the picture-taking!!!

Anyhoo, of course Laura needed to try climbing up into the top of the van once she spotted it.

Although we could not convince her that she should sleep up there that night, she still enjoyed her little adventure. After that, what the heck else were we going to do except go WINE TASTING! Scheid Winery... here we came.

I'm pretty sure Laura told the guy who was pouring our tastings AT LEAST eight times that these pictures were going on a blog, so Dude from Scheid, here's the proof!!

Also, we definitely saw some of the greatest wine-tasting fashion I have ever witnessed: full on Captain outfit combined with 90s-style swishy tracksuit and... AND... I'm pretty sure she was wearing a tube sock on her arm. 

God bless America.

Part Two of the recap will be up later this weekend, now that I finally have time to sit down and blog (blahg) so check back later! 

In the meantime, since it's the 4th of July and all... and nothing is more American than the Backstreet Boys singing the National Anthem at the 2002 Super Bowl...