You’ve probably already caught on, but Braden and I love to travel. Whether for my job, his job, with our family, with our friends, or for an anniversary – we are always traveling or looking for a reason to travel! There was no better way to celebrate 5 years of marriage (!!!) than to take off on another adventure.

We didn’t really know where we wanted to go, so Braden periodically looked at flights for different locations. He saw a steal of a deal on flights to San Francisco & scooped them up as fast as he could. He did most of the planning, so I can’t take much credit 😉 but our trip involved a little bit of everything. A little bit of adventuring, lots of good food, a smidge of touristy things, some shopping and a little down time.

We landed fairly late, so we went straight to our hotel that was close to the airport. It was really nice to have a short commute from the airport after a semi-long day of travel. After a good nights sleep, we woke up the next morning and had breakfast at our hotel & then grabbed our rental car for the day. We made our way to Monterey for lunch and ate at the super cute Wild Plum Cafe & Bistro. Their delicious food is all organic, and they pair fun flavors together creating a fun little food experience. After lunch, we walked from the restaurant over to the pier, took a few photos and then hopped back in the car to continue on our journey.

Carmel was easily one of my favorite towns. It’s cute, quaint, and has a little German influence (lots of gingerbread looking homes and shops). While we were driving into town, we noticed a ton of super fancy cars whipping around the roads, Braden was freaking out / in heaven.

Turns out, the Fuel Run Monterey was in town, which had never heard of so we looked it up (haha). For one week out of the year the quiet coastal town of Monterey turns into a mecca for the automotive world drawing visitors from around the globe (aka Braden’s idea of heaven haha). We shopped for a bit and grabbed a little cannoli and hit the road again.

We hopped back in the car and made our way from Carmel to Pebble Beach. I didn’t realize that Pebble Beach is actually a highly renowned golf course. To drive 17 mile drive, you have to pay a small entrance fee (I believe it was $10), but it’s worth it because it’s a beautiful little drive with pitstops throughout. We stopped at an overlook as well as at seal rock. I laughed so hard at seal rock because when you look through the binoculars, all you see are the little cuties bobbing up and down in the water. Plus, the noise coming off of that rock is hilarious!

From Pebble Beach, we made our way back onto Highway 1 towards Big Sur. The drive along Highway 1 is beautiful! Lots of gorgeous views and lookout points along the way, the cliffsides are unreal & I definitely recommend making this drive if you have the time. Now, the drive from San Fran to Big Sur is a little bit of a commitment, it’s a little over 2 hours one way, making it a 4 hour round trip.

We both agreed after making it to Big Sur that we would’ve been just as happy driving around 30-45 min on Highway 1 and felt like we experienced it. In my opinion, break up this trip over a day or two so you don’t feel like you’re constantly in the car! We had a blast, don’t get me wrong, but we both agreed it was a bit much for one day! Also, 11/10 recommend doing the Highway 1 drive in a convertible. Having a fun car definitely added to the experience for us!

Driving all the way back from Big Sur to San Francisco was a bit brutal after such a long day haha, so we capped the day with In-N-Out. I mean.. when in California?! I had never had it before, so it was a fun little touristy thing I got to experience with Braden.

This was only day one friends, phew, I’m tired just thinking about it! After grabbing a quick dinner, we made our way to our next hotel in San Francisco, the Taj Campton Place. Needless to say, we slept like champs that night! The next day, we adventured to Mier Woods, Sausalito, and to see the Golden Gate Bridge. I’ll share more about that tomorrow!