I found the town of Lompoc a bit trashy, but it was 4th of July and I had fireworks so I was happy, and so were the rest of the drunk firework setting-off families. I really want to take a good chunk of time off and do a real drive up the coast with no destination or time constraints, just wandering and exploring and taking in the majestic views. We drove the 1 instead of the 101 the last time we went to Jalama and it was gorgeous. We stopped off in Carpenteria & Summerland to get gas and do a bit of exploring - see the views and the beaches. I would be so satisfied if I could do that all the way up the coast. Summerland is the most adorable little thing -, antique shops, surf boutiques, summer cottages on a hill, with the most badass liquor store gas station combo. I found a $100 bottle of mezcal in their damn gas station! Thanks for the advice. I cant wait to explore. I'll definitely reach out to you when I get my time off request approved. It's going to be a bit though. Maybe in the spring :/
That was my bachelor party to myself. Swine Flu was in the news and I needed to get married in a week. I was in Los Angeles and my wife was in Seattle. I had a few days on a Davis Guggenheim documentary, but I opted to drive my Dodge Stealth up the coast the slow way instead. Took five days, I think. Went to the Monterey Aquarium (the first place I realized that such things are more interesting with children, therefore it might be worth having one), the Tillamook Air Museum, stopped wherever I wanted to. Oddly enough, because I was doing research for a script, I had the first five books in the Left Behind series on audio. Kinda wild - ripping up the coast listening to the Christian Apocalypse while giving the overblown concerns of CNN enough credo to force me to do what I really wanted to in the first place.