Last month, we flew out to California a little early before I attended the Rising Tide Society Leaders retreat in San Francisco. Four years ago, we drove and camped from Los Angeles to Portland and immediately feel in love with the Big Sur area. So this time we planned for two extra days of travel to get down to Big Sur and travel along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Little did we know, how much rain California actually got before we got arrived. Our plan was to make it to Big Sur to see the sunset in the evening. However, those plans quickly changed as we began to drive and noticed sign after sign saying ‘road closed ahead’. As we got further into the drive we knew we weren’t going to be making it to Big Sur that evening. We were ditching some falling rocks, big pot holes, mini mudslides on the road and didn’t feel comfortable driving much further since we saw about a total for fifteen vehicles (which many were utility vehicles) in our one and half hour drive. We got as far as the Bixby bridge that evening just minutes after sunset. The Bixby bridge is one of the tallest single span concrete bridges in the world and is incredible to see.

The next morning we work up early to some more rain and fog and knew we wanted to see a little more of the coast before heading to the San Francisco area. Despite the rain we stopped and walked the coast to take in the crashing waves along the beautiful landscapes before making our last stop in Carmel.

Carmel Beach- rated “One of America’s Top Beach Towns.” We stopped here four years ago and loved the downtown area. It is a beautiful beach even in the fog, wind and rain.