Driving the Pacific Coast Highway was on Two for Takeoff’s bucket list for quite sometime. So when we found cheap transcon flights for February, we jumped at the opportunity.
We assembled our itinerary. We would fly into San Francisco and drive to Los Angeles over the course of four days. We’d stop for hiking, wine and enjoying the towns that dot the California coastline. Our last couple days would be in Santa Monica visiting with family.
With our plans set, we waited in anticipation for what would be the perfect California adventure. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. A nor’easter storm was heading straight for New York, and the airlines were preemptively canceling flights a day before our scheduled departure. With Maggie stuck in Atlanta on business, we had to act quickly. After an hour on the phone with American Airlines, we managed to switch our fights to that same evening – meaning I had to pack and get to Newark within the hour. I grabbed for clothes in a flash (forgetting some necessities) and headed to the airport.
We landed in San Francisco late evening without plans or a place to stay. A quick puruse on the Hotels Tonight app and we were on our way to Union Square.
Hotel Mystique was nestled blocks from an arcade bar, so we decided to embrace our vacation – regardless of how tired we were – and start the fun. Maggie and I battled in ski ball, before I showed her how to play video game golf (her stroke needs serious work). We tasted some Cali IPAs before calling it quits.
The next day, we made plans over coffee before heading to grab our car and hit the road on Highway 1.
